New bravia to set up...where do i start?

As is normal these days , my new digital purchase has no manuals to speak of but lots of setting choices.

I was very surprised to find a half descent out of the box setting. I got eye strain when i fired it up last night which i thought may have been my brain getting used to a new tv or the automatic ambient light sensor needs to be turned of as the screen doesnt look bright enough to me. The tuner is good though, stronger than my Humax freeview. I can now get channel 4 ( HD not SD !!) and thats without a roof aerial.
The picture is a bit soft though. News readers look like they have an inch thick of foundation on.
Tonight im going to do a basic calibration. I was thinking of doing a THX optimizer to begin with and getting a better calibration disc later.
Any suggestions of improvements? Any thing i should turn of like noise reduction and so on?

No Manual? :scratch: That's a bit poor innit.. Have you tried to find one on the net? Take it from me it'll be handy.

I guess how you set the thing up depends on what your main use of the set is, is it for watching broadcast TV itself or blu ray/dvds etc or a combination?

the manual is an electric one built in to the tv....

start with the "standard" mode and adjust to taste ... remember each input has its own setting (unless you choose other wise)
id use the thx thing only for your dvd player input as it will make things a bit dim for normal watching in day light conditions imho
set the tv mode just to what looks right to you ...
if you want to get really into it change all the setting to how you like it in the day time and write down the settings, then change it so it looks right in artificial light at night and compare the notes ... you will hopefully find they arent that disimilar
the news readers with an inch think of makeup thing is a little hard to counteract ...
eastenders is a good programme to use to get it looking natural as despite being a little on the cold side it is actually very naturally shot i think (dont be fooled and set the colour balance to warm to counteract it - neutral is the way to go )... get it looking right with the stenders and then everything else you can assume it is an effect... if that makes sence ...
you can get ocd with it and go well over the top ... but personally i think you wont go far wrong just setting it to "standard"... just ignore "dynamic" like it has the plague ... watching that for too long is liable to cause serious damge to your retinas ;)

oh and remember, it doesnt matter what setting you change you cant break it ... so just play with it until you like it ... in my veiw there is no perfect setting ... its entirely subjective and anyone who tells you it need to be set like this or like that (including the thx disk imo) is wrong ... how you like it is how it should be!

which one did you buy?

Hi Hamish , thats a bit clearer now.
I bought the ex503. Love the colour balance. Prefer it to the Samsungs. It doesnt have the brightness or punch of the LGs but i havent set it up yet ill give it a chance.
Im shocked how good the freeiew receiver is, much better than the humax.
I couldnt stop smiling when i got channel 4 , and on HD:eek: I can watch Britains fattest budgie now :rolleyes: Im aware i will have to get a aerial at sometime but it will be costly as its a 3 storey building.
My viewing doesnt feel relaxed at the moment. Its like putting on the wrong prescription glasses but i will have a fiddle with it.

Ta for the recomendation, very pleased with it. Next will be ps3 and e bay for a Yamaha dsp-e800. Oh yeah , and one day that REL ive been promising myself.

The 403 and 503 have a theatre mode - it's pretty good on that. But you do need to turn off the active light doohickey, and it's a faff to find - it's not in the picture menu as I originally thought. The on-screen manual is fairly good though.

Enjoy, I think my 32ex403 is very good indeed.

Jason

Ive got a Sony Bravia X series telly - it came with written instructions. As standard it came with a kind of 'hyper reality' colour and contrast setting - good for cartoons but way too vivid for normal stuff. My backlight is turned quite low, but contrast is high.

Turned a lot of things of and switched to theatre mode 2. Put the contrast up and it does look a lot better.
I cant find the ambient sensor light though

You may find the picture settles down after a bit of running in ,most displays do. Eco is a gimmick mine got turned off within a few minutes. I would have thought the manual could be downloaded from the Sony website try a google search including the tv model number.

Manual is
Home - settings - product support - imanual ... Or the button forth down on the remote from top far left
Ambient sensor is
Home - settings - display - ambient sensor
Any more whilst I'm stood in front of them til 5.30 today?

Paul had a point too ...
If your going to change settings leaving the tv on for at least half hour is a good idea ...
Every morning when we open the shop, especially when the weather is cold the tvs are all smeary for the first part of the morning