Insignia NS-27HTV

[Shadowknight]

Hi, first time poster here. I know NOTHING about AV stuff, other than getting an HDMI cable through monoprice is better for my LG progressive scan DVD player that I got yesterday, along with the tv. The Insignia seems to have pretty alright image quality for $270, so I jumped on it. I can't afford professional calibration right now, and I'm iffy on doing it myself, but I am wondering if anyone else has this tv, and what they would recommend to change the contrast/brightness/etc. settings to improve image quality.

Thanks.

[infinitespecter]

Its a nice tv, certainly. As for calibration, rent the Avia oe DVE calibration DVDs. If you cant't find them, then use the calibrator on THX certified discs. These include Pixar DVDs and Lucasfilm discs.

[Shadowknight]

I started messing around with calibration tonight... but now I'll have to recalibrate it. I'm using the free THX calibrater on The Incredibles. The reason I have to recalibrate is because I switched out my RCA DVD player, that used an adapter to run into the tv through coaxial, with an LG player that uses component. The picture is soooooooooo much better after that. So my calibrations using the RCA are questionable, at best, due to the horrible image quality. While I was somewhat disappointed in the OTA performance of the tv, I think it's probably just a slightly inferior tuner compared to aftermarket ones. But the DVD quality rocks. It'll get even better when I get my HDMI cable from monoprice next week :)

[MOtvGuy]

As someone who was recently working in BBY's service department I hate to tell you this but, that particular model is made by Primus and is a POS. We were experiencing very high failure rates with that model almost as soon as it hit the showroom floors. I hope you bought the extended warranty with it.

[Shadowknight]

We were experiencing very high failure rates with that model almost as soon as it hit the showroom floors. I hope you bought the extended warranty with it.
Ow. Yeah, I'll do that tomorrow. Anyway, $50 for a four year warranty isn't that bad anyway.

[Redbugz007]

is it seriously only $50 for a 4yr plan?

[infinitespecter]

is it seriously only $50 for a 4yr plan?

Not surprising, given the Black Friday pricing on that set.

[zrdb]

As someone who was recently working in BBY's service department I hate to tell you this but, that particular model is made by Primus and is a POS. We were experiencing very high failure rates with that model almost as soon as it hit the showroom floors. I hope you bought the extended warranty with it.Funny-I used to work for BB and have had one of these sets for over a year and have had no problems with it at all. I really didn't see that many of these sets the times I had to go to the warehouse. I took back a 27" Samjunk tv and replaced it with this. I've been very pleased with it.

[Shadowknight]

The factory-pre-sets are awful, so if you're willing to blow the cash on pro-calibration, I'd definetly recommend it. It has it's downsides; universal remotes won't work on it, slow boot time, slow tuner changing, tuner isn't very good at "locking on" to digital channels, TV speakers don't cut off when you plug it into a stereo, requiring turning it down to zero, it only has one HDMI input, it's 4:3, and the menu stays up too long (unless you push the button to make it go away), but otherwise it's a GREAT set, particuarly if you got it for $270, like me on Black Friday. When I had it calibrated, the geometry was already perfect out of the box, and the calibrator told me that it was better picture wise than some Sonys.

Anyway, my understanding that most sets that go bad will do so in the first 100 hours or so. I've probably run mine for 200 hours, and it's perfectly fine. Worst problem I've had was one time it didn't boot up when I pushed the button, so I had to unplug it and push it again. I've had to do that 3-4 times with my Toshiba HD-DVD player, so a cheap TV is doing better than a name-brand DVD player. Go figure.

ETA: The poster two posts up is wrong about the manufacturer. A quick google search shows it was made by Konka (or whoever it's spelled), as shown by an official press release. (http://www.tridentmicro.com/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=262&BigClassName=Trident&SmallClassName=release&SpecialID=0)

[zrdb]

That's why it's way ahead of the Samjunk slimfit tvs-it doesn't have the shallow neck crts they do with the accompying distortion problems. I made some minor adjustments in the deflection part of the service menu and caliberated the color-better than any lcd set of the same size. I've learned to live with the slow "bootup" and menu lag times. I think there's an adjustment in the service menu to shorten the display time on these items. I'll let you know if and when I find them.

[zrdb]

Update-1 1/2 years later-still no problems-and I don't consider myself lucky-still very happy with it although I'm gonna get a 42" 1080P Panny plasma very soon. No stink'in lcd's for me!!