Hi. I've had my 72HM196 for about 2 weeks now. So far I love it. I am still amazed every time I watch football in 1080i. I am an engineer at a television station, so I am rather picky about video. I have been trying to get the picture "perfect" during this time and just can't seem to get it. Has anyone calibrated this television and are you willing to post your settings? Here's what I am struggling with:

1) It seems like the set is showing way too much red. Whenever there is red on the screen it seems overwhelming. With the HM196, I am guessing this needs an adjustment in the service menu to compensate. I have been in the service menu and already adjusted VPOS and HPOS, so if someone could give me a recommendation on how to correct the red push from there, I would appreciate it.

2) It seems like white is overwhelming with the contrast over 40. However, I've seen a couple of posts where people have calibrated a 62HM196, and the Contrast settings were all around 60. Anyone care to comment on this? It seems like white is too brite on this setting.

3) Again, for the threads I've seen on calibrating the 62HM196 (I have the 72HM196), the recommended Tint is around +15 or so. I don't see much difference between zero and +16. Anyone care to comment or share your settings?

4) I've seen suggestions to set Sharpness at zero, however, using the HDNET test pattern, I've been able to make the outlines disappear at around +50 Sharpness. Any comments?

5) Color! Man! I've seen several posts where the recommended color setting is around 65. WOW! That seems saturated. By the eye, somewhere between 40 and 50 is much better. Comments? Also, it seems like color is all over the place on DirecTV analog channels, so that makes it even more difficult to set this.

6) Advanced settings: I have the Dynamic Contrast turned off. With it on, the HDNET test pattern was getting way too dark! I've got the color temperature set to Warm. This seems to look the best. Any comments?

i just bought the same tv and I can't fing too many people that can help me. I have the same problem, the picture is good but not yet perfect. I just can't seem to find the perfect setting.

Hi Marty 45714,

When people provide settings, they should also indictate, at least, what the lighting conditions were. For my Tosh 62HM196, the use the following (viewing in room with virtually no lighting).

Contrast 50
Brightness 53
Color 42
Tint +16
Sharpness 0

Advance Picture Settings
Dynamic Contrast OFF
DNR OFF
MPEG Reduction OFF
Color Temperature Warm
Lamp Mode Low Power

THEATRE SETTINGS
Picture Size Natural
Cinema Mode Film
Auto Aspect Ratio On

You will likely never get it right unless you have your TV professionally calibrated. The DVD cal disks and color cards can help somewhat. It will depend how far off your TV is from broadcast standard.

Good luck.

HP999

If you can swing it, get a professional calibration and save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Just set it and forget it.

If you do it yourself, first calibrate the color decoder in the service menu using Digital Video Essentials and some color filters. There should be three controls starting with R,G, and B. Don't get these mixed up with cuts and drives which refer to grey scale (RCUT, BDRV etc). Set your TV to "warm" mode to reduce the brightness of whites and get more accurate color. Ideally, you should not have to touch the tint control if your color decoders and saturation are set correctly.

If you are still seeing red push after you calibrate the color decoder, it could be coming from your grey scale. You can check this by turning the color saturation down to 0 and checking for over emphasis of a particular color. If you see there is too much red, turn down the RCUT until it disappears. It won't be perfect D65, but it will look much more tolerable.