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@LF1949 : If you don't have a setup DVD (and instructions), then perhaps the following will help.
1. Choose a channel like CP24HD.
2. Choose a picture mode like "cinema, movie, pro, user, custom" depending on your TV. Do not use "Standard" or "Vivid" modes.
3. By choosing this, most of the automatic settings are usually then set to the optimum or turned off. If they are not "off", try turning off any automatic settings to see if that helps.
4. Use the "black level" (often called brightness) and turn it up until the blacks appear grey. Then turn the black level down until the blacks get no blacker. This will usually be at around 50 out of 100, but could be as low as 40 or as high as 60. This will prevent black crush where you cannot see shadow details.
5. Contrast (white level) is a bit more tricky. Find a good HD news channel (CTV, CBC) and find someone wearing a white shirt. You should be able to see the wrinkles in his shirt. If not, lower the white level until you see the wrinkles, but the picture doesn't get too dark. Often with new TVs there is a screen brightness option, which should also affect how bright the TV is (not to be confused with Black Level). Use that so that the screen is not too bright, especially if you usually watch in a dark/darkened room.
6. Colour levels are usually too high, try lowering them while still seeing good colour in people/clothes, grass.
7. Tint/hue is usually easy to set - temporarily crank up the colour and adjust tint so it's not too red or too green in the faces of people on a good channel.
8. Sharpness if often set too high. On CP24 or another channel that contains writing, you can look for stairstepping, macroblocking, mosquito noise, halos around the writing. Set the sharpness down to eliminate these. (Look them up if you're not familiar). The appropriate setting is usually around 0-20 out of 100.
9. Set the colour temperature to the warmest or second from the warmest setting (if there are 5+ options). Most TV images are way too "cool" (blue). The ice in hockey arenas is usually closer to cream coloured than white. Most people set their TVs way too blue/cool.
There will be differences between channels and especially with movies since some movies have certain colours due to "director's intent". For example, the Matrix movie is quite green. Most technical movies are quite blue, etc. Set it up so that it looks good for your most-watched channels.
Here's more on the topic:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/2009/10/why-you-should-optimize-your-home-theatre/
See my previous post on this topic in the following thread:
It appears that you've already tried some of the "tricks". The 8300 may have "looked sharper", but you should find that the 9865 or CAV10455 both have superior picture quality with regard to various compression artifacts. Many people confuse a "sharper looking" picture with "better" when in fact the high sharpness causes many artifacts that make the picture "worse overall". People do the same with Sharpness levels on their TV. They crank them to the max when it's usually best to have sharpness near the lower end of the scale to prevent stairstepping, mosquito noise, macroblocking, halos around objects, etc. I did a thorough A/B comparison of my 8300 which is still working with my 9865 and with the 4K boxes and found the 8300 to be inferior in almost every way - picture wise. The macroblocking on the 8300 was much worse - a paused picture was typically quite bad, especially if there was any movement. The newer boxes handle macroblocking much better.
The firmware is another matter... Many people prefer SARA to Navigatr.
@LF1949 : If you don't have a setup DVD (and instructions), then perhaps the following will help.
1. Choose a channel like CP24HD.
2. Choose a picture mode like "cinema, movie, pro, user, custom" depending on your TV. Do not use "Standard" or "Vivid" modes.
3. By choosing this, most of the automatic settings are usually then set to the optimum or turned off. If they are not "off", try turning off any automatic settings to see if that helps.
4. Use the "black level" (often called brightness) and turn it up until the blacks appear grey. Then turn the black level down until the blacks get no blacker. This will usually be at around 50 out of 100, but could be as low as 40 or as high as 60. This will prevent black crush where you cannot see shadow details.
5. Contrast (white level) is a bit more tricky. Find a good HD news channel (CTV, CBC) and find someone wearing a white shirt. You should be able to see the wrinkles in his shirt. If not, lower the white level until you see the wrinkles, but the picture doesn't get too dark. Often with new TVs there is a screen brightness option, which should also affect how bright the TV is (not to be confused with Black Level). Use that so that the screen is not too bright, especially if you usually watch in a dark/darkened room.
6. Colour levels are usually too high, try lowering them while still seeing good colour in people/clothes, grass.
7. Tint/hue is usually easy to set - temporarily crank up the colour and adjust tint so it's not too red or too green in the faces of people on a good channel.
8. Sharpness if often set too high. On CP24 or another channel that contains writing, you can look for stairstepping, macroblocking, mosquito noise, halos around the writing. Set the sharpness down to eliminate these. (Look them up if you're not familiar). The appropriate setting is usually around 0-20 out of 100.
9. Set the colour temperature to the warmest or second from the warmest setting (if there are 5+ options). Most TV images are way too "cool" (blue). The ice in hockey arenas is usually closer to cream coloured than white. Most people set their TVs way too blue/cool.
There will be differences between channels and especially with movies since some movies have certain colours due to "director's intent". For example, the Matrix movie is quite green. Most technical movies are quite blue, etc. Set it up so that it looks good for your most-watched channels.
Here's more on the topic:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/2009/10/why-you-should-optimize-your-home-theatre/
LF1949 wrote: Can I just transfer the settings from the DVD input to the TV?
Usually when you use HDMI, the settings will be similar enough to simply transfer, followed by a quick tune up using the tips I posted previously. PBS (Seattle?) may still have a test pattern once a week.
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