Sony BRAVIA KDL46XBR2 - User Settings/calibration - Page 12

If I recall correctly if you Reset the custom setting you will still have to reset the advance setting page then you might have to reset the white balance page also. If you made any changes to Vivid or standard you will have to gothrough the reset process all over again. Plus each individual input has a resets. So it depends how many inputs you changed also. You will have to go make changes there also. That is one of the bad things bout this TV but it is a flaw that begins because one of the TV's best features.

I have the same box and TV!
Time warner presets these boxes in NYC, they don't want customers to make to many changes. The best choice you have is to leave all the output setting on and live through the delay. You will only be abale to use cinemotion if you leave it this way. Just check you PQ and see if you like your TV doing the conversion for you or set the box at 1080i only and see if how the PQ is that way. I let the TV do the conversion and if you check all my post I have not made many complaints about my SD quality. Just a sometimes signal problem but in the whole my SD has look good, not great, but good. Also if you leave it at the delay mode, then you can use cinemotion for 480i viewing. You can try calling TWC CSR, But you can and will hear the blank look and steam of non-knowledge over the phone. Plus the will give you the directions that came with the box to set the convert1 one and all those others only to find out it won't work with these boxes. But try anyway. I have the instruction at home, but I won't be home until 10:30 if no one is able to give the proper way to set up the box I will write in the way to do it then. You basically have to reprogram the settings for the box so you can see why TWC would perfer if the average Joe doesn't go playing.

Just a brief comment here as I also own both the 46XBR3 and Motorola DVR. I think Petmic10's settings are pretty impressive overall. I did tweek the settings a little, for my taste. With regards to the DVR, I was wondering if anyone else can comment on their experience with the advanced settings. There is no "auto" mode, but I have selected 1080i at this time, with 4:3 override at 480p. Just curious on other's experiences. Thanks, in advance.

WWC, I'm in the same boat. I made the setting changes, and things look good. I have my 4:3 overide at 480i, so that the CineMotion can be enabled. I cannot see anything about a 'passthrough' or 'auto' for the output.

The following link has good details around the Moto setup, and still nothing about 'auto' output:
How to use a Motorola DVR (Wikipedia)

First off, I want to say thak you to Petmic, for actually getting his Sony calibrated by a professional and sharing the wealth! Also thanks for anyone else sharing thier info. Next is this is my first post, and surely not my last. My new settings (petmics) make my Sony really wake up! (46XBR2) The only thing I think to me anyway, is the pic seems just a little soft. Any help with that? and also, when I have my pic in full pixel mode, does anyone else notice a little distortion line at the top of the screen??? It DOES NOT happen on HD shows, just everything else. If I switch the view to standard, it doesnt show on anything. Anyone have this problem, or is it MY tv??? thanks in advance!

The distortion is normal. Either live with it or you have to set it on Normal screen. Be happy it doesn't happen on the HD. Mine only occurs on HD channle but not all the time.

You could play with the DRC settings to attempt to sharpen it up a bit. Also, what you're seeing on full pixel is completely normal. It happens to all of us because we're used to using televisions with built in overscan. Normal mode is just that, a viewing area with the usual amount of overscan.

Pet, who calibrated your TV?

His name is Kevin Miller and he is an ISF tech. who does calibrations in
the tri-state area. (Kevin@isftv.com)

He also does reviews for Cnet.com and actually reviewed the XBR for them.
I highly recommend him.

Thanks. I also see he has a website.

http://www.isftv.com

I got my 46" XBR2 last Friday...

I want to know which settings you guys recommend? I don't have HD channels, but I plan on ordering Dish Network sometime in the next week or so.

But I do have a PS3 running at 1080p through HDMI so I'm wondering if I can tweak the settings to make Resistance and Blu Ray movies look even better?

Thanks!

Petmic,

Great info!...thanks for sharing with us. Can you tell me how the calibration was done on the DRC Pallette to arrive at your setting of: Reality(35), Clarity(15) ? What exactly are these settings doing?

thanks for the info guys, i'm just glad its not a defect! I gotta say, the picture is stunning! Even my SD looks pretty damn good!

Based on the equipment the tech. used he concluded that after moving the
reality and clarity settings back and forth that these settings were the best.
They somehow work in conjuction with the sharpness control.

Keep in mind he only recommended using the DRC palette with my HD DVD player.
He commented on how it seemed to enhance the already sharp picture. I think
it works better with good source material.

DRC is off when I watching cable tv.

I decided to try VGA a try from my laptop to see how it would look. First, the text is a LOT more clear so i decided to try some HD trailers to see how they would look. First thing i noticed is that there was a lot more detail shown w/ the VGA connection. I loaded up the King Kong 1080p trailer, and if you have it, load it and pause it at about 25 seconds in (where there's a close up of kong's face and hes holding the girl)....with VGA, i can see his WHOLE face, especially the left side of his face, his ear and the hair on his left side. With DVI, the left side is black, cant make out the hair or the ear on his left side....

why is that? The blacks aren't as black as DVI, but the there is a lot more shown with VGA....is this a calibration issue? or is that how the picture is really supposed to be?

Im using petmic's settings.

Thanks

This is weird, because DVI should be a better connection then VGA. Before the arguments start let me stop it here. DVD is true Digital while VGA is not. In theory the digital connection should always be better.
OK, with that said. Is the left side coming in burry? What you seeing when you are at the same scene?
There is one thing that I can think or is if you are timing 25 seconds you might be pausing at different scenes because the DVI would sent a signal faster then VGA cable because the TV has to upgrade a signal from analog to digital. It might be miliseconds slower but still would be a different scene. That is just a theory of mine.

The DVI should not effect the blacks. As for it showing more, this could be a calibration issue. You should have to make adjustment depending on which cable you use.

The left is not coming in blurry with DVI, its sharp, but its black. With VGA, i can actually make out the left side of his face, the hair etc. Though with VGA it seems a little washed out than DVI, but its giving more detail.
As for pausing it right at 25 seconds, its the entire scene, from second 24 to about 34 (i chose that part of the scene b/c you can really tell the difference btwn vga and dvi).
I also took a ScreenShot of the image on screen and saved it as a Bitmap on my desktop...With DVI the image looked the same as it did while paused, the left side being black and unable to make out detail/hairs. Then i connected the VGA cable and viewed the image, and I could see all the details in the face and the hair etc on the left side. So its not about when i pause or anything, its about the color representation of VGA versus DVI.
I'll take my camera home tonight and take pictures w/ my camera to show you exactly what i mean to show you the difference. The image as a whole is a lot darker with DVI than with VGA (using the same color/brightness/temp controls...although VGA is very limited with calibration options) and VGA is a little washed out looking.

Thanks

Thanks again petmic,

I emailed Kevin and replied later that evening. Not a bad price either. And I found his review on cnet.com on the TV we both own.

Kevin is a great guy. Very knowledgeable.

he did the review at cnet on the 46? did he do the review for the 40 also? if so, how far were ther settings to pet? When I did cnet's setting they were a little too dark for my liking

hmm..it was just a calibration setting :O, using petmics settings, i just upped the brightness into the low 60s and it shows a lot more detail instead of crushing all the blacks together.

Here is what i mean...the image is blurry b/c of the camera, but you'll get the idea of what i mean:


This is petmic's settings.


This is petmic's settings w/ brighness up to 64.

*you might have to turn up the brightness on your tv to see the diff*
thanks

Petmic, wanna help me with my question?:P

Petmic!! THANK YOU!

I wasn't all that happy with my new TV compared to my older CRT Sony HD...after setting it up w/ your settings....WOW!!

My wife came how and her jaw droppped.

Thank you!!

Go to post #152 on this same thread. I think its on page 6.

Glad to help.

This is the best LCD on the market right now and when properly calibrated
it rivals some of the best plasmas. Black levels are pretty good also for an
LCD.

With proper set up and cables, I'm finding the picture quality of the1920x1080 setting over VGA cable between 360 HD-DVD and Sony 46xbr2 sucks compared to 1080i over componet. The PC video9 input does not have many adjustments. I heard from another avs forum member that brand name companies have degraded the quality of the VGA input purposefully to make the HDMI input look much better. Anybody have any experience with this?

<><, you are right that is a big difference. I am amazed how much a difference cables can do. Anyone that says cables don't matter should take a look at your pics. Unfortunately it seemed like the VGA gave you a better pic, from your settings. At least you now know that an easy adjustment is/might be necessary to use the better cables. By the way,I saw it just fine on my monitor at work.

Just wanted to give a shout out to Petmic. Thanks so much for sharing your settings. I recently bought the 46" xbr3 and adjusted settings to your specs. WOW! Unbeleiveable picture.

General question (appologies if this is the wrong forum for this): Will a DVD Upconverter improve picture quailty of standard DVD's on the xbr3?

Yes.

Oppo makes a very good upscaling dvd player. If you have an XBOX 360
your probably better off buying the HD DVD add on and connect it via VGA
then you will have an excellent HD player, and one that upscales regular dvd's
to 1080P.

Awesome. I don't have the XBOX 360 so will go with the upscaling DVD player. Never heard of the Oppo so will need to check it out (local BB in Massachusetts carry Sony and a few others). I see it on Amazon and it's rated high based on customer reviews.

Thanks for your repsonse Petmic. I can see by reading through this thread that you have helped many people, myself now included. Thanks again.