dark picture quality

[goodatmath]

This is my first thread and I hope this is the correct place for it. I have searched the web and nothing I have found so far could help me, so maybe this forum can.

I recently bought a PS3 for my living room to use as sort of a media center for the house. I replaced my old 'upconverting' DVD player. Now when I watch most movies I have tons of darkness in 'dark' movies (opening scene in Assassination of Jesse James, all of Battlestar Galactica season 3 so far) when it wasn't as pronounced before. Its almost unwatchable.

I have a Toshiba 42 inch DLP and the PS3 is connected with an HDMI cable. It happens on Blu-ray and regular DVD's but no matter what, the slight shadows I should notice on faces are simply a large dark spot on the tv, not the way it should be.

I just typed this up on the fly before heading home. If anyone could help but needs more info, let me know and I can get you whatever info you would need to make a suggestion to me.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!