 Video Display Set Up 12/20/2005 | A number of the integrator home theater magazines have had articles concerning the set up of various displays ( CRT, LCD, Plasma...). Seems most are calibrated to look different in the display area of video stores. The displays are factory adjusted to gain attention. Different and attention getting do not make for the best home viewing. Adjusting the color and tint for best skin tone unfortunately does not work.
One hint from the Digital Video Essentials CD that is not intuitive is the sharpness control. Its a control that is left over from the early entry of color TV. Less is best in relation to sharpness. Too much sharpness and information that was not in the video content is added. The video image can also be distorted in the wide image formats.
Factory calibrations tend to over drive the blue color channel to them "bright" in the store.
Without a calibration disk with patterns and color panels, it is tuff to get the best image from your new display. The following brute method will help. Turn down sharpness as low as it will go. Turn down color to minimum. Go back to contrast and brightness and adjust the almost B&W image for best image. Then go back and turn up color for best color image. Many of the controls interact. The thing to remember is all grass is not bright green!
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| Home Maintenance & Technology ??? | | Somehow, folks have the idea the the more expensive the home is the fewer maintenance problems are going to arise. Assuming the home was built by a quality builder, the problems are the same. Wood rots, things begin to leak, drywall cracks, the proper cabling was not installed for that new home theater with Plasma over the fireplace, data/phone jacks are not where you need them. And just what does the wiring box in my closet do? |
| On wet wood | Next time it rains, go out and find out how the water runs off your house. Does the water from the roof flow down in between the gutter and the soffit? Does the water hit some flat surface and bounce back up and hit a door or window. How does the water flow off the deck? Or does the water flow toward the house. Is water flowing down a exterior wall?
Why all these water questions? Mix time with water soaked wood and you end up with rot. Window and door sills are difficult to repair. Pre-fabricated doors and windows are nailed together to form a box. The replaced sill never really looks the same.
Homes that are about 10 years old begin to have shower faucet washers wear out. These washers prevent water from running out the fixture into the wall when the water is on during a shower. If the shower is on the second floor, then the ceiling on the first floor is at risk. Repaired popcorn ceilings always look repaired.
Toilets begin to leak around this same 10 year period. There is a wax ring between the toilet and the bathroom floor. This ring keeps waste flowing from the toilet to the sewer pipe. The four bolts that hold the toilet in place begin rust. The toilet begins to move on wax ring which slowly generates a leak the runs down under the subfloor. There is also a soft washer between the toilet base and the water tank. This soft washer leak slowly runs down the back of the toilet and sometimes drains down by the bolts into the subfloor. It is better to rebuild all the replaceable parts in a toilet if anyone of them fails. One leak does lead to another.
Look under the sinks every one in awhile. Are items under the sink damp?
Check the clothes washer hoses. Dried out? The dishwasher also has an internal rubber hose.
Turn the water off when you go on vacation. A water soaked house is no fun to come back to... |
| Structured Wiring....Home Network Cabling | | A new home should have a 42 inch structured wiring box with at least two runs of labeled CAT5e to each room. One CAT5e for phone and the other for data. RG6 ( used for cable TV and satellite ) should also be pulled. Speaker cables should be in place before drywall goes up. |
| Plasma HDTV | | When looking at Plasmas at the Audio/Video Box Stores, try to remember that they are show in a darkened area, feed with the best high definition sources. At home the Plasma will not look the same. Higher room light levels will decrease the apparent brightness. HD content is still limited. Still no HD DVD. |
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