Xigga

I will list several things you can do to get the best quality on your HDTV.  Many people I talk to say they don’t see much of a difference in watching something on an standard definition TV and the same thing on a HDTV.  Well, first things first.  If you have a HDTV that’s 27″ or smaller, you obviously won’t see a big difference.  The highest I’ve seen 27″ TVs go is 720p.  Which is a lot better than standard definition, but you’re not going to get a good “feel” of it.

This guide will apply to 720p and 1080p TVs, unless otherwise noted.

HDMI Cables - All most all audio/video devices bought in the last year (2007) will have HDMI.  HDMI allows you to get the full benefits of 1080p.  Component cables can’t handle the bandwidth required for 1080p.  The highest it will go is 1080i.  HDMI cables don’t cost a lot and you should not spend more than $30 for them.  You can buy HDMI cables online for 50% less then what you will pay at BestBuy, CircuitCity, or any retail stores.  Belkin is a good quality brand.  These you will find online and also, wholesale stores like Costco, sell these at great prices.  Do NOT buy Monster cables.  I will write an article about Monster cables tomorrow.  For now, just take my word for it.

You don’t need HDMI cables for 720p HDTVs.  Component cables are good enough.

Video Processors - Turn these things OFF.  These are the “fancy” features that HDTV manufacturers like to pitch to get you to buy their TVs.  Samsung has DNIe, Sony has Live Color Creation, and Pioneer has some crazy settings.  They don’t improve the quality.  They just “emphasize” some things in the video.  Sure it may look better at first, it’s not.  If the director wanted you to see it that way, he would’ve done so.

Brightness/Contrast - Make sure your brightness isn’t all the way up.  It will make everything look white washed.  This will throw the color off, and make some objects on screen look bright even though they’re not supposed to be.  Make sure the contrast is not full also.  Contrast isn’t as bad as, but try some different contrast levels to see what is the proper level.  There are calibration DVDs you can buy to tweak these settings.

Tint/Picture Mode/Color Level - Many TVs have settings like Warm, Neutral, Cool, and Vivid.  Warm adds a yellowish tint, Neutral won’t change the color levels, Cool gives a bluish tint, and Vivid just makes colors jump out.  You should keep this at Neutral.  If you’re watching a movie that’s taking place in a desert (Hidalgo), and you have your color level set to Vivid or Cool, it’s not going to give you the right affect.  You want to feel the heat!  Same is true if the setting of the movie is in the ocean (Deep Blue Sea) and you have your color level set to Warm.  Again, you won’t get a good feel of the movie.  Neutral sits in the green spectrum.  Which is considered neutral because it’s in the middle of the color spectrum.

Sharpness - This setting varies from manufacture to manufacture.  You need a calibration DVD to set this.  But if you see a lot of noise or grainyness on the screen, try lowering it and see if it improves.  You can also use CGI animated movies to calibrate your sharpness.  Movies like Shrek 3, Ice Age: The Meltdown, or Cars.  Cars would be the best movie since it’s got varying degrees of color.  In Ice Age it will be harder to notice noise because of the lighter colors (white).  Don’t use live action movies, because they all have a tiny bit of grainyness/noise.  NOTE: Only use native 1080p sources (Blu-ray or HD-DVD) for this.  No Hi-Def TV channels.  You cannot be sure if the source from the broadcasting station was a certain resolution because they can upconvert it before it gets to your box or your cable/satellite provider.  Your TV will report what ever signal it is getting.  If you have a cable box hooked up with HDMI, it will report 1080p resolution for any channel, even SD channels.

Upconversion - Upconversion means, the input video signal is not 1080p/720p and it needs to be scaled up to size.  If your DVD player, cable box, satellite receiver, or receiver (AMP) has a built in upconversion processor, try it out and see how it looks.  Then, try and see how your TV upconverts it.  Hook it up through component, composite, s-video, and co-ax (ewww).  Some TVs are good at upconverting and some aren’t.  Same goes for audio/video devices.  They may be better than your TV.  How do you know if your audio/video device has upconversion capabilities?  If you have a HDMI connection on it, then you can be 100% sure it will upconvert to 1080p.  If it has component, then check the manual.  Component can output from 480i to 1080i, anywhere in between.  Usually you can goto the menu and turn off upconversion through component and make it output at native.

That’s it for now.  Hope this guide was helpful.  Enjoy your HDTV!