Avia II | 
 enlarge | Actor: Avia 2: Guide To Home Theater
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $20.00
You Save: $29.99 (60%)
New (33) Used (8) from $17.19
Rating:  17 reviews
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: AVIA II
Model: AVIA II
UPC: 684503000004
EAN: 0684503000004
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Menu provides synthesized audio & video signals designed to set up & test your home theater system | | • | Learn what you need for today's Hi-Def technology | | • | Easy-to-follow menus lead you directly to the information you want to know about |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
AVIA takes full advantage of DVD video's interactive features. AVIA combines tutorials with professional quality test signals for fully calibrating and testing audio and video systems. Simply sit back and watch the live video presentation or get involved and select in-depth coverage of specific topics. You select the tutorial depth or calibration tool. Adjusting your audio and video system for maximum performance is easy with AVIA's step-by-step instructions. Professionals (or those who want to learn more) can directly access advanced calibration signals with on-line explanations. You'll want to use AVIA again and again to keep your system in top condition.
Amazon.com Review
Avia's latest entry into TV and audio configuration strikes a fine balance between being friendly to newcomers and satisfying to home theater gurus. Navigating the disc is easy, as it is logically divided into ten main topics that are further divided into chapters. If you are new to home theater, the first few chapters walk you through topics like Home Theater Components, Video Basics, HD Technology, and Making the Connection (hooking up your system)--all in plain English, not in techno-babble. If you already understand the basics of home theater, it's easy to skip to the final three chapters to tweak and calibrate every aspect of your system's audio and video. To really take advantage of the audio test tones, you need a SPL meter, and if you don't know how to use one, the disc walks you through the process. It also walks you through the most common video test patterns and how to use them to make proper adjustments to the sharpness, brightness, color, tint, and contrast settings on your display. The first time you calibrate your display it will look a lot different than you are used to, but resist the urge to turn the brightness up. By the end of the week, you will appreciate the improved picture and wonder how you were able to watch it before. Just be careful with the included color filters—since they lack a sturdy, cardboard liner, they can be easy to lose. --Adam Gregorich
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Save your money on this one October 21, 2008
Bryan M (Illinois, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This video really only helps with a couple of things such as brightness. It wasn't that far off from the factory settings on my plasma tv. Don't bother with this video unless you need a $30 coaster.
 Good product. Did as advertised July 26, 2008
W. SCOTT (OK USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This disc was simple and easy to follow. The 2 "stars" were both informative in their directions, which were easy to follow. I haven't accessed the extra content yet, but the basic tests used will calibrate your display perfectly. This disc is good for both the inexperienced and the "pro". It's broken down into chapters, so if you need to go step-by-step you watch the entire disc. If you have prior knowledge RE: calibration you can skip right down to the tests.
All in all a great product, but if I had to say something bad about it, it could have been less expensive?
Did the job...but I expected more July 26, 2008
R. Jacobs (Colorado Springs, Co)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
First of all I received the DVD 3 days earlier than the expected receive date. This was nice. The DVD case is cheaply made. The DVD was sliding around inside the case to the point that it scratched the disc. The colour filters are just tossed into the DVD case separated by tissue paper. The two guys narrating on the disc do a fairly good job explaining surround sound and HDTV settings. Using the HDTV calibration menu it was easy to calibrate my Plasma TV. I could tell the difference between my original settings and the calibrated settings. Calibrating my surround was just as easy. Navigating through the disc is a bit difficult. Some of the HDTV calibration test you need to repeat a couple of times. I could FF through some of the test but other test I could not FF. Between the overly casual nature of the narrators, the very plain set/stage and the script reading it appeared to me that this disk was kind of thrown together. Like I said. The disk did the job, but I expected more.
 save your money July 22, 2008
JP (NYC)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
might not be completely useless, but it's close enough. Maybe I'm being a little harsh, because I did wait long enough after buying my TV to have tweaked the settings to my satisfaction without this disc. The biggest reason I got it was to check the color accuracy, and I find their method of doing so extremely flawed. In fact, I found it useless.
You're looking through colored gels at a color test pattern with blinking squares in the center, and you really can't tell what the heck you're adjusting, or if it's getting better or worse or what. Just play a bunch of DVDs and watch a lot of broadcast channels and tweak until you get the skin tones right on most of them, it'll be better than this.
Beginner explanations, good patterns July 13, 2008
Cliff The Engineer (Fremont, CA USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The explanations are pretty basic/simplistic. As others have said, I could have used way more explanation on the contrast/brightness. I also have the DVE blu-ray, which has its own problems, but the explanations are much more detailed.
What brought it up to a 4 was the patterns at the end. There is a PDF which explains how to use the patterns, and they are useful. If they had a PDF that better explained the details of contrast etc., that would have brought it up even more. They say on the video that various things like links etc. are on the DVD, but I only found a PDF explanation of the extra patterns, and a glossary.
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