Product Description Digital Video Essentials HD Basics: Get the most out of your HDTV... Get back to basics! If you are like most people, your HDTV is among the most used and least understood devices in your home. Getting the most out of your set will require some adjustments. HD Basics will teach you how to achieve this. Created by home cinema legend Joe Kane, HD Basics is the definitive High Definition home theatre calibration tool. It promises to help you maximize the capability of your set with the user controls, and gives you an understanding of the concepts that are vital to getting the most out of your HDTV. Includes a set of TriColour optical filters for setting up the colour control. Review Digital Video Essentials HD Basics: Back in 1998 I received a marked jump in my knowledge about video in a period of about an hour. That was because I had bought the DVD 'Video Essentials' from the US. The disc talked through the process of setting up a display for fine video quality. It indicated what to look for. It explained what the controls actually do. It sought to convince that accuracy should be the aim. But it was in NTSC format, not our own PAL system, which limited the usefulness of its test patterns. Now Joe Kane Productions, responsible for that disc, released 'Digital Video Essentials' about four years ago in both NTSC and PAL versions. It followed this with a version of Digital Video Essentials in HD DVD in 2007. And, now, at last, DVE HD Basics on Blu-ray. If you have a Blu-ray player, you should buy this disc. That's all there is to it. It supplies nearly all you need to set up your sound and video systems, and helps you understand how to do it. There are three sets of video running to a total of 126 minutes that will leave you ... not an expert, but someone with a decent understanding of how to use the supplied test patterns to make your display produce a better, more accurate picture. Only a professional trained by the Imaging Sciences Foundation-trained could improve it. Included in the package are three colour filters to help you use the test patterns to best advantage. Not all is perfect. There are dozens of test patterns, but none designed help optimise moving video quality. The instructional section on sound standards talks about 5.1 and 6.1 channels, but not 7.1. The audio test signals are all in 5.1 channels (the PAL DVE version also had 6.1 channel calibration). Some of the test video sequences are sufficiently old that they were captured in 720p rather 1080p. Still, with this disc you will get the your display starting to operate the way that it ought to. --Sound and Image 2008It seems like the TV calibration wiz, Joe Kane, isn't going to sleep until every HDTV around is properly calibrated. In the past he has produced Video Essentials and then Digital Video Essentials (DVE) but neither one of these calibration discs properly addressed high-def basics. Hence the follow-up HD DVD and Blu-ray release titled DVE: HD Basics. This disc features six essential calibration tests that should only take a few minutes to run but if the consumer wants to dive into the vast world of calibration, the disc also includes many of the same patterns found on the professional DVE release. It would be nice to see retailers throw in this $30 disc when someone buys an HDTV set along with an HD DVD or Blu-ray drive but then they couldn't sell their in-house services. The disc is going to hit store shelves just in time for the holiday season on October 30 and we would like to point out that this disc would be a great gift for anyone receiving a high-def set from Santa this year. Just think, they could set up the HDTV themselves, leaving you, the TV guy to enjoy your holiday eggnog. Matt Burns, enGadget website --Matt Burns, enGadgetIt seems like the TV calibration wiz, Joe Kane, isn't going to sleep until every HDTV around is properly calibrated. In the past he has produced Video Essentials and then Digital Video Essentials (DVE) but neither one of these calibration discs properly addressed high-def basics. Hence the follow-up HD DVD and Blu-ray release titled DVE: HD Basics. This disc features six essential calibration tests that should only take a few minutes to run but if the consumer wants to dive into the vast world of calibration, the disc also includes many of the same patterns found on the professional DVE release. It would be nice to see retailers throw in this $30 disc when someone buys an HDTV set along with an HD DVD or Blu-ray drive but then they couldn't sell their in-house services. The d --Matt Burns, enGadgetIt seems like the TV calibration wiz, Joe Kane, isn't going to sleep until every HDTV around is properly calibrated. In the past he has produced Video Essentials and then Digital Video Essentials (DVE) but neither one of these calibration discs properly addressed high-def basics. Hence the follow-up HD DVD and Blu-ray release titled DVE: HD Basics. This disc features six essential calibration tests that should only take a few minutes to run but if the consumer wants to dive into the vast world of calibration, the disc also includes many of the same patterns found on the professional DVE release. It would be nice to see retailers throw in this $30 disc when someone buys an HDTV set along with an HD DVD or Blu-ray drive but then they couldn't sell their in-house services. The disc is going to hit store shelves just in time for the holiday season on October 30 and we would like to point out that this disc would be a great gift for anyone receiving a high-def set from Santa this year. Just think, they could set up the HDTV themselves, leaving you, the TV guy to enjoy your holiday eggnog. Matt Burns, enGadget website --Matt Burns, enGadget
J**R
Does the job, but not easy to follow
I purchased this blu-ray to setup a new hd tv I had purchased as I wanted to get the best out of it that I could. There is a lot of background information to do with HD and various standards, which did bore me within the first 15 minutes. So I skipped straight to the calibration section.This section is really what you buy this disc for and so I was a little dissapointed to find the narrator taking forever to explain how to use the test screens, when really it can be explained within a few sentences. Even then, the explanation is not crystal clear and led to some confusion when calibrating my screen, meaning I would have to go back and listen again in detail to what the narrator is saying word for word. This could lead to people miscalibrating their screens, and left me a bit miffed when I was left with a dull blue-tinted screen the first time i tried it.Once you get used to the narrator and manage get what you need to know from the excessive explanations, you will get better results. I found myself using the test screens on their own once I figured out what I was supposed to do with them.It did take a fair bit of trial and error to get a result I was happy with as the test patterns do show the shortcommings of my tv, which means having to compromise with some calibrations. The narrator gives the impression that this is a common problem however, and that most users will face these problems as manufacturers fail to make tv's which adhere to various standards needed to reproduce a reliable image.Overall I am pleased to have purchased this disc, knowing that I am getting much better picture quality from my new tv. For those of you that want to get the most from your own HDTV this is an essential purchase.
P**N
Useful disc for making the most of your setup.
All the video AND audio calibration tools you need to do a good job of setting-up your system.The full suite of video calibration screens are there. Some people are happy with letting their AV amps auto-calibrate but I've never trusted them. Cross-over values are always set too high, sub balance never seems to work properly, no way of doing a rattle test etc. If you get yourself a cheap SPL meter this disc gives you everything you need to optimise your system (short of room compensation EQ for your bass which you do need dedicated hardware for). Just set an afternoon aside for the job because it can't really be done quickly.In reference to issues that are cropping up in the other reviews...I ordered my disc some time ago and there is no indication of region-coding on the case or the disc itself but I assume the disc I have is either not region encoded at all or it's the European version. Mine was ordered from Amazon EU.As for the tedious voiceover, I've yet to hear anyone make the subject of AV calibration really sparkle and I doubt I ever will. What were you expecting? It's honestly not a serious shortcoming for a disc that's made to do a job and does it comprehensively.
Y**S
Very good
It does exactly what I needed for which is creen calibration by using a dedicated camera.
P**3
Excellent
Great for uuse with it's own or with the Spider 4 calibration sensor and free HCFR software for more in depth calibration of my plasma tv. Nice menu and easy navigation through the disc. Some of the tutorial content require a lot of patience to sit through and the delivery is a bit testing. However, overall a good purchase.
T**R
Great results. Tricky to use.
There is no question, you will absolutely improve you picture if you follow the instructions. Unfortunately, much of it is boring or awkward to watch. The results are stunning though, and I've used it now on a few TVs. Everytime, a more realistic picture and more unseen detail than the manufacturer's preset settings. And that's what matters.
J**H
Use of DVE HD Basics
I found the HD explananations usefull, though very american and rather repetitive. However using the set up picture viewing panels was straightforward & has most definitely improved my Sony's LCD picture above what I was able to do before using the THX setup menu on one of my region 1 DVD's. So I would recommend this softeware to anyone that is seeking an improved 'home cinema' viewing experence. Handy8
I**Y
Irritating, massively padded out with useless waffle
Blimey this was hard work...I don't want to know about the history of the television, I just want clear, simple guidance as to how to get the best picture from my HD TV.Yes, you can access the test screens from the main menu, but there's no instructions as to how to use them when you go to them directly. To get the instructions you have to continually wind forwards to get to them, or sit through what can only be described as mind-bendingly boring and annoying guff.Recommended for the test screens, but be prepared to be annoyed!!!
B**J
Sent Region A NOT 'All Regions' as advertized.
I deliberately spent several minutes checking that this item was for Region B or All regions, before ordering.It was advertized for All regions.What I have been sent is Region A ONLY, and will NOT play in the standard UK Region B player.Either they have sent the wrong one, or this disc is only available in Region A and the Advert is WRONG.Having seen the other comments, I now suspect the latter:)BJ
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