Hey All,

First off, I want to say that this is my first post on these forums, but I have been reading them for a long time and I have to say that this community has to be the absolute best when it comes to help and support with regards to HDTV, LCDs, Plasmas, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, etc. Absolutely love it!

Now, onto my question. I have a Philips 37PF9631D (LCD 37") and have recently picked up the Toshiba HD-D3 (Which, from all accounts, is the same as the HD-A3).

I have the HD-D3 hooked up to the TV via an HDMI cable. The HDMI cable is a Monster cable with one end being HDMI and the other being DVI. This was a mistake by Best Buy when I bought my TV, they were supposed to give me an HDMI cable with HDMI on both ends, not a DVI on one end. As my TV does not have DVI port, I purchased an adapter (monster) which changes the DVI end to an HDMI end.

So this is the cable setup I have used to hook up the HD-D3 to the Philips tv. I also got 4 free movies with the HD-D3 (not the best titles to test). They are given below:

Firewall
Borne Identity
300
The Perfect Storm.

From what I have gathered, these are not the best films to demo or show-off the power of HD-DVD.

What is a bit disappointing to me, is that the picture I am getting is not as good as I would have hoped or imagined it to be. The philips TV has a max. resolution of 1080i, but for the HD-D3 I have set it to ouput the resolution to 720p (as I believe this is the native resolution for my set).

Not sure what I can do other then tinkering with display settings, which I have begun to do. If anyone has any suggestions for this set (settings), I'd love to hear them. I am currently running the display setting suggestions from CNET but I don't really think they are that great IMO.

I know I should be seeing some clearly noticable differences between the HD-DVD and SD DVD's, so if anyone has any suggestions please do post.

Tonight I will probably pick up one of, or both, of the following:

A Scanner Darkly (HD-DVD)
Transformers (HD-DVD)

As a side note, the Manual for the HD-D3 states that it does not support DVI, and I wonder if the DVI-to-HDMI adapter I am using could cause a loss in quality. Maybe someone can clarify this as well.

Kind Regards,

Craig

Greetings

No flat panel has a resolution of 1080i ... they are all progressive panels ... no such animal as an interlaced panel.

The native resolution of your set is likely 1366x768 ... which is common for smaller panels.

Set the player to output 1080i ... and let the TV de-interlace it and scale it down to fit the panel.

Why not just use a test disc to determine the best settings for your particular TV rather than blindly entering someone else's settings ... CNET or otherwise. Their TV is different than yours and their DVD player is different as well.

The AVS area here even now has a "free" HD DVD test disc full of patterns to use to calibrate your set with. Just download it and burn them to DVD.

If downloading and burning is not your cup of tea ... use those TV optimode test patterns on any THX dvd and you will still get better results than using other people's numbers.

Regards

Greetings

No flat panel has a resolution of 1080i ... they are all progressive panels ... no such animal as an interlaced panel.

The native resolution of your set is likely 1366x768 ... which is common for smaller panels.

Set the player to output 1080i ... and let the TV de-interlace it and scale it down to fit the panel.

Why not just use a test disc to determine the best settings for your particular TV rather than blindly entering someone else's settings ... CNET or otherwise. Their TV is different than yours and their DVD player is different as well.

The AVS area here even now has a "free" HD DVD test disc full of patterns to use to calibrate your set with. Just download it and burn them to DVD.

If downloading and burning is not your cup of tea ... use those TV optimode test patterns on any THX dvd and you will still get better results than using other people's numbers.

Regards


Thank you very much for your reply Michael. I was actually looking to get the AVIA calibration disk but have yet to find it (at least in stores) and would probably have to purchase it online. I was unaware that AVS has a free HD-DVD test disc for calibration! This is fantastic. Could you point me to where it is located?

Kind Regards,

Craig

EDIT: Nevermind, I believe I found it. http://displaycalibrationonline.com/dvd/nero/dvd_calibration.zip

Hi Craig,

I don't know if you'll even get this as it's a reply from an old posting.
Anyway, I also have a 37PF9631D and love it. I also have a Toshiba HD-A2 and Panasonic DMP-BD10A Blu-ray player.

You should definitely see a difference between DVD's and High definition discs. After watching HiDef discs I don't like DVD's anymore and the difference is definitely noticeable. I have changed the resolution on my HD-A2 from 720p and 1080i and it's quite hard to see any difference if there is any. I've looked over and over and sometimes I think I do and sometimes I'm not sure so I leave it at 1080i just in case there is. On a 37 inch it's probably hard to tell the difference anyway. I use the following settings:

Picture: Rich or Personal (Rich is a default setting and changing anything kicks you into Personal)
Contrast: 100
Brightness: 50
Color: 67
Sharpness: 4 (On DVD's it might be too sharp so I might lower it)
Digital Processing: Pixel Plus
Dynamic Contrast: Maximum
DNR: It varies with the discs as some are quite noisy and this feature reduces noise extremely well without reducing sharpness
Color Enhancement: ON

I like the push of LCD's so I keep the contrast at 100. This might seem incorrect but I've noticed a distinct increase in sharpness when Pixel Plus 2 HD is turned on. Pixel Plus 2 HD works on all the sources...DVD, OTA broadcast and Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Try watching a basketball or football on NBC (1080i) and turn the contrast up and turn on Pixel Plus. The detail is much sharper. Even DVD's look much sharper. I think CNET or someone mentioned that Pixel Plus didn't increase sharpness. They were wrong but they had the contrast too low to see it. I think the same thing occurs when testing a plasma. Plasma's just don't have enough push for you to see the difference. And I actually bought this TV because of Pixel Plus which made the picture so much more 3D in the store where I purchased it. Personally, I won't buy anything but Philips for this very reason...Pixel Plus. This set has Pixel Plus 2 HD but there is a Pixel Plus 3 HD and now Perfect Pixel Engine HD or something on the 2007 and 2008 sets.

I should also say I use HDMI for High definition sources and component for DVD. I have a HD-DVD and a Blu-ray copy of the Searchers and the HD-DVD looks a little sharper than the Blu-ray so I turn the sharpness down a little when watching the HD-DVD. The "Searchers" was made in 1956 but with Vista Vision everything is in focus (far or near) and sharp as it can be.


Joe