I have bought a new Samsung Series 6 TV

Out of the box the picture left a certain amount to be desired.

Delving into the menu shows lots of setting like White Balance, Gamma, Colour space etc

Not for the faint hearted, but fortunately each has a Reset feature

What to do??

Fortunately during my research I cam across this review site.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Samsung-LE40B650/

On the setting page they list all the values that gave a good picture on their review set.

Starting there I have been able to get a good picture.

Googling around I came across this page with test images for setting up your TV.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/viewing.html

Make sure any setting changes are on the TV, not on the computer.

Settings on the computer are held in the OS and only used when you connect the PC.

Fine if you use the TV as a monitor, no good for normal TV viewing.

Share your experiences here.

From back when I used to mess with projector installs..

My old mate has been doing this for years. http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-ht-cfp.php

I have a spyder calibration hardware somewhere.. Actually think I have a colorfacts license too. If anyone was interested.

Playing around yesterday I realised the my Dreambox receiver has a Test Screen function.

It generates a set of colour bars, RGBYCM.

With these on the screen I went back to the White Balance settings

and tweaked a little, not just looking at each colour, but the boundaries between them

where there was some blurring.

The result is a much cleaner image, with less colour cast, and brighter colours.

I've got a copy of both Avia and DVE which can both be used for calibrating TV's / Projectors.

The BBC used to transmit a test card at one time but I've not seen it for years.

With 24 hour TV there is little time to transmit test cards.

This one, Test Card E, dates from 1967.

There is an interesting bit of history at http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/testcard/bbc_test.html

If you have access to satellite TV then you will will find some transponders with Testcards and colour bars