...except

I have had my new setup for about a month now, so I feel like its broken in enough to do some tweaking here and there.

I'm curious if there are any starting points as far as setting up the color/brightness/contrast on the set or perhaps anything else I should buy that can enhance the system:

48" mitsu widescreen
Panasonic RP 62 (progressive)
Monster component cables
Surge Protector w/clean power

Thanks to all

X

You absolutely should have already used Avia or Video Essentials or one of the other calibration DVDs out there. Look around here for people's comments about the various ones. I like Avia, but it's expensive.

...except

Yeah I totally want to get one of those...wondered about any free tweaks first tho'...also I want to keep it somewhat simple..so should I get Avia or V.E.?

X

Or the much less expensive Sound and Vision one (that I've never used).

I just like Avia. It's easy to navigate and has easy-to-use tests. But there should be a new-and-improved VE coming out soon.

For now, TURN DOWN YOUR CONTRAST! WAY DOWN! Before you burn-in your set.

...except

I set the contrast down first thing actually, from day one its been at exactly the halfway point. Think it should be lower?

X

I have no idea. That's what the calibration discs tell you.

...except

Gotcha', thanx

BernieStolar

Hey, I was thinking about getting a 48" mitsu, did you get the platinum series or gold? Does it have integrated hd decoding? Whered ya get it? any help would be appreciated greatly.

...except

Hi Bernie, its a WSA48...no integrated HD decoding on it. I picked it up at Worst Buy for 1999.00. Here is a link for it:

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=...cat=24&scat=25

I can say that I'm extremely happy with it....discs like Monsters INC and Blade 2 look just stunning on it. The sound is so good (to me at least) that I'm even holding off on buying a surround system for it until I can move into a house and get something LOUD.

BernieStolar

thanks a lot, this is going to be an exciting weekend.

uteotw

I second the motion on the Avia. Made a HUGE different on my similiar new set. Worth every cent.

drmoze

Avia also has extensive tests for audio. Plus tons of info on the dvd for everything. And their color/tint/black level tests flash or move, which is *much* easier to adjust than VE's static screens. The overscan test pattern is also much better on Avia than VE. Plus the tone sweeps in the lower range (200-20hz?) with onscreen frequency indication really let you find any 'holes', check out your bass management/crossover points and tweak them if necessary. etc, etc, etc....

bralph

Here's a stupid question. When you use one of these calibration disks, you are calibrating the DVD input. (Obviously, since you are using a DVD.) How then do you calibrate the other inputs? Each of my inputs needs to be calibrated separately. Do you simply check the settings you used for the DVD input calibration, and replicate those for the other inputs?

That's how I did it, then I tweaked it simply by eyeballing it. Seemed like a crude way to get it done though.

Dr. Dean

Couldn't you plug the dvd player into each individual input seperately? (I really don't know...still have my old 32" 4:3)

bralph

I thought of that, but would it really be any different? That's essentially what I did anyway. I noted the settings for DVD, then changed the input to SAT and plugged in the same setting. After I had them all in, I tweaked it by "eyeballing" it.

I assumed the point of being able to configure each input individually, is that the settings will be different based on the source. That is to say, SAT settings are different from DVD settings which are also different from OTA HDTV antenna settings. If that's true, then shouldn't there be a better solution than what I'm doing?

I'm not complaining. In fact, I think my settings are fine. I'm just curious if perhaps I'm missing something in my thinking.