Digital Video Essentials 1080i . . . truly essential?

[the_prodigy]

I've never used one of the DVE discs/tapes before, but have heard good things. I'd like to be reasonably sure that my display is giving me the best for my money, but I don't feel like paying a couple hundred on an ISF calibration for this TV. I'm curious: how easy is it to "calibrate" one's own set using this tape? Does one need to be a technician to effectively use it, or does the tape pretty much walk one through everything?

Thanks in advance,
Pius

[madpoet]

If you take the time to understand it, you can do a very good job. It's not going to be as clean as an ISF calibration because you won't have the scope to test greyscale, etc; But you can do a good job.

[jones07]

Originally posted by the_prodigy
I've never used one of the DVE discs/tapes before, but have heard good things. I'd like to be reasonably sure that my display is giving me the best for my money, but I don't feel like paying a couple hundred on an ISF calibration for this TV. I'm curious: how easy is it to "calibrate" one's own set using this tape? Does one need to be a technician to effectively use it, or does the tape pretty much walk one through everything?

Thanks in advance,
Pius

I have all three DVE for SD, 1080i and 720P. So far I just done my 1080 and SD on my bedroom set. It was much more time consuming then I thought it would be. After I was done with the SD on my analog inputs it was day and nite better. As far as my 1080i....................I don't know. It's better but not something that Jumped out at ya. My BR set is a 4 year old 36" Tube.

I'm hoping there will be a much bigger difference on my 56" DLP 720P set in my media room when I find 90 minutes to play

If you can get a used copy off of ebay cheap, It's worth your time to play with. There seem to be a lot of DVE 1080i around

No you don't need to be a tech head. The Tape goes REAL SLOW and walk you through EVERYTHING :p