Am I Completely Stupid?
Seriously. I just started looking up info on how to set up my new übertube. I want to ride the cable companies tubes to mind-numbing nirvana and to do that, gol durn it, I'm gonna need my brightness set right, my contrast set right, and everything else set (think I'm gonna say "right" don'tcha?) just so. In order to do this I, ideally, need a übertube setup DVD to set all the levels etc. However, I just read a few things that -- given my geek quotient (which was apparently lower than I thought, and is now back to an appropriate level) -- shocked the everliving hell out of me.
For TV settings, if it was labeled Black Levels and White Levels instead of Brightness and Contrast, I'd've understood how to set that shit right ages ago. Why? Because I've understood black and white levels since my high school days of screwing with Photoshop, Brightness and contrast? Well shucks, I just thought they controlled... you know. The brightness and contrast. Which they kind of do, at least in terms of end result, kind of... but more as a tertiary function of actually controlling the black levels and white levels!!!.
For those not in the know (and, why would you when the industry that should've taken the time to tell you decided to treat you like a retarded monkey) Black and White Levels control how black blacks appear and how white whites appear. But let's go over it in English, shall we? Black levels when increased will mean that the range of luminosities on your display that appear black will be shallower -- example: everything that should be black will look gray if set too high. The thing of it is... ... no. No. no. I'm not going to turn this into a lecture of something I'm not an expert in. But. Really, the "brightness" control will make things look brighter, but only becase you're telling the tube to not show any actual black. Watch your TV sometime, if you're watching a DVD and the letterboxing (you're watching in letterbox right?) is gray instead of a deep deep black, you're settings are wrong. And sure, it's your choice, but really, it's wrong.
And yes. I am actually angry about this. And yes, much of the anger is directed at myself. It's taken me this long to learn this? For real?
Seriously. Am I the only one that think that treating a society like idiots that you will only create a society of idiots?
-Jon
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p>P.S. If you want to make yourself a test pattern DVD to set everything up right, you can.