Philzilla

Who the fuck would steal The Lost World?

hanshotfirst1138

Some of the set pieces are cool, it's not as bad as some people say. Certainly nothing worth going to jail for though .

asianxcore

Caved in and picked this up tonight at Target.

Alan Smithee

At Big Lots I saw a copy of The Pink Panther remake (with Steve Martin) where someone had opened the case and swiped the disc inside. If they watched it, they got punishment enough though! I thought the same when I saw a case for Pootie Tang at Tower opened with the disc gone, but that's out of print now.

Rypro 525

Watched the new blu on halloween night. do some of the steadycam shots look almost excessively grainy (especially some moments of the open shot) or do i have the sharpness turned up too high on my tv

Why So Blu?

Your tv. You shouldn't even have your sharpness levels turned on at all. That's one of the first things you learn when calibrating your set.

hanshotfirst1138

What's a good page with info about calibrating my set? I'm curious now much of what I see is the lack of expense of the HDTV, and how much is what I watch.

Why So Blu?

As far as I know there are two home calibration discs you can try. i can only vouch for Video Essentials, because I've been calibrating with them since the LD days. Disney also released a calibration disc of their own.

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-...deo+essentials

http://www.amazon.com/Wow-World-Wond...deo+essentials

Outside of those options there's the expensive hiring of a technician to come out to your place and professionally calibrate it with his gear and all. It still runs a few hundred dollars to do it that way.

RocShemp

A third option is the AVS709 disc that you can download and burn yourself (and it's free). However, you'll still need to get a color filter gel on your own. As far as I recall, Tokyo Blue is the color you need.

I also wholeheartedly recommend Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration Disc 2nd Edition. This is the newest of the bunch and even includes 3D calibration and evaluation patterns. And if you need help using the patterns, the makers of the disc have published some great articles here on their website.

I have all these discs and all are great. However, if you're a total beginner, the most user friendly option is the Disney WOW: World of Wonder disc.

Solid Snake

It's funny. I THINK my set is perfect at what it is but the OCD film bastard in me wonders what exactly my set is set at within the proper levels it would need in order to be "perfect" for.

So what got you into that tech detail, Rocshemp?

E Unit

Audio penis of course.

gryffinmaster

RocShemp

I've been very OCD about video as far back as I can remember. Heck, I remember back when the first "digitally mastered" VHS tapes came into the market and I immediately noticed (and disliked) this weird outline I'd notice on some tapes. It wasn't until the DVD days that I knew it was referred to as "ringing" or "edge enhancement". So I've been tinkering with every set I've had to get them looking as close to perfect as possible.

And I think my audio OCD is worse since I'd get pissed if people so much as nudged my speakers and I'd instantly break out a set of rulers, levels, and tape measures to make sure everything was back exactly where it was supposed to be. I still do that, in fact.

Why So Blu?

Wow, DIY video calibration has come a long way!

RocShemp

And that's not even the heavy stuff. A lot of DIY calibrators use programs like CalMAN 5 along with gear like the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter.

A meter is the only way to get the best possible results from your TV. However, you start entering in the price range of what a professional calibration would cost you (around $600 for the whole set) and that tends to turn off a lot of people.

Supermallet

I use WoW and it's a good overall calibration disc.

Rypro 525

how high should contrast be? i toggel between 80 & 90

Why So Blu?

Everything other than sharpness and tint levels are easy but when you get into contrast/brightness, etc., You gotta use the calibration disc.


Tint levels should stay at the halfway mark, though.

Spiderbite

If you want to go the cheap route, just google your TV or projector info along with "calibration" and a lot of people who have your same TV will have put their calibrations there for everyone to see. Yeah, it may not be the most accurate but I have never been unhappy with what I have found doing that in the past few years. It beats having to do the calibrations yourself or paying someone $300 bucks to get them done.

Noonan

That's what I did. When I bought my TV, I found a long thread on AVS with people talking about the setup and config they used for my model. I tried one that people seemed to like and never looked back.

orangerunner

I can't imagine paying $300 for someone to calibrate my $400 TV.

A simple, inexpensive way to get decent results is getting a series of test patterns from an "easter egg" on most Sony Blu-ray discs. I have them on "Black Hawk Down", "Dracula" etc.

At the menu screen press the numbers 7-6-6-9 and hit enter. This gives you 4 test patterns. You can google search how to adjust your TV levels for the best results.

If you're not OCD about having the perfect settings, it's a handy tool that works pretty well.

RocShemp

I would recommend calibration patterns even for sharpness. You'd assume setting your sharpness to 0 would do the trick but that's not always the case. My old TV needed to be at -10 (the lowest setting) to get rid of ringing artifacts whereas my new TV has to be exactly at 0. Any lower on the new set and I actually start artificially softening the picture.

Again, that actually varies from TV to TV. Color/Tint patterns with a blue filter or colorimeter are the best way to set Color and Tint just right.

Why So Blu?

I've been really lucky with the TV's that I've had through the years to leave it a 0.

bunkaroo

Paying for calibration was much more important in the CRT days. It was WELL worth it then. On digital sets, a calibration disc is really all you need IMO.

RocShemp

It should be but unfortunately a lot of TV manufacturers totally screw up the color space of their sets (oftentimes intentionally) so they don't conform to REC 709. Some TV's, it's something that a simple calibration that a user can perform. Other sets require you to access the service menu and, if you don't know what you're doing, you can damage your TV in ways that are not covered by warranty. Certified (that word is key) calibrators do know how to navigate the service menu with ease and any screw-ups on their part are covered by warranty.

Personally, I'd rather do the calibrations myself and, should I ever want to get even more fine tuning done, I'll get a colorimeter/spectrometer along with software like CalMan 5. Sure that plus a laptop will set me back a bit but it'd be a one time investment that I can use on any future sets I might purchase.