Problems with calibration

[Sephirio]

Hey,

I want to adjust my guitar so that I have as less lag as possible. I'm going from my PS3 through HDMI to a onkyo 604 receiver and from there to my TV (Sony Bravia W4000). I'm using multichannel audio (not DD, I think it's that losless audio stuff from the PS3).

I tried the manual calibration (don't have the RB2 guitar, it's the GH3 one) and my results differ a lot. Basically I got everything between -40 to + 40 for video and from 0 to -40 on audio. However I read the guide in this board and tried to follow it. First I fixed the hit box around the now bar so that I can hit the note slightly before and slightly after the now bar. For this I had to set the video to -15ms. I didn't get what exactly they meant with the audio test in the guide ("listen to the music and look there the note is" ???) but I adjusted it as well to -15ms because that was the result I got from the manual lag test most of the time (+- 10ms). I think it feels ok, like 90% and I can play some songs on hard or expert with an accuracy around 98%. But it doesn't feel 100% spot on.

What I don't get is that in the manual there are two suggested settings for an LCD. Both are in the +ms area but mine are in the -ms area. How can this be? Did I do it wrong? :(

Sorry for my bad english, it's not my native language.

[keneke]

Calibration will differ pretty much from setup to setup as there are a number of things that can introduce lag. So don't be surpised that the numbers in the book don't work for you and are very different.

It seems calibration is a black art that is made harder by the human element. As you've said, with the same guitar and same person you get different results.

What I did was spend about a half hour tweaking the numbers. I started with manual calibration and from there moved the numbers up and down (keeping the difference between the two the same) by 5 at a time. I'd then play a song with lot's of consecutive notes to see what affect it had. If it seemed better, I'd change by 5 more and try it. If it made it worse, I'd change it the other way.

If keeping the difference between the numbers doesn't seem to be working, try moving one of them and play part of the song and adjust acordingly.

It's time consuming and can be a little frustrating, but I did eventually get it where I like it.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps some.

[fcmlefty]

If you have access to anybody with a trained musical ear, enlist them to help...they can really help you nail the audio. I couldn't get it right to save my life, so I finally asked my wife to give it a try, and she got it perfect (or as close as you possibly can) in one try. I knew it wasn't a fluke when she then did the same thing for RB 1, GH3, GHA and GHWT. My scores increased dramatically on each game after she worked her magic.

[Sephirio]

I'm a drummer myself, so I don't have a problem hearing if the audio is fine or it isn't, although I have to say even as a drummer it's hard to hear those MS differences. However I didn't understand the tutorial I don't know how to adjust the audio correctly.

Alaso, what does "-15ms" mean? This means, I guess, that my devices have less lag than...what? :-/ Which song from RB2 did you use to test it?

[keneke]

For guitar I used Lazy Eye, lot's or repeated notes, so it's easy to see if your eyes and ears are out of sync, plus when you miss a lot of notes ...

For drums I'd think anything with a lot of high hat and snare (yellow and red) would be good.

[Sephirio]

I'll check it...

When I set the video to -15ms does that mean that my tv has less or more lag than my audio device!? Because I did this to adjust that hit area on the now bar.

[keneke]

This is messing with my head :)

I reasoned it out as follows, if your video setting is -15 and your audio setting is 0 your video has more lag than the audio.

[Sephirio]

This should be right. The Video is supposed to have more lag. I mean the audio is already encoded from the PS3 and only goes to the avr but the video goes through the AVR and after this it goes through to processing of the TV. So it should have more lag. Am I right? So I set the Video lag to -30ms after some tests and the the audio to 0. Is this correct? :)

Also, how should I adjust my Guitar Hero because there I can't set -ms...so I would have to add lag to the audio about 30ms?

[keneke]

I'm not sure that the numbers and/or the difference in the numbers are transferrable between games. It would be interesting to find out though. If you have the time, I'd be interested in finding out.

Why not try doing a manual calibration for GH and see what it tells you/feels like. Compare the numbers and see if there's a relationship or not.

Btw, I appreciate all the feedback you're providing, it's good info :)

[Sephirio]

I'll try a +30ms audio calibration for GH3 later this day and let you know. Although I have to say that even without calibration depending on the song I can get results with above 95% accuracy. Depends on the song though.

Do you know why RB2 offers calibration in both directions? What's the benefit of this?

[keneke]

Cool, that'll be interesting to know.

Not sure why it offers calibration in both directions, seems like it gives more flexibility though.

[Sephirio]

Uhm, hard to tell for Guitar Hero TBH. I think that RB plays much better either way.

The thing is if I do the calibration I sometimes get a positive lag for video and a negative lag for audio which would mean (according to you) that my audio is much slower than my video which is imo impossible. The TV has all that processing stuff and my AVR gets an encoded autio stream from the PS3. So I set the video back to -20 and the audio to -10 so that I have -10ms more lag with my video.

[keneke]

I don't know if it's impossible, if you're using dolby you can add processing time quite easily.

At any rate, hopefuilly it's set where you're comfortable.

As I read more and more of these threads, some people say calibration is whacked, some people say they were whacked. In other words they got used to bad calibration and it became good calibration to them, it worked.

And when correct calibration was done, it felt wrong, because of what they were used to.

Kinda rambling now, have a good one.

[Sephirio]

Hm, I just want to know what it exactly means when I have -20ms to video and -10ms audio. ;) I used the calibration guide and set the -20ms video for the correct hit box.