Digital Video Essentials: Hard to Use

[Saint]

I bought the Digital Video Essentials and I find it difficult and confusing to use. Especially when adjusting sharpness and such I really can't tell if what I'm doing is making things better or worse. Thank god my tv has a factory reset option.

It's a Hitachi 51F500 51" RP HDTV. I find straight out of the box in "Sports" mode, the t.v. looks amazing, but when in "Movie" mode the colors look incredibly weird. I know most people's TVs are set too bright.

Anyway any tips for using this disc? What's the most important picture adjustment? Is there an online guide somewhere for using this?

I feel my TV could be looking a lot better but I'm frustrated.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Saint, start with this I walk through the whole thing. Sharpness on most CRT displays should be all the way down or off. Digital displays are different. Post back with any specific areas you need help with.

 

[Saint]

Ok, so step 1 and 2 are ok...brightness and contrast.

The color part I simply cannot get proper...I can get blue and red ok, but green, forget it.

As I have an analog CRT (rear projection) I just turned sharpness off.

I watched a few movies and they simply have an "odd" feel to them...much less bright than before (which I understand is a good thing), but the colors "feel" strange, or PERHAPS they're more realistic.

I just have no way of knowing if what I did made things better or worse.

 

[jeffsg4mac]

Saint, if you can get red and blue correct, then that is pretty good. A lot of displays will only allow you to dial in blue. Green will require a trained calibrator. Remember that with your set correctly adjusted you will have to watch in very dark room with no lights on in front of the screen unless they are very dim. Any ambient light now will wash everything out, however,you have now prolonged the life of your display. Sounds like you have it correct, watch the montage of video test footage on the dvd and report back on how it looks. You should see a major improvement overall.

 

[zipper]

I found it a bit confusing at 1st myself as it ran through the initial stage quickly. After watching it a couple times (as someone suggested) I was able to make the adjustments with confidence.

It is a striking difference when you're done & it takes a bit of getting used to. But I found I adjusted to the "softer" picture & am happy with the consistency from channel to channel.