WHY HDTV CALIBRATION IS IMPORTANT

Calibration: Calibration is adjusting all the video output levels in the tv to give the best performance. Most people pull their newly acquired HDTV's out the box and never touch the adjustments. Some will go into the menu and adjust colors, contrast, brightness etc until they're satisfied. There are also DVD's out there that will help you "calibrate" your HDTV. Calibration allows your display to perform at its most optimal level as all the colors, blacks, contrast and other video levels are set to perfectly compliment each other. Outside of the regular menu on your remote, your TV also has a "service menu" which is usually accessed by a weird combination of button presses on the remote. Once there, things can get very confusing, as the settings have little meaning to the average person. Changing one setting here can greatly affect the video displayed, so it's recommended to not mess with this unless 1) You know what you're doing, 2) You've done major research on your specific model display or 2) You know someone who knows what they're doing.

The best way to calibrate your TV is to hire an licensed ISF technician. ISF stands for "Imaging Science Foundation." They are the industry standard to calibrating display screens. You can locate one within the united states by using this link: http://www.imagingscience.com/isf-trained.cfm. Expect to pay over $150 per input. This means your DVD player, satellite receiver and Blu-Ray player will all require separate calibration (providing that your TV has memory for independent inputs).

You can find the Digital Video Essentials calibration discs here for HD-DVD. The Blu-Ray version has yet to be announced.