video essentials or avia? (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Steck]

Which is better for calibration and such? I have Avia, seems to me it has pretty much everything I would need, but more people talk about video essentials. Is there anything better about either?

Brandon

 

[Bill Burns]

There's a new Video Essentials disc ("Digital Video Essentials"?) which I presume fixes this, but on the old release, the menus were reportedly generated from the same D2 analogue master used for the laserdisc release. Avia's menus were created digitally, or so I read, and were thus of greater precision. Avia also offered a means of setting contrast for players that could not generate 0 IRE ("blacker than black"; the standard in North America, I assume as part of NTSC, is 7.5 IRE), whereas the Video Essentials method required the ability to pass this blacker than black signal.

Again, with the new Digital Video Essentials disc, all bets are off -- I dunno much at all about it, but I believe there's a thread here dedicated to it. I never used the old disc, either, but read up on it and Avia before opting to use Avia with a new television purchase in 2000 -- and I couldn't be happier with the results. I've used the disc for just about every calibration parameter you can imagine (both User Menu and the proceed-at-your-own-risk, for-professionals-only, you-might-permanently-destroy-your-display-by-changing-any-of-these-values-and-you'll-have-only-yourself-to-blame Service Menu, where you can blow transistors and make a single change that fires maximum contrast at your poor picture tube and other forms of anarchy -- believe me that I tiptoed through those tulips, but managed to reduce overscan and eliminate red push on my Sony after careful exploration), and couldn't be happier -- so it's Avia and Avia alone on my shelf.

The new Digital Video Essentials disc might be just as good or better, though, and when I next upgrade my display (probably a few years away, at least) I'll reconsider offerings from both companies. For the time being, though, I couldn't be happier with Avia. The available charts, patterns, and visual references are exhaustive for those of us with standard CRT and rear projection displays, and the text descriptions for their use seem generally straightforward (there are a few exceptions as you get into the specialty items).

 

[Yumbo]

For audio - AVIA
For video - VE

The sound tests on VE is darned unrealistic.
Where is the SIMPLE 6.1?

What's with the 3+1+1+.5+.5 rubbish?

shoot me if it's on a hidden menu.

even their menu design is ridiculous.

 

[Roy Batty]

As an european user myself, would the video tests in any of these discs serve me to adjust my PAL CRT set, or are they specifically designed for NTSC displays?

 

[Yumbo]

VE have a PAL edition.

 

[Roy Batty]

Thanks for the info, Chris, but do you mean there are separate PAL and NTSC editions in the USA, or the PAL one comes from some other country?

 

[Yumbo]

wouldn't know, except from the advertising contained within.

one can only assume.