Would you say seeing a movie at a theater would be a good reference to what a calibrated TV should look like...generally speaking? It's not like there's a lot of calibrated TVs around to get an idea and I'm pretty sure the TVs at Best Buy wouldn't be an accurate example.

There's a ton of talk about TV calibration but nothing to see.

When theaters were still running film, that was a good reference as long as the bulb was bright. I'm not too sure how the newfangled digital stuff works but I've never seen one of those misadjusted.

I guess that would make sense if you ran nothing but movies on your TV. I watch a bit of everything, so I know I couldn't do that. And with football season on, I watch a bit of that, so I need to factor that in when calibrating. But really, I have a couple of calibration discs, and I've been very happy with the results.

For home DIY get one of those calibration discs or go out of pocket and have it professionally done. I think that runs a few hundred dollars.

I can't imagine paying $200-$250 to have my $500 TV professionally calibrated.

Unless you're hyper-quality sensitive, the colour bar test patterns on Sony Blu-ray discs are probably sufficient for most viewers.

During the menu for Sony titles like Black Hawk Down, Spiderman 3, Dracula etc. just type in "7669" (the word "SONY" on a alpha-numeric telephone pad) on your remote and then press "enter". This will take you to about 4 different patterns to help calibrate your TV.

I can't imagine paying that to have my $1200 HDTV calibrated. I found some settings online, and they look pretty good. I'll live with that for now.

You can probably go online, look up your model number and find someone who has spent the time finding exactly the right settings for your TV and has listed them. That's what I did with my Vizio and it looks great.

There's also a couple of good Blu-rays out there - I really recommend the Disney WOW disc.

Yeah, just do this. It probably won't be perfect, but it's quick, easy, and free. Unless you're really fussy about picture quality, there's no need to pay someone three hundred bucks to come to your home.

If you have a nice home theater, a professional calibration can do wonders. If you are watching on a $500 LCD, it's not worth the money.

Thanks everyone! I'm mainly concerned about watching movies and have tried a few calibration disks but always ended up scratching my head...is this what it's supposed to look like? Anyway I have a 48 inch Vizio and am using the preset Calibrated Dark mode which is a movie mode and I'm happy with it.

Just wasn't exactly sure how a calibrated TV should look...with all the hype about razor sharp pictures and everything "Popping" off the screen not to mention what you see on the displays at Best Buy...you get my point?

It all came together the other day when I saw Everest ay an IMAX theater. The picture was clear and bold but nothing was popping off the screen and there were no razor sharp images...just bold natural realistic colors and clarity...nothing unnatural or fake looking which is what I've heard about calibrated TVs.

Kind of wondered if something was wrong with my TV or settings because it wasn't popping in movie mode but now I understand it's not supposed to. Thanks again for all the replies!

Yeah, you get used to the more naturalistic view of movie mode after a few days and after that, when you look at "dynamic" mode, you can see just how blown out and unrealistic everything looks.

Thanks TheBang, Alan and Trespoochies. I'm just happy to know I can relax and finally enjoy a movie with my settings in Movie mode and not worry about if it should be popping more or if the picture should be sharper. I feel I'm close...in the ballpark anyway of what it should look like.

I'm kind of excited about watching all my movies again...as they should be seen or close to it....thanks!

Just remember- there is only ONE correct picture setting!

The important things about proper calibration are having your colors look naturalistic (ie, not pushed too far in any direction) and having the brightness and contrast working together so that blacks are the proper black and whites are the proper whites -- too far in one direction, and your image will be blown out, and too far in the other and your image will be too dark and the blacks will crush.

Thanks guys!