Setting My Contrast Once and for All - Blu-ray Forum

nothing.sound · 04-30-2009, 08:44 PM

Ok I have always felt a little unsure if I have my contrast set right. I have been a constant tweaker of my settings for as long as I can remember but I'm trying to get my t.v. set straight once and for all. Ideally an ISF calibration would be a dream but just out of the financial question right now.

Anyways I have the DVE Blu ray and find it works very well. However it says to se the brightness first which I can get right on. Than too set the picture. My problem is that if I turn it all the way up it does not bloom, probably from somethiing clipping it. And obviously if I turn it all the way down than the picture losses it's punch.

The disc uses a reverse gray ramp to adjust this but I find that no matter where I go it kind of stays the same detail wise. I do lose a black bar when I go one way(can't remember if it's lower or higher right now) but if I adjust the brightness I could get it back.

So basically what I'm saying is that I could really put the picture anywhere depending on the brightness. The logical thing to go by would be the brightness pattern (meaning get the brightness right than adjust the picture just before the black bars merge into eachother.) However when I do this the picture or contrast is down to 22 out of 100 and like I said before the image is a little flat. Is this the correct image though? I mean my t.v.'s blacks aren't great it 's a 52kdlv4100 sony lcd.

Any thoughts would be greatlly appreciated.

One more thing is that the t.v. has a white blance option where you can adjust the red, green and blue in both dark and light scenes. On the AVS forums almost everyones adjustments are different. So should this only be tinkered with, by a calibrator or the specials color meters. Thanks again.

wafi · 04-30-2009, 09:12 PM

Totally off-topic...luv your TV stand! Where did you get it from? And would it fit a 56" wide TV?

maygit · 04-30-2009, 09:32 PM

i'm in the same boat, i can't figure out where to set my contrast level. If i max it out at 100, the "above white" and "100% white" are still different shades while the "below black" and "100% black" are the same(like it should be) no matter where the contrast is set. I just set mine to 90 and said the hell with it, i'm assuming my tv needs to be adjusted in the service menu to allow a higher contrast setting. Something that has got me is that my 90% gray/black stands out like a sore thumb vs. the otehr shades. It's almost as if that specific shade is the only one that has no color added where my other levels look different, it's hard to explain. Any suggestions?

One major thing i noticed that really affects your brightness setting is your white balance. Specifically the blue bias. Even on warm 2 i had a lot of blue added to the image so i dropped that down almost as low as it goes and noticed right away that my grayscale looked...well gray. After dropping the blue bias down, i noticed i now needed to turn my brightness up higher according to the tests which changed a lot of things.

nothing.sound · 04-30-2009, 10:14 PM

t.v. stand is from Wal Mart in Canada. It was under 200 bucks which was awesome. It's not black though it's a really dark like espresso or something. They have matching side towers that are awesome but are around the same price.

wafi · 04-30-2009, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nothing.sound

t.v. stand is from Wal Mart in Canada. It was under 200 bucks which was awesome. It's not black though it's a really dark like espresso or something. They have matching side towers that are awesome but are around the same price.

Musta been sometime ago, have been going to Walmart [here in the US] every weekend the last few weeks. Havent come across it. Exactly the color I want.

crackinhedz · 05-01-2009, 12:17 AM

In your PS3 settings, set BD / DVD Video Output Format (HDMI) to "Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr" while you adjust the DVE.

Also, out of curiosity...do you have RGB set to Full or Limited? (should be Limited) ...I believe your Yamaha receiver will not output 'Full', so it could be clipping.

nothing.sound · 05-01-2009, 08:45 PM

hey crackinz, yeah i already have it set to y pb/ cb pr/ cr and my rgb is set to limited. I think I'm just not happy with my t.v. After watching a panny plasma for a year and than going to a way bigger, slightly older LCD you can really tell the difference between LCD and Plasma.

04-30-2009, 08:44 PM	#1
nothing.sound Expert Member Member since:Oct 2007 Home Theater Gallery:16 4K collection:64 Blu-ray collection:432	Setting My Contrast Once and for All Ok I have always felt a little unsure if I have my contrast set right. I have been a constant tweaker of my settings for as long as I can remember but I'm trying to get my t.v. set straight once and for all. Ideally an ISF calibration would be a dream but just out of the financial question right now. Anyways I have the DVE Blu ray and find it works very well. However it says to se the brightness first which I can get right on. Than too set the picture. My problem is that if I turn it all the way up it does not bloom, probably from somethiing clipping it. And obviously if I turn it all the way down than the picture losses it's punch. The disc uses a reverse gray ramp to adjust this but I find that no matter where I go it kind of stays the same detail wise. I do lose a black bar when I go one way(can't remember if it's lower or higher right now) but if I adjust the brightness I could get it back. So basically what I'm saying is that I could really put the picture anywhere depending on the brightness. The logical thing to go by would be the brightness pattern (meaning get the brightness right than adjust the picture just before the black bars merge into eachother.) However when I do this the picture or contrast is down to 22 out of 100 and like I said before the image is a little flat. Is this the correct image though? I mean my t.v.'s blacks aren't great it 's a 52kdlv4100 sony lcd. Any thoughts would be greatlly appreciated. One more thing is that the t.v. has a white blance option where you can adjust the red, green and blue in both dark and light scenes. On the AVS forums almost everyones adjustments are different. So should this only be tinkered with, by a calibrator or the specials color meters. Thanks again.

04-30-2009, 09:32 PM	#3
maygit Active Member Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Iowa Blu-ray collection:76	i'm in the same boat, i can't figure out where to set my contrast level. If i max it out at 100, the "above white" and "100% white" are still different shades while the "below black" and "100% black" are the same(like it should be) no matter where the contrast is set. I just set mine to 90 and said the hell with it, i'm assuming my tv needs to be adjusted in the service menu to allow a higher contrast setting. Something that has got me is that my 90% gray/black stands out like a sore thumb vs. the otehr shades. It's almost as if that specific shade is the only one that has no color added where my other levels look different, it's hard to explain. Any suggestions? One major thing i noticed that really affects your brightness setting is your white balance. Specifically the blue bias. Even on warm 2 i had a lot of blue added to the image so i dropped that down almost as low as it goes and noticed right away that my grayscale looked...well gray. After dropping the blue bias down, i noticed i now needed to turn my brightness up higher according to the tests which changed a lot of things. Last edited by maygit; 04-30-2009 at 09:36 PM.

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04-30-2009, 09:12 PM	#2
wafi Power Member Member since:Jan 2008 Location:along the beltway Home Theater Gallery:26 Blu-ray collection:384 Blu-ray reviews: 11 Trading Score:4	Totally off-topic...luv your TV stand! Where did you get it from? And would it fit a 56" wide TV?

04-30-2009, 10:14 PM	#4
nothing.sound Expert Member Member since:Oct 2007 Home Theater Gallery:16 4K collection:64 Blu-ray collection:432	t.v. stand is from Wal Mart in Canada. It was under 200 bucks which was awesome. It's not black though it's a really dark like espresso or something. They have matching side towers that are awesome but are around the same price.

05-01-2009, 12:17 AM	#6
crackinhedz Super Moderator Member since:Feb 2007 Home Theater Gallery:10 Blu-ray reviews:8 Trading Score:19	In your PS3 settings, set BD / DVD Video Output Format (HDMI) to "Y Pb / Cb Pr / Cr" while you adjust the DVE. Also, out of curiosity...do you have RGB set to Full or Limited? (should be Limited) ...I believe your Yamaha receiver will not output 'Full', so it could be clipping.

05-01-2009, 08:45 PM	#7
nothing.sound Expert Member Member since:Oct 2007 Home Theater Gallery:16 4K collection:64 Blu-ray collection:432	hey crackinz, yeah i already have it set to y pb/ cb pr/ cr and my rgb is set to limited. I think I'm just not happy with my t.v. After watching a panny plasma for a year and than going to a way bigger, slightly older LCD you can really tell the difference between LCD and Plasma.

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