Help! I have the Sony 40KDLV2500 1080p LCD and love it! So far I've been watching content via Comcast HD, which I have hooked up to video input 6 (DVI-I to HDMI). I have an older Philips DVD724 progessive scan dvd player. I tried it over the weekend and it looks horrible! The darks look almost posterized. Like a black looks glowing blue, and dark colors in general look washed out. That is the best way I can describe it. Everything else seems normal.

I am using component cables (that came with the Comcast box), and they appear to be of good quality. They are hooked up to the video 4 input (component video). For audio I'm using the digital optical output of the DVD to the digital optical input of my AV receiver (Onkyo 504).

What am I doing wrong? I'm positive I have it hooked up correctly. Could the component cables be bad? The DVD player was out of action for a couple of years, could it be bad? I don't have an extra set of cables or DVD to swap out, so I want to start in the most likely place.

Get a new DVD player like the Oppo.

What am I doing wrong? I'm positive I have it hooked up correctly. Could the component cables be bad? The DVD player was out of action for a couple of years, could it be bad? I don't have an extra set of cables or DVD to swap out, so I want to start in the most likely place.

First thing: have you used a calibration disc? I attach my standard advice here:

The easiest way to start is with the THX Optimzer, which can be found in the setup section of THX Certified disks (there's a logo on the disk case, or see the entire list here: http://thx.com/mod/products/dvd/dvdFind.html). When adjusting color it is handy to have the blue filter glasses available for $1 + shipping from http://thx.com/home/dvd/blueglasses.html.

There are more advanced calibration disks. I use GetGray from http://www.calibrate.tv/. You have to download it and burn your own DVD, and you need the filter glasses mentioned above. Easy to use, no nonsense.

Avia and Digital Video Esstentials are popular. I have them, but find the navigation clumsy and have not spent much time with them yet. They are loaded with tutorial and informercial material, and are available from Amazon.

I have not seen the Monster/ISF disk, but have heard that it uses video clips instead of test patterns. It might be best for a non-technical user.

There is a calibration forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=139

-Bill

I'm following up on this in case someone is as stupid as I.....

I figured it out. I believe the original problem was I didn't change the video output from S-video to component. The picture was weak and looked way too light. One of the settings on the Philips DVD724 is brightness. It goes from 0, to +4 and -4. I set it to -4 and that improved the picture, but it was far from acceptable. I gave up on it and left it for another day.

Later, I must have realized the video input need to be changed to component, and switched it. The picture looked a lot better, but now the blacks tended to look blue, and the overall looked slightly 'posterized' especially with contrasty scenes.

This morning, I rechecked my connections, and went thru every line item in the DVD player menu. Lo and behold, when I adjusted the brightness back to 0, it completely eliminated the weird color. I then went to KDL40V2500 and reduced the backlight and brightness. Viola! Pic looks great, and the sound is awesome.