Advice: A RPTV in a room with much in daylight (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Spoke to a friend this evening who currently

owns a 32" television, and is greatly considering

buying a HUGE rear view projection set.

The problem is his room. It's a large room

that is 3 walls of floor to ceiling windows.

For this reason, there is a good amount of

light coming in that room by day.

You can imagine there is a certain amount

of concern.

I was asked if buying a RPTV for such a room

was a good idea. Can the set be properly

calibrated so it looks good in both full daylight

(where glare is a problem) as well as night viewing?

Can you recommend a television that would

give optimum performance in both conditions?

Would appreciate your help.

 

[Robert Derouen]

My den has two-story walls with windows all the way up on two sides. There is no way to install blinds unless I want to dish out the money for some kind of remote control system. I recently purchased a Toshiba 65HX81 and yes, sunlight and glare are an issue. I knew this going into the purchase of an RPTV though, I generally only watch movies at night and during the day the set is only used for general cable TV use for the family.
The tosh HX models' ALS feature works great but I'm afraid to use it for any length of time for fear of burn-in. I'm just not comfortable having the TV deciding what it's contrast should be. In playing around with it, the feature does work, quite well in fact. Viewing throughout all hours of daylight are greatly improved as it adjusts to the light in the room. You might want to ask people more knowledgable than me like Gregg Loewen if the ALS feature is safe to use long term on Toshiba HX sets.
The way my house faces, about the only time of day my set is unwatchable is during sunset for about 30 minutes. Then again I still have the protective screen on. I have kids and a huge dog that occasionally gets in and runs through the house knocking over everything in his path with his large tail so the screen is staying on for now
So my take on my own RPTV set in a overly light-filled room is that for me, most daytime viewing is not so great but easily watchable for standard TV programs (I'm generally more aggrevated with cable tv's poor signal than light issues and I'm not bothering with HDTV until there are more channels). By removing the protective screen along with the with the ALS feature (if its safe to use), I think my veiwing of daytime TV would be about as good as I could hope. Keep in mind though that I bought my set for movie viewing, I don't really care what my picture looks like during the day for news or the Weather Channel.
Rob

 

[Steve Schaffer]

imho, the best solution would be to keep the 32" direct view for daytime use assuming that would mostly consist of casual tv viewing.

Several models, the HX Tosh, SWX**12 Hitachi, and Sony KP**XBR-2 have pretty good anti-reflective screens, or of course if little kids or pets are not an issue the protective screen can be removed.

In my observations, the Hitachis are most capable of very high light output.

A UWX I had for a couple of weeks could be set to truely nuclear brightness levels.

My main concern would be the high contrast/brightness settings necessary to overcome the high ambient light level with the resulting burn in and accelerated crt wear. While most sets, especially Hitachis, are now capable of the necessary bright picture, I still would worry a bit about longevity under these conditions.

 

[Brad_V]

My living room has two big bay windows on the right wall, plenty of light coming from the kitchen windows from the left, and a small 4x3 or so window on the opposite wall from the TV about 25 feet away (10 feet behind the couch). The only sunlight problem at all on my cheapy-analog Toshiba 50a61 is the window on the back of the room because it's directly opposite the TV, and the screen acts a bit like a mirror. That's with the protective screen on. Never bothered taking it off.

If I close the blinds on that window, that pretty much fixes any obvious reflective annoyances. On sunny days I may turn the brightness up to 50 or 55 instead of the nighttime 45, but it's not necessary. If one of those three windowed walls is directly opposite where he's going to put the TV, I'd say that'd be big trouble during the day. If that's the one wall that doesn't have full glass, then no problem.

 

[errol]

Hi Ronald,

Removing the glarescreen should help but he still needs to find a way to block out/reduce the light for proper ht environment.

Thanks,

Errol

 

[Allan Jayne]

If you do the AVIA or Video Essentials calibrations for daytime viewing and re-do them for evening viewing, you will come up with two very different sets of results. You will then have to use a compromise setting, or tweak the more important or obvious settings each time you turn on the TV.
Seriously -- Consider finding some way of shading the windows.
Using a direct view TV in the daytime (performs better in a bright room) is one way of using two TV sets, one calibrated for daytime viewing and the other calibrated for nighttime viewing.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[DustinDavis]

I have a Mits 55819 in my HT, which is also my living room. I have 4 big windows in the back of the room. From different angles, the reflection of each of these is visible in the TV. But, I've got two suggestions to counter this.

1. Remove the protective screen. I always knew the protective screen was also somewhat reflective, but it is unbelievable the difference it makes. I went from not being able to watch TV in the daytime to being OK with it in an instant.

2. Steve Martin (Cheezmo) did something neat as part of my ISF calibration. He modified the IRIS settings so that in order to compensate for varying light conditions, the BRIGHTNESS is what varies, but not the contrast. Contrast is the real RPTV killer. So when I am in darkness (ideal conditions), the IRIS is at its lowest setting, and my TV has been calibrated at that setting. But in suboptimal conditions, the brightness gets turned up and the contrast stays constant. This is the opposite of what the Mits default IRIS settings do--they crank the contrast. A very nice tweak.

So, with both those things, I'm very happy with my daytime viewing.

 

[Allan Jayne]

When changing brightness, recheck the contrast. Typically, when you raise the brightness (level of black), the brightest white will go up by the same amount because while the contrast setting remains constant the "distance" between black and white should stay the same.
Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Steve Martin]

My fault for not giving Dustin the whole story. I took that into consideration and the parameters I program into the iris actually turn up the brightness, but turn down the contrast in the highest setting to compensate and keep the peak white level at approximately the same luminance.

I came up with my values by viewing the TV in varying light levels, increasing brightness to an appropriate level (using Avia), then checking the luminance or 100IRE with my colorimeter. I then reduced contrast to keep it at my original calibrated luminance. (Repeat until both no longer need adjustment).