Basic TV Tune-Up
Fact: You need to do basic TV tune-up for your home theater system even if it is brand new.
Indeed you must, as most television units, be it LCD or plasma, are adjusted to higher settings for commercial purposes. Bright colors really attract, that’s a why a common tactic of attracting customers to a TV product is to sett the brightness adjustments to high. Right after you opened that box and securely place your new LCD or plasma TV on a platform, the first stuff you really need to do are some basic TV tune-up works. There are a number of ways and most of them are easy to carry out.
There are five things that you should consider for your basic TV tune-up: there are the controls, the contrast, brightness settings, color adjustment and convergence. These elements are important in viewing so you will be able to maximize your home theater experience. In addition to these, there are outside factors that you need to consider also that might affect your viewing pleasure.
For instance, ambient light, too much of it causes glare when you look at your TV set. It’s a big consideration; in fact, it’s the first thing you should look at before you start scrolling some adjustment bars. It would be a huge challenge for your basic TV tune-up if you have large windows in your home theater room. If you can’t get rid of the windows, anyway, install thick blinds or curtains to minimize the intensity of light that’s coming. Remember that too much light will compete with the image quality of the television.
Most home theater rooms are closed spaces. But it is not advisable to watch TV in complete pitch black environment as it causes eye stress. Consider putting dim light at the back of TV. This way, you won’t get glares and eye strain too.
You can get home theater calibrating tools like AVIA and DVE, but DVE is the oldest approach. Getting your home theater systems calibrated will not only optimize the picture but also the sound quality. Some expensive DVD titles have THX optimizers in them that let you adjust the picture and sound quality. Most DVDs however come with simple calibration instructions so don’t miss out on trying these.
It’s not really hard to fine tune color LCD TV, but you also need to look at the contrast level of the picture. Contrast refers to the amount of light produced from the picture. Too high of a contrast and your plasma or CRT TV won’t last for long. The factory default contrast of most TVs is set to 100%. To get the best results, adjust the contrast setting to 50%.
Tuning dish TV should not be a problem too, just as long as you adjust the brightness of the image. Brightness differs from contrast in a way that it controls the black levels in the image. The best way to adjust the brightness is to get a DVD scene on large format. Adjust the brightness so that the letterbox bars will not appear gray and the main images will not look washed out.
On tuning sharp LCD TV, the color adjustment should be set just enough. Color that is intense will saturate the image colors. For example, the human skin tones would look reddish. Finally, you need to set the convergence control of your TV. Most people, even professionals find it hard to obtain a near-perfect setting. Convergence refers to the alignment of the televisions primary colors.
To achieve best results, you may consult with the product’s manual. Not all TVs are equal. And you should take note also of the cautions you need to observe especially with delicate technologies like LCD and plasma. Ask the dealer to tune up your TV before bringing home or better yet hire a professional.
