Avia guide to home theater!! Is it required?

[thecoolguy11]

I have just bought myself a home theaer system. I was going through the Amazon site and came across the Avia guide to Home Theater. How important and good are such calibaration DVDs? Is there anything else that I should be looking at buying that will help me in configuring the system.
for now, I've not used any such tool and the system does not sound bad at all.

 

[outsider]

From what I have seen, the calibration discs do more for your TV than for you sound system. I have seen the results of using the Avia disc-it is very good for system calibration.
If you've got any DVDs that are produced by 20th Century Fox they should have a THX Optimizer that works somewhat well for setting up your system.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

How important and good are such calibaration DVDs?

Since it is impossible to properly calibrate your system without the correct tools; I'd say its extremely important. Such calibration DVD's really should come with every HTiB (and a test-CD with every cd-player).

Other tools you'll need:

*Tape measure (for speaker distance)
*SPL meter (to measure speaker/subwoofer settings)

Some people also use tripods to hold the SPL-meter in the same place for the entire speaker-level setup. But it isn't required. The Radio Shack analog SPL meter is available at any Radio Shack, and is the cheapest SPL-meter you're likely to find ($39).

BTW: the Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-Up DVD is also a good calibration DVD and costs less than half of what Avia does.

 

[flyv65]

I might also suggest the Digitsal Video Essentials disc (I think it goes for about $25). I have the Avia Guide and it was great for setting up the picture, but was somewhat dated-I've heard that the *Digital* Video disc has been updated over the original Video Essentials and is now quite good.

Bryan...and its cheaper...

 

[MDS]

You can often get both Avia and DVE in a bundle deal at amazon. I have both and they are both good. For video, I think DVE is easier to use. The video calibration steps on Avia go through a tutorial of what to look for and how to adjust the controls but then only gives you about 2 minutes to do it before it goes on to the next control - if you aren't done, you have to go back to the beginning of the section and listen to the tutorial again. DVE will pause after the explanation and you have as much time as you need - you just press play to continue.