Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics (HDTV Calibration Tool) (Blu-ray)

This DVD is an outstanding piece of work. Someone previously stated that you have to go through 1-1,5 hrs of boring voice which is not true. The voice is not the best they could have picked but what it talks about brings you closer to understanding what HD is all about. I doesn't take 5 mins to tune up your TV as it takes about 3 hrs for a professional who'll take £250 for it and this helps you do it yourself. I've bough mine some time ago from USA and believe me it does magic to your TV. You have countless pluges on DVD that'll help you set your picture to the best possible level without getting into service mode. It clearly explains the risks of running your TV on the torch mode (everything set to max) and tells you what to avoid when using your set. When I bought my new Sony 40'' LCD it was horrible to look at but when I plugged the PS3 and tuned it with this DVD the difference is so vast that you will not believe your eyes. I think that £15 is money well spent as it will help you maintain your TV in good condition for a long long time.

I bought a Panasonic 50 inch plasma and was visually trying to guess the settings to my satisfaction but guessing was the right word...If you want to do a really great job with either plasma or lcd flat screens buy this top class calibration or set-up blu-ray to get the best possible manual settings you are likely to have on anything else you could possibly use...This Blu-ray has a tutorial function which follows an easy step by step guide to set up contrast, colour, sharpness,geometry etc...It really does improve the picture quality significantly without the guess work and the investment is only £13.99 so it is worth it....I found the filters for colour very impressive as it stopped the colour bleeding but at the same time got the maximum effect in this area....Various pluges (shading scales) were used for both contrast and brightness with sharpness showing a test tv card on screen where you could see it going in and out of focus as the settings on your tv settings were changed....Fantastic blu-ray set up disc worth every penny so buy it now you certainly won't regret it.....

Once you have listened to about 1+1/2 hours of the most boring voice possible,you will get to setting up your T.V.This can be done in about 5 mins but there again so could the whole of this DVD.There was a slight difference to the overall picture but not sure if it was worth the money or the time.It is a well documented DVD but you will require an I.Q of a brain surgeon to understand half of it .

An effective TV picture calibration tool? Yes, it's called the THX Optimizer that can be found free on any THX mastered DVD or BD and is a remarkable benchmark on both standard and high definition TV's.

Moreover and as stated previously, most modern HD TV's come with decent presets and automatic settings. It's the quality of source that counts more often than not.

Conclusively: albeit an in-depth elaborate optimizer that fails in epic proportions to make a amateur an expert - it is generally a complete and utter waste of time and money. Also, for your own TV's optimum settings, try searching for reviews or forums on the internet and the best settings the expert critics applied. It's usually very little from factory default.

Stick Star Wars in and tweek away for free!

A very similar and more straight forward calibration tool called the THX optimizer is available FREE on any THX DVD. Just check on the back of any DVD with THX (Star Wars, Indianna Jones...) and find the THX optimizer in the menu.