How do I setup my new HDTV (contrast, brightness, color, etc.)

Factual Questions
1

Just got myself a nice 32" LCD TV. Looks great coming from a regular tube SDTV, but I have a sense that the settings need to be “customized” for my room and video sources etc.

Yeah, I know how to actually do this through the TV menus. What I don’t know is what criteria I should use when setting them up to be perfect, especially contrast vs. brightness. I have some basic sense that blacks should be black, but then again things look a lot better (ehh, more visible) with the brightness cranked up so you can actually see stuff.

Any advice would be helpful. FTR, this isn’t a particular dark room. There are quite large windows and light during the day and at night I usually have 2 or more lamps on when watching/gaming.

Suggestions?

2

Pick up a setup DVD like Digital Video Essentials or Avia Guide to Home Theater, and they’ll step you through the process of tuning your TV with some pretty easy to use test patterns.

3

If you have one of the Star Wars DVDs, you can use the THX calibration. On my trilogy DVDs, you go to Options, then select the THX optimizer.