AVIA & Sound & vision Home theater tune up (1 Viewer)

[Kamal_K]

Amazon is advertising these together at 52.45, do I need them both, is the tune up guide useful.

 

[Ted Lee]

that doesn't sound like an exceptionally good deal. the s&v dvd is only about 15 bucks. here's an excerpt from a previous post i did about the s&v dvd.

main feature
the main part of the dvd has to do with basic home theater concepts. i found the subjects (ht basics, setup, wiring, etc) pretty simplistic. i suspect most people here will already have a good understanding of this part. i must admit that i did not watch all the features in it's entirety. however, for a "newbie" i think it will provide a great summation of what ht is all about.

video calibration
this consisted of test patterns to help adjust the usual settings: color, brightness, hue, contrast, etc. i found most of the tests pretty useful, especially the brightness and contrast tests. i had some problems with the sharpness test, but i think that was more my fault than anything else. note that the dvd does come with a blue filter to help adjust color and hue. there's also a great test for moire effects. i was pleasantly surprised to see that my original settings, before doing the tests were pretty close. in a couple of cases, i could not get my tv to theoretical perfection, but i know that's more a limit of my gear than anything else. i found this section very useful

audio calibration
the usual stuff on this part. channel identification and phase checks. previously, i had calibrated using the internal test tones of my dvd (i'm using the 5.1 inputs on my older onkyo) but i found that i was off by quite a bit. i ran into some problems with the phase check part...i think it was supposed to do my mains, the left-center, but for some reason, at one point, it kept bouncing between the two tests. i didn't worry too much since i *know* my speakers are in phase. again, a very useful section.

extras
there's some nice demo stuff, including dts and thx trailers. there's also a quick featurette on how to use the radio-shack spl meter.

so, all in all, for 15 bucks i'm not complaining. i've never used avia or ve, so i don't really have anything to compare it to. i do wish some of the tests were more complex (i wonder if i could have tweaked it a little more with additional tests?), but at this price-point, it is a a worthwhile tool.

 

[Kamal_K]

well, the avia disc is 37 dollars which leaves 15 for the sound and vision guide, sounds like a good deal to me, I just did not know if the guide contains anything that may be useful to me.