Hi Folks:
I just bought a new Sony LED television and have a few questions.
1) In order to calibrate the set, any suggestions for what software to use? I do have a Sony BD player.
2) I noticed some forums quote the TV settings CNET used in their reviews. Is this a good starting point? Perhaps there are web sites listing the best options for most every set?
3) I was looking at the Marantz that Outlaw is offering. I am curious as to why receivers need to have video processing. Wouldn’t you want this to be handled by your TV?
Thanks Bob

There are a number of good BD's around for calibration. Spears & Munsil is really good (available through OPPO's site for around $25).


It's a place to start, but I would still want to run a calibration. Individual panels will typically need somewhat different settings, which is one reason why professional calibrators exist.


There can be arguments for and against video processing in receivers (or in standalone video processors). Generally the problem is quality. Any HDTV will need a video processor of some sort to compensate for different input resolutions and to convert everything to the native resolution of the panel. They don't have to be good processors, though. Deinterlacing is particularly difficult, and bad processors can create video artifacts when trying to deinterlace or scale. A good video processor produces better picture quality. The Marantz AV7005 uses an Anchor Bay ABT2015, I think, and that is a quite good processor. If a processor outside the TV scales the video to the TV's native resolution, the TV's processor doesn't have to do anything.

Additionally, having a video processor in an HDMI-equipped receiver or processor can be useful because all the video sources must pass through along with the audio. It becomes a convenient place to manage the video sources and integrate legacy video sources at the same time.

Ok that makes sense.
Another topic, I have hooked the HDMI from my BD player and cable box directly to the TV with Digital out from these two into my 950. Everything works fine but I notice the audio is slightly out of sync with the picture coming from the cable box. Is there any tweaking that can be done here? Is this a standard problem?
This forum is very helpful thanks to posters like you Gonk! Considering the low traffic I wonder if some of these sections should be consolidated. If would make it easier to scan on a daily basis.
Thanks Bob

The audio is ahead of the video, isn't it? This is a common problem, but the Model 950 doesn't have the ability to compensate for it. What is happening is the video processing that's taking place at various places along the signal path (in the cable box and in the TV) take time. It is a matter of milliseconds, but it is a real delay that is being created between when the video enters the cable box and when it hits the TV's panel. The audio has to be delayed to match it. IF the cable box creates delay, it should compensate for it, but most don't. Newer receivers and processors offer a function called "AV sync" that let the user define a delay for an input's audio signal to compensate for this video processing delay.


I use the "Active Topics" option (this link) to see all of the threads that have been active in the past seven days. It's really handy.

>Newer receivers and processors offer a function called "AV sync" that <
Would my cable box have that?

Probably not. None of the ones I've used have offered it. You could check, though. It would be called probably AV sync, audio sync, or audio delay, and it would be adjusted in increments of "ms" (milliseconds).

I did not find it. The sync is only slightly off and most of the time I do not notice it. I can live with it until the next outlaw pre/pro comes out.

I did find a display setting for HDMI which allows you to set the output to 1080i, I assume I want to stick with 720p?


Bob

I would try both with some HD material and see which looks best. If it's an LED-backlit LCD display, I'm guessing that it's a 1080p panel? In that case, outputting 1080i would potentially be the best choice, but it depends some on the way the box behaves and how the TV's video processor works. If it is a 720p display, in some cases the 1080i output could be better.

If you have an option for outputting the source resolution all the time (480i being deinterlaced to 480p since HDMI doesn't support 480i), then HD sources would go to the display at either 720p or 1080i depending on the channel and recording. That would put the bulk of the video processing duties onto the Sony TV (or the surround processor's video processor, if you add an HDMI-equipped processor with internal video processing). If your cable box is like most of the ones that I've used, its video processing will be inferior to the Sony TV's processing.

I cannot tell a difference between 720p or 1080i.

>If you have an option for outputting the source resolution all the time (480i being deinterlaced to 480p since HDMI doesn't support 480i), then HD sources would go to the display at either 720p or 1080i depending on the channel and recording.<
I beleive I can set the box to output at a lower resolution (480p), there might even be an option called native. I understand what you are trying to do but don't understand how this would work. I don't understand how the video processor in the Sony will be able to make the picture better if it is recieving a lower grade signal. I am gussing here that the cable box is recieving a (720p) down the wire and will have to downgrade the signal to (480P) which the Sony will then try to upgrade. I must be missing something.

thanks Bob

Don't set it to 480p all the time, because as you note this will kill your HD picture quality. The "native" option (if available) bypasses the cable box's video processing, which is usually pretty poor and sometimes downright horrible. This means that HD broadcasts in 720p are output at 720p, HD broadcasts at 1080i are output at 1080i, and SD broadcasts (480i by definition) are output at 480p (deinterlacing necessary because of HDMI's lack of support for 480i). The HDTV spec includes a lot of possible resolutions, but the two that are actually used are 720p and 1080i - and both are used fairly regularly. The TV still has to do additional processing to get all of these to the panel's native resolution.