For those of us who are relatively inexperienced with these TV's and who don't want to read 200 pages of posts, a reminder that HDNET transmits a test pattern at 8am each Tuesday. With Daylight Saving time, it turned out to be 7am right now. I recorded the pattern with the 6416 STB DVR off Verizon FIOS cable TV and displayed it on the TV. It was moderately useful in setting contract, brightness, etc. The URL that describes the process is:
http://www.smartcalibration.com/hdnetpatterns.html.
The resolution chart was particularly useful in setting between 720p and 1080i. I have a 65831. On ESPN, which transmits in 720p, setting the STB to 720p was clearly preferable. However, on HDNET, which transmits in 1080i, on both the normal source and test pattern. I preferred 1080i. I know there is some question of the deinterlacing quality of the Mits, but whether with motion or without, the 1080i seemed better. And even my wife noticed it ("blind" test). So, since I have to set the STB on one or the other, I have selected 1080i. The resolution clearly was better on the 1080i.
ESPN which transmits in 720p is better to set the STB to 720p and let the Mits scale up to 1080p. ESPN, when the STB is on 1080i, has smeared letters when the text is scrolling at the bottom of the screen. So, either the STB is not converting to 1080i very well or the Mits is not deinterlacing the 1080i to 1080p very well. Don't know which it is, though, from just these tests. I'm not seeing any such issues with HDNET or Discovery HD when the source is 1080i, the STB is set to 1080i and the Mits deinterlaces to 1080p. So, if it weren't for some of the other posts, I would surmise that it is the STB that is the culprit trying to convert 720p to 1080i, not the Mits deinterlacing 1080i to 1080p. If the STB is set to 720p and I look at HDNET or Discovery HD, the picture is good (so the Mits is upscaling from 720p to 1080p well), but the resolution is not as good as when the STB is set to 1080i. I have no real good way (no test equipment) to tell if the Mits is deinterlacing well or not from 1080i to 1080p. But to my eye, the improvement in resolution with the STB set on 1080i is a significant improvement.
After all that, we went through the HDNET test patterns. On STB 720p, the sharpness control seems to do very very little, or nothing. On STB 1080i, Sharpness does have an effect. I feel that SharpEdge rings and introduces artifacts to the picture, so I have routinely set it off; in the test pattern, the negative effect was clearly visible. Video Noise doesn't have an effect on good quality HD input. I'll have to test it further on noisy input.
My settings for the STB are: 1080i, Sharp 37, Color Temp Low, DFI ON, SE OFF, Video Noise Low (little or no effect on good HD), Picture Bright, Contrast 28, Brightness 44, Color 31, Tint 31. Colors Mag 29, Red 31, Yellow 30, Green 30, Cyan 31, Blue 31.
No science to setting the colors, just trying for something natural, that pops, without the cartoonish colors.
This is a start. Net result is that the picture does appear a bit more natural. Resolution is much better. Artifacts are at a new low. Colors may need some more tweeking.
Peace.