Want to adjust your flat-panel TV to get the best image for your DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu-rays? Here's how.
Estimated time: 3 hours
Estimated cost: S$50 and upStep 1: Getting started
So you've finally stepped up and ditched your bulky tube television for a sleek new flat-panel LCD set. Problem is, like most televisions, LCDs are preconfigured to make an impact on the sales floor of your local electronics superstore, not in your living room. These default settings are usually way too bright and garish to accurately represent real life. Here's how to properly set the basic picture controls available on most LCD sets to maximize your home-theater viewing pleasure.Step 2: What you'll need
Before you even get started with this project, we recommend that you have the following:
Proper lighting results in better picture quality.
Step 3: Create proper room lighting
Because most people turn down the lights to watch a movie, our recommendations are designed to deliver a better picture in rooms with controlled lighting. Unless you're sitting at the minimum viewing distance for your LCD television's size (see the chart), you shouldn't watch movies in complete darkness because it can cause eyestrain. The ideal setup is to place a dim light directly behind the television and leave the rest of the room dark. You should also try to prevent any light in the room from reflecting off the LCD screen, as glare will hamper image fidelity.Tip
Look for special "daylight" bulbs that glow at 6,500 degrees Kelvin. This is the standard color temperature that most producers use when creating movies and TV shows.Wide-screen TV viewing distances
Your television should deliver the right-size picture for where you sit relative to the screen. Sitting closer to a smaller television means you won't have to splurge on a big screen. But if you sit too close, the picture quality will be substandard. Sit too far away, and you won't have an immersive experience.| 16:9 TV diagonal screen size | Minimum distance (m) | Maximum distance (m) |
| 26 inches | 1 | 2 |
| 30 inches | 1.1 | 2.3 |
| 34 inches | 1.3 | 2.6 |
| 42 inches | 1.6 | 3.2 |
| 50 inches | 1.95 | 3.8 |
| 65 inches | 2.5 | 5 |
| 71 inches | 2.8 | 5.4 |
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