HD TV Question

[renogaw]

maybe its the newer models, she just got hers. had the cable company out twice to see if it was them, now she has to fight with best buy.
btw, we're all talking about tvs, i just set up my ~10 yr old 5.1 surround system onto my tv (wanted to see if it was worth it). OMG any surround system is better than none. i couldn't believe what i wasn't hearing before putting it on.

 

[digitydash]

Originally Posted by renogaw
maybe its the newer models, she just got hers. had the cable company out twice to see if it was them, now she has to fight with best buy.
btw, we're all talking about tvs, i just set up my ~10 yr old 5.1 surround system onto my tv (wanted to see if it was worth it). OMG any surround system is better than none. i couldn't believe what i wasn't hearing before putting it on.
I could never live without surround sound.A movie or a game is just not the same.

 

[petjunkie]

Most of the info I've read says you can't really tell the difference between 1080p or i because of how well the tvs work now. So I don't really see the point. Regular cable will look like crap on a hd, same with videos. I only watch movies on my plasma and have a hd player. Plus the surround sound, when we moved it didn't get hooked up right away and you really notice the difference in movies. Some movies need it to get into it.

 

[triggerphish]

TJust FYI there is a difference between 1080 i and p.
Also the plasma screen will not burn out in 5 years unless its one of hte first models made. plasma tv's compete with LCD in pretty much every aspect. You can google to find out advantages and disadvantages. I think you will be happy with your HD programing. You will never want to watch anything else.

enjoy

 

[theappe3]

once you go HD, you will never go back...

 

[tangman99]

I have a 60" Sony SXRD and the picture is beautiful. It is 1080p but I don't have any 1080p inputs. On a 1080p TV, you can't visually tell any difference in a 1080i or 1080p input.
My standard digital channels look pretty descent on my tv. The secret with getting a good picture out of any HD tv is to go into the setups and turn off every automatic setting that is enabled. Especially what I call torch mode. On the Sony SXRD, this is vivid and I forget what it is called on the Samsung. These auto settings make the TVs look terrible. Next, get Avia and setup the TV properly to get the color, hue, white and black settings correct. If you really want a beautiful picture, you can get an ISF calibration done for about $400.00.

 

[theappe3]

cant you just calibrate it yourself? Im pretty sure you can get ahold of what ever someone used to calibrate the tv for less than $400...

 

[digitydash]

Dynamic is the colorful setting on samsung.You could get it but I think it would be time consuming to figure it out to get it perfect.I alway play with mine untill I got it rite then just put the same setting on all my samsungs.

 

[tangman99]

Originally Posted by theappe3
cant you just calibrate it yourself? Im pretty sure you can get ahold of what ever someone used to calibrate the tv for less than $400...
You can set the basics like Brightness, Color, Hue, etc. The setting an ISF calibrator uses are in the hidden system menus and they are not self explanatory at all. Very cryptic. I have been in mine several times. If you make a mistake in this menu, you can literally ruin your set. Getting the machine to use it and knowing what you are doing is a different story. There is a reason those guys make that kind of money. One is to pay for the equipment and the other is understanding how to use it. It is something most people never do. Personally, the AVIA disk that lets me set the standard features are plenty good enough for me.

 

[tangman99]

Originally Posted by digitydash
Dynamic is the colorful setting on samsung.You could get it but I think it would be time consuming to figure it out to get it perfect.I alway play with mine untill I got it rite then just put the same setting on all my samsungs.
Hey Digitydash,
If you have the Samsung DLP, get an AVIA DVD and do the setup. I have calibrated a few Samsungs for some friends of mine that have this set. If you turn off dynamic and all the auto settings and set it up with AVIA, you will be amazed at the difference. The Samsung gets a lot of mosquito noise with the autofilters turned on. Most people will initially think a properly setup TV is not bright enough. Give yourself about two days and your eyes will settle in and totally relax. It makes for much better viewing. You do with the DVD input and then translate all the settings to the other inputs. It won't work as well from TV to TV. You need to do each one.

 

[gmann1139]

Originally Posted by renogaw
discovery hd is filmed and has the ability to broadcast in 1080p, but so far the cable boxes all are stuck at 1080i
I need to find out why my nice big 1080p tv has such issues showing regulard digital cable chanels (really horrid pic to be honest) but HD channels are so sweet.
Got Cablevision? I blame them.
Although really, it probably had to do with the TV trying to stretch standard digital cable pictures out over those 1080 lines. I've found if I let the cable box set format, I get clear pictures, but with a 2" black box around 4:3 pictures. I'd rather have big and ugly.

 

[digitydash]

Originally Posted by TangMan99
Hey Digitydash,
If you have the Samsung DLP, get an AVIA DVD and do the setup. I have calibrated a few Samsungs for some friends of mine that have this set. If you turn off dynamic and all the auto settings and set it up with AVIA, you will be amazed at the difference. The Samsung gets a lot of mosquito noise with the autofilters turned on. Most people will initially think a properly setup TV is not bright enough. Give yourself about two days and your eyes will settle in and totally relax. It makes for much better viewing. You do with the DVD input and then translate all the settings to the other inputs. It won't work as well from TV to TV. You need to do each one.
Whats the difference between AVIA pro and the cheaper one?I run my tv in movie mode.The picture is much crisper then the dynamic setting

 

[tangman99]

Originally Posted by digitydash
Whats the difference between AVIA pro and the cheaper one?I run my tv in movie mode.The picture is much crisper then the dynamic setting
AVIA pro is for professionals. It has a ton of test patterns and other things. Regular AVIA will serve you just fine. I've never looked at movie mode but the modes just use different settings of the auto features. It's up to what your eyes like. I've just always found that auto settings always cause some sort of noise and totally throws off accurate colors.
I just noticed AVIA II is coming out! I might have to pick this up as it is specifically for HD and widescreen. The old one was not but worked just fine. The one thing the old one doesn't do is show you overscan percentage on the width as it is 4:3. You can also by DVE but it is not very user friendly.
I just thought of something else you can do if you just want to play around. If you have any THX movie, there is a video calibration setup on the disk you can use. You can't set up color because that requires a special test pattern and color filters.

 

[digitydash]

I think I have one will have to dig threw my dvd's and see.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by TangMan99
AVIA pro is for professionals. It has a ton of test patterns and other things. Regular AVIA will serve you just fine. I've never looked at movie mode but the modes just use different settings of the auto features. It's up to what your eyes like. I've just always found that auto settings always cause some sort of noise and totally throws off accurate colors.
I just noticed AVIA II is coming out! I might have to pick this up as it is specifically for HD and widescreen. The old one was not but worked just fine. The one thing the old one doesn't do is show you overscan percentage on the width as it is 4:3. You can also by DVE but it is not very user friendly.
I just thought of something else you can do if you just want to play around. If you have any THX movie, there is a video calibration setup on the disk you can use. You can't set up color because that requires a special test pattern and color filters.
What is AVIA is it some sort of firmware upgrade?

 

[tangman99]

Originally Posted by stdreb27
What is AVIA is it some sort of firmware upgrade?
It is a DVD that is used to setup entertainment systems. It shows you how to setup your surround sound and also had a tutorial and test patterns for adjusting all the common setting on a TV to get a proper picture as far as sharpness, black levels, hue and color settings. Do a search on google for avia. Better yet:
http://www.ovationmultimedia.com/avia.html