Thanks for the link highdefjeff; it looks very informative! Like I said, I am new at this HDTV stuff, and I am not of the younger, "techie" generation. Prior to my purchasing the newest plasma I did get calibration specs from several on line sites, primarily plasmabuyingguide. I used these guidelines to configured the brightness, sharpness, color, and tint according to their recommendations.
{If generalized recommendations were good to use, there wouldn't be any need for calibrationists. Ambient light is needed to get things right. Even the included additional settings (movie, sports, etc) aren't correct though offer some improvement over "Vivid" or "Dynamic".} We usually view on "standard" picture mode and our main viewing seats are approx. 4.5 to a little over 5 feet from the 50" t.v.
{First, the minimum suggested viewing distance for a 50" TV is just over 6 feet. Second, take a look at the complexions of the people on the screen. Do the men's lips look red? Do the people look sunburned, or are you easily able to distinguish the differences in skin color, nationality, etc.? Can you see the "fair skinned" redhead vs. the tanned model and ethnic individual? If you have accurate skin tones (men's lips should NOT be red and there shouldn't be a "sunburn" look) then your color calibration will be correct and can be called "done". Also check the Food channels-good closeups on food, and food like complexion, either looks right or not. I also like to check the channels that provide nature as the subject. We know what "outside" looks like for good comparison, also. To check these, avoid commercials, compare multiple HD channels and don't adjust for the single "worst" channel. Always make a small correction and then surf the channels again. There will always be a channel or two that still has too much red push-all content is not the same. GENERALLY, the contrast should be between 50 and 60, sharpness should be mid-scale to completely off, color is the cause of the red and is usually reduced by several "clicks" from center scale, and I usually need to increase tint just a little to bring the skin tones into true color. I have used the Spyder Pro calibration equipment, but I always had to "tweak" out some red afterwards, anyway. I have also witnessed "professionally" calibrated TVs in some upscale showrooms and, unfortunately, they all looked different and no better than other places. I no longer use anything but my eye.
Regarding the dish/receiver installation, we did have another (much more knowledgeable installation tech from DISH network) come to the house yesterday. He was able to determine within a minute or so that the installation was done improperly. He said the guy who switched out our dish 500 itself had one of the wrong satellites for HD locked in. Here's what happened to the best of my understanding. When the original installation guy came he admitted to having problems with the installation - "the signals are bouncing all over the place". He told me he "originally was going to install two dishes, but because of the roof line and the way you had your existing dish mounted I didn't think you would want me to mess with your roof. I decided to go with one". The real determing factor though, I believe, is the fact that he was actually finishing up on the roof by flashlite in the dark, in a light rain and temps around 38F. I personally think he only had so much time to get the job done, he knew this, and he went with what would get him finished sooner and get him home to dinner.
The tech who showed up on Friday said that the original installation guy "probably should have installed two Dish 500's". He said the current configuration is a small dish that is currently tuned to satellite 61.5 for high def instead of satellite 119. He told me that the (current) small dish is not able to pull in all of the high def stations by itself, and that the first guy should have known that satellite 61.5 is the "older satellite" and "we usually don't use that one anymore". He attributed this to be the reason we weren't getting all the HD channels and the less than great picture. They are sending yet another person next Tues to install either two Dish 500's or a seperate piece of equipment that will handle the problem. I do not know what this other piece of equipment is. Anyway, during his diagnostics he showed me the signal strength was either missing for some channels or weak (in the 40's to 60's) for the HD channels. He said this was responsible for the pixeling and fuzzy picture.
{He was correct.}
What I still do not understand is why this (pixeling or total loss of picture and then "reaquiring satellites") would happen on
just the one t.v. We started running the two t.v.'s at once on the same exact channels for diagnostic purposes and on occasion just the one t.v. would cut out. (We can easily see the other t.v. in an adjacent room).
{Do both TVs run off the 612? How are they connected?}
Also, could someone
please tell me why with my new VIP612 receivers I have to choose "stretch" or "partial zoom" to view SD channels full screen? Is it because these new receivers are really designed with a preference or whatever for HD? My old SD receiver (600?) displayed a crystal clear, full screen picture on my 42", 720p plasma.
{The older SD receivers could only output one type of material that was scaled for one type of TV. If you were to change your settings to 480 and connect with RCA cables, you might find the same situation, but you'd lose the good stuff. The newer HD equipment now takes into account that there are several formats that are being broadcast. To be able to view them accurately often requires a format change.} After I originally set the format I never had to set it again; it just always displayed full screen. Now SD channels are far from sharp because if I want to watch a clear picture I have to have it set on standard format with the
very distracting gray bars on the sides; to me it is
not an acceptable or enjoyable way to view a program!
{You just must choose to accept sidebars and clearer picture or full screen and distorted picture. }
So far with my experience I would have to say that our prior SD programming on a very good quality plasma display was preferable. At least I had
all of our channels in excellent quality. Now I have HD channels (but not enough of them to make it "worth it") that are sharp and clear but at the expense or compromise of viewing poor quality SD. Of course the premiums are in HD but this just makes the monthly cost exorbinant. DISH has offered me the "platinum" HD programming free for 3 months due to their errors in installation and the fact that I have been missing programming for almost a month. But, this is just to get me "hooked" so I continue on with the more expensive platinum package. I am sure that they are aware that customers do not want to watch the poor quality SD channels once they have experienced HD. I can't be the only one ................!
My "locals" are supposed to go HD next month I believe and this will be great. And, I understand that within the next month or so there are going to be more channels available in HD ................ is this correct? This was my main reason for NOT going HD sooner; not enough programming that I would find worth viewing to off-set the costs. And, I did NOT know that my SD channels would be much worse with these new receivers.
Thanks to anyone who responds, and I will give you an progress report on the dish setup itself if anyone is interested.
Bonnie