Any LCD - plasma tv tuner peeps here?

[TRNDRVR]

I know Best Buy's Geek Squad does TV tuning on these things. I got a 32" LCD for upstairs and a 50" plasma for the living room.

Do these things really need to be tuned/dialed in?

Anybody here do this kind of work on the side?

Thanks,
Dan.

 

[Badger]

tuned/dialed in? I do Dish network and I can't say I have even heard of tunning or dialing in a flat screen tv. Though I do know you want to stay away from plasmas when it comes to most of Utah. Plasmas do not like high elevation. It causes the bulbs the have their life compared to at see level.

 

[TRNDRVR]

tuned/dialed in? I do Dish network and I can't say I have even heard of tunning or dialing in a flat screen tv. Though I do know you want to stay away from plasmas when it comes to most of Utah. Plasmas do not like high elevation. It causes the bulbs the have their life compared to at see level.

I adjusted a couple of settings and it made a big improvement.

Thanks!

 

[Badger]

There shouldn't be much in the way of settings in the Tv itself for picture clarity. Most have settings that will change the color format. Things like normal,theater,warm,cool,etc...Some also have settings for stretching a standard 4:3 format picture to fit on the 16:9 widescreen. More then anything it really comes down to what is supplying the Tv with its picture.

 

[Caleb]

You can buy DVDs that walk you through proper tuning of your picture. If you have a decent television you should be able to adjust TONS of settings, not just color. A properly tuned picture is 100Xs better than an out of the box picture...on any TV. Granted I have a picky eye when it comes to this type of thing, being a pressman did that to me. I can pick out the slightest variation in color and clarity without even trying. Most people don't notice things like that though.

Is it worth it, to me yes, others may disagree.

 

[UNSTUCK]

Good to know, Caleb. I'm in the market for a flat screen. I'll have you come over and give it your eye.

 

[DAA]

When I got a new plasma last year I did a search on avforums.com and found a few tunes posted for the exact model I bought. Supposedly, just using a tune from someone else and another TV isn't good enough, the pros insist tuning must be done for each individual display and environment, but I used one of them anyway and it did make a very noticeable improvement in the picture (Samsung 58" plasma). And some of the couple dozen or so adjustments were surprisingly large, too.

Some of those guys tune displays for a living and have beacoup thousands of dollars invested in tuning equipment (high end tuning equipment is freakish expensive...). Can't hurt to do a search and see if there are any tunes posted for your specific TV's, if they are high end models that have lots of tuning parameters, I bet there will be.

- DAA

 

[bobdog]

You would want to look for a ISF certified calibrator. It probably would not be worth it for a regular flat screen as it would be fairly expensive. If you had spent a bunch on a nice projector and screen it would be well worth it. DAAs advice to search AVS for settings is probably the best.