who should i have do my tv calibration?

i know best buy does tv calibrations but i havent heard too many good things about them.what are some good recomended tv calibrators in the new york area for a plasma tv?

If you're willing to pay for the service, Bestbuy is likely as good as anywhere (you're going to be over paying everywhere i imagine). You can do it yourself, i'm sure you can make and burn your own calibration disc, but many DVDs and Blurays have calibration tools (it's a series of patterns that let you set colors, contrast, brightness, etc). I doubt Bestbuy or anywhere else will do anything more than use a similar calibration tool. Plus, it's fun setting up and calibrating home theater and audio equipment (wait...am I the only one who finds that fun?)Roland1987

http://consumerist.com/2008/11/best-buy-caught-using-sneaky-sneaky-tricks-to-sell-hdtv-calibration-service.html

EDIT: With Bestbuy there's a chance you'll get someone who's actually qualified but it's a complete risk. Another example.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=586330&page=55

You have now experienced what a "Hit and Run" calibration feels like. A person comes over ... gives you an answer and then leaves. The answer may be correct ... but the problem is ... you don't know what the question was that leads to that answer. Answers without any understanding ... lead to answers that are a whole lot of useless.

The BB guys are now limited to doing the work under 90 min. They can effectively show up ... do the work and then get out. There is simply not enough time to interact and really explain much if anything of what they are doing. It is not the fault of the BB person, but the corporation. Although by descriptions from actual BB calibrators that care about doing it right, one has a 1 in 10 chance of getting a calibrator that actually knows what to do and cares enough to do it.

Sometime's they'll go into the service menu to balance the base colors, other times they'll just saturate the colors in the user menu and sharpen the image.

Bought 52" Samsung Series 7 from Best Buy 1-2 yrs ago, and the calibration service after the guy sold me on it when showing me the comparison of tvs with one having it and one not. So 2-3 weeks later, two 16 yr old girls show up, one was training b/c she didnt do anything but watch, and the other typed in some numbers off some paper she had into this PDA looking thing connected to my tv.

After all that, I don't notice any difference whatsoever. Maybe my tv will last longer b/c they dial down the internal lamps, and they can change settings by .1 increments, but who notices difference in 50 brightness compared to 50.1 brightness.

I dont think they have the official certification to do real tv calibrations. There are certifications and tests to complete to become licensed. I forgot the name of the organization but Google it if wanting the real professionals, they may be worth it but they are expensive from what I hear.

In the end you would be better off using that extra money elsewhere for your home theatre.

If you're willing to pay for the service, Bestbuy is likely as good as anywhere (you're going to be over paying everywhere i imagine). You can do it yourself, i'm sure you can make and burn your own calibration disc, but many DVDs and Blurays have calibration tools (it's a series of patterns that let you set colors, contrast, brightness, etc). I doubt Bestbuy or anywhere else will do anything more than use a similar calibration tool. Plus, it's fun setting up and calibrating home theater and audio equipment (wait...am I the only one who finds that fun?)Roland1987

Best Buy and all box store so called calibration services are a scam. I used to sell TVs while in college. I laughed at all my managers because I hated the scams of all the crap we sold like monster cables, bose speakers, and screen calibrations. I could laugh, because while I never scammed people, like all stores try...I actually sold more than anyone else in the store. I beleive in actually taking care of the customer, something the big box guys seemed to have forgotten along the way.

Anyways, the Box store screen calibrations are a total scam. They do not go into the service menu of the tv, making what they do irrelevent. You can do what they do with a $10 calibration DVD. Heck, I recall when my store started this crap with two tvs side by side to show the difference. I grabbed the remote and within 5 button pushes I had the "not calibrated tv" looking the exact same as the calibrated one. Don't buy into the power saving crap that they try to push either. My manager wouldn't put the voltage meter on the calibrated set until a few hours after he turned it on. This made it "appear" to use less electricty to the consumers.

If you are still unhappy with the $10 DVD, then get an ISF certified calibrator out to your house.

ISF callibration really is the way to go if u want the absolute best ur tv can produce, ive just crossed the 200hr mark with my plasma so im lookin at gettin mine done once ive clocked a few more hrs on it.