[davehorridge]

Had a 40 - SONY KDLV2500 for about 4 months now and whilst the picture is pretty good at times on SD - i'm still unsure on whats the best setting to have.

I use the basic three ranges - Dynamic, Standard and Custom - but never seem to get it right either being too bright for the football or too dark for the darker scenes.

Additionally i'm never to sure whether or not to have the the 'sharpness' control at its highest (i think i read that highest is not necessary best.

I'm also running my HUMAX 9200T into the TV - but at times the picture is not as clear as it used to be with my CRT and is also a little dark

Can anyone out there help me?

Many thanks in anticipation

[Apollo 1875]

I have the 32" version of this model. I had to spend quite a bit of time adjusting the settings, but I now get fantastic SD pictures.

I keep my sharpness setting low, as I believe it's designed to produce fake sharp edges on a soft or blurry image, why anyone would want to do that, I don't know. A high setting certainly won't make your overall picture any sharper. I keep my Noise Reduction off for similar reasons.

The good news (assuming your setting menus are indeed the same as mine) is that you can adjust each input seperately, so if your Humax is coming up a little dark you'll be able to tweak it independently. It is possible to apply a uniform setting across all inputs, don't do that! Use the Custom settings, it'll give you far more control over pictures.

If your main problem is some images being too bright or washed out and some being too dark, even on the same source, then I would suggest there are 2 settings you need to look at in particluar: Power Saving & Backlight.

I'd start off by going to the Features menu an setting Power Saving to High. This will give your pictures a very deep, more plasma-like, black level as a starting point. This should allow you adjust the Backlight to suit without creating a bright, washed out appearance for stuff like football.

Try Power Saving at Low as well for comparison, just don't leave the Power Saving off all together, as that's just designed to give off a bright glowing image when its in the TV shop.

With Colour Temperature, avoid "Warm 1" and "Warm 2" like the plague. Neutral or Cool settings will give you realistic colours without having to sacrifice Bravia's "colour like no other" vibrancy.

I intially had my contrast at max, but I have now backed it off to about a 90 setting, as I felt I was losing detail at the white end of the greyscale. At the other end, that setting should still give you a deeper black than you could get from your CRT but you just won't be able to get much near-black detail (an LCD limitation IMO). If you try to illuminate near black shadowy areas with Brightness or Backlight you will end up with a washed out image in bright scenes.

There's lots of other things you can adjust but this should start you off in the right direction. Its worth checking if any of your DVDs have a testcard, that would help get you in the ball park.

I'm happy to share any specific settings, but I don't use the internal tuner, so my exact settings may not suit your set-up. I'm confident you'll get a great picture out of your V2500, you just need to take a bit of time setting each input individually from your normal viewing distance and lighting conditions.

Good luck

[davehorridge]

Many thanks - i'll print your advice off and let you know what improves there have been.

DAve