video calibration

5 stars for this, i have a Samsung 32 inch lcd,and i was really bothered by the black pixalation problems that everyone talks about with lcd's. Did the video calibration test and WOW,what a difference.Now i really love my new lcd. Next thing is i am getting a 5.1 sound system and will use Avia to set this up. DID wonders for me.

A MUST HAVE for CRT-based TV owners

I used this DVD to prepare for my Super Bowl party this weekend. The results are nothing short of amazing, I was complimented many times on the quality of my picture by many guests. If you are a home AV enthusiast with a rear projection set, you must have this DVD.

While it was very helpful I also used many tweaks from HomeTheaterSpot.com, all in all I spent $60 (Aiva DVD and HTS "spottie" membership)and 6 hours tuning my TV and it was worth every penny and every second.

My main TV is a 55" HDTV and my other TV is a 24" CRT, this DVD produced great results on both sets.

Out-of-date and disappointing

First off, if you want to calibrate your LCD, plasma, LCOS, or DLP TV, do *not* get the Avia Guide DVD. This guide was published in 1999 and about 2/3 of the video calibration tests do not apply to non-CRT TVs (direct view or projection). For example, all the needle and convergence tests are useless for flat panel TVs. A lot of the introductory material is also out of date. Even the two actors look out of date.

Second, despite its reputation, the Avia Guide proved very disappointing to me. I'm a gadget freak, so I already knew most of the ins and outs of home theaters when I bought this from Amazon -- I bought it to calibrate my new LCD TV. So the tutorial section was mostly a waste of time for me -- but again, had the material been updated enough, it would have been more fun. Unfortunately, the presentation is boring, the two actors can put you to sleep, and the navigation is poor.

The navigation gets worse when you get to the calibration part. Only the basic video calibration part (for black level [contrast], white level [brightness], color, hue, and sharpness) has voice-over guidance. Other tests (and there are a lot of them for audio and video) are broken down into groups. Each group has 6-12 tests. On the group menu, each test has two separate entries: description and testing pattern. This is stupid because you'll have to punch your DVD's remote control ad nauseum to pick the test you want. And when you get back to the group menu, the highlight goes back to the first selection, so you'll have to push the arrow buttons 20 times to get to the 10th test pattern! This is absolutely a nightmare.

Also, the tests are not explained clearly. For the basic video tests with voice tutorials, you have to view the tutorial and do the test separately, and what constitutes a "perfect" calibration is never explained clearly. The other tests require you to read through one or more screens of test description. If your TV is less than 30" and you don't have progressive scan, forget about reading the text. It'll just kill your eyes and your interest in this whole process. (Of course, this won't be new to you if you've ever used one of those THX calibration programs on a THX DVD.)

In summary, the Avia Guide DVD is out of date and very user-UNfriendly. In fact, my own first-hand experience as well as online research reveal that most namebrand HDTVs (such as Pioneer [best for plasma], Panasonic, Sharp [best for LCD], Hitachi, Toshiba and Sony) pretty much come well-calibrated. In the end, I really think it's your own eyes and ears that are the ultimate judge of what's good calibration and what's not. Cheerios.