Avia Guide to Home Theater?????'s

[toenail]

I got my DVD in the mail today and made some quick adjustments to my Toshiba set. I'm curious about a few things reagarding the disc and tuning TV's in general.

First about TV's in general, I've seen plenty of print about setting adjustments too high and causing premature wear, burn-in, poor picture quality etc. The problem is, "too high" is a bit vague. For example, disregarding picture quality, when adjusting brightness (black level) which is better for the TV, greyer or blacker? Likewise, when adjusting contrast (white level) which is better for the TV, greyer or whiter? I'm comfortable with color, tint and sharpness. I'd prefer to err on the side of safer for the TV at the sacrifice of some picture quality if needed.

After some minor tweaking with the Avia disc I've made some observations. It seems like some blacks are too black and lose all definititon. Think black velvet pants in a room with poor lighting. The pants almost take on a cartooninsh quality because they are more like an absence of color on the screen shaped like a pair of pants than an actual pair of pants. Zero definition, zero wrinkles or folds, zero shading. I also notice that some whites seem too white, not in that they loose definition and shading, but that they radiate a bit, especially when bordered by a black backdrop. I'm wondering if some of this is just that I'm paying more attention or that my perception/interpretation of the Avia instructions is too extreme, or perhaps I'm not used to seeing some of this stuff and find it out of the ordinary.

One tip to others that I found on both TV's in my house. Sharpness set to 0 and all auto enhancements turned off give way better edge definition. Apparently not true on higher quality units (plasma, LCD etc) but for run of the mill CRT's the difference was substantial.

[edtyct]

(1) First about TV's (#) in general, I've seen plenty of print (http:///#) about setting adjustments too high and causing premature wear, burn-in, poor picture quality etc. The problem is, "too high" is a bit vague. For example, disregarding picture quality, when adjusting brightness (black level) which is better for the TV, greyer or blacker? Likewise, when adjusting contrast (white level) which is better for the TV, greyer or whiter? I'm comfortable with color, tint and sharpness. I'd prefer to err on the side of safer for the TV at the sacrifice of some picture quality if needed.

(2) After some minor tweaking with the Avia disc I've made some observations. It seems like some blacks are too black and lose all definititon. Think black velvet pants in a room with poor lighting. The pants almost take on a cartooninsh quality because they are more like an absence of color on the screen shaped like a pair of pants than an actual pair of pants. Zero definition, zero wrinkles or folds, zero shading. I also notice that some whites seem too white, not in that they loose definition and shading, but that they radiate a bit, especially when bordered by a black backdrop. I'm wondering if some of this is just that I'm paying more attention or that my perception/interpretation of the Avia instructions is too extreme, or perhaps I'm not used to seeing some of this stuff and find it out of the ordinary.

(3) One tip to others that I found on both TV's in my house. Sharpness set to 0 and all auto enhancements turned off give way better edge definition. Apparently not true on higher quality units (plasma, LCD etc) but for run of the mill CRT's the difference was substantial.(1) The bias of blacks and whites toward grey isn't really an issue in determining whether brightness and contrast levels are too high. Some blacks look red or blue, and some whites have a hint of green. Manufacturers sometimes put an unfortunate stamp on how the greyscale is going to look, and sometimes the limitations of a technology do it by necessity. On many LCD sets, blacks can never go lower than a moderate grey or dark blue, etc. A CRT's white is driven too hard when its blooming, that is, when bright images seem to increase in size or the white boxes and lines on test screens seem to spill outside their boundaries or to swell. On a CRT, if you're not doing any better than dark grey, then brightness and/or contrast is probably too high.

(2) Whites driven too hard will suffer from white crush, the loss of detail in a bright image; blacks driven too hard will suffer from black crush, generally observable as loss of shadow detail or the loss of wrinkles in men's dark suits, etc. Adjusting the black level is easiest when using a DVD (#) player that will pass what is known as "blacker than black" information, so that a range of dark test bars is visible against a background that is blacker than the video standard, allowing the display to lock onto the bottom limit of video black. Toggling back and forth between brightness and contrast will optimize the set as delivered, sometimes at a bit of a compromise. Most people used to watching an improperly calibrated display find a properly calibrated one too dark, but once the eyes get used to it, the picture begins to show itself as more elegrant. Keeping ambient light off the screen usually helps. You seem to have noticed that a bright image against a dark backround can emphasize brightness at the expense of black. A set's DC restoration is its ability to hold black steady when something bright is next to it. In many sets, the dark area can't help responding by getting a little brighter.

(3) Amen. This is generally true. Some CRTs benefit from a little sharpness, but all edge enhancement that comes from overdriving brightness and contrast, as well as such useless features as SVM and various exaggerated picture settings actually destroy the resolution that the display is capable of delivering in the first place. The point is to make transitions in the image seamlessly natural, not to add thick lines around everything that does nothing but blur the picture.

[toenail]

When the set was new it was set at contrast 80/100 and brightness 50/100. After my first round from with Avia I wound up with 78/100 and 57/100 respectively. In order to recover black detail it seems like I need to raise the brightness to beyond what the Avia disc called for and lower the contrast from what the Avia disc called for. I'll have to experiment and see what happens. Some of the variable here is my interpretation of the test patterns and what I should be seeing in them. I think a little trial and error will help sort this out.

I also forgot to set color to warm before starting and will be interested in seeing the outcome of this change on how color looks on screen.

[edtyct]

Toenail, the settings that you arrived at with Avia are perfectly possible for your set. Test settings don't always translate into the most pleasing real-world picture. If video black is crushing detail at levels just above it, you have no choice but to find a compromise. But changing to the warm setting could make all the possible difference. I'd certainly be interested in what you discover.

Ed

[Worf101]

I got my DVD in the mail today and made some quick adjustments to my Toshiba set. I'm curious about a few things reagarding the disc and tuning TV's in general.

First about TV's in general, I've seen plenty of print about setting adjustments too high and causing premature wear, burn-in, poor picture quality etc. The problem is, "too high" is a bit vague. For example, disregarding picture quality, when adjusting brightness (black level) which is better for the TV, greyer or blacker? Likewise, when adjusting contrast (white level) which is better for the TV, greyer or whiter? I'm comfortable with color, tint and sharpness. I'd prefer to err on the side of safer for the TV at the sacrifice of some picture quality if needed.

After some minor tweaking with the Avia disc I've made some observations. It seems like some blacks are too black and lose all definititon. Think black velvet pants in a room with poor lighting. The pants almost take on a cartooninsh quality because they are more like an absence of color on the screen shaped like a pair of pants than an actual pair of pants. Zero definition, zero wrinkles or folds, zero shading. I also notice that some whites seem too white, not in that they loose definition and shading, but that they radiate a bit, especially when bordered by a black backdrop. I'm wondering if some of this is just that I'm paying more attention or that my perception/interpretation of the Avia instructions is too extreme, or perhaps I'm not used to seeing some of this stuff and find it out of the ordinary.

One tip to others that I found on both TV's in my house. Sharpness set to 0 and all auto enhancements turned off give way better edge definition. Apparently not true on higher quality units (plasma, LCD etc) but for run of the mill CRT's the difference was substantial.

I was just going to use the Avia on my set this evening and was curious about other's experiences with this thang. Thanks for the heads up and questions. I'll let you all know what I find.

Da Worfster
:cool:

[kexodusc]

My DVE disc has been a huge help in setting up my tube...Everytime I go through it I learn something new.
Word of advice for you guys trying out the AVIA disc (or any other setup disc)...be patient with the new settings...you might be use to the old ones at first and find the new ones too awkward...give it time, then compare again...

[toenail]

Avia suggests a full week of trial before changing things again. I'll futz with it one more time just to double check my accuracy, then give it a week.

[techgeek42]

One of my fav sites TechLore ( www.techlore.com ) has a pretty good article about using Avia. Here's a link to it: http://www.techlore.com/article/10095/

[toenail]

So now that I've given the set a week or so I can say that the improvement is obvious and pleasing. I reset the TV to it's factory defaults as comparison and then went throught the Avia disc a second time since I was more familiar with it. Default settings were actually 100/100 contrast, 50/100 brightness. I've since settled on 70/100 contrast, 60/100 brightness. These are slight tweeks from what I got using the disc ( + or - a few points ) to account for crappy cable signal which is 80% or more of my viewing. Blacks look good, whites look good without being over blown, color is accurate and definition is hugely improved. The increase in definition, especially on some of the digital channels, is pretty amazing. It seems that shuting off SVM, reducing sharpness to "0" and getting the color right really gives helps in this regard. At times picture quality comes very close to DVD.

As an aside, when using this disc on my Philips bedroom set I found an added bonus. The tv had started to make a noise every time there were high contrast scenes flashed on the screen. The noise would often go away after a 1/2 hour or so. When I was adjusting contrast while using the Avia disc I noticed the sound immediately, and it disappeared when I adjusted the contrast down to it's normal level. Saved me a trip to the repair shop and amplified the stupidity behind manufacturers cranking all of these settings to begin with.

I'm still fiddling with some of the sound set up procedures. While testing, I found some interesting facts that have helped me to tune my system a bit. During sweeps from 200hz down on individual speakers I noticed that 4 of the 5 roll off at about 100hz while the other one (right main in a corner) rolls off at about 60hz. I then swept the sub only and got very flat from 100hz down. I moved my x-over setting from 60hz to 100hz and swept it again with satellite and sub combined. Much smoother. I had to drop the output level to the sub amp a bit to compensate and will do reference listening today to see if I like the changes. It goes against the intuition to non-localize the sub but if the higher setting doesn't give the sub away AND ends up sounding better I'll take it. It'll also give the amp an easier load to drive.