Test Card

[fly258]

How do TV engineers set up the picture on a new TV without a test card?

Iv'e just bought a new TV and I'm trying to set up the picture but find it difficult without a fixed  picture.

[Chillum]

Most new TVs will do this (almost) automatically. All you have to do is find the "menu" button on the remote, press that, then, on the on-screen meus, find something like "tuning", then go to "auto-set" up or "auto-detect" or whatever. Select that, and let the tv find the strongest signals. When it settles on a channel, use the remote to store it (see handbook). Set it going to find the next channel, then store again..etc etc..

[Blues Dad]

They usually plug pattern generators into the TV to produce the test patterns.

I had to re-align the geometry on my TV so made an image of a crosshatch pattern in Photoshop and wrote it as a jpeg file to a CD and played that in the DVD player - it worked a treat.

You can also buy DVD calibration disks but I've only come across NTSC versions - Avia and Digital Video Essentials both available from Amazon.co.uk

[Headtime]

A Test card and other test patterns only have any real value or purpose when connected to a vectorscope and waveform monitor.

It's no good just playing a testcard on your TV without the appropriate callibration equipment. aswell.