Sony 60" Grand WEGA lcd (1 Viewer)

[John-e-s]

I have purchased the Grand WEGA, and am happy with it so far. I have read comments recommending having a person come out and tweak the image on rear projection TVs. How would I go about finding someone to do this? Is it worth it? What exactly do they do? I feel like I should derive the best picture possible such a purchase. I run DVDs through a Denon 3800. Thank you for any help. John

 

[Allan Jayne]

I would recommend getting the AVIA DVD and tweaking the TV yourself first. Just be careful that if you use the service mode be sure to write down the prior settings befor making any changes.
Chances are you will come very close to "the correct" setings all on your own. Also because you will probably make just one set of settings compared with the fact that the "correct" settings will vary depending on the level of room lighting may make the added improvement that a professional ISF technician can do, not worthwhile.
When it comes to geometry, overscan, etc. LCD does not have the problem of trying to fix one thing and something elswhere on the screen goes bad. But for LCD, as you make adjustments you will see sweet spots come and go, that is, you may have more jaggies at settings 2, 5 and 11 and fewer at settings 3, 8, 9, and 15.
I believe that the primary advantage of having a professional come in and do it is that s/he has a better idea of how to adjust things if there are say two brightness controls, one in the regular menu and one in the service menu, (and maybe a third in the DVD player) or when to use the green gain control as opposed to the tint control (usually you should not have to touch color controls in the service menu). Then maybe you yourself already have an insight on what these details are all about.
Also some techs have equipment you don't have such as a meter to tell exactly how bright is bright, and to set up exactly what white should look like in terms of color temperature. The typical fee for ISF calibration is around USD 300 and I haven't had it done and probably won't.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr.video.htm

 

[John-e-s]

Thank you very much. Where can I obtain an AVIA DVD device, and approximately what is the cost? John S

 

[Graham Martin]

It can be bought almost anywhere
Here is a link to Amazon's price:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...719796-2083026

 

[Dave Schofield]

Is the Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune-Up any good? I see its roughly half the price of Avia...

 

[Graham Martin]

I have not used it. The two that I own are AVIA and Video Essentials. ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...278066-2415226 )
They are trusted and usefull for the life of your set. Either one will do. (I started with VE and just purchased AVIA since I am going to be buying a new set soon and I wanted two different sources of info.)