My HDTV has about 4 different picture modes. (standard, Custom, Dynamic andone other I cant remember) and I was wondering if its ok to sue on of these for viewing my HDTv for Games and Movies? I mean, is the picture bad on these preset ones? (its 80 Contrast, adn 50 everything else.) I jsut got so sick adn tired trying to calibrate my TV with that stupid Digital Video Essentials HD movie. It didnt work and I spent like 8 hours trying to do it.

Some of them, like Movie or Cinema, will get you in the ballpark. However, these modes can still benefit greatly from adjustment or calibration to maximize the PQ of your HDTV. DVE works, you just have to learn a little before you can best utilize it. You can also hire a professional if you want it dialed in properly.

Also, in the future, would you mind proof reading before you post. It is somewhat difficult to read some of your entries. Thx.

DVE is just a teaser, theres no way to get it right without instrumentation. Yes cinema will get closer, its still not the way it should be. Alot of people ask if its worth the money... once you see it correct you will not question the cost.

My HDTV has about 4 different picture modes. (standard, Custom, Dynamic andone other I cant remember) and I was wondering if its ok to sue on of these for viewing my HDTv for Games and Movies? I mean, is the picture bad on these preset ones? (its 80 Contrast, adn 50 everything else.) I jsut got so sick adn tired trying to calibrate my TV with that stupid Digital Video Essentials HD movie. It didnt work and I spent like 8 hours trying to do it.


Those are 4 are settings are picture modes - not calibrations.

Is the picture bad on the preset ones? As Bill Clinton said, define is (or "bad" for that matter).

A properly calibrated set will always outperform a preset (and DVE cannot be used alone to calibrate a TV to its full potential).

To what extent? It depends if you want a C Grade in the middle of the Bell Curve or the best you can get with your equipment on the outer ends of the Bell Curve.

i calibrated using DVE and after a lot of trial and error i got what i call an improvement to the original preset settings. It was really hard at first trying to understand the poorly explained patterns but with the right questions asked to some of the professionals on this forum i got good results.
The only problems i still have are the advanced settings on my tv menu like gamma and dinamic contrast to individual RGB and white balance among others, yes my tv has more than just basic contrastn brightness and color/tint.
So i have a hypothetical question here, lets say that i achieved a perfect calibration with using a dvd like DVE, how close to a professional calibration would that be on a scale of 0 to 10? I just want to know how far 300$ to 500$ can go for someone to come to my house and manually tune my tv.