calibrating my 30HF85?

[Keith_R90210]

Hey all, I've been trying to tweek my new 30HF85 for the past week. The picture on it looks pretty good after some calibration but I'm a little puzzled over the results of my calibration.

Being a video newb, I did a basic calibration using the THX optimizer that I had on one of my DVDs ( I know that this isn't the recommended calibration method but I'm not ready to purchase one of the calibration discs yet and I thought it would be good to start simple). I followed the directions to a tee and seem to have gotten everything set at an acceptable level. I have a couple things bugging me though after calibration, hopefully someone here can help me.

After calibration my pic settings look like this:

Brightness:35
Contrast:10
Color:15
Tint:0
Color:15
Sharpness:25


In addition to these settings I've also turned off SVM completely and have my color setting turned to "warm" mode as I've read elsewhere that this is a proper setting for Toshiba's.

I think this looks acceptable but I'm seriously questioning the brightness. It seems to me like 35 is to high a setting for brightness but I've run the test twice now and come out with the same configuration each time. Is this an an acceptable setting for brightness or should be lower (meaning I'm probably doing something wrong on the test)?

Also, I'm having a very minor problem with DVD's on this television. I'm having problems with dark scenes showing a lighter color line that runs through the picture and sometimes moves with the object moving on the screen. A good example of this is on the LOTR: TT when treebeard is moving through the forest with the Hobbits, I seem to be seeing a straight lighter color line that extends from Treebeard across the screen and moves with him as he moves.

I have my DVD player (a Tosh SD-5980) connected through HDMI using the supplied HDMI cable. I've been watching DVD's using the upconversion capabilities of the player in 1080i. The player is set for progressive scan and I have my television set set to do 540P instead of 1080i because I'd read elsewhere that this would help eliminate flicker problems which I thought might be my problem, no luck though. I thought it might be a interference problem between cables so I've tried unplugging a couple things while watching DVD's and still nothing. The problem is very minor and not necessarily noticeable through the entire film just certain dark scenes and most particularly in the credits. This is a slight yet annoying problem which mars an otherwise perfect DVD picture. What would cause this problem? is it something fixable or is it just something that occurs naturally?

FWIW, I've had a similar problem for years on our other analog television and I've never been able to narrow down a cause of it. The analog television is older though and only has composite cable so I've always chalked it up to the cables, would buying a new HDMI cable for the new television solve this problem?

my apologies for a long-winded post but I really need the help. Thanks for any help you guys could give.

[tmuirheid]

Remember when you calibrate using the THX Optimizer the settings are supposedly specific to that movie. A good example is 'The Incredibles' - after I ran the disc supplied Optimizer the movie looked great but the color and brightness settings were so hot when watching anything else it looked like my TV was in torch-mode! As far as a serious calibration disc - the Digital Video Essentials DVD is not only a good calibrating tool but a great educational watch that helps you understand the technology you just purchased. Worth the dollars from my perspective!

I also recently purchased the 30hf85 and while I like Toshibas in general I believe this model ships with crappy factory settings. I have minor geometry issues (like most flat screen tube TVs) but I'm convinved my greyscale is totally hosed giving me bad color, crushed black level and general picture fuzziness. I"m hoping to get this set calibrated by a professional after I break this thing in some more.

[Keith_R90210]

[QUOTE=tmuirheid]Remember when you calibrate using the THX Optimizer the settings are supposedly specific to that movie. A good example is 'The Incredibles' - after I ran the disc supplied Optimizer the movie looked great but the color and brightness settings were so hot when watching anything else it looked like my TV was in torch-mode! As far as a serious calibration disc - the Digital Video Essentials DVD is not only a good calibrating tool but a great educational watch that helps you understand the technology you just purchased. Worth the dollars from my perspective!

I also recently purchased the 30hf85 and while I like Toshibas in general I believe this model ships with crappy factory settings. I have minor geometry issues (like most flat screen tube TVs) but I'm convinved my greyscale is totally hosed giving me bad color, crushed black level and general picture fuzziness. I"m hoping to get this set calibrated by a professional after I break this thing in some more.[/QUOTE]

I guess I'll be trying to get a calibration disc soon, maybe this weekend. I'm in the same boat as you and want to wait a little bit before I get an ISF calibrator out here. I noticed today that the flaw I'm seeing on my television (with the little dark lines on DVD) is apparent on a lot of other televisions. I've noticed it on both our smaller analog television and also an el-cheapo Sharp television which we used in College science today to view a video. I'm begining to believe that this problem could probably be chalked up to bad calibration or no calibration (as would have been the case with that cheap Sharp television at school). I hope to get one of the calibration discs in the near future to solve this problem.

[jpco]

[QUOTE=tmuirheid]Remember when you calibrate using the THX Optimizer the settings are supposedly specific to that movie. A good example is 'The Incredibles' - after I ran the disc supplied Optimizer the movie looked great but the color and brightness settings were so hot when watching anything else it looked like my TV was in torch-mode! As far as a serious calibration disc - the Digital Video Essentials DVD is not only a good calibrating tool but a great educational watch that helps you understand the technology you just purchased. Worth the dollars from my perspective![/QUOTE]

Sorry, off topic, but...
I've read this before, and I know it is true based on the THX instructions themselves. However, I have a question about this:

If the settings vary from DVD-to-DVD, then how do the DVE or AVIA settings translate to different discs? If the THX Optimizer is different on different DVDs, then wouldn't your standard calibration look different with different discs? I would sincerely like to hear how this all works if there's a variation between DVDs.

[CrocHunter]

The purpose of the calibration discs is to calibrate for "All" movies, so they match the D6500k standard for color temp.

If you use a THX disc you are only calibrating for that movie, so if you were to put a different movie in the picture may be off.

[Keith_R90210]

I went ahead and ordered Avia. I believe Avia will be a more thorough calibration than the THX optimizer and it will also help me with getting my other gear in order. I should have Avia in the next couple of days and expect that I'll be able to get a good calibration out of it. In the meantime, I've turned my brightness down a bit more to avoid burn-in and to not over-do the brightness. Things look better with brightness down but I'm sure that a good Avia calibration will make things excellent.

Sheesh! I never used to be a videophile till I got this Tv. ;)

[theroys88]

Your setting seem to low to me. Have a Toshiba 36hf73 with a Memorex mvd 2042 dvd player. Sharpness is 64, brightness 54, contrast 64 and I like cool with my dvd player. With your settings on my Toshiba my picture would not pass blacker then black. On my cable I do have the sharpness down to 35 since my analog side is so noisy and generally crappy so that does better. I do have my DVI side sharpness to 70. Factory defaults are a good place to start. Never been a fan of calibration discs. I always calibrate to my eyes and taste.