New LCD Owner, Any Advice?

[babs]

I took the leap over the Christmas break and ordered myself a nice shiny LCD, with the other half's blessing no less! Anyway, it arrived today at lunchtime and is sitting at home in a box ready for me to get home later and play, but I thought I'd ask the knowledgeable folks here beforehand for any good 'new owner, new set' advice.

What I mean is is there anything I definitely should or shouldn't do to get the most out of it, any particular settings I should be using (Wii & 360 to be connected initially). I'm imagining setting the 360 to 720p is a good first step, and I seem to remember reading about a 'just scan' mode for the TV? Is there a right and wrong way to calibrate it or anything like that?

The TV in question is this one, the Samsung LE32R87BDX.

Thanks in advance chaps!

[dvdx2]

Wii - component 480p
Xbox 360 - 720/1080i/1080p (HDMI/VGA/Component)

set both at console dash - Justscan usually can only be activated if your tv is 1080p (360 games upscle to this)

[charlesr]

Turn the sharpness down. And it'll be set to "dynamic" colours which will be somewhat colourific, so you may want to adjust that too.

[Salsa Party Animal]

And check out avforums for settings to use if possible.

[EvilBoris]

Under Picture options change size to "Just scan" (set your 360 to 720p) although just scan works only via HDMI, so you need a newer 360 to take advantage of that, otherwise you should get yourself a VGA lead.

turn off
DNIE
Digital NR
Active Colour
Movie Plus

Then adjust the colours and contrast and stuff to your own personal preference.

[SUMIRE]

If your running it through VGA on your 360, get a proper Microsoft cable as I found the lesser ones "ghost" a fair bit.

[smouty]

And check out avforums for settings to use if possible.

Definately do this. It looks awful out of the box with default settings.

[Salsa Party Animal]

and have a look at this

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/panasonics-gigantic-150-inch-plasma-is-official/

[babs]

Thanks guys, you've actually covered a lot of the things I was going to ask this morning.

I've already turned off all of those 'enhancements', I found it looked very plasticky. I did find that I had some really annoying rolling diagonal lines when using the 360 and on dark screens (most noticeable on the COD4 title screen), but I'm assuming that's down to one of three things.

1. The lead is passing too close to a PSU.
2. I'm using a Game component cable.
3. I'm using a component switching box.

I also noticed in COD4 that there appears to be some ghosting, mostly on menu text, and that the text on the dashboard looks a little 'soft'. Is this normal? I'm running under 720p by the way, and don't seem to get any ghosting from the Wii.

I was going to ask if Just Scan was an HDMI only option, looks like I was pre-empted I'll go and have a look on avforums now for some settings, thanks guys. Oh, and is it best to use VGA over component then for the 360?

[charlesr]

With VGA you get 1to1 pixel mapping, whereas there's still some scaling over component. However, some people find it's a little washed compared to component.

[bankies]

3. I'm using a component switching box.

Are you using one of the Farmer component switch boxes? if so I found the same issues when using the 360 set to 720p but the Wii was OK. I sold it and got one of the JS Technology auto component switch boxes which worked perfectly

[babs]

3. I'm using a component switching box.

Are you using one of the Farmer component switch boxes? if so I found the same issues when using the 360 set to 720p but the Wii was OK. I sold it and got one of the JS Technology auto component switch boxes which worked perfectly

As a matter of fact, yes, I am. It was a gift from secret santa here .

What issues did it give you? The rolling bars or the ghosting? Or both?

[bankies]

As a matter of fact, yes, I am. It was a gift from secret santa here .

What issues did it give you? The rolling bars or the ghosting? Or both?

Both

[Macksujin]

its been said already but check out the R87 owners thread on avforums, Blackbolt has stuck up a few calibration images for vga and ting.

[MattyD]

I have a Sumsung 32" LCD which IIRC may even be the same model. I'd say definately go for VGA with the 360, it looks so much sharper with the 1:1 pixel mapping mentioned earlier. The TV's native res is slightly higher than 720p but with VGA you can select the exact resolution from the Xbox Dashboard.

In the meantime, don't bother setting your consoles to anything higher than 720p. Whilst the set *can* accept a 1080i signal it will only be downscaling it and in any case you will lose the smoother picture you get with prog scan.

Also make sure you use the Game Mode. It turns off even more of the post-processing effects.

And get yourself an amp/ 5.1 unit and some external speakers if you don't already have them, the built-in ones are ****e