Just bought a Toshiba 50HX81 ... a few questions. (1 Viewer)

[Sean D]

Hi folks,

I just ordered a 50HX81 and it will be delivered tomorrow...I can't wait. I currently use an Integra DPC-5.1 DVD player. It does not do progressive scan. How important is a progressive scan DVD player? (forgive my ignorance) Will the picture still be high definition? Also, how much of a differnce will there be if I get my TV ISF calibrated?

If anyone has any special things to watch for or any tips/advice regarding the Toshiba feel free.

Thanks,

Sean

 

[Masood Ali]

Also, how much of a differnce will there be if I get my TV ISF calibrated?

IMHO, this is the most important thing an RPTV owner can do. After getting a proper calibration, the difference is a night/day one. One of the best ISF technicians on this continent is in your neck of the woods; Michael TLV.

 

[Sean D]

Masood,
Thanks very much for the informative reply. I don't know too much about the video side of things as you can probably tell. How do I get 1080i ? Is it only obtained through HDTV?
One thing though, it looks like Micheal TLV is in Calgary, Alberta. I live in Ottawa , Ontario. Approx 3000km away. Neck of the woods might be a bit of a stretch.

 

[JohnHN]

Check other threads both here and at the Home Theater Spot. But:

Immediately turn the picture mode (see page 42 of the manual) to "movie" and turn contrast down from 50 to more like 30. Setting the contrast to something like 30 will help lengthen the life of the set. Moreover, the set looks best (best color etc) in a dark room, and in a dark room a contrast of 50 (let alone the 80 or whatever of sports mode) is painful to watch.

Keeping the set in movie mode also attenuates a "feature" called SVM that is intended to boost apparent contrast but ends up putting white halos around objectis.

Now use Avia or Video Essentials to set brightness, color, etc. The consensus is that the default settings for color and tint on the new Toshibas are not correct; on some other sets they are but on these they are not. In particular, people end up setting tint at something like -10.

Avia and VE have pattens for contrast, too, but those patterns establish an extreme upper bound and are effectively useless for contrast. Again, set contrast to something like 30.

Toshiba's own internal deinterlacer is good. Just make sure that Cinema Mode is set to Film. If you switch from your current DVD player to another, progressive, DVD player, the most noticeable changes may come from things other than deinterlacing (e.g. the quality of video circuitry, of the power supply, etc). On deinterlacing, a player with a first rate deinterlacer will beat the internal Toshiba deinterlacer: fewer moire effects and so forth. I can even point you to places to look. But it is not a huge deal. And you won't get the expected improvement in resolution from using a progressive DVD player, an unfortunate byproduct of the Toshiba's upconversion to 540.

No (current) DVD is high definition if by high defnition you mean 720 or 1080. But it will blow away any other standard definition signal.

I won't have my own set ISF'd until July. Of the various advanced tweeks that I have done (cleaning the inside, 56pt convergence, manual and electrostatic focus) convergence has been by far the most important.

 

[Masood Ali]

Hehe, sorry about that. I associate Michael with eastern Canada because he frequents Toronto.

 

[Sean D]

JohnHN,

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. The room is a dark room so I am kind of lucky in that respect. I do have the Avia disc. I appreciate the tip on the movie mode setting as well. Video is a whole new thing for me so I have quite a bit to learn. Again, thanks very much. No problem Masood. I did a search for his name and found that he lives in calgary from his profile beside his name. I wonder if he ever makes it Ottawa......hmmm.

Best regards,

Sean