Some questions about tv's!!!

[jhood2880]

Hopefully this is the right place for this. I just bought the Sony KDL-60EX700. Now at some point i heard that you can tune (cant think of the right word atm) tv's with a dvd. I assume this is just a guide to changing the settings to get the best picture quality. Any suggestion's on if this is worth it? If so what dvd/software is recommended?

[jhood2880]

Calibrate is the word i was looking for!

[cstmar01]

Yes a Calibration will make a difference and get the most out of the TV. You can do a disc such as the following: http://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-benchmark/

This will help you get more out of your TV in terms of picture quality. You can also have it done professionally which will get even more out of the TV, however it does cost more but there is more that will go into it.

Also check out the AVS forum for TV settings for that series. I'm not 100% fimilar with the TV (I know of the 710 series which is LED, but not the 700) and they might have some setting there that they got the best PQ with.

Remember the whole point of a calibration is to make a TV look natural to your eyes, sometimes people will think it looks to dim and want it super bright. This is where you do have to follow the disc very close. It does sometimes take some practice but in the end it will be worth it.

[ViperZ]

Avia calibration DVD is pretty good. If you want BluRay, then DVE - digital video essentials calibration discs are very nice. Those who own Oppo bluray players, also have Spears & Munsil calibration disc.
I calibrated my system with DVE disc, and I'm quite happy with the results. Will get my friend's S&M disc this week to compare how close the calibration settings will be.

[steveinaz]

There are a few disks:

Digital Video Essentials (DVE)
Avia
Spears & Munsil
Disney "WOW"

[jhood2880]

Will this work with LED? And thank you all very much for the help!

[Glowrdr]

A quick and dirty, is to grab any DVD that has THX, they have a quicky calibration. That would certainly get you by if you just wanted to mess around a little without buying a new disc. Not sure which discs are THX, but you should be able to google it. More than likely you own at least 1

[cstmar01]

Will this work with LED? And thank you all very much for the help!

It doesn't matter what kind of TV you have, or really if its a TV or PJ.

[cnh]

There are a few disks:

Digital Video Essentials (DVE)
Avia
Spears & Munsil
Disney "WOW"

I have a DVE, and it does a nice job....pretty straight forward instructions. I'm sure the others are fine as well.

Will take your picture down from the FLAMING levels its set at in STORES!!

cnh

[Glowrdr]

You mean these things aren't $2k+ lighting fixtures that double as a space heater? Damn.

[LuSh]

I use to go to a number of friends and families places with my trusty Digital Video Essentials disc and blue filter glasses and run all these calibration settings...and for a long time it really did help. However in the last two years I've noticed that many TV's with 'movie mode' or 'THX mode' get you 90% and in some cases 98% of what any disc calibration will do. It's very close now...they get the kelvin right usually with a movie setting or warm2. In fact a year ago I calibrated my Panasonic 42" Plasma and the settings with DVE were so close to their movie settings I felt bummed out. I wanted all my work to pay off...I believe there was a plus or minus 1 setting on the tint end of things, same for color and everything else was the same. Just food for thought.

[TECHNOKID]

There are a few disks:

Digital Video Essentials (DVE)
Avia
Spears & Munsil
Disney "WOW"

A quick and dirty, is to grab any DVD that has THX, they have a quicky calibration. That would certainly get you by if you just wanted to mess around a little without buying a new disc. Not sure which discs are THX, but you should be able to google it. More than likely you own at least 1

I have a DVE, and it does a nice job....pretty straight forward instructions. I'm sure the others are fine as well.

Will take your picture down from the FLAMING levels its set at in STORES!!

cnh

Welcome to Club Polk jhood2880

If you want to do the job right, use the right tool. Any of the tools steveinaz has mentioned will allow you to do a good job calibrating your TV.

As cnh points out, over provididing you with a good VQ, it will make sure your TV does not remain in ''Torch Mode'' (preset for store displaying) thus allowing your TV to last longer

Cheers!
TK

[jhood2880]

I really appreciate everyones help and warm welcome! I am new to the forum and since the 1st day i bought Polk i have been hooked. However money has always been a issue with buying the things i want. Now that i have my tv i will be upgrading the HT. But since i bought the tv and a PS3 with Move (for Blu Ray and games) i thought i would make sure i get the picture out of it. It is weird watching on a LED tv. I went from a 1080 DLP (sony 52) to this thing and the picture is unreal. And even though it is not 3d the people look 3d. I reccomend this tv to anyone. I cant wait to see if calibrating this thing makes it even more impressive. Thanks again everyone! I will be using this site alot more since i seem to see alot of good information and people on here!

[jhood2880]

Welcome to Club Polk jhood2880

If you want to do the job right, use the right tool. Any of the tools steveinaz has mentioned will allow you to do a good job calibrating your TV.

As cnh points out, over provididing you with a good VQ, it will make sure your TV does not remain in ''Torch Mode'' (preset for store displaying) thus allowing your TV to last longer

Cheers!
TK

I also wanted to mention When you set up this new Sony it walks you through and there is a initial setup that asks if this tv is for demo purposes or personal. So i assume that would be torch mode! LOL

[Glowrdr]

The demo mode will actually put "words?" on the screen, and cycle through difference video modes and such. Would be unwatchable for standard viewing. If this is a 120hz TV, I believe Sony splits the TV in half, and has some words scroll across it, refreshing at 60 on 1 side and 120 on the other (to show you the smooth scrol feature)

[jhood2880]

Yes it is 120hz..I didnt want 3D. Not a fan of wearing glasses to watch tv. LOL.. But i am impressed with the tv. So i am hoping once i calibrate it i will be even more impressed!

[Glowrdr]

Definately congrats on the new TV though! I'm having some issues with getting mine delivered - there seems to be a "mysterious" reschedule that never happened, so I'm not really sure when I will get the new set. I'll give them a few hours this morning to figure out what they want to do. Otherwise I might be playing the "I'm an angry customer, what will you give me" bit. Maybe I can score a wireless adaptor out of the deal. lol

[jhood2880]

What tv did you buy? This tv was $700 cheaper in store then online. It was nuts. I was going to buy online but didnt wait. I live in Chicago so i wanted to watch the bears game sunday. And they lost. LOL.. You should play the angry customer card. I am convinced companies have lost all respect for customers. Sucks. Customers use to be valued!

[Glowrdr]

I picked up the 50VT20. And by picked up, I mean I physically had to get the thing myself because somebody along the way screwed up. BB is saying their system had a glitch on Saturday, so anybody that ordered from the store (TV wasn't in stock) - got lost in cyberspace.

So after 3 hours on the phone, and 2 trips to 2 different stores - It's mine finally. Still waiting on the rest of my order, but at least the TV is sitting in a box right in front of me.

I think I will still be making a phone call though. To tell me my order was lost, and the only way they even knew about it was when I called is unacceptable at best. Granted, I'm not the in-your-face angry customer that likes to scream at little girls working the register, but I believe that BB could at least have appologized. I've heard of it happening before, so I may see if I have any luck getting myself a gift card out of the deal - then I'll buy the wireless adaptor for it. (either way, I'm buying it... just hoping that I wont have to foot the entire $90 for it myself)

We will see. I'm not their top customer by any means, but they can always look at my reward zone card and see that I've spent probably 8-10k in the past couple of years there. I think I deserve to be treated as a return customer in this case.