Purchasing and setting up HD TV?

Question

I am thinking about purchasing a DLP HD TV (Sharp or Samsung). I have heard from some people that the picture you see on the floor displays of BestBuy or Circuit City is not what you get immediately at home. You need to configure it? Is this true? Is that what Geek squad is all about? they charge you extra $200 to setup to configuration?

Answer 1

Myself I like Samsung.I have a LCD from them and its great.You should be able to set the set up yourself.Each person has different taste when it comes to color etc.I would not pay anyone 200.00 to set it up.You can do it and when you do it you can be proud of yourself and you saved 200.00 bucks..

Answer 2

I posted this response in the Home Theater section by somebody who asked a similar question.  Here ya go.

I have done calibrations (basic not isf certified) and agree save your money and just buy a calibration disc (kudos to the members who listed a few). If you have a bluray player buy the DVE HD version, if not you can buy those listed or Sound and Vision Home Theater Tune Up disc (which I have found to be the easiest to use to set up the Tint, Hue, Color, Sharpness, Brightness and Contrast.

Most TV's come from the store with the Contrast and Brightness maxed out or called "Torch mode" by making these simple adjustments you can calibrate the TV to your rooms settings and brightness in the room to help get you the best picture. These discs can be bought either on line or if you have a Fry's Electronic store in your state. Some stores like Best Buy sell calibration discs but that's a hit or miss I have found out.

The disc guides you step by step and shows you how to adjust to the proper setting. the disc cost between 15.00-30.00 and is a great investment to help calibrate all your TV's.

I wouldn't let Best Buy do anything to any of my gear even if it was offered for free, they are poorly trained, not up to date with current technologies and if they do s***w something up, trying to get your money back through their insurance company is like pulling teeth (from a few clients that I know who needed help with what BB screwed up).

For 400.00 you can also do a search for isf.com and find a local calibrator who is trained (this is all they do is calibrate your TV) and they do more than just adjust the basic user functions, They will actually take apart the TV to adjust alignment, attach special tape to control light leakage, use computers to get the greyscale setting correct and the proper light level to 6500k for proper brightness, along with variaty of other functions. Please do a search on the computer to findout all a isf trained calibrator will do and No, Best Buy is not an isf calibrator, they attend a four hour course and then are sent out to tweak peoples TV's normally with very poor results.

Answer 3

These are really easy to set up yourself.  Don't be afraid to go into the menu and experiment with the brightness/contrast settings/etc.  My Sony has several combinations you can choose from with just one button and you can make changes to those defaults too - you'll want to use different ones for different lighting situations - when it's darker in the room, set to the darker option and brighter room or sunny or just a really dark movie - set to brighter, but the brightest settings will rip your eyes in the dark.

Geek squad is a service that most people can do themselves.

Basics: Use an HDMI cable for HD components like Bluray or a DVD upconverter or Xbox360/PS3 or HD cable/ satellite - any HDMI cable is fine, you don't need expensive brands like monster.

An easy sound system set up is to route a surround sound receiver just from the tv - so you don't have to route a separate input from every other component into the receiver too for sound.

You can s***w any antenna coax into the antenna port of your HD tv and then use autotune to get the local channels in your area - some should be in HD already.  For any local stations you might be able to watch something in HD that way if you only have standard cable/satellite.