One question on calibration. When you calibrate a TV, does it stay that way for all modes? (ie Movie, Standard, Dynamic) or do you lose the calibration when you change modes?
if it is always the same, what if it looks worse in Game Mode for gaming? or in the instance of the PS3, blu ray vs gaming.
Also how does it work with the Auto Motion?
The modes you are reffering to are basically presets for picture settings. Like on an equalizer for example... when you calibrate, you take one of those modes, and adjust the picture so that it is correct in that mode (like standard, or movie, or whatever). If you exit that mode and go back to "dynamic" or something else, then you are back to where you were, an uncalibrated picture. You could of course just put your calibrated settings into all those modes, and they would all be correct.
Am I being clear enough? It is like bass and treble settings. There is only one "correct" setting for the room and associated equipment. Any deviation is no longer correct. The "dynamic, movie, standard", all those modes are just presets. You can adjust those presets to whatever you want to. They come from the factory set to different things, and all are wrong although some are much better than others. Samsung specifically, does a much better job in the movie mode these days than in the past. It is still far from correct, but it is a lot better than dynamic or standard.
Some modes, turn certain extra circuitry on and off as well. So sometimes, we get the best picture only in one mode, because it is only in that mode that other things automatically turn on or off on that particular TV. Generally, the movie or ISF modes turn extra doo-dads (that I mentioned earlier rarely do more good than harm) off.
If the TV is calibrated well, it should always look better regardless of source. It is like an engine that is tuned. The only time that I can see a need to possibly go out of the calibrated settings and go to something else is if there is a lot of ambient light in the room and you need extra brightness. For that, sometimes we have the calibrated settings, and one more that is just slightly brighter. Color levels, grayscale, sharpness, RGB levels, all that is the same pretty much. Once a set is calibrated, there really is no need to change modes anymore.
What you are reffering to as "worse for gaming mode" is really non-existant. If the source equipment is designed properly, to correct standards, you will always get the best picture in your calibrated mode. Sometimes, a certain DVD player or game or whatever will not be correct however. It's signal output is actually improper. So then we will dedicate on of those TV presets to that source, and try to FIX the flaw coming in. If we calibrate for the flawed source, then the other correct sources would be off. So on those rare occasions, we use different settings for different sources. We will have one set of settings for the correct gear, and we will have one set of settings for the flawed gear that tries to fix it as much as possible. This is its simple explanation, not the technical one.
On the PS3, the output is correct. No matter if it is a game or Blu-ray, the calibrated settings work well. Sony is pretty good from my experience in getting things right with their source equipment. Some other much more expensive brands, are not.
Does this explanation make sense? I am trying not to be too wordy.
Oh and on your speakers... I too do not like dipoles on Digital Surround be it DD or DTS. I had a suspicion those were but it was hard to see from the picture. On discrete surround systems which everything is nowadays, you really should use monopoles (standard direct radiating speakers) or bipoles. Dipoles were better for old pro-logic days.
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