Thanks for the info.  That would be very good news indeed.

Just as information for what it may be worth.  I had U-verse installed August 5th and noticed a difference in HD picture quality over my previous provider, Brighthouse cable.  I had a copy of the  DVE calibration video so I gave that a try and could not get a better picture.  I came across this thread and recorded the HD Net test pattern Saturday AM and followed the instructions for calibration.  Tried it with both HDMI and component cables, but still could not get a real good picture.  Part of the problem could be that I am color blind.  Anyway. Sunday morning I decided to try resetting my TV back to the factory defaults for each AV mode (std., dynamic, user, movie, game, pc).  Viola!  Far better results than either the DVE dvd or HD Net test pattern.  Not exactly perfect picture quality, but close enough for me and better than I had with Brighthouse or with the other adjustments (The TV is a Sharp LC52D85U LCD TV 52" and I have the U-450 package and am sitting approximately 12' from the TV).  Just wanted folks to know what worked for me.

And I thought I knew my stuff........I stand corrected!

Keep up the unselfish good work. Thank you.

i tryed to calibrate my TH42PZ80U panasonic tv using that test pattern but could not get rid of the crushing black level so its back to component cables could calibrate it well with them and i also found out that setting it to 1080i did give me a less washed or soft picture very close to what hdmi was giving me even though my tv is 720P

---

manofsteel2397 wrote:
i tryed to calibrate my TH42PZ80U panasonic tv using that test pattern but could not get rid of the crushing black level so its back to component cables could calibrate it well with them and i also found out that setting it to 1080i did give me a less washed or soft picture very close to what hdmi was giving me even though my tv is 720P

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http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=Uverse_TV_Equipment&message.id=22725#M22725

 

on my TH-42PZ80U, it's 1080p, not 720p.

 

Chris

---

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

 

thanks i will try that tommorow and see how it works my set is only 720P TH-42PX80U

I'm not seeing the HDNet Test Pattern (Off Air) in my guide.

The test pattern was on this morning (9/19) at 6:30 am ET, 3:30 am PT, HDNet, Off Air, and lasts about 10 min. Even if you click on "Off Air" it will not list the test pattern on the guide.

 

It is not on every Sat and looks like it is not scheduled for next Sat, Sept 26.

 

Next scheduled time is Sat., Oct 3, 6:30 am ET, HDNet, and listed here. 

 

Good luck. 

 

---

kryptonite wrote:
I'm not seeing the HDNet Test Pattern (Off Air) in my guide.

---

 

 

 

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Uniblurb3 wrote:

The test pattern was on this morning (9/19) at 6:30 am ET, 3:30 am PT, HDNet, Off Air, and lasts about 10 min. Even if you click on "Off Air" it will not list the test pattern on the guide.

 

It is not on every Sat and looks like it is not scheduled for next Sat, Sept 26.

 

Next scheduled time is Sat., Oct 3, 6:30 am ET, HDNet, and listed here. 

 

Good luck. 

 

 

---

 

Good news.

 

Recording set.

How's about a sticky?

WOW - I have been in the dark now I can see. I have been frusterated with my HD quality for so long, last night  I finaly switched to component from HDMI and BAM! Survivor never looked so good. No pixel shifting in the background, archiving, it was like the first day I bought my HD, colors were better everything. Cant wait to crank up Center Ice to watch Hockey ,wait thats still an issue (ooops sorry different thread). I would recomend this first to anyone who is still using HDMI and having quality issues (why AT&T cant support HDMI ???) who cares HD is back !!!

Hi folks,

 

I've recently signed up for u-verse, and I too have noticed this crushed black problem.  On some shows, there are whole programs where the screen is almost entirely black except for a face or two.  Now, with a 58" screen, that's what you call black. It's started to bother me a lot. I was over at a friend's house today, and although I didn't get to see any dark scenes, I could see he has the same problem. 

 

I have a Panasonic 58PZ850U.  I haven't tried the calibration yet, but I can tell it's definitely this black level problem.  In my picture settings menu, I have this black level, light or dark setting.  It's already set to light.  I can tell by setting it to dark, that is exactly the setting, but I need another setting, lighter, much lighter!  So, I don't understand.  If it's just the RGB offset, 0 or 16, you'd think it would be right one way or the other.

 

I have the STB connected through a Denon 3808 receiver.  I noticed it has a setting for RGB dynamic range for the HDMI.  I assume this is for the HDMI output to the TV.  It has an option for normal or extended (or something like that).  That didn't make any difference either.  I'm curious if the receiver is some how in the middle of the problem.  There's no RGB dynamic range setting for the inputs, only the one output.  Could it be interpreting the black level wrong, and then converting it, clipped, to the TV.  Does it convert the signal or does it just switch it through un-touched?

 

Has anyone fixed the crushed blacks by changing this RGB dynamic range, or are component cables the only way to go?  If it's just this RGB offset, seems like I should be able to fix it without going to component cables.

Thanks, Uni...I went through this whole thread and couldn't find it at the old times.  I'm new to HD, so still learning.

---

Uniblurb3 wrote:

The test pattern was on this morning (9/19) at 6:30 am ET, 3:30 am PT, HDNet, Off Air, and lasts about 10 min. Even if you click on "Off Air" it will not list the test pattern on the guide.

 

It is not on every Sat and looks like it is not scheduled for next Sat, Sept 26.

 

Next scheduled time is Sat., Oct 3, 6:30 am ET, HDNet, and listed here. 

 

Good luck. 

 

Your welcome SPD and good luck.

dldeuce,

 

Have you tried setting both the AV receiver to extended AND the TV to Light?  You may need both.

 

Alternatively, have you tried bypassing the AV receiver and going HDMI directly from the STB to the TV on a different HDMI input than your AV receiver?

 

dont have to do that with cable

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kjk77 wrote:
dont have to do that with cable

---

 

You don't have to do anything with any service.  This is completely optional.  If you want a better picture, do it.  If you're satisfied with your picture the way it is, then don't.  It's your choice.

 

With uverse you have to do this you have to do that. You have to have your yard dug up. You need techs out for 10 hours need your walls ripped apart. Not with cable. Plug and watch

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kjk77 wrote:

With uverse you have to do this you have to do that. You have to have your yard dug up. You need techs out for 10 hours need your walls ripped apart. Not with cable. Plug and watch

---

I have never had my yard "dug up" or my walls "ripped apart" by a U-verse technician.  I am amazed that you have become such an expert on U-verse and know so much more about the service than the actual customers without actually ever having the service.  How have you managed this?

I watch people review it on youtube.

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kjk77 wrote:

I watch people review it on youtube.

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That's too funny! 

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SomeJoe7777 wrote:

dldeuce,

 

Have you tried setting both the AV receiver to extended AND the TV to Light?  You may need both.

 

Alternatively, have you tried bypassing the AV receiver and going HDMI from the STB to the TV on a different HDMI input than your AV receiver?

 

---

I did some more experimentation with this today.  I connected the STB directly to the TV on both component and HDMI, and then switced back and forth to compare.  I paused on a dark scene with a close up of a dark brunette woman.  On HDMI, almost her entire head is one big blob of black, no detail, solid black.  On component, you see that what you're looking at is brown hair with streaks of black.  It's near black, but there is plenty of detail.  If you go to the picture settings and change from light to dark, it makes it worse, not better.  More of the scene goes pure black.  So for those of you comparing HDMI to component, with this problem, on my TV, there is no comparison.  Did you want to see the scene, or blobs of black?

 

I switched back to the stereo and connected the STB there to both component and HDMI.   Same results.  The component input looks good, the HDMI looks black.  On the stereo, I have settings for the HDMI output where I can select settings like i/p scaler, color space, RGB Range, etc. Under RGB range, I can select normal (default), or enhanced.  Neither setting makes any difference.  Seems to me that the stereo is only switching the HDMI video with no changes.  Its HDMI output picture settings I suspect only apply to non-hdmi video input sources.  That would explain why none of the picture settings have any impact.

 

The explanation we saw earlier still makes sense.  The presumption is, that the STB is outputing levels 0-15, and the TV is receiving those and displaying them as pure black, since they're below 16.  We're presuming the Panasonic setting for black level, dark or light, is causing it to re-interpret those levels 0-15, but maybe not.  It could just be making levels above 16 darker, while still considering 16 absolute black.  I don't know, but it looks going to component is the only solution to the problem, unless there's some sort of hidden service menu on the TV.

 

Has anyone with a Panasonic TV gotten a good calibration with the u-verse box on HDMI?  From what I'm seeing, I doubt it.  The default setting on  this black level setting is light, and none of the other picture settings make any difference at all.  Black is black.  No amount of brightening is going to bring back the detail of those near black portions of the scene.

http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=Uverse_TV_Equipment&message.id=22725#M22725

 

Have also come up w/another picture setting w/the ones in the above post for lightening not as dark scenes:

Standard  Picture 82, Brightness 73 and Color 45, all other settings the same as my Game setting.

 

Chris

---

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-983-2811 to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
YRMV IMHO Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

 Thanks to SomeJoe and others for your information in this thread. I used the HDNet test patterns and then followed up with my Avia disk for my TV. But I have one question that I haven't seen answered yet.

 My LCD TV has a setting for "backlight". The settings go from 1 to 10 where 10 is the brightest. What should this be set to when calibrating my TV? Right now I'm using 6 but not sure what to use.

  Unfortunately I have one of those LCD TV's that gets a much better picture using component cables with UVerse. My DVD player looks great using HDMI but not UVerse. Thanks to anyone that can answer my question.

 

 Bob

---

ram1220 wrote:

 

My LCD TV has a setting for "backlight". The settings go from 1 to 10 where 10 is the brightest. What should this be set to when calibrating my TV? Right now I'm using 6 but not sure what to use.

---

 

The backlight setting is almost impossible to set without a hardware calibration meter.  The backlight setting determines the absolute value of brightness for the whitest whites.

 

The standard is 35 foot-lamberts, or 120 candela per square meter.  Most modern TVs can get over this value with the backlight set at maximum, so a setting of between 6 and 8 is probably close to being correct, but then you have to properly set the contrast afterwards.

 

On large TVs (46" or greater), 120 cd/m^2 will light up a room on bright scenes, and may be too bright if no lights are on in the room.

 

For your TV, if you normally view the TV in a darkened room or with very low ambient light, 6 is probably correct.  If you normally view in daylight or with the room brightly lit, try 8.

 

 Thank you. That's exactly what I did. I set the backlight first and then did everything else. I usually have a low light on while watching TV. For some reason if I try and watch in the dark my eyes start hurting. LOL

 

 Bob

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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randyl wrote:

its only 1080 i as u  know fwiw

 

their opinion

 

---

 

The component video spec is a maximum of 1080i/60.  However, there are many devices that will send 1080p/24 out component cables even though it's technically not supposed to be done, and most newer TVs will receive and properly display such a signal even though they're not supposed to.

 

Besides, there is no 1080p/24 programming on U-Verse, and the U-Verse box couldn't send a 1080p/24 signal if there was.  So even if you use HDMI, the maximum you get out of the U-Verse STB is 1080i/60.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 I had an email conversation with an engineer a couple weeks ago. He said that our HDVoD is broadcast in full 1080p, but that's it. Everything else is 1080i.

 

 

I also just got a new 65" Mitsubishi DLP HDTV (WD-65737), which is why I was asking my friend aobut the HD broadcast, and I CAN NOT WAIT to get home and try the calibrations listed in this post. I started with Tweak.com's reccommendations and have not been thrilled with the result. It now seems way to dark, or "crushing blacks", as I've read on this post. I also got caught up in the HDMI cable frenzy. I still have plenty of great quality component cables in my closet (Cox doesn't ask for them back, my installer left me extras, and I also have a good friend that's an installer) so if the adjustments don't work for HDMI I'll go back to them.

 

 Thank you all for posting this plethora of information!!! I will take all of this info and hopefully get a great picture with my new TV.

 

Thanks,

Allen

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aarmstrong27 wrote:

 

I work on the wireless side and sell U-Verse in my store (also have it at home!!! SWEET!!!) and I had an email conversation with an engineer a couple weeks ago. He said that our HDVoD is broadcast in full 1080p, but that's it. Everything else is 1080i.

---

 

I would think that if that were the case, that AT&T would be advertising that everywhere to compete with Dish and DirecTV who also have some VOD/PPV in 1080p/24.

 

Plus, even if the signal comes via the IPTV connection at 1080p/24, the U-Verse STB will likely convert that to 1080i/60 before sending it to the TV.  Of course, then the TV would perform IVTC and display 1080p/24, but it would actually do that anyway even if the IPTV signal was 1080i/60, so it doesn't really matter.

 

Ha! So I put the wife and kid to bed last night and sit down to calibrate with the HDNET test pattern. It wasn't there. I asked my wife this morning and she admitted to deleting it, thinking it was recorded by mistake. Great! Now I have to wait for it to record again this Sat morn.

 

In regards to the black level: has anyone found the setting for that on the Mitsubishi DLP HDTV, model# WD-65737?

 

Thanks,

AA

Thank you for your post regarding calibration, SomeJoe7777.

 

Just FYI... as of today HDNet lists the test pattern showing within The Ultimate Trailer Show; Saturday, June 5th, 5:30AM CDT (6:30AM ET).  If anyone knows of a time this week, please respond.  They don't appear to be using "Off Air" anymore.  Does HDNETa run a test pattern?  If so, when?  Thanks in advance.

 

http://www.hd.net/originals.html