Comments:
AVIA, for me, was relatively easy to navigate. I listened to the verbal explanations of the picture controls, then pretty much navigated through the basic setup on my own. Now onto specific TV sets:
The Toshiba:_____________________
First, I checked Geometry. After having already checked and adjusted the hidden menus with the Lucas trilogy, the AVIA patterns were displayed point-on!!! No excessive pincushioning or overscan acc. to AVIA.
My Color and Hue settings ended up being slightly different than what they were using that cheapie "Home Theatre Test & Setup" DVD.
As for Detail, I previously set it to zero because this set has full-time, full-cranked SVM! Because of that, I noticed a change in the AVIA sharpness pattern only when Sharpness was cranked above the midpoint or so. I was able to keep it well above zero after using AVIA.
The real world? Images were as lifelike as you can get for a conventional CRT. Slight red-push lingered after using AVIA's scale pattern for checking R,G,B. Brightness/shadow detail - very good. Edge detail - always crisp on this set, no convergence issues whatsoever. The focus at the center is what you get at the edge. When I get up the nerve to go inside and disconnect power to the SVM board, it might be a different story. Overall, composite line input and component presented the most lifelike images, suggesting that broadcast and cable channels are overdriving themselves to stand out in a crowded field. : (
For other owners of this Toshiba and the others in the AF family, here are my final settings(YMMV): Scale is 0 - 64.
Picture: 32 Bright: 35 Color: 26 Hue: +7 Sharp: 25
The Sony:_______________________
This one's a little tougher to calibrate owing to some serious convergence problems affecting pretty much all of the screen outside a section in the center as big as a standard sheet of paper. READ - NASCAR driver positions or NFL scores on top, news trailers on the bottom, or anything written on the sidebars, will always be fuzzy no matter how well you focus, even with AVIA grids.
After tuning up the Sony's focus(as best as can be done!), I checked geometry. Again, geometry was spot-on, except that I needed to get into it's service menus to increase the "VSIZ" just a click.
Onto the basic 5: Amazingly, the post-AVIA settings were almost identical to my original adjustments, exc. for Sharpness. With Scan Velocity off, I was able to see blooming on the sharpness pattern almost right away! So I was able to move the sharpness up only slightly above zero.
The real world? Color balance almost identical to Toshiba's, even thought the Sony Tint ended up being in the red and the Toshie's in the green! Anybody want to comment on that? Shadow detail decent, although this required a more substantial boost in the brightness/black level control. Sharpness - great in the center of the screen and up to six inches away in any direction. After that, convergence gremlins take over and I have to switch SVM on, to the "Low" position to compensate. Overall, when it's bedtime and I'm switching TVs, I can relax and not see a significant change from the living room to bedroom.
Since Sony *still* doesn't use numerical values, I'll pass along what I got for my WEGA graphically:
Picture: Min.||||||||||||||| Max.(50%) Bright: Min.||||||||||||||||| Max.(55%) Color: Min.|||||||||||||||| Max.(52%) Hue: RED.||||||||||||| GRN.(47%) Sharp: Min.|||||| Max.(20%)
Tests were conducted with SVM: OFF, Picture Mode=Movie, Color Temp: Neutral.
I would like to hear from other AVIA users.
regards,
-CC