You've just spent thousands of hard earned dollars on your home theater. You have read carefully through all of the manuals and spent hours on the web to find tips in setting up your new system. With all of this time, effort and money you still feel that you can get more from your system. With all of this investment another $40 will take you through those all important final steps, the correct calibration of your system. In my youth I was trained as a scientist and because of this training I realized the importance of a calibration standard. A set of instructions and test criteria to make sure my equipment was functioning at the best possible performance. This disc provides that all important means to test and calibrate your system.

What is so good about Joe Kane's Video Essentials is it does a lot more than just provide the test images and tones. It takes great care to explain the inner workings of your system and what and why each component does what it does. It also explains the most common mistakes made in system setup. This includes the short comings of most manuals and set up instructions. The disc starts off with a brief tour of your system, including the most common variations found in modern home theater systems. Once this is understood the disc moves on to the audio calibration. While an inexpensive sound meter is suggested it is not needed. After all, the system is for your entertainment, not some meter. The test tones takes the subjective nature of sound field setup out of the procedure and provides a basis for your personal discussions concerning your system. You are lead through a series of tones that test the balance of each of your six speakers. You see on the screen what speaker is being tested and where the sound should seem like it is coming from. Along the way you learn about the contributions of THX, Dolby Surround and Stereo modes. You also are able to test for which center speaker, surround speaker and sub woofer options are best for your system. Are your speaker wires correctly attached? How should you modify the default settings for your room's configuration? These questions are easy to answer and implement using this disc.

Next you set up you video. Those of us old enough to remember late night test patterns may have wondered why they were there. Video Essentials tells us and shows us how to use them to better the picture quality. During this section you are taken through each of the all too misunderstood controls such as brightness, contrast, sharpness, color and tint. For each section a test pattern is provided and like the audio tests, ample time is provided for adjustments. You decide how long each section is viewed and when to move on to the next. The disc also includes a strip of blue film to view one of the test patterns so as to be able to correctly adjust your color and tint. You will find that your settings have been wrong for years. For example, most TVs have the brightness set far too high. The disc also explains the best place in the room to set up out TV and how to light your room for best results.