Muahahahahah! 50 inches of fun!

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Mookow
what is ISF calibration, and how much is it?

Here's the site of one of the best ISF calibrators in the country. He tours the country and calibrations is all he does.

Lion AV Consultants -- Gregg Loewen

You'll find explainations and pricing for everything that's involved.

He has calibrated my Hitachi, and the change was dramatic. What I thought was a great picture became incredible. More detailed, better color, truer blacks and a 3D effect that adds depth to the picture that never was there before.

Wow, that's crazy.

You would think they'd do all that at the factory.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Speaking of HD, have you considered a HD DirecTV receiver? I'd suggest the Sony HD-200 or Samsung SIR-TS160. You can throw up an antenna and get your local digital and HD channels with these boxes too.

I need to leave something for Christmas

Oh that and I didn't need to tack a $500 purchase onto an already nearly 2k purchase.

Heh I'm the opposite way. I believe in knocking it out all at once. Kinda like taking off a bandaid... you can do it slow and drag out the pain, or fast and have one quick sharp pain.

BTW, I was serious about the speakers. Having them that close together negates the need for a center channel. Move them out a couple feet from the TV and see what I mean.

 

[TJN23]

i hate you

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: Amused

Be VERY careful with video games on a CRT RPTV. Burn in WILL happen most with video games because scores and tool bars remain constant. A good thing to do is turn the contrast down into the 20% range. It wont completely prevent burn in, but it will minimize the chances.

In particular, check all of your settings (contrast, brightness, etc.). These settings are almost always completely cranked up out of the box, since bright colors are what make the TV look good under the bright lights at your local Best Buy, etc. Just cutting those settings will reduce the chance of burn-in and will extend the lifetime of your set.

You might also want to look for the Avia Home Theatre DVD, which has some simple pattern calibrations you can do to tune your set properly.

 

I have a sweet 13 inch tv/vcr combo! There isn't even an on and off button for the TV!

 

[theNEOone]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Be VERY careful with video games on a CRT RPTV. Burn in WILL happen most with video games because scores and tool bars remain constant. A good thing to do is turn the contrast down into the 20% range. It wont completely prevent burn in, but it will minimize the chances.

Yep, I'm aware of this. I'm not the type(anymore) to play the same game for hours on end, and I don't put a game on pause and leave it sitting there for a couple hours either. I usually only play for an hour or so and I have dropped the contrast a bit, I beleive around the mid 30's right now.

I know I need some calibration done. The bottom edge of the picture droops and has some kind of red glow to it. Most people don't notice it until I point it out. My only major concern right now is trying to get rid of the artifacting from my direct TV signal. I'm using SVideo and I'm still getting pretty bad artifacting. I don't know if I can get this to go away or not.

Mid 30s is probably still too high... but at least you aren't leaving it in the 50s and 60s like most folks do.

If the geometry is that bad out of the box, I'd return it and have them give me a new unit. It should be decent out of the box with no readily apparent geometry problems. ISF calibration should make a good picture great, not a bad picture good.

DirecTV SD material looks awful on any TV 50" or bigger when you compare it to DVD or HD. You'll notice the lower channels (200-300) look worse than the higher channels, movie channels or PPV channels. They compress it WAY too much.

Speaking of HD, have you considered a HD DirecTV receiver? I'd suggest the Sony HD-200 or Samsung SIR-TS160. You can throw up an antenna and get your local digital and HD channels with these boxes too.

you dont' have to worry about burn in w/ an xbox. the screen dims out (screensaver-like) when you're idle for more than a few minutes

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Eli

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Mookow
what is ISF calibration, and how much is it?

Here's the site of one of the best ISF calibrators in the country. He tours the country and calibrations is all he does.

Lion AV Consultants -- Gregg Loewen

You'll find explainations and pricing for everything that's involved.

He has calibrated my Hitachi, and the change was dramatic. What I thought was a great picture became incredible. More detailed, better color, truer blacks and a 3D effect that adds depth to the picture that never was there before.

Wow, that's crazy.

You would think they'd do all that at the factory.

They can't. Moving around a RPTV knocks the focus out of whack. And the break in period of heating up and cooling down knocks the color out of whack. Plus, the fact that an ISF calibration is about 6 hours minimum of work. Can you imagine how much that would add to the cost of each unit?

Finally, manufactures intentionally skew their settings to make their TVs stand out on the showroom floor. Over boosted colors, sharpness, artificial edge enhancment and contrast levels high enough to cause burn in in just a few short hours are common practice now.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: theNEOone

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Be VERY careful with video games on a CRT RPTV. Burn in WILL happen most with video games because scores and tool bars remain constant. A good thing to do is turn the contrast down into the 20% range. It wont completely prevent burn in, but it will minimize the chances.

Yep, I'm aware of this. I'm not the type(anymore) to play the same game for hours on end, and I don't put a game on pause and leave it sitting there for a couple hours either. I usually only play for an hour or so and I have dropped the contrast a bit, I beleive around the mid 30's right now.

I know I need some calibration done. The bottom edge of the picture droops and has some kind of red glow to it. Most people don't notice it until I point it out. My only major concern right now is trying to get rid of the artifacting from my direct TV signal. I'm using SVideo and I'm still getting pretty bad artifacting. I don't know if I can get this to go away or not.

Mid 30s is probably still too high... but at least you aren't leaving it in the 50s and 60s like most folks do.

If the geometry is that bad out of the box, I'd return it and have them give me a new unit. It should be decent out of the box with no readily apparent geometry problems. ISF calibration should make a good picture great, not a bad picture good.

DirecTV SD material looks awful on any TV 50" or bigger when you compare it to DVD or HD. You'll notice the lower channels (200-300) look worse than the higher channels, movie channels or PPV channels. They compress it WAY too much.

Speaking of HD, have you considered a HD DirecTV receiver? I'd suggest the Sony HD-200 or Samsung SIR-TS160. You can throw up an antenna and get your local digital and HD channels with these boxes too.

you dont' have to worry about burn in w/ an xbox. the screen dims out (screensaver-like) when you're idle for more than a few minutes

Yet the whole time you are playing the game, the score/tool bars/ammo count that are constant in all games never move. Idle images are the problem, and these are idle images. It doesn't matter that there is stuff moving on the rest of the screen.

 

[Ausm]

Daaaaaamn Nice TV

Ausm

 

[Avatar26]

Nice! (Not as nice as 65" Mits, but nice!)

 

[Lyfer]

THat looks ok, my Sony 55" HDTV set with Klipsch refferrence speakers is much better.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Lyfer
THat looks ok, my Sony 55" HDTV set with Klipsch refferrence speakers is much better.

I think you have this confused with the "My Dick is Bigger" thread.

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Lyfer
THat looks ok, my Sony 55" HDTV set with Klipsch refferrence speakers is much better.

I think you have this confused with the "My Dick is Bigger" thread.

lol, seriously...8 posts in and you're already pissing people off.