View Full Version : Tune-up disk.
Mackie
05-29-2003, 06:08 PM
Went looking for an Avia disk today, couldn't find one around here. Best Buy nor CC or Block Buster carried it. Best buy had the. "Sound and Vision Learning Place" By Ovation. They are selling it for $39.95. The salesman said it was new released version. Anyone know if it's a decent product for that price?
I went to Ovations web site, but can't find a product that has "Learning Place" along with Sound and vision in the title on the box front cover. Like the on at Best buy did, it also had the Best Buy logo on the box....
Mackie,
Try www.amazon.com. I got my Avia there and the price wasn't bad. The forum used to have a link to Amazon but I have't seen it lately.
Anything over $25 and they ship for free.
Good Luck,
Lee
There may be a new Sound & Vision tuneup DVD. The old one was called "Sound & Vision Home Theater Tuneup".
Perhaps they're just packaging something else with it because the price sounds too high for the DVD by itself - which is usually available for under $20.
StreetPreacher
05-29-2003, 07:39 PM
This probably isn't the right forum for this question, but it's the correct title.
I just got the Sound & Vision Home Theatre Tune Up DVD recently, and i'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the colour/tint adjustments. I've played with it a few times, but I can't seem to get to a point where those little boxes dissapear. I'm assuming that they need to be adjusted together since they seem to affect each other, but can never find the right settings. Is there some sort of trick to it? they don't really give you a lot of pointers in the tutorial.
If this is too far off topic please just ignore.
Back to 'tweaking'...
-sp
Get the little boxes as close as possible to the right colour. If you're way off, I think they look almost black.
They do interact to a certain extent. On AVIA there is another set of tests with vertical coloured bars that you also need to "match".
Remember this is not a "science". It's intended to get you in the right ballpark and then you can tweak by eye on a "real" picture.
The colours tend to vary a lot from station to station anyway - NTSC - Never The Same Colour.
NTSC - Never The Same Colour.
I do note a slight difference in your colours and our colors :D
Lee
spaceman_spiff
05-29-2003, 11:12 PM
If NTSC is 'Never the same Color', then is ATSC 'Always the screwed color' ? Very funny :D
Its funny how british (and canadians :D) spell 'colour' and americans spell 'color', it still sounds the same and is part of english language. :cool:
Another one, analog or analogue. :D
This lightens up the spirits a bit. Cheers.
MickeyGee
05-30-2003, 08:42 AM
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before in this forum, but you can get the THX Optimizer (for both sound and video) for free included in several movie DVD's. I got mine in the "Monster's Inc." DVD. Certainly not as good as some of the others, but you can't beat free!
StreetPreacher
05-30-2003, 09:38 AM
Well, I did some more tweaking last night and managed to get the boxes close to invisible, although i'm a little suprised at the setting I came up with. Colour is at about 55 and tint is like -15, are these reasonable values? Before getting the S&V I had colour set to around 30-35 and tint at -9 or so.... Maybe i'm just colour blind :confused:
Are colour settings something that people are usually way off on when done with the naked eye? I've usually just set it based on making the flesh tones look correct, was this the wrong approach?
-Sp
Mackie
05-30-2003, 10:38 AM
I called Ovation this Am about the Best Buy DVD. They were aware of it and said, Best Buy enhanced the package by adding some kind of tech support feature giving more info to the layman about RPTV. But in no way is it interactive with the S&V disk, ,such as, refering you back and forth to the S&V disk. The S&V disk included in the package is no different than the regular S&V package disk.This "Learning Place" ad-on was not done by Ovation. ..... Mackie
Thanks for the update Mackie. Looks like BB can make $20 on the "package" while they'd probably make only a couple $ on the disk.
So, what are you going to buy?
keving
05-30-2003, 01:08 PM
I need to get one of these calibration discs eventually. Is the AVIA disc recommended above others? I saw a few in the FAQ, but don't know which one might be better. If they're all within $15-20 of each other, then whatever yields the most accurate picture is the one I'd want to grab.
The AVIA disk is probably slightly better because it has more test patterns and filters - it's usually just under $40.
The S&V disk is just fine and is usually available for under $20.
The AVIA DVD is probably slightly better because it has more test patterns and filters - it's usually just under $40.
The S&V DVD is just fine and is usually available for under $20. Many people have calibrated their Home Theaters using this DVD.
Mackie
05-30-2003, 01:31 PM
Hi 57U, thanks for the comeback... I not sure yet what I will buy. I, a while back looking for something on Amazon came across a pre- order for "Video Essentials", not knowing much about what's out there at the time, I went for it. It is supposed to be released July 15, I am locked into that because of my online order. So far, I am leaning towards the S&V for something to play with now. The S&V is availabe for $17 shipping included from Ovation. I also think about the Avia, but wonder if the new release of VE will be as good. So I may hold off on the Avia until I get the new VE and at that time if the reports are in favor of the Avia I will go for it then. I also asked Ovation what the new Avia Pro will cost, they quoted $400. It will consist of 8 disks.
______________
Hitachi 46f500
Zenith Sat520
Thanks for the Ovation info Mackie. I went to their site, link below and they have additional information on S&V - table of contents, FAQs, etc.
http://www.ovationsw.com/htt_purchase.html
They show a list price of $20, but you say $17 S&H included - good to know...
It'll be interesting to hear about the new VE disk once it's available.
I had colour set to around 30-35 and tint at -9 or so.... Maybe i'm just colour blind.
After calibrating to the Avia DVD my settings were 60 and -9, but I dropped the color down to 50 and have been running that way since. The boxes are not perfect but the colors don't seem as saturated.
I guess it comes down to what you like to see. I'm still playing with contrast settings. The brightness is not a problem.
Lee
Mackie
05-31-2003, 12:33 AM
57U, the link below will take you to the Best Buy site and will let you run a couple of sample demos to show how "The Learning Place" Tech Tutorial enhancement bundeled with the S&V Theater Tune-Up disk works. Unfortunately it mentions the Home Theater tutorial but doesn't show a sample demo for it. To get to a desired tutorial it says you need to enter the key found inside the disk case. But at least you can run the couple they allow for demo purposes to get the idea. One is on Digital Photos and the other on Going Mobile. Might be a decent product for the layman ???
http://www.learningplace.instructionset.com/
StreetPreacher
05-31-2003, 09:30 AM
These disks are great for DVD watching, but what are we supposed to do to calibrate our sets for HD? If I use the same settings for the HD input it never looks good. I've heard of HDNET sending out some test patterns, but i'm up in the frozen north here, are there any other options?
-Sp
