Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Must have for HT tweakers.
The Avia disc is a must have if you have any desire to derive the full benefit from your HT expenditure. The color bar calibration alone is worth the price, as it adjusts for insidious red push. The picture that a weekender can get from a direct view, front projection or rear projection system by tweaking with Avia is stunning.The audio calibration section is amazing. The Radio Shack Sound Pressure Meter highlighted in the DVD is also a must have. The difference between calibrating the audio with the test tones built into the audio/video receiver versus calibrating the whole playback chain by including the Avia disc in the DVD is astounding. I thought my system was near perfect by using the test tones in the receiver until I did it again with the Avia disc and the SPL meter. Only then did the "sound stage" of my system become seamless and incredible. Guests now comment on the sound as often as they do the High Definition images on the screen. Invest an hour with this disc and you'll get several hundred hours of incredible HT enjoyment. Very highly recommended.
Rating: - Avia vs. Video Essentials: No Comparison
Having purchased both discs, I have very strong feelings about this. Avia bests VE in almost every respect:1. Navigation: On VE, the navigation is handled by a very confusing set of menus within menus. On my DVD remote, I could only access one of the menus using a button that I otherwise never use. Until I figured this out, the only way I could skip through the initial (not very useful) audio stuff was to fast forward! Avia's menus work like every other menu I have ever used. No problem with navigation. 2. Color calibration: VE offers only a blue filter. However, Avia provides red, blue, and green filters and allows you set each independently. 3. Sharpness: VE simply tells you to turn your sharpness all the way down. The pattern for setting sharpness is so under explained, it is useless. Avia provides a full explanation and resulted in my setting the sharpness level considerably above zero. 4. Brightness and Contrast settings: VE provides only static bars (and requires that your DVD passes pure black). Avia provides bars that flash. This makes getting proper settings much easier. Also, your DVD doesn't have to pass pure black.
Rating: - A must buy.
This disc does a great job taking you through both the audio and video setup steps for your home theater.The dvd menus are layed out nicely, allowing you to quickly navigate to the setup procedure that you want to perform. The disc includes red, green, and blue plastic filters for use in calibrating the color level, which turns a job that used to be guesswork into a quite accurate yet easy procedure, all without lots of scientific test instruments. The instructions are a extremely easy to follow. Each video setup section starts out with a description of what you are going to see and how you are going to adjust your video controls to make the correct settings, then shows the real test patterns. When done, you simply move on to the next chapter and continue the process. Overall, an outstanding dvd -- Highly recommended.
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