Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics

I'm very surprised at the number of people who complain about the amount of "extraneous" information on DVE, then complain that they don't understand or can't get anything done with the test patterns.Calibrating your TV is not the most complicated activity in the world, but it does require a somewhat in-depth understanding of the production process and theory. A very important thing to know going in, is that a great number of TVs will never be able to reach a "perfect" calibration. It's simply beyond the capabilities of the television. So, the more you know and understand, the better you can choose which areas to compromise on to achieve the best picture you can get from your individual set.It may be boring, but watch all the material on the disk and try to pay attention. If you can't understand the concepts... well I don't know what to tell you, maybe grab that geek buddy (everyone has one) and have them check it out with you. There's no getting around the fact that you're going to have to tangle with, and come to grips with, some semi-complicated technical information to get the best results.The disk doesn't go into great depth concerning the various devices that the disk may be played through, and what those devices may be doing to the incoming signal to the TV. You will need to check out an AV forum for the best way to optimize your player. If you are using a PS3 as a blu-ray player, check out "optimizing your ps3 for BD" on youtube. It will show you all the settings you need for that device.Neither does DVE get into all the noise reduction, active back light controls, cinema motion etc... available on most sets. Some may consider this a negative, but I view it as DVE being realistic about the fact that there is no way for a relatively universal disk to cover this. There is no industry standard for these controls. What they do or how they do it is all on the manufacturer, and even varies within a makers own line up or in the same model from year to year. As a general rule simply turn off any of these settings, or set to the lowest possible setting. They are almost all techniques for altering the basic information of the incoming picture in one manner or the other.Does it take two hours to go through? Well yes I suppose it does. But, did you just drop a grand or more on a new TV? Doesn't two hours and [...] seem like a small price to get the most out of that investment? I've used it on both TVs in my house, my in-laws, and several friends sets. They've all been ecstatic with the results. If you're patient and take you time, I think you will be too.

I did lots of research on tv calibration after i purchased my Samsung 850 52" lcd. Both the big boxes offer services between the ranges of $150 to $300. I like doing things myself. This is not the easiest product in the world to use, you do need to be at lease a bit tech savvy, but if you understand how colors work, and can follow instructions you will do fine. This product makes a huge difference. Be prepared to sit down at night and spend a few hours. Working in a completely dark room helps this process along. If you really take your time to listen to the dvd instructions, and use some information from the internet on the color calibration side, you can get amazing results. The dvd comes with red green and blue filters, but dosent exactly explain how to properly use them. I found more detailed info on the internet for this section. Give it a try its only $<20.

Well, this is the 5th review of this product and the first one by someone who has actually used it...go figure.This product is very similar to design and function of the original Digital Video Essentials (DVE) for standard DVD: it has in-depth explanations of current display technologies and how they differ from each other as well as (the most important thing) video and audio test patterns to setup and calibrate your video and audio system (as well as instructions on how to do so).The HD test patterns are encoded as VC-1 (video) at 1080p and 720p, and Dolby TrueHD (audio). The basic video test patterns are essentially the same as what can be found on the DVE disc but the advanced patterns are different and include a one-pixel-on-one-pixel-off test for 1080p displays, as well as various shades of gray boxes with PLUGE patterns. (It may be of interest to some that the Toshiba HD-A35 HD-DVD player that I have does not pass below-black information. It does not, however, seem to clip the above-white signals). Through testing, I came to the (somewhat surprising) conclusion that my HD-DVD player and Panasonic standard DVD player require essentially the same settings on the display when using the HDMI cable.The audio test signals (and my subsequent A/V receiver settings) were very different, however, from standard Dollby Digital 5.1. Because my receiver does not have any HDMI inputs, in order to enjoy 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, I have to utilize the HD-A35's internal decoders and analog audio outputs. Standard DVD's have sounded very different with this setup so I was looking forward to the audio test signals on this disc (particularly subwoofer level adjustments). However, the audio test signals are much more limited in quantity than the DVE disc. It's by no means spartan (and it even has a few additional tests over DVE) but the number of tests is small. There is a dedicated LFE signal to set subwoofer level, but the Full-Bandwidth test for all speakers is mistakenly recorded as Limited Bandwidth (which already appears on the disc) so there is no simple way to match subwoofer level to main speaker levels. There are separate Full-Bandwidth signals for the 2 front speakers (and they indicate that they were recorded at the same level as the LFE signal) so this is what I used. I was hoping there would also be DD+ test signals, but there was only the (superior) Dolby True-HD. Ultimately, I was not left high and dry by the audio test signals, but there could have been more of them to finetune the settings.Navigation of the disc is fairly simple but because HD-DVD works differently than DVD, you may find yourself over-shooting the test you actually want.All in all, I think you can probably use your original DVE disc for most video setttings and the audio settings can be done fairly accurately with your HD-DVD player's test tone (if it has this feature). There are additional tests that make the disc worth getting (or if you don't already own DVE, this is a must-have) but it's (few) shortcomings drop it to an overall 4 star rating.For first time calibration disc users: 5 starsFor owners of the original DVE for DVD: 3 stars

We have long compromised on the accuracy of our LCD TV accepting a certain looseness in picture color tones. Part of it was recognizing that source color tones differ, but mainly is was that we lacked a known standard for adjusting colors, so we just fiddled around by eye, trying to get skin tones reasonably biologically probable. This Blu-ray edition of DVE fixed all that with supplied color filters that make it easy to finely adjust the proper color balance for the set's electronics and correcting for any effects of screen aging. After spending a half hour or so playing (it was kind of fun) around with the filters and adjustments, we were both surprised to find that the sources are actually not all that different. It had been our hit or miss adjustments all these years. Thank you DVE for finally giving us the TV viewing experience we sought 10 years ago when we bout the set!

I found this product very useful for setting up my HD TV, well worth the purchase price.Thirty days after my new TV arrived I had a professional calibration done.And this calibration was good for about a year. But then a year passed and it was time to re-tune the color.I found this blu-ray and the see-through color films it comes with enabled me to get my colors and white balance exactly right, maybe even better than the professional calibration.It also helps with room set up.It does not help much at all with non-color set up, the specifics of specific models of TV.You can supplement this blu-ray by searching the web on the model number of your TV. You can generally find others discussing your model TV and the settings they are using. That is a big help in understanding and adjusting the non-color settings.If you can't afford a professional tune-up once a year, I recommend buying this product.

Consigliato a tutti coloro che desiderano calibrare il proprio display/proiettore in modo completo e secondo gli standard riconosciuti come ad esempio l'ISF

Necesario para hacer todos los ajustes del "Home cinema". My útil. Inmprescindible para los que, como yo, lo quieren "impecable"

Ich habe diese Scheibe schon vor über 4 Jahren gekauft. Diese Rezension hier schreibe ich eigentlich nur, weil ich heute einfach nur interessenhalber mal schauen wollte, was es in diesem Bereich inzwischen sonst noch so an Produkten gibt und ich dabei zu meiner Überraschung feststellen musste, dass diese Scheibe hier nur eine einzige Bewertung hat, und diese auch nur mit 2 Sternen.Der (zum Zeitpunkt, während ich dies schreibe) letzte Kommentar auf diese Rezension hat es auf den Punkt gebracht: Der Käufer beschwert sich eigentlich nicht über das Produkt, sondern über sich selbst, nämlich zum einen über seine unzulänglichen Englischkenntnisse, und zum zweiten über seine Unfähigkeit, die Beschreibung des Artikels richtig zu lesen, denn in der steht, dass die Scheibe vollständig englisch ist. Und diese Beschreibung als solche ist dabei ja durchaus deutschsprachig und somit auch für ihn verständlich... :-)Leider ist das ein Problem, das man hier sehr oft sieht, dass Leute einem Produkt eine schlechte Bewertung verpassen, nicht weil das Produkt an sich schlecht wäre, sondern weil sie eine unzutreffende Erwartungshaltung an das Produkt hatten. Das ist genauso nervig wie die zahlreichen deutlich erkennbaren gekauften 5-Sterne-Bewertungen für so manches Produkt.Nun zum Produkt selbst: Ja, Englischkenntnisse sollten vorhanden sein, nicht nur für die gedruckte Anleitung, sondern vor allem auch für die extrem hilf- und lehrreichen gesprochenen Erläuterungen auf der Scheibe selbst. Es wird sehr umfänglich erläutert, welche Testsequenz für welche Einstellung da ist, vor allem aber auch, WARUM genau man dies oder jenes tun sollte. Eine der Aussagen, die ich, seit ich die Scheibe habe, in Forendiskussionen zum Thema desöfteren sinngemäß zitiert habe, ist, dass viele Menschen nicht verstehen, warum man sein TV-Bild überhaupt mit Kalibrierungstestbildern einstellen sollte, denn das Wichtigste sei doch, dass das Bild so aussieht, wie es einem selbst am besten gefällt, und da habe ja eh jeder seinen eigenen Geschmack. Das stimme zwar, allerdings müsse man sich dann halt darüber im Klaren sein, dass das Bild, auf das man dann schaut, alles Mögliche ist, aber nicht das, was z.B. der Macher des Films, den man gerade schaut, eigentlich zu Gesicht bringen wollte. Man muss sich also entscheiden, ob man sich entweder irgendwas einstellen will, dass einem irgendwie gefällt, oder ob man ein OBJEKTIV optimales Bild haben will, und OBJEKTIV gibt es für jeden TV eben nunmal nur genau EINE korrekte Einstellung, egal wer davor sitzt und welchen Bildgeschmack diese Person hat.Ich nutze die Scheibe jetzt also seit reichlich 4 Jahren für die objektiv korrekte Einstellung von zahlreichen Flachbild-TVs, die ich in dieser Zeit so hatte. Die gedruckte Anleitung bzw. das PDF von der Homepage habe ich dabei nie gebraucht, weil die gesprochenen Erläuterungen absolut ausreichend sind. Mit der mitgelieferten Farbfilterbrille ist sogar die Kalibrierung der einzelnen Farbkanäle möglich, soweit dies vom TV angeboten wird. Die Testbilder helfen auch dabei, Unzulänglichkeiten in der verwendeten Gerätekette aufzuzeigen: So habe ich vor einiger Zeit mithilfe der Scheibe gemerkt, dass ein bestimmter Yamaha-AVR (bzw. die komplette Serie des fraglichen Modelljahrs) die sogen. BTB- und WTW-Werte (Blacker-than-Black / Whiter-than-White) verschluckte.Es gibt natürlich auch zahlreiche kostenlose Testbilder, auch von seriösen Anbietern wie z.B. Burosch, mit denen zumindest die wichtigsten Parameter wie Helligkeit und Kontrast genausogut eingestellt werden können. Ich habe jedoch die Erfahrung gemacht, dass manche TVs oder auch Zuspieler bei der Wiedergabe von Fotos dermaßen anders arbeiten, dass man entweder die dabei gewonnenen Einstellungen nicht 1:1 auf einen Bildmodus übertragen kann, der für die normale Wiedergabe von Videomaterial genutzt wird, oder aber schlimmstenfalls, dass bei der Fotowiedergabe direkt im TV manche Bildeinstellungsregler gar nicht verfügbar sind und somit natürlich auch nicht kalibriert werden können. Ich empfehle daher, für die Bildkalibrierung niemals Bilddateien, sondern immer Videomaterial zu verwenden. Und insofern eignet sich eine Disc, die genauso zugespielt wird wie eine normale Blu-ray, eben einfach am besten.