[myromeo]

Ive had this TV for about 2 years now but have never touched the settings, now, with sky+HD on its way I am wondering if I can get a better picture by just tweaking the settings on the TV set.

I don't really understand the contrast, brightness, temperature and such so if anyone could advise me of what I should do to get a sharper, more vivid picture with nice colours I would really appreciate it.

I currently have a PS3 and a HD DVD (upscaler) player that are both set to 1080i and give great picture but I dont know if I would be better setting things to 720p or even changing the TV settings?!

Ill be asking a similar question in the sky+HD forum to get the settings for the HD box so I can get the best possible picture.

[bobcar]

Without knowing the specific TV the only advice I can give is general, but.


When TVs arrive from the shop they are usually set up to create an impression in the shop and are much too garish fo home use so turn off all enhancements, sharpness should be very low or off. Usually around central is about right for colour, contrast etc.

Basically just play around with the settings, you won't break the TV unless you go into the engineering settings which I don't think you're likely to do (you need special access procedures, you can't do it accidentally). The main thing is its what you think is the best picture that counts.

Oh and HD is much less demanding of the TV than SD, the thing which really separates TVs is how well they handle SD.

[Deacon1972]

It's a Philips 32PF5531 Bob - they have another thread in the Sky HD forum.

[myromeo]

the model name is also on this thread title

currently we have the sky+ box on it via scart and the picture is pretty good, so be it noticably worse than that of a blu-ray disk from the PS3 but pretty sharp, much better than the inbuilt freeview picture is.

I do have high hopes for the sky+HD box and the picture I just hope i'm not disappointed!

[Deacon1972]

Quote:

Originally Posted by myromeo

the model name is also on this thread title

I mis-read Bob's post, their didn't know the specific TV personally, not that they didn't know the model number.

Quote:

Originally Posted by myromeo

currently we have the sky+ box on it via scart and the picture is pretty good, so be it noticably worse than that of a blu-ray disk from the PS3 but pretty sharp, much better than the inbuilt freeview picture is.

I do have high hopes for the sky+HD box and the picture I just hope i'm not disappointed!

Generally the settings you have for a specific input (Scart/component/HDMI) normally need no adjustment if you were to view a different source through it.

For example, if you unplugged the PS3 and hooked up Sky HD to that input the settings shouldn't need much if any adjustment. Settings do vary from input to input - source to source, but are normally pretty equal otherwise.

Have you got two HDMI inputs? If you have and you are happy with the PS3 settings try copying those settings and use these a starting point, it shouldn't be far off.

Picture settings are down to personal choice, just try various adjustments until you are happy with what you see.

[myromeo]

cheers for the suggestions.

I do have two HDMI ports and have had a play with the settings of the PS3 (on HDMI 1). when sky+HD is installed Ill see how the settings look initially and take it from there.

I went thru the basic tv settings of brightness, contrast, sharpness etc as suggested previously and have got slightly richer colours now with decent clarity, hopefully this will be a good basis for when I go HD properly.

[Chris Frost]

It's always worth using a proper set up disc to get the best from a TV. They also include audio test tones as well which are surprisingly useful.

Have a look at the Digital Video Essentials (a.k.a. DVE) range. There are SD, HD-DVD and Blu-ray versions. Most are around £14. It's a good investment

Here's a link