Video Essentials: Dark and Fuzzy? (1 Viewer)

[Jason_Solack]

Hey Everyone,
I've been hearing a lot of comments on the use of Video Essentials and how they make your pictures look dark and fuzzy (terms I usually reserve for things found in my closet). Is there any truth to this? I just took advantage of the $15 Video Essential sale, so I should be recieving it in a few days, I'm just curious on how it is going to make my TV look!! Thanks for your input!
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Jason Solack
My DVD Collection

 

[RobP]

I don't know about anyone else Jason but I use video essentials to calibrate my set and things are looking quite good!
Rob

 

[SteveMc]

Depends who you ask and what their setup is. I used it, it did seema little dark to me, but only because I was used to torch mode. I don't think its specific to VE, I recalibrated with AVIA a month or so ago and I though it still look a little dark. I think its more important to get it close to your liking than being 100% "reference". IMO, why keep it at a setting you can't stand. Same with my sound setup. I don't have a great room for sound so I tweaked up the center channel a bit becuase dialog always sounded a bit weak, and my bass sounded to loud so I usually asjust that with almost every movie I watch. Luckily I am moving into a town house in October and will have a huge basement for my setup

!!
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[Joseph DeMartino]

Since most televisions are so badly adjusted from the factory, and we're so used to watching them that way, post-calibration sets often look "strange" for the first few days. You really just need to wait it out and get used to it, then you'll realize that the picture looks better than ever. I thought the image looked "soft" when I got rid of the artificial edge-ehancement added by the "sharpness" control - until I took a close look at the opening scenes of "Terminator 2" (the first release.) I realized that the "soft" picture was showing me far more detail than the "sharp" version. What I was really seeing was a picture that looked less like television, and more like film. I say adjust your set as close to NTSC specs as possible and then touch nothing for at least three or four days, while rewatching a few discs you know well. Resist the impluse to just "tweak it a little" to what you "like." I think you'll find that you prefer the adjusted picture. If you aren't going to take the time to get used to the new settings and find out if you really like them, you might as well save some time and money and not calibrate at all. You'll just be trading one maladjusted picture for another.
(Mind you, you'll probably have to do a little tweaking, if only because chances are your TV cannot be adjusted perfectly to the NTSC standard. Even after an ISF calibration there was nothing I could do with the excessive red "push" on my set, so I had to compromise. But don't do this until you've spent some time with the new image.)
Regards,
Joe
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[Wade K]

After calibrating, DVDs looked so much better, however a lot of television programming looked dark. I suspect the broadcasters compensate for the fact that many (most?) people have their televisions inaccurately set.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

This is ultimately a TV discussion so I'm moving it that Forum. The points above are all noteworthy - the image is dark, yes, but accurate (or at least as much as the monitor will allow). These calibrations really demand a controlled light environment. With too much ambient light the picture will quickly wash out. But when the lights are dim the image will display a new degree of depth and color purity. Spend some time getting used to a properly calibrated image, and then your "normal" settings will look too bright!
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--Jay
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[Jason_Solack]

Thanks for you input! Now I'll just have to wait for the disk to arrive so I can set my set up!!
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Jason Solack
My DVD Collection

 

[Carlo_M]

After calibrating, DVDs looked so much better, however a lot of television programming looked dark. I suspect the broadcasters compensate for the fact that many (most?) people have their televisions inaccurately set.

The above could definitely be true. Also, remember that cable channels themselves vary widely. On my AVIA calibrated TV, some channels look wonderful (as good as cable can look, anyway). Some look nasty. Some have perfect color balance, some have too much/too little color. Sometimes these fluctuations occur on the same channel during different parts of the day! There's just no rhyme or reason behind cable.
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[John Doroshenk]

I have also noticed that movies look great and tv was just to dark to watch. I have at 36 inch toshiba and I having to switch back and forth between settings is such a pain. Remember what NTSC stands for according to VE never twice the same color. To bad with the creation of cable tv and 24 hour programming you can't find a channel with the color bars to calabrate tv. Life's never easy.

 

[John Garcia]

After you have properly calibrated your set, you will go to other people's houses and wonder why their TVs are set to "torch" mode as stated above. You will ask your friends if they are gonig blind, and why they had to set the sharpness, brightness and contrast to their maximum annoyance level.
I think Joseph DeMartino has the best suggestion, which is also a comment on VE - It WILL look odd at first, but once you get used to it, you will find that it actually does look better. The only issue is that color and certain settings will affect how other sources appear, as their signal is not being processed in the same manner as the signal from the DVD. I completely agree with his suggestion to watch it for a few days, with material you are familiar with, WITHOUT adjusting anything. If you feel the need to tweak after that, then so be it, they're your eyes.
This is where the various viewing modes on the WEGAs comes in extremely handy - I can calibrate for the DVD via component video, and RE-calibrate another setting for a little bit more brightness and or contrast when viewing regular TV.
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[Tim Campbell]

I have a related question. I calibrated my tv with Avia, and I found that is was still too dark. I understand that it is going to be a darker picture. However there are some things that I totally miss.
Example:
U-571 when one of the crew men is tapping the rust spots, I could not see the spots at all. When i brightened the picture up a little it looked fine. Would ambient light in my room effect the set up that much?

 

[Doug_H]

I have to switch the brightness back and forth. DVD viewing I use the calibrated setting but I can't even begin to play Nintendo on the set until I turn the brightness back up. You can't see anything that would be in the shadows. Several cable channels are too dark to watch as well. You don't really notice it until a show like voyager comes on, it is a dark setting and you can't make out many details.
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