They sent me home with three pages of information on calibration. One page was an article from Home Theater Jan 1, 2008 Vol 5 Issue 1. Concerning the disc it said "chances are good that the TV's menu controls won't let you do everything those discs suggest you do." On another page, not sure of the source, it says that having your TV professionaly calibrated can save you up to $100 a year on your electric bill.
I don't see how. Maybe for a plasma display, but even then ...
The basic controls on any tv will let you adjust the sharpness (down) and the color and tint settings so you can get close to reducing the red push if you care about it. TVs default settings are made to look the best in the showroom compared to everybody else's TVs. Most TVs exaggerate reds (called red push) in order to make them look better in the showroom.
With modern digital sets, the more advanced settings available only in the service menus typically don't need to be adjusted unless you care about that last little bit of improvement you might get with them. Those include detailed convergence controls and various b&w settings that tend to need more adjustment on old tube tvs than they do on digital flat panels. If you pay for professional calibration they will indeed check all the settings with professional equipment and adjust them all so the tv is as close to spec as they can get it. And it willl probably remain that way unless you reset them.
I think that the claims about power savings are exaggerated or taken out of context. At least I've never heard that.
I had my old DLP HDTV professionally calibrated by a highly recommended accredited calibrator when I lived in Florida. He did a nice job, but I didn't think that the improvement was that much better than what I was able to do myself.
Really, this isn't something you need to do. If you want to do it, that's fine, but you don't need to do it.
Obviously, the more additional services like extended warranties and expensive cables they sell you, the more they make on the sale. That's where their real profit comes from and they compensate their sales staff based on the items they make a lot of profit on. They don't make a lot of profit from the sale of the tv itself since prices for consumer electronics items are so competitive. The sales people are trained to sell the high profit items.
If you want to adjust your tv yourself, turn the sharpness way down, turn off all dynamic picture viewing controls, set the output mode to home theater or custom, leave the auto-brightness control on if you want that setting, and take it from there. You can buy Avia or other DVDs that will help you adjust things so they are close to spec, and it's fairly easy to do.
-David
Glynda said something weird in her last post. Probably a typo.
