hello....long time lurker, first time poster.

i just bought my first HDTV and i got this one on sale for $799. pretty good deal.

anyway, its looking great for the most part, but of course i want to make it look as good as it can be. im relatively new to all this hd stuff and calibrating and whatnot. i just got a new upconverting dvd player with component cables hooked to the tv. i watched 300 last night, and it looked like crap at first, but when i switched the viewing mode to the "movie mode" it looked better. i can still see some like sand/granuals in the picture and im wondering if that is just because im not watching through an HDMI cable or what? is that natural to have the granuals? it doesnt take away from the movie per se, but its definitely noticeable. i can live with it, but im wondering if there is a site or list or something telling what the best settings are, calibration wise.

i know that different people will calibrate in different ways, but is there a standard? ive turned off the noise reduction and stuff thinking that that would solve the problem. do i just need to understand that viewing through component cables is going to look like this and deal with it?

bump

First, your upscaling player may not upscale over component. What brand/model is it? Second, the only way to calibrate yourself is by using a calibration DVD such as AVIA or DVE (available at amazon.com). Otherwise, you're just guessing.