I’ll tell you something though; if they took it home with them they’d be very disappointed. It isn’t the TV’s fault though – any new TV is doing to be a disappointment when you get it home.
Want to get the best TV for your money? Read my HDTV buying guide before heading to the store.
That’s because new TVs aren’t calibrated correctly for your home’s lighting, so the colors will look off. I regularly get questions from disappointed buyers asking if they got a defective set.
If you buy a floor-model TV, it will be even worse. Those sets have heavily tweaked saturation and hues designed to catch your eye in fluorescent lighting. Once you get it into standard lighting or a dark room, however, it looks terrible.
You could pay an expert to set your TV up the right way, but unless you’re creating up a high-end home theater, you can get fine results doing it yourself. There are two ways to go about it.
1. Use your eyes (Fast and decent)
Head over to a site called TweakTV and put in your TV model. It will have suggested settings for contrast, hue, brightness, sharpness and color temperature. Look in your TV manual to find out how to find these settings on your TV.
Did you buy your TV a while ago and don’t have the manual? You can probably find it here.
Once you have the default settings in, grab a few of your favorite movies. Jump to some scenes that are light, dark, filled with people and colorful.
Adjust the brightness so shadows are as black as they can get while still showing detail. Then adjust the contrast up so the white spaces are as white as they can be while still showing detail.
Then adjust the color temperature until skin tones and colors look natural. If your TV has saturation controls, you can fine-tune how vivid the colors look – you want the sweet spot between washed out and unreal.
Once you get a good look, test it with a few more movies at different lighting levels in the room. You also might need to turn the TV off a few times and come back after a few minutes to see it with fresh eyes.
2. Use a calibration disc (Slower and higher quality)
To start, you’ll need a calibration disc for your DVD or Blu-ray player. Calibration discs walk you
It works well in most cases, but don’t be afraid to tweak certain settings to your specific liking. It’s your HDTV, so the best picture is the one that you like the most.
There are a few ways to get a calibration disc. AVS Calibration lets you create your own disc on your computer as long as you have a DVD or Blu-ray creation program like DVD Flick.
Some movies have a calibration tool built in, as well. Check your collection for any of these THX-certified movies or order a calibration disc from Netflix. THX has a calibration app that works on some smartphones and tablets, too.
Side note: THX recommends that you use a pair of blue-filtered glasses with its calibration system, which it sells for $5. There’s another setting that lets you fix your colors without them, but pick up the glasses for the best results.
THX helps you improves your HDTV’s sound quality, too. Or you can tweak your treble and bass yourself for personalized sound.
Is all this effort worth it?
In a word, yes. The quality we have available to us in our homes is extraordinary. If you’ve spent the big bucks on the TV, take the time to make it worth every penny!
through each setting and give you carefully created visual images to help guide your tweaking.
