Need help using Avia (1 Viewer)

[Glyndi]

Hi guys,
I guess I am a real dummie on HDTV. Recently,I purchased the Avia Home Theatre Guide to calibrate my Hitachi HDTV. I have went through the whole disc trying to learn how calibration works, and also watching the different things that can be done. I have also viewed all the all the test patterns that the disc shows, and the how to's for each one.

When I got ready to calibrate my TV last evening, I went to the calibration chapter of Avia (Chapter 7) and started there. I might add that I only want to calibrate the video settings and not any speakers just yet.

Now, here's the problem, I can watch the video test patterns from the Avia disc while they are explaining how it works, etc. but then when it says, now we are going to set it, it goes to a different screen, and I am assuming that particular setting is ready to be worked with or "calibrated", but I *cannot* find any buttons on my DVD to use for anything that will work. Not one of the DVD buttons do a single thing. The only thing I can do is get back to the 'Main' menu and start over. So, what in the heck am I doing wrong and can someone tell me, what (which) buttons you use to calibrate with, andor which remote control the buttons are on. Do I use my DVD remote, or my Hitachi TV remote . I am assuming that I would not see the Dish Satelite receiver remote for this.

Can someone please have the patience (perferbly baby steps for this dummie) to explain to me, how to calibrate my TV using just the basics like contrast, brightneess, sharpness, etc.with Avia and what remote and which buttons on it do I use? Would I by some chance use the Menu settings on my Hitachi remote. I can change the contrast, brightness, tint, color etc etc. in that part but I am not sure if I would use that menu to do the actual calibration. Thanks for any and all reponses and HELP.

Regards,
Glyndi

 

[ChrisWiggles]

You calibrate the display, so you would use the display's control to do that. I don't know your specific display or where the controls are for various settings, this is probably explained in yout TVs user manual.

 

[Glyndi]

Thanks for your response, Chris. I have a Hitachi --Model 57T500a Rear Projection TV and a Samsung DVDVCR combo player. I visited the link for your guide that you posted and read much of it, but sadly, all that info, is way over my head and I probably would never use a lot of it. Guess I am a just a HDTV idiot and real dummie when it comes to calibration processes. Anyway, since I can't seem to get the Avia calibrations menus to work for me, and I don't know how to make them work, what I did t'nite was.... using the Hitachi Menu-Video settings I have set my Contrast relatively low to prevent screen-burn-in and reset the Brightness to below 50% also, I also used the Hitachi Menu to set the Sharpness lower, Color Temperture etc. So, I am getting a pretty good picture over all on all channels. As a precaution, we don't watch many channel's with fixed logo's or any type of stock tickers etc. so we can keep burn-in away. I think that is the best I can do to make my TV give the best picture without using Avia. Guess, I just was not meant to do these types of things like HDTV calibrations. Could be it's a "guy thing"

Thanks again,for trying to help. I appreciate it. Think I will keep the Avia tho' in case I ever decide to give it a try sometime in the future.

Regards,
Glyndi

 

[ChrisWiggles]

It sounds like you are on the right track. I do not know what you mean when you say "I can't seem to get the Avia calibrations menus to work for me, and I don't know how to make them work, "

Avia is just a DVD encoded with patterns, it has no menus that adjust anything at all. It has regular DVD menus that allow you to navigate the disc and its patterns but that is all. Using the disc, you can then make adjustments to the equipment in your system. Usually this means making adjustments in the display, or perhaps making adjustments to the DVD player's settings. It is usually recommended that you make adjustments in the display, so in your case that would be with your Hitachi. While playing the DVD and using the correct patterns, you then use the patterns displayed to align your display properly using it's settings. this doesn't really involve Avia at all, except that you are looking at patterns displayed from the disc while making adjustments, but Avia does not give you menus or make adjustments for you,(it has no way of doing this) it just provides the proper standard test images that allow you to align things correctly.

Hope that makes sense and gets you started in calibrating your video chain.

 

[Glyndi]

Well, sheesh, I am so dumb.
Thanks again Chris, for taking the time to explain it to me in simple language. Boy, I guess I am ignorant at times or just a slow learner.After reading your last reply,I got hit with "enlightenment". OK,Now, I understand what you are saying and I understand how to do the basic calibrations with the Avia disc.Sending you 25x thanks for walking me through understanding how the Avia disc operates. because I know I am on the way to calibrating my TV with a good understanding of how to do it.

One last thing, if I can borrow your expertise once again, I have just a couple more questions,

1) Once I perform a basic calibration to get the best picture possible , how often should one do another calibration using Avia or should you do it again at all?

2) I have a daynight feature on the Hitachi, for watching the TV in daytime or evening....Should I calibrate each setting seperately for the day and night settings, or just set the room lighting as I would watch the TV in the evening and then do the calibration?

3) This refers to screen-burn-in...... Say, if I watch CNN for an hour or two at night, examples, Larry King show and Anderson Cooper 360.... with those programs having fixed logos, and tickers running at the bottom, am I setting myself up for eventual burn-in of the CNN logo etc. Would it be better to watch those types of programs in the Zoom 2 mode I have to get all the fixed images off the screen altogether?

Thanks for all your help. I really do appreciate it. (Sorry, I know I said a couple of questions and I asked 3 but hey, I need all the help I can get with this TV stuff.

Regards,
Glyndi

 

[ChrisWiggles]

1) periodically you should check things. Especially when a display is new, there can be the most change. You will have to do it again if you get a new source (like a new DVD player) or change anything in the video chain of course.

2) you will want to calibrate for your particular viewing conditions. If this changes, say you do some daytime viewing with ambient light, and then you do some critical viewing at night for movies with the lights off, you'd want to have different calibrations for these if possible. Sounds like the Day/night feature lets you do this easily, so by all means take advantage of that if you want to.

3) googling your display, it looks like it's a CRT based RPTV, so there is a wear concern. However, once you calibrate and lower white level significantly, it will be a greatly minimized concern. there's a whole burn-in thread stickied at the top of this forum, it's pretty long. Basically, I would make sure that if you're watching tons of news programs, you're not in a brighter Daytime mode or something, and you don't leave it on that for hours and hours at a time.

 

[Glyndi]

You've been very helpful Chris. Thanks.

Glyndi

 

[Allan Jayne]

It is possible that the TV won't save separate settings for day and night. Still, having a day/night selection will help. If for example you do most of your viewing during the day you choose Day and calibrate, then when you choose Night at night it will at least be somewhat correct.

Burying of shadow detail is a common problem when you view under varying room light conditions. The most common problem with Enhanced Black on (if the DVD player has that) is buried shadow detail. The most common problem with Enhanced Black off is blacks not as dark as they could be. Which works best depends on your TV. When the DVD player has adjustments of its own, including brightness and contrast, that means more permutations you need to go through adjusting both the TV and the player.

For plasmas and CRT's, setting the contrast no higher than 1/2 for direct view and no higher than 1/3 for projection, you should have no problems with burn-in (uneven screen wear). Simply adjust the other calibrations around this constraint.

The problems you may running into may be,
(1) AVIA does not give you enough time to make a calibration before changing to something else (very inconvenient; can you do a pause?) and/or
(2) Your DVD player does not have adequate navigation capabilities or you have not learned them.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Glyndi]

Thank you Allan , for your input. Chris had helped me to understand the Avia calibration disc and how to use it in his responses. The DVD is pretty simple to operate and and the buttons on it move thru the Avia disc just fine but I will take a look at the DVD player settings.

I have now calibrated the TV and have a very good picture on it, one I am happy with. I only calibrated it for the evening (night feature on the Hitachi) since the television is not on much during the day if at all.So, I think I am OK for now. I will probably calibrate it again, maybe in 6 months of so as I think it is recommended to calibrate one's TV on a regular basis. Thanks again, for your help.I appreciate your taking the time to respond to my questions.

Regards,
Glyndi