Or is self calibration just as good in most cases

I am getting an new HDTV and HD-DVD player soon, so I want to know

What would I use for a LCD?

Depends on what TV you got and how does it look overall. If you have let's say a cheap LCD
you get from Wal-Mart (Sylvania, Emerson, Magnavox, etc.) then it's not worth it. If you get a
Plasma from Pioneer, Sony, Samsung, etc. then it's worth it if you can get a good price. The
only way, I think, to get the best overall picture for calibration is mostly HD CRT mostly Sony's.

It depends. That's an ecomonic question that we cannot answer for you.

It depends if your satisfied with the settings you create with your eyes or with DVE or some other program.

On a results-per-dollar basis, buying DVE and following along and JUST doing that is almost surely worth it for just about anyone. Lots of results for $30 and several hours of your time.

Beyond that, having a pro out surely saves you time over learning how to do it yourself, and surely gets a better result in 99% of cases, but it's not for everyone and not for every display.

My recommendation: do it yourself first, live with it a few weeks (you want to put some hours on the bulb anyhow before a pro comes out as the lamp will shift color over time) and then decide whether to spend the money or not.

--Jim

Is it worth the money? I'm very interested in having my tvs calibrated. Does anyone have any idea on prices?

from what ive priced, the grand tour is roughly 200 bucks per input. some people have charged 200 for the first, and an additional 50 per extra input. then again, this only applies if you have independent memory per input.