Best setting for Sony 43" TV (1 Viewer)

[Bill Flanagan]

Hi all,
I am in the process of cronverting a 5th bedroom into a home theater. Approx 14 x 17. I already own the Sony TV. IT is about 4 years old (No HDTV) and works great. I have been viewing mainly in living room area. The theater room will be completely dark for viewing. Just looking for best recommendations for brightness, contrast, sharpness etc.
Any info is greaty appreciated.

Bill

 

[Jason Charlton]

As with so many aspects of home theater, this is a highly subjective field. The best thing you can do is pick up a copy of Avia or Video Essentials to calibrate your set using good test patterns. If you have a hard time getting hold of a copy, here are a few ballpark estimates that should get you in the neighborhood of a properly calibrated picture.

Set contrast (often called "picture") to less than 50%, and probably closer to 30-40%.

Set the sharpness down even lower than contrast - some people have set it all the way to 0 and found the results pleasing.

The color and tint settings can usually stay pretty much in the middle, but if your set has color temperature settings, the "warm" setting, I believe, is closest to the 6500K standard. Avia comes with color filters that allow very easy color and tint adjustments - without the color filters, this is a very difficult adjustment to make.

If the resulting image is a lot darker than you're used to (and this is likely if you've never calibrated your set before) use the brightness control as an equalizer to brighten things up a bit. Resist the urge to bump contrast back up, that can be dangerous to your set. If you're REALLY surprised at how dark things look, give the settings at least a week - and watch some DVDs with vivid colors (like any Pixar film) and I'll bet you'll be surprised how good the picture actually looks.

If the room will be dark in most viewing situations, be sure to calibrate the display in the dark. Also keep in mind, your settings may need to be varied from these guidelines a bit, especially since your set is a few years old, and has possibly dimmed quite a bit from it's out-of-the-box condition.

-Jason

 

[Chris Sherman]

Bill,
I just sold my 4 year old Sony KP43T70 RPTV . It's probably the set you are referring to . It's a terrific analog set , made the audio review hall of fame. Settings can vary from set to set but I still have the settings written down for my old set(calibrated with both Video Essentials and Avia.
Picture 22 notches
Brightness 44 notches
Color mid point
Hue mid point
Sharpness 24 notches
Color Temperature NTSC Standard

 

[Bill Flanagan]

Thanks all for the info. Will be moving the set the new theater room next week.

Bill