Breaking in the new Widescreen? (1 Viewer)

[Steve K.H.]

I am picking up (paid for already) a Sony Widescreen (KP51HW40) today.

This is my first venture into both rear projection and obviously widescreen. It's replacing my Cinema Series CRT Toshiba.

There's talk of different modes (pro etc.) and breaking in with reduced contrast, brightness, and using full screen.

Are all of these listed in the manual that come with the unit? If not, how long is the break in period?

Anyone have any links to recent discussions so we don't repeat the whole thing (there's no way I'm the first to ask).

Incidentally, I'm building a room to house this with everything else... eventually going to have a Marantz SR8200 and Klipsch Reference (8 speakers inc sub)... should be complete in three months... my wife is good with this one! I just had to have this for the Superbowl and Olympics...

While on that topic... I heard that Salt Lake will broadcast in HD format, on a one day delay basis... anyone else hear that?

 

[Kevin P]

At the very least you should immediately turn contrast down to 30-40% or so. For proper calibration use Video Essentials or Avia, these will help you set your user adjustments (brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness) to the optimum levels for your set. But most sets ship with contrast and sharpness set too high.

"Break in" is about 100 hours of use. If you're planning on having a greyscale (ISF) calibration done you should wait at least 100, preferably 200 hours before having it done. Also, you may want to recheck settings with Avia or VE after 100 hours.

KJP