Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]

Regardless of whether the results are "accurate" or not, I'm pleased with what I'm seeing on the screen after the calibration. Setting contrast is difficult for me, though, mainly because no matter how high I crank up the picture setting, I can always still see a distinct division in between the white boxes, and I really don't believe the contrast should be set at 100%. Oh well. As for the color settings, there's a rumor that the green filter is inaccurate. Therefore, almost everyone will have an incorrect green setting when looking through the filter, if this is true. Unlike many of the reviewers, I enjoyed the commentary and the topics discussed in this disc. It's informative in a lively and chummy way.

I'm very surprised at the number of people who complain about the amount of "extraneous" information on DVE, then complain that they don't understand or can't get anything done with the test patterns. Calibrating your TV is not the most complicated activity in the world, but it does require a somewhat in-depth understanding of the production process and theory. A very important thing to know going in, is that a great number of TVs will never be able to reach a "perfect" calibration. It's simply beyond the capabilities of the television. So, the more you know and understand, the better you can choose which areas to compromise on to achieve the best picture you can get from your individual set. It may be boring, but watch all the material on the disk and try to pay attention. If you can't understand the concepts... well I don't know what to tell you, maybe grab that geek buddy (everyone has one) and have them check it out with you. There's no getting around the fact that you're going to have to tangle with, and come to grips with, some semi-complicated technical information to get the best results. The disk doesn't go into great depth concerning the various devices that the disk may be played through, and what those devices may be doing to the incoming signal to the TV. You will need to check out an AV forum for the best way to optimize your player. If you are using a PS3 as a blu-ray player, check out "optimizing your ps3 for BD" on youtube. It will show you all the settings you need for that device. Neither does DVE get into all the noise reduction, active back light controls, cinema motion etc... available on most sets. Some may consider this a negative, but I view it as DVE being realistic about the fact that there is no way for a relatively universal disk to cover this. There is no industry standard for these controls. What they do or how they do it is all on the manufacturer, and even varies within a makers own line up or in the same model from year to year. As a general rule simply turn off any of these settings, or set to the lowest possible setting. They are almost all techniques for altering the basic information of the incoming picture in one manner or the other. Does it take two hours to go through? Well yes I suppose it does. But, did you just drop a grand or more on a new TV? Doesn't two hours and [...] seem like a small price to get the most out of that investment? I've used it on both TVs in my house, my in-laws, and several friends sets. They've all been ecstatic with the results. If you're patient and take you time, I think you will be too.

Ok, you now own a state of the art HD display or projector. Setting-up the picture quality with Blu-ray HD DVE HD basics is a good start. Out of the box we all know that most default settings need tweaking (especially with all viewing environments never the same - which is what NTSC stands for - never the same color). This disc gets the basic HD blu-ray playback calibrations set (brightness, contrast, color and tint). I found navigating through the different menus intuitive. If you know what you are doing, you can just jump directly to the test charts - very handy for a quick tweak. It also has comprehensive tutorials that cover the technical perimeters of HD displays and proper set-up, if you need to know. Setting proper grayscale, gamma and individual colors (right color space) is another matter. Unless you have the right tools and understand ISF standards - setting those very crucial elements is difficult with this Disc - hence the title BASIC. Nothing replaces a pro-calibration. The good news is that it improves on what is out of the box, and can get the picture quality to a very pleasing level - leaving the gamma, grayscale, and advance color on a best mode - because you can set the basics fairly easily with all the right test patterns and primary color filters (RGB) - that are included. You have to play around to find the ideal tweaks, but to get started this disc, or others like it, are a must have for those who see the difference between good and bad pictures.

I bought this disk because I recently bought an HDTV, and although the picture looked good, I wanted to optimize it. This disk had gotten good reviews, so I chose it. That was a mistake. (Although I have never calibrated a TV before, I'm not someone who is technologically challenged; I'm an electronics engineer with over 40 years experience designing computers and other digital equipment.) The disk does have dozens of various test patterns. What it doesn't have is much of any information on how to use them. For a start, there are no written instructions whatsoever - no printed manual, no PDF file one can read and print out, nothing even on Video Essentials' website that one might download, and no written explanations while watching the video. What limited instructions there are, such as for adjusting brightness and contrast, are all oral. This means one has to watch an explanation, then when the test pattern comes on try to remember exactly how one is to use it. This often entails backing up a bit and watching the video a second or ever third time; not an very efficient way to get the information across. For other tests, such as setting color and pixel phase, the video never explains exactly what one should see when the set is properly adjusted. I think I ultimately figured these out, but I'm not sure. The disk does have a lot of detail that is of little or no value to the user, such as explanations of why Video Essentials' PLUGE and SMPTE test patterns are better than the standard PLUGE and SMPTE patterns. However, it never explains what a PLUGE or SMPTE test pattern is; it just assumes the user is familiar with these terms. In summary, if you are familiar with calibrating TVs and know how to use the myriad test patterns with little or no help, this is probably a very good disk. But if this is your first experience in calibration there must be more user-friendly disks available.

I own an Epson 1080UB 1080p front projector. As some of you might know, the colors on front projectors are tough to calibrate correctly. This disc was the best $16 I have spent on my home theater. It is a great start for calibration and improves picture quality dramatically, especially in the high lamp modes (day), which are usually very difficult to calibrate. I am rating this product 5 out of 5 for front projector use. If you own a large flat panel television, this product will help...but not as dramatically. I would probably rate the product 3.5 or 4/5 for flat panel TV use, as the results are not as astounding. I hope this helps any front projector users out there who are a little on the fence. Enjoy!

As a videophile I have to have my home cinema set up to PERFECT standards. This Blu-ray helped me to get my hdtv settings adjusted to the ideal levels. You can pay hundreds of dollars for someone to come and do it for you, or you can do it yourself with this disk. It has all of the test patterns you need, but more importantly, it tells you HOW to use them. My picture looks awesome now. It's amazing because I thought it looked great before, but things looks so much more life-like now. Tip: The history section is pretty long and can be skipped, but it is kind of neat to learn some of the back story of what you're doing.

I recommend that the average HD user NOT purchase this item. On the front of the package it claims "Easy to use HD set-up toolkit." That couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth. You'll be way over your head in technical jargon and explanations that are completely useless to the basic user wanting to calibrate their HDTV. This disc features a horrible menu system that is confusing to navigate and understand. It took me awhile to figure out where to go to calibrate my set without hearing the lecture about the evolution of HD. The narrator will talk FOREVER about what adjustments you'll eventually have to make but you'll never know when exactly to make those adjustments. I advise you to stay away from this calibration disc unless you're a professional audio/video engineer with a Masters degree. Because only then would you be able to make sense of this confusing mess.

I've never owned a DVE calibration disc. Before this disc, I used to use AVIA to calibrate my TV. My TV is a Sony 32S3000, and it is connected via HDMI to a PS3, which I used as my BD player. Opening the HD Basics case reveals three color filters all in one single item. This is great compared to AVIA. Lift the paper holder up and move you head up or down depending on the filter you want. And the paper holder itself is a tool to check the grayscale. AWSOME INCLUSION! The HD Basics BD starts by giving you a crippled menu, but with a question: Where would you like to start? The question was a good start, but the execution reveals that they didn't even put thought into the menu: COMPLETE PROGRAM MENU - Self explanatory. HD IN DETAIL - Video shows how to setup Environment, Audio, and Video (more descriptions of Video things like scan-lines, color quality, etc). SETTING UP MY HDTV - Video shows how to use Basic Test Patterns. JUST THE TEST PATTERNS - Basic Test Patterns. The three lower items act like short-cuts to items in the Complete Program Menu. I don't like this menu because it's so annoying to get back into it and because the title of each item is very vague. "HD In Detail" - How vague is that? "Setting Up My HDTV" - Do you mean how to connect the wires to it? Also, having the Complete Program Menu at the top sort of contradicts their efforts to make it simple. Instead it should have been last, and called Advanced Menu or some crap similar crap that would've kept the average Joe from venturing in there. Once you enter an item you cannot return to this menu unless you press the Top Menu button on your controller, which shows a loading screen. When you enter an item, you can press Back to go to the Complete Program menu: INTRO TO HD - Video shows why we need to calibrate, new technologies and CRT matching, how wide color gamut sucks (possible shot at Sony?), and video compression. HD IN DETAIL - Video shows how to setup Environment, Audio, and Video (more descriptions of Video things like scan-lines, color quality, etc). HD VIDEO CALIBRATION - Known as Setting Up My HDTV in the top menu, this video shows how to use Basic Test Patterns. BASIC VIDEO SETUP PATTERNS - Known as Just The Test Patterns in the top menu, this item shows the Basic Test Patterns. AUDIO TEST SIGNALS - Self explanatory. ADVANCED VIDEO TEST PATTERNS - More test patterns. Allows the option of 1080p or 720p. Doesn't seem useful to me. DEMONSTRATION MATERIALS - Some videos to look at for viewing HD picture. Allows the option of 1080p or 720p. Narration by Joe Kane is also an option, but only in 1080p. CREDITS - Shows who you should complain about if you dislike the BD. Alot of the information on the 90 minutes worth of videos can get very technical and is not important to calibration or to the average Joe. The narrator sounds monotonous and throws in a few, really stupid jokes. It can also seem repetitive sometimes because every time he refers back to something he repeats that something almost entirely. It also sounds like a rant sometimes as the Narrator tends to sound disgusted with certain practices of HDTV manufacturers and goes on to say the beliefs of JKP. There are also no titles to each chapter of video and very little emphasis is place on calibration information that is mixed in with all the other technical information. So I watched everything and picked out the information that I thought was important, but it doesn't mean I couldn't have missed something. None of the of the Video Test Patterns allow you to calibrate Tint. How did they miss that and why? They went in so much detail on everything else. The Navigation Menu is similar to the HD DVD menu, if you're familiar with it, but isn't as easy to navigate through. When you enter a menu item, a chapter selection thing shows up. What sucks about this is that to select the next chapter, which is below the current one, you need to press Up instead of Down. Then if you want to get back to the Complete Program Menu, there is no item to do so. You have to figure out to press Back. In only three menu items is there the selection to go Back. This is inconsistent and isn't intuitive. Every Menu item has a description of it on the right of it that tries to describe in more detail what the item does, or how to use the test pattern if the item is for one. However, it fails. It's too verbose and not simple enough for the average Joe to understand what to do with it properly. It is also shown in too small font. I also found a bug. While look at a test pattern, if I press the Menu button, the image becomes cropped. I fixed this by going back to the Top Menu. It's happened to me twice so far. This is obviously something that can get very annoying and is the true testament of how much work JKP put into this BD. DVE HD Basics isn't as easy as they say it is to navigate and understand the full use of video patterns. However, JKP do provide the nice color filter item and there are true HD color patterns here unlike SD calibration discs. If you're an enthusiast, you may also find some of the technical information fun to know. My main complaint is that they could've made it so much easier to use by using common sense. It's just plain ridiculous the mistakes that they made in this edition. UPDATE: I just remembered, from AVIA, how to adjust the TINT control. Use the blue filter on the pattern used to adjust color. Make sure all the blue boxes are an equal shade of blue. UPDATE 2: If you already have a calibration disc, you won't benefit much from buying this disc. It only made a slight difference in my color and sharpness settings.

Consigliato a tutti coloro che desiderano calibrare il proprio display/proiettore in modo completo e secondo gli standard riconosciuti come ad esempio l'ISF

I found the HD explananations usefull, though very american and rather repetitive. However using the set up picture viewing panels was straightforward & has most definitely improved my Sony's LCD picture above what I was able to do before using the THX setup menu on one of my region 1 DVD's. So I would recommend this softeware to anyone that is seeking an improved 'home cinema' viewing experence. Handy8

Ich habe diese Scheibe schon vor über 4 Jahren gekauft. Diese Rezension hier schreibe ich eigentlich nur, weil ich heute einfach nur interessenhalber mal schauen wollte, was es in diesem Bereich inzwischen sonst noch so an Produkten gibt und ich dabei zu meiner Überraschung feststellen musste, dass diese Scheibe hier nur eine einzige Bewertung hat, und diese auch nur mit 2 Sternen. Der (zum Zeitpunkt, während ich dies schreibe) letzte Kommentar auf diese Rezension hat es auf den Punkt gebracht: Der Käufer beschwert sich eigentlich nicht über das Produkt, sondern über sich selbst, nämlich zum einen über seine unzulänglichen Englischkenntnisse, und zum zweiten über seine Unfähigkeit, die Beschreibung des Artikels richtig zu lesen, denn in der steht, dass die Scheibe vollständig englisch ist. Und diese Beschreibung als solche ist dabei ja durchaus deutschsprachig und somit auch für ihn verständlich... :-) Leider ist das ein Problem, das man hier sehr oft sieht, dass Leute einem Produkt eine schlechte Bewertung verpassen, nicht weil das Produkt an sich schlecht wäre, sondern weil sie eine unzutreffende Erwartungshaltung an das Produkt hatten. Das ist genauso nervig wie die zahlreichen deutlich erkennbaren gekauften 5-Sterne-Bewertungen für so manches Produkt. Nun zum Produkt selbst: Ja, Englischkenntnisse sollten vorhanden sein, nicht nur für die gedruckte Anleitung, sondern vor allem auch für die extrem hilf- und lehrreichen gesprochenen Erläuterungen auf der Scheibe selbst. Es wird sehr umfänglich erläutert, welche Testsequenz für welche Einstellung da ist, vor allem aber auch, WARUM genau man dies oder jenes tun sollte. Eine der Aussagen, die ich, seit ich die Scheibe habe, in Forendiskussionen zum Thema desöfteren sinngemäß zitiert habe, ist, dass viele Menschen nicht verstehen, warum man sein TV-Bild überhaupt mit Kalibrierungstestbildern einstellen sollte, denn das Wichtigste sei doch, dass das Bild so aussieht, wie es einem selbst am besten gefällt, und da habe ja eh jeder seinen eigenen Geschmack. Das stimme zwar, allerdings müsse man sich dann halt darüber im Klaren sein, dass das Bild, auf das man dann schaut, alles Mögliche ist, aber nicht das, was z.B. der Macher des Films, den man gerade schaut, eigentlich zu Gesicht bringen wollte. Man muss sich also entscheiden, ob man sich entweder irgendwas einstellen will, dass einem irgendwie gefällt, oder ob man ein OBJEKTIV optimales Bild haben will, und OBJEKTIV gibt es für jeden TV eben nunmal nur genau EINE korrekte Einstellung, egal wer davor sitzt und welchen Bildgeschmack diese Person hat. Ich nutze die Scheibe jetzt also seit reichlich 4 Jahren für die objektiv korrekte Einstellung von zahlreichen Flachbild-TVs, die ich in dieser Zeit so hatte. Die gedruckte Anleitung bzw. das PDF von der Homepage habe ich dabei nie gebraucht, weil die gesprochenen Erläuterungen absolut ausreichend sind. Mit der mitgelieferten Farbfilterbrille ist sogar die Kalibrierung der einzelnen Farbkanäle möglich, soweit dies vom TV angeboten wird. Die Testbilder helfen auch dabei, Unzulänglichkeiten in der verwendeten Gerätekette aufzuzeigen: So habe ich vor einiger Zeit mithilfe der Scheibe gemerkt, dass ein bestimmter Yamaha-AVR (bzw. die komplette Serie des fraglichen Modelljahrs) die sogen. BTB- und WTW-Werte (Blacker-than-Black / Whiter-than-White) verschluckte. Es gibt natürlich auch zahlreiche kostenlose Testbilder, auch von seriösen Anbietern wie z.B. Burosch, mit denen zumindest die wichtigsten Parameter wie Helligkeit und Kontrast genausogut eingestellt werden können. Ich habe jedoch die Erfahrung gemacht, dass manche TVs oder auch Zuspieler bei der Wiedergabe von Fotos dermaßen anders arbeiten, dass man entweder die dabei gewonnenen Einstellungen nicht 1:1 auf einen Bildmodus übertragen kann, der für die normale Wiedergabe von Videomaterial genutzt wird, oder aber schlimmstenfalls, dass bei der Fotowiedergabe direkt im TV manche Bildeinstellungsregler gar nicht verfügbar sind und somit natürlich auch nicht kalibriert werden können. Ich empfehle daher, für die Bildkalibrierung niemals Bilddateien, sondern immer Videomaterial zu verwenden. Und insofern eignet sich eine Disc, die genauso zugespielt wird wie eine normale Blu-ray, eben einfach am besten.

I found this product very useful for setting up my HD TV, well worth the purchase price. Thirty days after my new TV arrived I had a professional calibration done. And this calibration was good for about a year. But then a year passed and it was time to re-tune the color. I found this blu-ray and the see-through color films it comes with enabled me to get my colors and white balance exactly right, maybe even better than the professional calibration. It also helps with room set up. It does not help much at all with non-color set up, the specifics of specific models of TV. You can supplement this blu-ray by searching the web on the model number of your TV. You can generally find others discussing your model TV and the settings they are using. That is a big help in understanding and adjusting the non-color settings. If you can't afford a professional tune-up once a year, I recommend buying this product.

We have long compromised on the accuracy of our LCD TV accepting a certain looseness in picture color tones. Part of it was recognizing that source color tones differ, but mainly is was that we lacked a known standard for adjusting colors, so we just fiddled around by eye, trying to get skin tones reasonably biologically probable. This Blu-ray edition of DVE fixed all that with supplied color filters that make it easy to finely adjust the proper color balance for the set's electronics and correcting for any effects of screen aging. After spending a half hour or so playing (it was kind of fun) around with the filters and adjustments, we were both surprised to find that the sources are actually not all that different. It had been our hit or miss adjustments all these years. Thank you DVE for finally giving us the TV viewing experience we sought 10 years ago when we bout the set!