Just Watched My 1st Blu=Ray....Wasn't Impressed
 

I don't know if the tv was caliberated or if it was the movie (I Am Legend) but for some reason the picture just didn't "jump" out for me like the movies I see being demo'd at Bestbuy....in particular Pirates Of The Caribbean looks absoutely amazing. Don't get me wrong the picture was very good but nothing like what I see at BB or CC, not even close. The tv is a 42" Samsung Plasma (not sure of the model but it does output 1080p, at least that's what it shows when the movie was playing) and the player is a Sharp Aquos BDHP20U. Is there any particular steps one should/could do to make the picture better? Nothing was done to the tv or the player to calibrate it before playing the movie.

For me, Blu-ray isn't a mind blowing experience, but it is better than DVD. I think most of us have had some form of hi-def content for years, so while BD is better than HD broadcasts, it isn't usually night & day. So I never expect to be floored, just to be able to retire the blurry DVDs.

You may have seen POTC on a 120hz TV...yours is not. Regardless, give a few movies another shot. I'd reccommend any of the Disney animated films. I just watched Bee Movie and its AMAZING.

There are alot of BDs that are a night and day difference with the dvd. Lots.

How far back are you setting from your tv?

You REALLY need to see Planet Earth (the BBC version) on Blu-ray. Even the screen shots I've taken look phenomenal. I agree, not everything is going to wow you, but some will. I have both I Am Legend and POTC, and POTC looks way better than the other.

That could be a major problem.

I would RENT some blu-rays first, and give yourself ample time to fiddle with the settings.

This is odd because High-Def Digest gives this movie a 5 Star rating. Which they don't give out lightly.

Double-check the settings on your television. Make sure it is accepting a 1080p signal, and that it's not set on 480p or something (if that's possible).

It depends on your TV and setup.

On my setup, it's night and day and BD/HD blow the shit out of SD.

There is something about that demo that gives me the creeps. The picture is almost to sharp, the special effects no longer look special to me. They look unreal. Not to mention the paning motion with the sharpness give me a kind of motion sickness as it looks unnatural.

well when I inserted the movie it showed that it was loading and 1080p was displayed right below it, so i'm assuming that it's outputting that...

I was sitting back about 6 feet...so I'm assuming that only the high end tv's will output 120mhz? I guess my whole thing is that I was expecting POTC picture quality b/c it's a blu-ray disc being played on a HD tv...well I'll try another couple more movies. THe demo disc of chicken little looks amazing as well at Bestbuy, so that's kinda what I'd assume it'd look like when I watch it.

For me, I think people will be more wowed on a TV that is at least 55" or higher. I just went from a 50 inch to a 65 inch and I think the differences are much more apparent.

Most likely they are displaying it on a 120hz HDTV....I can't stand those personally.

Yeah, those sets have a feature called auto-motion plus or something else (it varies by manufacturer). It makes motion smoother by interpolating fake frames in between the real frames. This can be turned off if desired.

I Am Legend is a fantastic looking Blu-Ray. Should be plenty of wow factor there provided the display is setup properly.

When I set up my brother's new Aquos recently it looked like shit until I got all the artificial sharpening and other garbage turned off and the contrast and brightness done properly. Most displays do not look good very good out of the box IMO.

Professional calibrations are also well worth it if you are serious about getting the most out of your display. Of course you need to get someone who knows what they're doing, and not the first guy available from Magnolia. :)

I don't understand why you need a professional to move a bar over on your contrast and brightness settings. Is there some sort of secret menu with a hundred different settings on your television that I'm not aware of?

Sometimes there is a secret menu that you need to enter a few random digits on you're remote to access. Honestly, I just bought my new TV and went over to AVS and found out what kind of settings they were using as most people had theres set up almost identically and were happy with the picture....just as I am now that I copied them.

Yep, my TV had a "secret menu". It's the service menu. I don't know how many settings it has though, it hard to navigate and you don't want to screw anything up if you don't know what you are doing (I just use it to check my lamp hours).

I tend to agree with Gizmo that the OP very well could have seen a 120Hz TV on display, with that one setting turned on that makes movies look like HD video instead of actual film. I thought I AM LEGEND had many stunning scenes, especially the city shots during bright daylight.

My brother has a 52" Sony LCD that runs at 120hz. I've watched several movies on it. You actually get used to it after awhile. Not distracting at all.

The 120hz is the best! It's amazing! Thanks for once to the sales guy for showing me this feature. I didn't buy my tv from him. I bought it online. Sorry mr. sales guy. But it was only another 300 bucks for the 120hz auto motion plus feature. That 300 bucks was well worth it!

Déja vu :)

I have the 120hz on my Sony SXRD. Fortunately you can adjust it. Sometime I have it on high but for a lot of movies that's too much so I have to go with standard or off all together.

That's a really shitty thing to do and top of that you advertise that you did it.
:gah:

Watch it again!

Yes as a matter of fact there is.

It's called the service menu. There are hundreds of settings on my Sammy DLP that can affect the display's picture. A professional calibration expert will use equipment which measures light output to set accurate grayscale, as well as nailing color reproduction, and much more.

I don't think there is as much to do with LCD's, but plasma, DLP and certainly older CRT RPTV's can benefit greatly from this work. It is not a placebo. It is instantly recognizable from before and after comparisons.

I often wonder how many reviewers have actually had this level of work done to their displays, because to me it is absolutely essential.

One of the nice things I set in my service menu is turning overscan off. I've got maybe 1.5% overscan now instead of the typical ~%5-%6 many displays have.