http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19650769

When I bought my TV, I used a disc of test cards and sequences to get the colours and pictures balanced. It took a while, but the picture is so much nicer than the factory settings give you.

Most TVs these days have 'decent enough' defaults, and Joe Average don't give a sh1t, so...

They do??

I use the THX Optimizer on any THX certified DVD (usually Star Wars). Not sure if they've done a BD version yet.

Directors are right to want it, but I doubt it'll work. They still need to get people to spend money on BDs or actually go to the cinema!

I use a BluRay disk called HD basics. It's a series of test cards, coloured filters, some test footage and some narrative to tell you how to use it. Depending on what your TV allows you do do, you can go quite deep.

I spent a lot of time getting the picture on my screen right. You have to look at shadows, and highlights as they can really be screwy with default settings.

I was complimented by a friend on the picture. She said it looks like watching a well balanced photo.

Even my cheap-ass LG TV (relatively speaking) has a whole bunch of default settings and a recommendations/roll your own option for setting it up. But I suspect most let it tune itself and never bother tinkering.

Don't know if it's on all LG TVs but mine has a pretty good ISF calibration mode.

Where did you buy it from? Seems to have mixed reviews on Amazon.

It came from Amazon. It seemed OK for me. The picture I have now is far better than the defaults the TV came with. You have to remember that not everyTV is made the same, and with any calibration process your results will be as good as your TV and your eyes let you. Not all TVs let you drill right down into the picture making process. I think mine has limitations for some of the white and black peak settings, and I had to work to those limitations when calibrating mine.

Yeah, I think you have the bigger version of my TV IIRC

Also many people do not have their TV in the optimum location to view anyway. There could be sunlight on the screen at various times of the day.

My mum and dad have a, chosen by me, 38"(IIRC) Panasonic plasma HD. Straight out of the box it was and still is, the nicest image I've ever seen on any equipment.

If you fiddled with the settings you could probably get it even nicerer, but here's the thing... if the viewer is happy with the display what's the fuss about?

I haven't changed the settings on my TV in the 7 years or so that I've had it. I may have a look at some stage, as it may appear, to the wife, like a "free upgrade"