Episode 91 - Want The Best HDTV Picture? [Discussion]

[jcduerr]

PCMag's HDTV expert, Robert Heron, teaches us top notch HDTV calibration tricks using tools anybody can afford!

Watch or download now! (http://revision3.com/systm/HDTVcalibration)

[jcduerr]

i did the THX thing and it made a BIG difference in my samsung lcd

[hellfighter]

Wish I could do this right now. Don't have any THX movie on hand.

[fishtoprecords]

One of the best episodes that I've seen Robert Heron do in a long time.

His recent DL.tv stuff has not been up to this level. Of course, that may have been because Rev3 stole most of dl.tv's talent, like Patrick, Roger, etc.

Still, where were the solder fumes?

[computoman]

I thought the light swords/sabers were supposed to be on tonight. Thought I was watching Tekzilla. The show was pretty much the same content on a previous revision3 episode. It was weird though I had a premonition about Rachael Ray being on Revision3. Obviously a subliminal commercial.

[smeerkaas]

.comb .. cool a new tld lol

[robalister]

This episode came at the best possible time. I just bought got a new HDTV on Monday and I was worrying about the picture quality because it seemed a little off.

[mmgunner]

After watching last weeks episode I thought that the light saber episode was this weeks, but i watched it again and it was going to happen in 2 weeks (next week) and the calibration episode was for this week.

[robalister]

Edit: Never mind.

[toddmw]

Following Robert's advice of putting the TV on "Just Scan," I'm noticing a weird problem on full-screen SD broadcasts. Across the top of my Samsung LN46A750, I see what appears to be a white and black pattern. If I switch to a HD channel or a SD channel not in full-screen (bars on top and bottom), I don't see this behavior.

Source is Cox Digital cable going to a TiVo HD, then connecting to the TV via HDMI.

Has anyone else encountered this?

Thanks,
Todd

[cholly]

The test that are on the bluray disc was very in-depth but there is no way I could go through all that. Anybody know if there are any good optimizers you can download ? I don't have any pixar movies but I'll check on some of my bluray's to see if the THX optimizer is on there

[darth-binkly]

Excellent episode, but I have some questions/comments. (If I'm right, they're insightful comments; if not, they're questions from a n00b.)

From what I understand from other sources and some theoretical knowledge, the advice Robert gave on overscan and 1:1 mapping applies to LCD/plasma displays and not to rear projection.

If I have it right (and please enlighten me if I have it wrong), you might not get one without the other for rear projection due to the geometry of the projection. As I understand it, since projection units have problems with falloff of quality near the edge, each unit (or at least model) is calibrated to crop off the edge effects. Thus, not every pixel that is displayed on the chip is actually seen on the screen--some of it falls beyond the edge of the screen. Every pixel that is seen is perfect 1:1 from the chip, but not every pixel is seen. Effectively, the screen is optically zoomed in a bit on the center of the chip to crop the darkening, distortion, etc. at the edge.

Since this is an analog physical effect, there is not a digital way to adjust it perfectly. One could adjust the scaling of the image to see more of the overscan region on the chip, but this then means that the digital source is being interpolated for display on the chip, using only the center portion of the chip that is projected to the display. Thus, unlike with panel technology, 1:1 mapping and overscan may be mutually exclusive.

If I have this wrong, please let me know--my LCOS TV has more overscan than I'd like, but I have not touched the service mode settings as I'm loathe to leave 1:1. I'd rather lose 5-10% of the edges than have any possibility of softening or aliasing of the content. But, if I can have it both ways, I gladly will.

[macman84]

Across the top of my Samsung LN46A750, I see what appears to be a white and black pattern.

You're probably seeing line 21 caption data on the SD source. Typically it's not viewable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_21

[elaleluya]

i have a question ? i calibrate my lcd hd 1080p samsung tv , but i went to frys and i saw all of the tvs picture and it looks better than my tv. it looks like 3d without the glasses. do u guys know how to get the same picture as them . for real it looks the best pic i ever seen.