Trying to get my standard-definition DVDs to look as good as possible

[DaneClark]

Ok, I'm trying to get my standard-definition DVDs to look as good as possible on my HDTV. It's taken a lot of trial and error and 2 Sima Color correctors but I think I finally found a setup that looks great-except that there is still some slight red color casting, crushed white levels, and washed out colors that I want to smooth out. I don't want to mess with the settings on the tv or the color correctors because everything looks so great right now. I was wondering if there was another device I could hook up that could help.

[Krispy Kritter]

Color issues would generally be an issue with calibration. Making SD look good on an HD display is a matter of scaling. I'm not sure why you would need color correction for a DVD source.

[johns0]

DaneClark-In the future when you create a new thread please use a more descriptive title rather than 'please help,for this time i'll change it for you.

[dfisher052]

Are you useing a player that upscales DVD's to hi-def? I am and my regular DVD's look as good as my bluray's on my Samsung flat screen. My bluray is a Sony and my regular DVD is a Philips (that upscales).

[DaneClark]

I just want to be able to adjust the calibration a little more, but I feel like I've done all I can do with all my current hardware.

[LMotlow]

Not enough information here for anyone to work with. Generally, you don't calibrate videos to a TV, you calibrate a display (PC monitor, HDTV) to known standards. Re-encoding every DVD you own to match a certain TV is a phenomenal waste of time. If you change monitors, every video would have to be recalibrated.

We don't know what kind of DVDs you're talking about. Are they retail issues? Home made? What HDTV do you have? What player? It's common knowledge (or it should be) that players and TV's differ in quality. Some upscale better than others, some handle interlace and pulldown better than others, some are just inferior in all respects. There's no info on what you're playing, how you're playing it, or what you're viewing with.

As far as color goes, grayscale calibration of TV's has nothing to do with the factory settings on your gear. You say you calibrated your hardware, what does that mean? Did you use one of those nearly useless calibration discs, a colorimeter and calibration software, or did you just eyeball it? Many TV's have no useable image adjustment controls other than contrast, brightness, and tint, which alone are inadequate for setting up a TV properly. TVs from SONY, LG, and S amsung have more complete CMS (Color Management System) submenus that get you into the real zen of TV calibration. But you need the proper hardware and measuring tools to do it. You can try the Calibration section of AVSForum, where there are several years of threads on how it's done as well as threads on many specific HDTV's and a ton of calibration resources, test videos, test discs, etc. Adjusting every video for every display you use is doing it backwards, and re-encoding all that stuff is an exercise in masochism.

[DaneClark]

The DVDs I'm talking about are homemade anime DVDs that were ripped from VHS tapes. If I can make those look good anything will look good. I don't want to mess with any settings on the tv or the two SIMA color correctors because right now everything looks more like the way I want it than ever before. I just want to know if there is another external calibration device I can hook up that will allow me to:

-Redeuce red color casting without adding a blueish-greenish kind of tiny to flesh tones.
-slightly uncrush white levels without making the picture look darker
-make the colors look slightly less washed out without making them "bleed" more