JJOOEEY

Hey guys, im new to HD and im new to this site, i know a bit about hd but i have some questions.. can anyone please help!!???!!
I purchased a 50 inch vizio 1080p full hdtv , its hooked up to my hd cable box and ps3 both connected with monster cable hdmi. The picture is good, but i feel like it should be alot better, i adjusted the settings for both my box and my ps3, im wondering if there are any settings i should put on my ps3 for the blu-ray that will make my picture as good as it possibly can?? and if there are any pointers that anyone knows that i should put on my tv or any other devices so that i get good picture? thanks alot guys... really!
Joe

kefrank

the default answer to a question like this is usually to calibrate your TV settings with a disc such as Video Essentials.

Gizmo

Return the $90 Monster HDMI cable and go buy a $5 one from monoprice.com.

Use the $85 in savings to buy POTC, Bee Movie, and Cars.

You'll thank me later.

JJOOEEY

oh man, ok monoprice has better cables then monster?

SoSpacey

let's say for HDMI they are equal and you can buy 20 monoprice cables for the price of one monster cable.

caibrate your tv.

is it plasma or lcd?

how long ago did you get it?

JJOOEEY

its plasma... how do i calabirate... i got it three days ago.... the guy said that i might have to adjust settings to my ps3 but i dont know what to adjust them too... and also, he said if i want the best settings i need to have a isf technicion come to my house

Gizmo

1. Monoprice cables are identical to Monster. Return the Monster and buy a Monoprice.
2. Check out AVSFORUM.com and search for the thread that discusses you're TV. Many people post their "calibrated" settings.

DON'T spend the money to have Best Buy come to you're house to change a few settings.

JJOOEEY

im off to work until late tonight, but coudl anyone tell me what kinda cables to get from mono price ? im goign to return the best buy monsters tommorow and go with the mono price, so which ones shoudl i get? im confused by looking at them.. any other info that you guys coudl throw at me woudl be so appreciated!!

rfduncan

I'm concerned about what should be "alot better" when "coudl" (twice) and "woudl" look correct to you....

JJOOEEY

hahah sorry im trying to type fast im getting ready for work

Gizmo

Keep the monster cable until you get your monoprice one...unless you want to be without a PS2/Cable box for a few days.

SoSpacey

1) change you settings again...back to totally flat. put everything back to zero
2) leave your tv on for a few days. you need to break in your plasma. especially if yo uare goign to be out of the house, just turn down the volume and let it run until saturday.
3) do NOT leave it on a channel with any black bars or a static image (like a network logo) on the screen during the break in period.

thats how you break in your tv.

once you do that, do as Gizmo said and go to avs forums, into the plasma section, and search for your model tv. users post the settings they use. only then should you change the settings.

monoprice - just buy hdmi 1.3 cables. they are all affordable and will get to you quickly. dont return your Monster cables until the monoprice ones come to you.

JJOOEEY

may i ask why it needs to be broken in? and its my only tv, do i really have to turn the colors down? lol ill be watching it form time to time

JJOOEEY

oh and will breaking it in make the picture clearer?

rfduncan

That is much easier said than done. Is there any channel that doesn't do the logo now? I might recommend a 16x9 DVD from Warner Bros. Some of them seem to start playing automatically after a few rotations of the menu. Or perhaps just loop something that is expanded across the whole screen?

Gizmo

If you have the know how, you can download and burn your own "break in" DVD from several websites.

JJOOEEY

Thank you but what does the breaking in do? will it improve the picture a little?

Gizmo

In simpler terms - yes.

SoSpacey

it is similar to speakers. there are elements inside the tv that have been stagnant since it was manufactured. just like the drivers on a speaker have been stagnant. you need to break them in a bit AT FLAT SETTINGS. no adjustments.

of course you can watch the tv. dont turn everything down to the left. on most tvs flat is the middle settings. not negative 20, not positive 20, but 0.

i left my plasma on for 4 days straight whether i was watching it or not. after 4 days i took the recommended settings, changed everything and it has been great ever since.

Mr. Salty

Keep in mind, the salesman recommended ISF (Imaging Science Foundation), not Best Buy goons. ISF is excellent, but they'll cost about $300.

shelland

Many say that break-in is no longer required for plasma. When we bought our Panny plasma back in April, I did run the break-in disk discussed at AVS for 100+ hours. I figured I had nothing to lose - better safe than sorry. That disk displays one solid color on the screen at a time, and gradually rotates between colors. Basically, what you're trying to do is prevent "burn-in" - which results in a static image (channel logo for example) becoming "burnt" into the screen. If that happens, when you change the channel, you still see the outline of that image on the screen.

When you pull the TV out of the box, it is probably in what is referred to as "torch mode", meaning the settings are cranked up to make it look bright in a bright showroom setting. That is not the best for the TV, so crank them back a bit - near the middle of the spectrum as others have said. After you have quite a few hours on the set, then you should be able to safely bump them back up, although still not to what they came out of the box at.

If you check the AVS forums, you will find all kinds of discussion on your particular model, burn-in and break-in. I'd post some reference links, but AVS is blocked at my office.

I'm sure there are some PS3 settings that could be verified too, but I'm not sitting at home to look at them.

JJOOEEY

Thanks Guys... if anyone knows good ps3 settings for a 1080p plasma that would be great! a big help also.. is that isf a well spent 300 dollars? i mean the picture in best buy was amazing, but is it really worth it? like i said i;m really new to this so if anyone has any info on my model tv 1080p 50 inch plasma ??? thank you so much guys you are more help then anyone ive talked to. so breaking it in will make my tv work better.. can i just watch it liek i usually do and it will break itself in over time? is that ok? please tell me what i should doooO!!!!

JimRochester

Also make sure everything is set to the 1080p setting if possible. The output settings on my DVD players were set to 480 when I plugged them in.

Mr. Salty

You haven't told us the model of your TV, just the brand and size.

You've been given several good pieces of advice in this thread, but you don't seem to indicate you've tried or are interested in trying any of them. Here are three of the better ones:

1) Pick up a calibration disc like the one kefrank linked to in the second post. Use that to adjust your settings.

2) Find the file for a break-in disc at AVSForum.com, burn it to DVD and use it for about 100 hours (at night while you're asleep, during the day while you're at school/work). The rest of the time, yes you can watch your TV. Just keep the settings dialed down until it's broken in. The brightness setting right out of the box is normally set way too high.

3) Go to the plasma area of AVSForum.com (I'd provide a link but AVS seems to be down right now) and look for a thread about your specific model of TV (not just brand and size, but the actual model) and see what settings people there are finding works for them. There will be some variation, but it should get you close, then you can tweak further.

JJOOEEY

Thank you , its not that im not intrested in using the information given to me, today is my only day off, i check this sit as much as i can to try and get the most out of my tv, thank you for all your information, ill be checking back reguraly to see if you have anymore pointers, you guys are the best, oh and the model of my tv is.. VP504F