A few PS3 questions

[drfsupercenter]

I assume you've gone into the Blu-ray/DVD settings and set "upscaler" to "normal"?

Using HDMI, there's also a bunch of other settings related to RGB/YUV settings, and enhancements for those. These are the ones that I always set after resetting my PS3 settings (or getting yet another back from Sony tech support).

I actually set upscaling to the one after normal... I forget what it said, but it was some option about DVD upscaling. Though it looked exactly the same with it on and off.

I don't know anything about picture enhancements, usually if it looks fine I don't mess with it... because as the expression goes "You can't miss what you never had"... if I get the picture looking good I'll stop messing with it.

Calibrating your HDTV properly is very important as well.Use this or have the geek squad come out an do it

Will the Geek Squad calibrate TVs you didn't buy from them? We got our TV at Costco (it was $2000 retail at Best Buy and we got it for $1280 at Costco... LOL)
Though I talked to someone at ABC Warehouse who said the whole thing about having a technician come out is usually a moneymaking scam, and that all you really have to do is adjust the colors so it looks right to *you*.
Initially my inputs were in "Game" mode which makes all the colors really bright, I turned it back to "normal" as it was hurting my eyes. And honestly, the "cinema" mode looks a lot worse than normal for movies.

(Though what do color settings have to do with the end result of hardware upscaling?)

[admin]

Normal for the upscale setting will upscale to the resolution of your TV, whereas the "fullscreen" option will make everything fullscreen, even if it means changing the aspect ratio. If your TV accepts 1080p24 input, there's also an option to enable that, which may give you smoother playback.

There are more options under "Display Settings", including the full range RGB option (more dynamic picture) or the super-white setting. You might have to play around with these to see which one looks the best on your TV.

As for adjusting your TV, technicians will have specialized equipment that can calibrate your TV to the optimum setting. But you can achieve part of this optimization yourself, albeit not as scientifically or precise, using calibration DVDs such as the DVE (Digital Video Essentials) range. Some movies, like the good old THX optimizer on DVDs, will have optimization tools. It's mostly about brightness and contrast settings, as well as sharpness - it's a fine balance between the 3, and most TVs have contrast way too high, although it may depend on your personal taste a bit.

[doctorhardware]

BTW yes geek squad will, because that is one of the biggest profit centers for them.

[drfsupercenter]

If your TV accepts 1080p24 input, there's also an option to enable that, which may give you smoother playback.

I think that's what I used. I didn't use "fullscreen", but it's also not on Normal.

And I changed the super white and full RGB color thing thanks to BR7's link. It just looks different than the Xbox 360's upscaling... not saying it's a good or bad thing, the two are mutually exclusive. (How many actual methods are there for good upscaling, anyway? I'd imagine on a PC I would use Lanczos or something but it probably is too slow for realtime playback)

As far as calibration goes... is it a "one size fits all" type of thing? Or are there personal preferences for good viewing?
Like, and would I have it calibrated once and that's it? Or would there be a different setting for games and movies? (I hate my TV's default "game" setting... it just makes everything so bright my eyes hurt, kinda like early Technicolor. And I'm not complaining about what everything looks like on "Normal" color)

[copyless]

The calibration DVD is almost useless without an eye-one display LT at least or one of higher quality. Calibrating the display can be a time consuming job depending on which type of display you have. It also has a lot to do with what the manufacturer allows you to change, where some you can change settings rather easily and other take a special remote, and some just require you to use a sequence on the remote that came with the TV, to access the technicians adjustments.

To some it looks worse after being calibrated, simply because they are not used to seeing the contrast and brightness adjusted correctly. But normally they get used to it and like it a lot better after watching it for a while.

And as far as how often you have it calibrated, again that depends on what type display and the usage of it. As you know I have two DLP's, one 57" and one 65", they get used a lot and since they are bulb based, they require calibration more often since the bulb does weaken with use. Luckily I do own all the equipment needed to do it and so I usually check my calibration every 6-8 months. But even without the equipment you could learn to adjust the contrast and brightness accordingly once you knew what true video black looked like and what the ratio's were on your set. My LCD TV does not require the same maintenance as the DLP's but I still check it yearly.

So I would say you could have it done once (since I know you do not own a DLP) and then use your knowledge to adjust it accordingly when you see a large difference in the picture.

[drfsupercenter]

Well mine is a plasma.

I just don't see any real reason to pay $250 or so for someone to come out and change some settings... if anything I could just mess with it myself and see what looks best.

After all, it IS personal preference, right?

What I should do, though, is take an image of a certain color, print it, then burn the same image to a DVD, and just adjust the TV so that they look the same. Or would that not work? (Possibly due to the printer)

[copyless]

If you tell me the make and model of your TV, I will check on it, but most all TV's are way out of adjustment when shipped from the factory, for what reason this is done is beyond me.

I can tell you that personal preference is a factor, but having the colors set true and the grayscale correctly bring out detail in the picture that otherwise would never be seen. It may sound crazy, but setting it correctly can turn your 1080P TV into a totally different TV, almost like it is now 480 (even though it's not)and after correction it is 1080, this is almost how much detail it can expose. Again this depends on what adjustments can be made, and how far off these scales are when set at the factory.

If you search, calibration, maybe TV or display, or maybe eye-one (not sure where) you should find some still photos I believe that will show before and after photos of displays with the same picture that will show the difference in detail. You could also check out the AVSforum.

[drfsupercenter]

It's a 50" Panasonic plasma... I don't know the exact make but it's the kind Costco sells.
Equivalent to the 50U one you can get at Best Buy (just renumbered for whatever reason)

[BR7]

It's not a DLP ,so you are good for the yearly checks

[drfsupercenter]

Hmm, DLPs need more maintenance or something? I intentionally avoided DLPs as I've heard too many horror stories, and I also didn't like the picture quality.

So I managed to update my PS3, by downloading the update to my flash drive. My router's been having some issues lately and I've never gotten it to work successfully from the PS3 itself.
Well anyway, I went to sign up for the PlayStation Network and it was saying I'm not old enough so I'll need to have a parent log in. Is there a way around that? I'll be 18 in a little over a month, and my parents don't even know anything about online accounts.
For Windows Live I managed to evade it by making a "drfparent" email that had the same password as my normal one, then giving myself infinite permission. But it's just a PITA to deal with, especially as now I can just wait a couple months. (I've has Windows Live for a few years, though)

[doctorhardware]

Renumbering the TV's is done, so that way, say like Best Buy has the TV and you buy it. Then you end up at say like costco. Now costco has the same TV but it is $800 dollars less. Best Buy policy states that they have to match the price(as long as it is with in 30 days of your purchase), and I think beat it by 10%.

When I buy a new TV it will be either Plasma or LCD.

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah I know about that... also goes for price matching.

But I do my research before buying stuff, so I knew about Costco's price being lower anyway (And from consumer reports, it's like identical to the 80U model everywhere else but some design difference like matte black instead of glossy)
Though the price tag said $1449, and when we got to the register it was $1280. Which was a pretty good/unexpected sale.

[doctorhardware]

That is definitely a very good price. The bigger stores like Best Buy pay a premium so that do not have to price match. I like Costco but there is not any that are close to the house, so I go to Sam's club.

[drfsupercenter]

That was really the only reason my mom agreed to get a 50"... she wanted 42 or 46 saying the 50" one was too big and like $400 more than the smaller ones... but when my dad saw the sale price at Costco, she realized it's actually cheaper than a smaller one somewhere else and agreed to get the size I wanted.

[doctorhardware]

It is amazing how the prices have come down on the Plasma and the LCD TV's