When I was in college, I worked for a company called Theatre Sound Services in Milwaukee. We were frequently called upon by film studios and directors to "make the picture on the sheet and the sound in the auditorium look and sound right for our premier."
It was not unheard of for Stanley Kuberick's secretary to call from London and tell the owner that he didn't care if Gerald had to "run the booth himself and lock the projectionist out for the premier night" - he wanted the picture to look and sound the way he intended it to look and sound: not how some projectionist had decided it should be presented. I was well trained on the tools of the trade and educated in how film should look on the big screen.
Television always bothered me because, while the analog sets got better and better at their ability to present a good product, there were always the problems of the limitations of the broadcast facility, the capabilities of the sets [always swore by Sony Trinitrons - bought my first one in 1972, still plays, and it's never been serviced!]
When the new digital sets came out, I was skeptical, not an early adopter. We've had Dish since day one, and were happy to see HD, but even that didn't lend itself to pushing us actually buy until it was mandated that the terrestrial broadcast stations - the locals, anti-up and make the switch to digital. In Chicago, we are truly blessed to have two very well run stations, WGN - the original; and one of several extremely well run PBS affiliates - with engineers who care and an almost unlimited budget which allows them to purchase all of the best digital broadcast toys, WTTW - Channel 11.
So, we took the plunge and started to research HD sets. We looked at specs, compared prices, read the reviews, and consulted Consumer Reports. We took our time, and, while we liked what we saw in several cases, we just couldn't see ourselves parting with between $3000.00 and $5,000.00 dollars. We had never seen a great looking set - even in a controlled environment - even when they were "well adjusted" - because most of them looked like crap in the show-off spaces.
When I found a Philips 52"
[52PFL7403D] on eBay, for $1,200.00, delivered from Texas, no sales tax, no delivery charge, we talked it over and bought it for the buy-it-now price. Turns out the guy had been caught in an overstock situation when the markets tanked and was desperate to get the product out the door - to our advantage. We have subsequently gone on to purchase a 37" Philips for the bedroom, and two additional 19" Philips [
19PFL3504D - Target - less than $200.00 on sale - and still available!] in my office and my partner's studio.
The best we have found to setup new HD sets is using
Amazon.com: Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]: Joe Kane: Gateway
the VIDEO ESSENTIALS: HD BASICS Blu-Ray Disk from Amazon.com.
After setting the Philips sets up with Digital Video Essentials, they look as if you are watching TCM through a window. When you watch COMPLETE Blu-Ray restorations like THE WIZARD OF OZ, or GONE WITH THE WIND, you can see the stitching in fabric worn by the actors: you can see detail on the Munchkins in OZ that you never knew was there; you can see the particles of smoke in the air when the Wicked Witch of the West arrives.
NOTE: We found that DISABLING the "automatic" controls: noise, brightness, and everything else, helped IMMENSELY to get a good quality picture.
Even Dish Network HD Lite looks pretty good. The off-the-air signal for the local PBS affiliate, WTTW, look like you could walk through the screen and into the studio.
This setup disk is amazing. Created by professionals, who work with HD all day long, it will absolutely give you the finest looking picture you have ever seen on any HD set.
Be advised, it can take several hours to run the entire setup routine, test, walk away when your eyes get blurry, and then go back and do it all over again - several times if you really want an outstanding picture.
Surround sound can be setup using this DVD as well. The 7.1 channel surround in the living room rocks the house when explosions take place in war movies, yet every word is articulate, even during action scenes and over music, in well mixed audio tracks.
Once you're done, you will be astonished. What you thought was a good picture, after having set it up using test patterns and your eye, or the setup from commercial DVDs will be blown away by your new results.
One warning: you may get flack from those who insist, "it doesn't look right!"
They will insist that Sponge Bob is the wrong color; demand the color be hotter; scream about the picture not being bright enough, etc, etc, etc.
We solved the problem of friends changing the settings by literally locking the television remotes up in the safe.
Now the only controls are the DN remote and the Blu-ray player remote.
The reviews at Amazon go into a lot more of the DVD's technical detail, so be certain to read them, whether you purchase the setup DVD or not.
In my opinion, you will not go wrong acquiring this amazing tool!
