Kyle J

Video too dark

Hey, I've got a problem with my 51" Hitachi HDTV. It's too dark. I'm losing a lot of deatil in DVDs to shadows. If I adjust the brightness on the TV, it just makes the picture lighter and the shadows still sort of blotch everything in the dark out. Is there any way to fix this? I really notice it on DVDs. I'm using component video from the DVD to the TV.

Bob McElfresh

There are 2 good DVD's that are setup disks that take you through basic brightness/color/contrast adjustments.

Avia is the best/perfered, but Video Essentials is quite good as well.


These will often help with your problem.

But: many people after a month or two hire a "Calibrationist" certified by the ISF (Imaging Science Foundation). These people are display experts and have access to the service menu for most TV's. They bring instruments to correctly set the color temperature, they do convergence/alignment/focus, etc. They also deal with the fact that these settings should be DIFFERENT for each video source.

All in all they spend 3+ hours with your TV and people have reported the results are amazing.

Go to the Display Devices fourm and search for "ISF" and you will find lots of discussion/praise.

PS: Even with HDTV, light control of the room can affect the picture quality. Make sure you can dim the room even when YOU do adjustments or watch movies.

Kyle J

alright, I might have to check in on the DVD sometime, and if that doesn't elp, then I might look into an ISF calibration.