Hoking up a DirecTV HR20 (If I get it).

I ordered the Samsung LN 52B750 today. it is supposed to get her the 15 of July (Wed). Tomorrow I am going to talk to those DirecTV people about the new box and what outputs it has. I suppose just using the HDMI would be the easiest way to go but according to CNET if you have to use the component cables you haven't lost practically anything in the way of signal quality.

I really appreciate everyones help, without it I would be lost! I ordered two HDMI cables from Monoclonal the 4th of July so they will probably be here tomorrow.

I was going to get the TV from best Buy, they gave me a (I don't know if I can say the price) certain price last Thursday, I said I would let them know Wed (today), they changed there minds! They said they wanted ?347.00 more because of a price increase, BULL! I told them to keep it and bought it elsewhere a LOT cheaper. I'm not sure if they are a CNET sponsor, but treating me like that was not good business. I won't go back there!

Thanks again.

All I can say is I hope you are as impressed and knocked over by your new set as I was when got mine, and that was before I calibrated it, it only got better after.

My understanding is that calibration is worth it, but I have to take one step at a time. The bills are adding up and to make things worse it is "Property tax time" here in Maryland and brother that is not a small bill, not to mention my car insurance that comes due in July also.
I've been thinking of moving to Florida!

It is a good thing to let your set "burn-in" for a few months before even thinking about calibration unless you do it yourself, which I do. So for me, I did soon after I got it, then again several months later.

IMHO Calibration is highly over-rated if you get a good set and have reasonable lighting conditions and are not a purest. For me I would not have bothered but I wanted an optimum picture in low and bright light conditions and 480i and 1080p. So I used the various "modes" not as labled but to optimize my set for lighting and saved one for the best possible for Blu-Ray movies.

To be honest, I would have been happy with the factory settings, but I figured I could squeeze a little more out. Unless your set is in horrible shape when your get you it will likely question why you dropped 100 bucks or more on calibration.

Of course this is just my view, since mine was free except the cost of a DVD and some time, it was well worth it and it did make a big difference for lighting and resolution, but to get a cal guy to make those kind of calibrations is unlikely.

I have seen a lot of good pictures on a lot of different sets that had no more calibration than plugging it in and turning it on...

It's very obvious you know more about TV's than I do so I just intend to watch the thing unless something drastic is wrong. Then I'm not sure what to do since I ordered it from Amazon. I read the reviews and most people seem to think Amazon is OK.

One question I forgot to ask I think. Is the digital TosLink cable better for the sound or the digital coax ? Either will only have to be 3 ft long.

The only things the seller matters for is the price and service. I have no idea how Amazon manages service for their large ticket / large item products, you might surf over and see. Who sold me my TV did not really matter since Panasonic covers the warranty, including in-house repairs for larger sets such as mine. I backed up the Pani warranty with a SquareTrade warranty, it was well priced, is also in-house service and extends beyond the pani warranty which is the only point, since SquareTrade coverage does not kick in until the makers warranty expires.

As for cables, I am sure there is debate on this but I go fiber any time I can, except in the case of HDMI which does it all. With fiber it either works or it doesn't, there are no, say marginal issues, there can be quality as in how well the ends are made, but if the light gets through, you get all you can get. On the other hand coax can have quality issues that may impact the quality of the sound, but given that it is digital again I would think, if the bits make from one end to the other and we are talking 3' cables so little chance of issues typical with analog and coax then they are probably equal, so I would say for me optical is a preference and I have never had any issue with optical.

I think you are making a wise decision to hold off on calibration for now and only do it you are unhappy with what you get and think calibration will fix it. Also you can get a Calibration Blu-Ray DVD for about 20 bucks, I generally suggest to the "novice" calibration person DVE (Digital Video Essentials) "HD Basics".

Their are a lot of cal discs out there but I like this one because it explains what each setting does, how they interact and give plenty of reference screens. Also remember if you screw it up you can always hit the "reset to factory settings" and anything you messed up will be back to the original setting again.

You can also hire Geek Squad and many other Cal places and they don't care where you bought your set, they just charge you to do it. The final reason I suggest people try to DIY calibration is that over the life of the set it is not a one time thing or other conditions may change like you paint the walls, get new curtains, move the TV etc, which any may be a driver for needing to calibrate it again, if you DIY, then you'll be able to do it any time you like.

The first time is painfully long, but each time you do it it will be faster and you'll get better at it. The only real advantage pro's have is experience and access to test equipment and service menu's (actually you can usually find out how to get to your service menu if you really want to...)

Just remember that while the discs and pros will lecture you on the objective of calibration is to get the picture to look like the producer wanted it (calibrated to a standard), that the color, brightness, etc is just as much of the content as the images, sounds and words, to that I say, bunk!

In the end what you want is a picture and sound that you like, and you have all of the test equipment needed to get your picture and sound to that, your eyes, ears, and brain. All you really need to know is what knobs to turn to get the effect you want

Now there's 'bunk' and there's bunk . The logic of professionally calibrating an HDTV you just spent $2K on might not be considered 'bunk' if you can actually derive more enjoyment from what you are viewing. Granted, it might be one of the more expensive services someone might purchase, but ideally on such large screen it makes more sense to have the black/dark scenes actually look black instead of grey.

It can be helpful to also mention the limitations of DIY 'calibration'. On some HDTVs it is more useful to be able to go into the non-user accessible service menus and adjust certain parameters hence the need for a pro calibration. To each his/her own, I suppose. Luckily though, the quality out of the box on some HDTVs seems to be getting very good with very little past minor picture adjustments. I'd use the Panasonic G10 as a wonderful example .

-Pedro

I a not suggesting that it is all bunk, nor that some controls in the service menuu's won't give you more control, but the real advatage of as pro calibration job as long as you get a good pro is the experience they have.

For me, I have been calibrating TV's for 20+ years now and can generally find my way in to the service menu's of newer sets, many do not require a serial or service port access device now, but where they do and something is outside the user cal menu's then I agree.

That said, I still say that the bottom line is an individual experience, and if you can tweak the picture to where you are very happy with it then I have never really heard of someone saying they got a lot more out of a pro calibration, if not then a pro cal is well worth it, who wants a 2K TV they don't like...

Both my my last generation pani's came out of the box pretty darm good but with just the DVE cal disc I was able to get it tighter and more important for the conditions I wanted, bright/dim, 480i/1080p, and left THX alone.

I use the cal disc to get to a known state but have to say I generally then tweak it a little to get it to where I really like it, that is not usually far off from where I got on the final cal disc settings, but enough to go from really great to totally great.

I also think many get the cal done too soon, and always advise people wait at least two months depending on how much time they have the set on before spending on pro calibration. The one advatage DIY has if you learn to do it well is you can hit it out of the box, then a few months later, then an annual or so check up and not drop 100 plus bucks each time.

As with mentioning the potential limitations with DIY cal disc's it is also fair to note the potential limitations with pro calibration, such as an inexperienced service person, or a picture that meets the standard perfectly but one you don't like, and the limitation that they will be there for only one ambiant light condition.

So there are pro's and con's to both approaches, I suggest to people that if they like it out of the box, leave it alone, if not, and they have the patience, try DIY, otherwise get a pro.

You might be right, I don't know.

Commercially produced dvd do look much better when up-converted.