hi. i've just bought a 40 inch, 1080p sony bravia tv and wondered if anyone has any recommendations on the best settings for the picture and the sound. i spent last night watching the new tv (a mixture of hd and standard def shows) and spent the whole time going in and out of the settings making adjustments. i must say, the hd stuff looked awesome, but even so i am not totally sure i have the best settings from the 'vivid', 'standard' and 'cinema' picture modes and can't decide whether to adjust the bass and treble levels on the different sound options. i have settled on BBE for now. cheers, your time would be much appreciated. wes.

I don't know if your model has a light sensor, but I just switch that on (and let it do the work depending on the ambient lighting) and set the Adv Contrast Enhancer OFF, set the Live Color to MEDIUM and set the Color Space to WIDE.

I do this for SD SAT and BD. I use Standard for SD Sat and Cinema for BD.

As for the sound, Virtual Dolby is the pants, and BBE is the overwhelming the best effect to use on Bravias.

I also have a Sony Bravia 40" 1080p tv and I keep it on vivid at all times the sd picture looks so good on it


Regards

I set my Sony 32 bravia to these settings:

backlight 4
Contrast 55
Colour 55
Brightness 47
Sharpness 0
Colour temp neutral
noise reduction OFF
MPEG noise reduction OFF
Advanced settings OFF for both
Light sensor ON (found in other menu)

I set it so that the Standard picture mode is as above and I slightly lighten the Vivid setting so I can easily flip picture modes for darker programmes/daytime viewing.

Turning off all the 'picture enhancements' makes a far better image unless you like vivid artificial images!

Vivid mode is horrid on my Sony Bravia.
The Standard mode is ok for most things, and Cinima/theatre mode is best for films.

I keep the contrast enhancer switched on.
The colour tone set to Cool makes the picture look a tad clearer.

on the adjustment bars, my settings are as follows...

Backlight: Max
Contrast: 81
Brightness: 62
Colour: 52
Sharpness: Max
Colour tone: Cool
Noise reduction: Low
Adv Contrast enhancer: On

There's also a power saving mode in the menu - if you turn it on, the picture will reduce in brightness.

*be aware that you will need to set up the adjustments for each AV input - if you dont, only the one you adjust will be done, so when you switch to a different source, the picture settings will still be unadjusted.

As for the built in audio,
BBE viva (no idea what that stands for ny the way) is very thin sounding.
Dolby Virtual is best for most things.
Dynamic is best for music output.
Standard is good for late night tv.
Off is not much good for anything.


Dave

Just goes to show that you need to set up your TV to what works for you!

Just go over to the AVforums and you'll get many varied replies although many people suggest using the HDTV.ord settings for the W series bravias (I didn't like those settings though!)

Actually, I take that Virtual Dolby effect comment back.
I just tried using my BD player so it outputs Dolby Surround ONLY. With this output only (not Dolby Digital, stereo or anything else) it's the best effect.

BTW: My TV is on basically 24/7!! How long can I expect it to last at optimum performance!!?

The 'wear' part of an LCD is the back lights, they will gradually fade over time (just as a Plasma display fades) - but expected life is supposedly to be similar to, or greater than, a CRT.

thanks all for your replies - i'll give them a try.
wes

Found mine seemed a bit washed out and the faces too red, seems hard to get a perfect setting, but my parents TV seems to be just right, it is set to "vivid" and everything looks vibrant and colourful but also sharp and crystal clear like you are looking through a window on a HD channel.