Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

[The 24th Letter]

I have a 62' inch Hitachi LCD.....
and you know, maybe the lure of HD is just wearing off, but it seems like games are looking better on my boys 56 inch than mine....I dont know if its just the games...(Madden 08,09, NBA 2k8) but his just look so much smoother and less jaggy...

are there some settings I should try out that maybe im not aware of? im running it at 1080i
....man i suck at this stuff

[born_bad]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

I'd suggest buying a calibration DVD and adjusting the settings on your TV based on what you see in the tests. If you're not good at that sort of thing try and find a friend or someone who is. It can make a world of difference to have your set calibrated correctly. The out of the box settings or things you might have adjusted without test patterns are probably way off the mark.

Also, make sure you have gear hooked up correctly. What are you using for cables and are you sure you have the HDTV setting on the cables switched on? Do you have your console set right for your TV resolution?

[The 24th Letter]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

calibration DVD, ill try that......theres nothing in my regular TV settings I could test out?

[born_bad]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

Before you get a DVD, you could make sure you don't have your TV set to "Dynamic" or "Vivid" or some setting like that. It's best to go with "normal." To tweak the actual settings, though, like Contrast, Brightness, Color, etc. you need test patterns.

Some games have a calibration pattern in the video settings. You could at least set contrast and brightness with that. To accurately set color and tint, though, you need the colored filters that come with the DVDs.

[Scott]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

I have a 62' inch Hitachi LCD.....
and you know, maybe the lure of HD is just wearing off, but it seems like games are looking better on my boys 56 inch than mine....I dont know if its just the games...(Madden 08,09, NBA 2k8) but his just look so much smoother and less jaggy...

are there some settings I should try out that maybe im not aware of? im running it at 1080i
....man i suck at this stuff

search for your TV over at AVSForums.

[CS10029]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

I was wondering about something like this too. Madden just looked weird last night, I ended up sitting there for 15 minutes adjusting settings. It looked so dark at times.

[Pared]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

Newer TV's have better specs. The size of the TV means nothing.

Your friends TV may actually be of better "quality" despite being smaller.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: Am I taking full advantage of what I have? (TV question)

First off, if everything is being equal a smaller display is going to be less likely to show a source's imperfections than a larger display. That would explain why a much smaller display looks "better" than a larger display.

1) Is your video game system (360 or PS3) plugged up directly to your tv or is it running through a A/V receiver? Some people going through the A/V receiver have noticed slight picture degradation by doing the video pass thru on the receiver vs. going straight from tv to ps3/360.

2) Is your tv a true flat panel display? If so, the native resolution is going to be 720p (assuming it's not 1080p). TV's look better at their native resolution.

3) Are you and your buddy's tvs the same native resolution? Might make a difference. 1080p > 720p especially when talking about 62"

4) What are the response times on both tv's in question? That might make a difference. Definitely want 8ms or less...