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    I have a Vizio e420i smart tv. It took lots of trial and error to get the picture to look right and I want to know how to go into the factory settings and make a few minor tweek to fix color casting and crushed black levels
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    DaneClark, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:
    Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
    Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.
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    Also, when watching cartoons the black outlines have some minor "ghosting" visible around them. Someone please help me out.
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  4. Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    Also, when watching cartoons the black outlines have some minor "ghosting" visible around them. Someone please help me out.
    Turn off noise reduction and reduce the sharpening filter.
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    I don't think it has anything to do with noise reduction or sharpness, I think it's a convergence issue
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    Can't be convergence, there is no crt tube with separate electron guns
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  7. Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    I don't think it has anything to do with noise reduction or sharpness, I think it's a convergence issue
    Good for you.
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  8. Doesn't your television manual tell you where to find the color and black/white level adjustments?

    I'm not sure I'd want to do it by trial and error, though, but with the aid of a calibration disc or something similar.
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    Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    I have a Vizio e420i smart tv. It took lots of trial and error to get the picture to look right and I want to know how to go into the factory settings and make a few minor tweek to fix color casting and crushed black levels
    How does the picture "look right" if it has a color cast and crushed blacks? No way. There's nothing in the service menu that you don't already have in your user menu for image adjustment. If you don't know how to use test patterns and measurement tools, you're wasting your time in the service menu -- there's no "Fix My Picture" button in there.

    Originally Posted by manono View Post
    Doesn't your television manual tell you where to find the color and black/white level adjustments?
    It does. On page 25. But who reads manuals?

    Click image for larger version

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    Like manono implies, it's impossible to calibrate by trial and error, which is what you're doing. There's an old calibration guide that tells how to use tools your TV already has without borking your set in the service menu. The hardware and software shown in the link have new versions now, but the methods and graphics still look the same (ignore the "updated" version, it costs too damn much $$$$): http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457. The good news: this is the best way to get a beautiful cinema-standard picture, even with a Vizio. The bad news: it ain't Instant Gratification.

    Passive/Quick-Effort-Gratifaction/Oh-Well-It's-A-Little-Better/Cheapo method: get a HD video calibration test disc from Amazon, like this http://www.amazon.com/Spears-Munsil-Benchmark-Calibration-Edition/dp/B00CKWI13O/ref=cm_wl_huc_item
    or this http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-Essentials-Basics-Blu-ray/dp/B000V6LST0/ref=cm_wl_huc_item.
    They help with the crushed blacks and make visible general improvements but might not do much for a bad color cast -- you might need advanced tools for that.
    - My sister Ann's brother
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    what cartoons, have this problem
    New Broadcast, or copies of old stuff on dvd
    re-calibrate how ever you want
    but don't call it a convergence problem
    there is NO convergence adjustment on a solid state display
    for that problem you need three separate color guns
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  11. Free AVS HD709 calibration download (burn to disc yourself) and manual, here:

    http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-display-calibration/948496-avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.html

    The problems cited sure sound like noise reduction and/or sharpening...
    Pull! Bang! Darn!
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    I guess everything looks good enough, I was trying to make it so that sd-dvds that I made from vhs tapes look less grainy and flickery. the only issue left seems to be that the picture doesn't always seem to look exactly the same and I am reluctant to turn off the ambient light sensor.
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    Mm, well, if you're reluctant to change anything your results won't change either.
    There are hundreds of threads in this forum going back years and years that explain why VHS captures look crappy and what to do about it. I'm afraid there's no free lunch, not even with digital video.
    For a ton of threads about TV setup and stuff, try the avsforum.
    - My sister Ann's brother
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    Ok, but how should the lighting in the room be to ensure that the ambient light sensor always gets the best possible quality? Prefebly a lighting setup that will prevent the sensor from giving the picture crushed white levels.
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    Turning off the light sensor was the first adjustment I made to my tv
    The second was setting the brightness level
    That way those never change because of ambient light, day or night

    My vizio has some built in settings like movie golf football etc..
    I set the broadcast to the one I liked best
    Then each of my hdmi inputs got set for what looked best for that device input DVD, media player, laptop etc..
    Then I slightly tweaked each one

    As far as your vhs transfers
    You would have better luck going back to the saved source files and recoding with changed settings and making new DVDs
    You can't change the tv to make those look better,
    You will just throw everything else out of whack
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    Is the ambient light sensor the reason why the color casting and over sharpness sometimes look more noticeabill, or is that just in my head?
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    Auto sensors have no idea who you are, what you want, or what kind of video you're playing. They have a mind of their own that has nothing to do with clean video. It's been said earlier: turn off the auto gimmicks, all of them. How can you adjust your TV if those crazy toys take control out of your hands? The first thing any test disk or calibration program tells you to do is to turn off the toys and work in subdued light. If you do nothing else, start with one of the consumer setup kits and follow step by step. Right now you're just working against yourself.
    - My sister Ann's brother
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    I just want a straight answer as to whether the ambient light sensor can make it so that how noticeable color casting, sharpness artifacts, green halos, and crushed white levels look vary depending on how much light is in the room.
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  19. Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    I just want a straight answer as to whether the ambient light sensor can make it so that how noticeable color casting, sharpness artifacts, green halos, and crushed white levels look vary depending on how much light is in the room.
    Yes.
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  20. Originally Posted by smrpix View Post
    Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    I just want a straight answer as to whether the ambient light sensor can make it so that how noticeable color casting, sharpness artifacts, green halos, and crushed white levels look vary depending on how much light is in the room.
    Yes.
    Maybe. But your source already has all those problems you need to fix the source, not adjust the TV. If you do the latter then everything else you watch on the TV will be messed up.
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    Originally Posted by LMotlow View Post
    Mm, well, if you're reluctant to change anything your results won't change either.
    There are hundreds of threads in this forum going back years and years that explain why VHS captures look crappy and what to do about it. I'm afraid there's no free lunch, not even with digital video.
    For a ton of threads about TV setup and stuff, try the avsforum.
    +1 - as great as Videohelp is, AVSForum generally has much more detailed info about specific HDTV models and issues.

    A quick Google search for "Vizio e420i avsforum" shows:

    There are at least three different Vizio e420i models, A-0, A-1, B-0 and the suggested settings for each is slightly different.

    Ambient Light sensor: Off

    A calibration disc (as suggested above) is the primary choice for tweaking.
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    What causes the skin tone of animated characters to make there black outlines look reddish? I need to turn that down just a little bit without making things look washed out. And I need to add just a little more tonal variation to the picture in a way that won't crush the black or white levels. If I can do all that I'll be satisfied
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  23. A quick search would have turned up tips on how to optimize the picture. Then you could have saved us from having to do your work for you. This one, for example:

    Straight out of the box, the E420i’s picture needs some help. Even on the fairly tame Standard setting, colors appeared inaccurate and oversaturated, contrast was askew, and the display was a bit bright, even in moderate lighting. Confounding the issue for the novice is the fact that the E420i comes with 9 different picture modes, with iterations including multiple sports modes, a gaming mode, and the eye scorching Vivid mode. None of them looked right to us with default settings, but thankfully, some very basic adjustments made vast improvements.

    Our first directive was to navigate straight to the “Advanced Picture” setting and turn off overt options like Adaptive Luma, Color Enhancement and the extremely annoying Ambient Light Sensor. These very simple changes made a huge difference in the set’s picture quality. After that, thanks to help from our Spyder4 calibrating device and THX calibration Blu-Ray, we were able to get a solid picture with some key tweaks. Our preferred settings are available at the end of this review.

    Preferred Settings

    Backlight: 75

    Contrast: 69

    Brightness: 49

    Sharpness: 8

    Color: 55

    Tint: -2

    Color Temperature – Normal

    Advanced Settings

    Noise Reduction – Low

    MPEG NR – Low

    Color Enhancement – Off

    Adaptive Luma – Off

    Film Mode – Off

    Smart Dimming – Off

    Ambient Light Sensor – Off

    http://www.digitaltrends.com/tv-reviews/vizio-e420i-review/

    Me, I turn off all noise reduction and sharpening. This set of Amazon.com reviews includes settings a number of customers included:

    http://www.amazon.com/VIZIO-E420i-A1-42-inch-1080p-120Hz/product-reviews/B009IBXECS
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    the thing is that I dont want to make to many more adjustments from the way things are now because it took forever to make my vhs - sourced DVDs to look good, and i need to have it set so that other things look god too. All I want to do is make the colors look a tiny bit more "complimentary" and stop reds and blues from bleeding into areas that are supposed to be black.
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  25. Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    What causes the skin tone of animated characters to make there black outlines look reddish?
    Sometimes the animators draw it that way.
    Image
    [Attachment 34871 - Click to enlarge]


    Sometimes they shoot through filters to deliberately spill highlights into the edges.
    Image
    [Attachment 34872 - Click to enlarge]



    Without knowing what material you're dealing with we have no way of knowing whether you're fixing the image or ruining it.

    And as jagabo has pointed out -- you don't adjust the monitor to the picture, you adjust the monitor to a standard reference and judge the picture from there.
    Last edited by smrpix; 17th Dec 2015 at 08:01.
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  26. Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    All I want to do is make the colors look a tiny bit more "complimentary"
    I don't know what you mean by that. You want more saturated (less pastel) colors? Increase the "Color" setting on the TV.

    Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    and stop reds and blues from bleeding into areas that are supposed to be black.
    You can't. VHS has low luma resolution and extremely low color resolution. The luma component of thin black lines won't be completely black, colors to the left and right will bleed into them.

    But once again, by adjusting your TV to a bad VHS source you are destroying it for proper sources.
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    Originally Posted by DaneClark View Post
    I guess everything looks good enough, I was trying to make it so that sd-dvds that I made from vhs tapes look less grainy and flickery.
    The VHS and DVD source may be the problem. Some LCD TVs just can't display SD content of the same quality as the old CRT TVs. SD content really benefits with a higher end LCD TV with a good upscaler. Also, CRTs have much better black levels that can hide or blur noise that may stand out on a LCD.
    Last edited by Vidd; 17th Dec 2015 at 10:20.
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    What do you use for a DVD player
    I assume these cartoons are more important to you than other movies or broadcast tv
    You are trying to adjust the tv, to fix problems that are in the cartoon DVD
    That "Bleed " is in the DVD signal, you can't adjust the tv to fix it
    You can TRY to mask it by playing with the settings
    But that is only going to muck up the tv for everything else viewed from that DVD player
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    All I'm really trying to do is make the colors look a tiny bit more broadcast - safe
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    Where did everyone go?
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