First Bluray player, some questions on setting sharpness: VE, THX optimizer etc (1 Viewer)

[Charles S]

Ok, I just got my first Bluray Disc player as a belated Christmas. The new player is the Panasonic BD601 (club version of BD60). I also got Firefly and Serenity on Bluray as these ended up being less expensive on BD than on DVD. So it all worked out very well. Just now going through all the functions and features, but so far I LOVE my new Bluray player. (it was a gift from my parents so they did well, and in turn inherited my old Pioneer SD-DVD player) However, I have a couple of questions about setting the sharpness on my display device (Panasonic TC-26L85).

In the past I've used the old VE and the THX Optimizer found on DVDs. Using a combination of these 2 things I always come up with a pretty good picture, far better than out of the box settings, or merely "guessing" what stuff should look like. I've got through both things a few times and am very well pleased with the color, tint, contrast, brightness and all that. For the most part the settings are pretty similar to what I had with my old DVD player on this same TV. Probably not up to the standards of big time videophiles, however I've always been happy with it and can see it's far better than my neighbors' and friends who use the factory pre-sets. However now that I've got a BD player, I'm having one issue setting the sharpness. And I don't know if it's the switch to HDMI, or BD or both...but sharpness seems much harder to set now. In the past with VE I've just used the old test pattern (the line drawing) and watch for enhanced edges. Well now it's much more difficult to tell, and there is a much more gradual increase until I hit 50 (on a scale of 0-100) when there is a significant JUMP in haloing...I click down to 49 and it "jumps" down, but previously I had sharpness set at 23, so I'm WAY higher than DVD with Component video.

The THX pattern is more confusing as I've never really understood the instructions for that test pattern. Also I tried toying with the Player settings for sharpness from -6 to 0 to +6. The 0 setting seems to add "noise" to the test pattern, so I click it down to -6 and the "noise" is gone. But I have a sneaky suspicion this is going to make the picture way to soft for a Bluray movie, even though it might work perfectly for an upconverted DVD.

Ok, so my question I guess is, are there any tips or tricks to get "somewhere in the ball park" with either of these upconverted DVDs, or so other trick that I haven't tried yet? I realize at some point I'm going to probably need DVE on Bluray, but considering I'm happy with everything BUT the sharpness at this point, it would be nice if I could get this pretty close and spend money on a new BD movie right now as opposed to DVE.

Sorry for being so lengthy . . . just wanted to be clear, not trying to hog up space or time.






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[Stephen_J_H]

I've never gotten around to buying DVE on BD either. The problem you run into with using the THX Optimizer or an SD version of DVE is that it's akin to using a sledgehammer to pound in a thumbtack. It can help with some aspects, but to get proper calibration, you need to work with calibration tools produced in the HD realm. On movie discs, that means you're pretty much limited to Pixar's calibration tools on their discs (which I find crank the contrast levels way too high, but may assist you in the sharpness realm). Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull carried a THX promo @ the beginning, but I don't know if THX has developed a version of its optimizer for BD. Sorry I can't help more, but there you have it.

 

[Charles S]

Thanks Stephen. I just ordered Wall E on Bluray, so when that arrives I'll definitely check out their calibration tool, assuming it's on the disc that is. It's funny that for me, with SD, the easiest thing to set was the sharpness, and now it seems to be the hardest thing to get set for me. I suppose it's the HD and extra detail that will just take time getting used to. I managed to get a hold of a non comercially sold calibration disc with some good test patterns for HD material, but the sharpness still seems too low when setting it "correctly" when viewing material. Maybe it just takes time to get used to a more "film" like appearance like it did when I first bought the old VE years ago. My display seems like it should be set at 0 according to the test pattern, but everything looks way too soft with actual video material.

I'll see what the Pixar tool does, and if not happy with it, I'll just stick with my old setting until I can get DVE. Of course I could just be over analyzing the whole thing and might just forget about it and enjoy Bluray. That's why i got out of the videophile realm long ago, I'm way too Obsessive Compulsive of a personality for it.

Anyways thanks for the tip...