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AVIA Guide to Home Theater

AVIA Guide to Home Theater

List Price:
Your Price: $34.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad
Review: This was very helpful in properly setting up my new HDTV. Some of the adjustments were kind of hard to follow, but after a second watch it was ok. Made the picture alot clearer and sharper.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Waste of money
Review: Thought this dvd was a total waste of money. Recalibrated my system according to instructions which did absolutely nothing at all... everything looked/sounded the same before and after using the dvd. Missing some of the more important features found in Video Essentials.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "A must have"
Review: What a place to start! The begining is A typical. The setup section makes all the difference in the world. After you setup your own system, you will be driven to fix all of your friends systems! "A must have" for the movie person.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Should be required for anyone with a home theatre
Review: Yes, this DVD is a little expensive. Still I would go and buy another one in a blink if my current paraphernalia had one missing.

For an eternity I put off buying anything "extra" like this, believing that there is little that could be done to a home theatre system because, after all, most people use it without any tweaking and enjoy it!

Then, on a whim I bought a few separate DVDs for speaker polarization, the Ultimate DVD Platinum that included digital dolby versus dtd comparative, and a surround sound testing kit. If you buy any of such stuff, you will most likely end up believing that any additional DVD testers/tweakers are basically useless.

But Avia is different. It packs all of this, and more. The options for tweaking sound, video, color, speaker polarization etc are laid out in an intuitive "for dummies" style, very easy to work with. My DVD player is Region 2 NTSC Sony (Japan) but the disc played without a hassle, which means it is most likely multizone and multisystem if that was your concern. Personally I couldn't find much of a use for the azure filter but it showed me the possibilities.

If you believe you are using your 5.1 to its maximum, think again. This disc is very well worth the price not only for electronic afficianodos but for everyone with a modern theatre system.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Feature rich, navigation poor
Review: You've spent hours in the big box retailers under crappy flourescent lights. You've spent hours in the local value added retailers under perfect lighting conditions. And then the set gets home, and the picture sucks.
Enter Avia. After you use Avia in your home (with your lighting conditions), you may, in fact, say, "This picture sucks worse."
The pictures in the big box retailers are (more than likely) so juiced up on contrast that anything less than staring into a flourecent bulb will be considered "dim" The VARs sync the perfect signal for their perfect rooms.
This is where Avia shines. The DVD gives you (I wish alt-I worked for posts) a ring-side seat to video tweaks. You get the CRT-killing contrast tweak patterns. You get brightness, sharp, color, and tint tweak patterns. A fine lineup for $35.
You won't get a 'certified' calibration, but as long as you keep the contrast adjustment at the recommended levels (for burn-in prone sets), you're well on your way to a much improved TV watching experience.
As for Avia's audio calibration tools.....well.
The 3 star rating is based on three factors: this is the best video calibration you can do at home with your own eyes, good audio calibration requires a sound level meter, the DVD navigation is the absolute worst.
I left the worst marks for the end. DVD navigation is pathetic at best. If you want to tune your video, be prepared for long winded explanations, coupled with second-tier video, just to access test patterns. The DVD authoring is sophomoric at best, but the results are, visually speaking, spectacular. Buy this DVD.


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