Optimum TV settings? (esp. for games)

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MooMoo!

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I have an LCD TV, not a famous brand or anything, but its decent enough. Problem is, my games always seem "dark", no matter how bright the backlight is, or how high the contrast and brightness settings are. Its almost like I'm looking at it from the wrong angle even when watching it straight on.

Can I even do anything about this? I can just about cope with it on the 360 since its HD, but the Wii (I plan to get a component cable at some point) is almost indistinguishable when making out characters in darker games.

Is it just my TV? I know its not the games themselves since I've used them with me wee tube TV and they were nice and clear on that.
 
It's really tough to find optimal settings, as each and every set is so drastically different. It usually takes a while to find a good setting for your television's calibration, and requires you to do a decent amount of messing with the settings. As a good point of reference, set everything to the "stock" type settings at 50% or 1/2 or whatever your set has. Then try to pump up the backlight and see if you can find a good look or not with that. If not, then worry about adjusting the other settings.

Often sets have some of the TV's supposed "fancy features" turned on by default. Often, these features actually make the picture quality look worse. Try to check and make sure there isn't a a "motion blur" effect turned on, and also see if the black level is set to anything other than "normal" or "off" as that can make the set look drastically darker too. As I said before, set your standard picture level presets to their basic "normal" or "medium" settings, then work on some of those advanced picture options and see if you can find any improvements there.

I've noticed I need completely different settings depending on the game system. Some systems, for whatever reason, are darker than others. This means you should usually keep the remote by your side and pump up the backlight when necessary. Some games are just flat out really dark, and you sometimes need to adjust them in game. Do you possibly have lights behind your set? That can make it much more difficult to see as well. Also, if you're gaming during the day, it will look much darker as well. I'm on of those people who mess with my settings constantly depending on the time of day and what not. As long as you become familiar with the settings, you can figure out how to make quick adjustments and not bothers others by constantly messing with the settings.
 
Often sets have some of the TV's supposed "fancy features" turned on by default. Often, these features actually make the picture quality look worse. Try to check and make sure there isn't a a "motion blur" effect turned on,

There is nothing worse than that 'real view' (I think that's LG's name for it) setting that extrapolates frames in between real frames. It makes film look like video. I'd rather not have my movies look like soap operas, thanks
 
There is nothing worse than that 'real view' (I think that's LG's name for it) setting that extrapolates frames in between real frames. It makes film look like video. I'd rather not have my movies look like soap operas, thanks
Jeuss Christ, I KNOW. I hate that.

Good to read this ticks someone else off...Sometimes I think I'm an idiot-savant who is the only person who can hear TVs left on and notice frame rate differences.
 
There is nothing worse than that 'real view' (I think that's LG's name for it) setting that extrapolates frames in between real frames. It makes film look like video. I'd rather not have my movies look like soap operas, thanks

IS THAT WHAT'S DOING IT!?!? Everyone in my house thinks I'm insane because I seem to be the only one who notices on our new tv that things seem to move in a weird motion.

and I'm with you, Canadiens, on hearing TVs that are on but on an input channel. Drove me insane during high school because a lot of my teachers would leave the sets on through the day because doing one period of the day Channel 1 would pop onto the tv and they didn't want to have to remember to switch it on.
 
wow, i'm sooo glad i don't own an lg tv. i haaaaate when stuff looks like that.

and ha ashley, i had the same problem at my high school too (we just had a tv on the wall so in this case they'd just leave the tv on but nothing would be on so that's pretty much the same), though somehow they managed to have the tvs come on automatically.
 
You can turn it off. I made my Dad turn his off so I didn't have to suffer through it when I go to visit. He and my sister both claimed to have not noticed a difference. I think they're crazy.
 
Similar to the difference between Blu-Ray and DVD, or HD and standard TV, a lot of people just don't really pay close enough attention to notice. Then there are some of us that think there's an enormous difference.

People are weird. So are TVs.
 
I don't watch our TV enough to want to change it, since no one in the house seems to notice, but it gives me less trepedation about buying myself a nice tv in the future.
 
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