Tweaking PQ on TV?

[mjh]

I've been reading on this forum and others that getting the best picture quality out of your DBS can sometimes be an issue of tweaking your TV such that it receives the signal from the DBS receiver in a way that makes the PQ best. Some guy mentioned something about a DVD that you runs through a number of tests and having you adjust settings on the TV until you're going to get the best PQ out of it.

Well I'd like some advice on how to get better PQ from my DBS setup. I have DirecTV with a DirecTiVo, and also a GAEBO receiver. These are both plugged into the same TV. The DTiVo is plugged into the S-Video & audio ports and the GAEBO is plugged into the coax port. The picture on the GAEBO is "better" than the picture on the DTiVo.

I put "better" in quotes because I don't really know if it's actually better or not. I don't see any MPEG artifacts on the GAEBO, but on the DTiVo I do. Could it be that plugging the GAEBO into the coax port actually blurs the artifacts enough that they become invisible? Or do I need to tweak my TV so that I don't see the artifacts on the DirecTiVo?

[mjh]

Also, if I do need to tweak the settings on my TV, and I don't have a DVD player, much less the DVD that lets you tweak your TV settings, do you have any advice as to what I should do to get the best PQ? Is there perhaps a web resource that might provide more information?

[scooper]

The DVD's are either Avia or Video Essentials, and I would REALLY recommend getting them (as well as a DVD player - I mean, you can get them for $50 now! ). They also do a tune up for your audio receiver as well as the video.

Without them - start off by turning your sharpness control way down, as well as brightness and contrast (get the TV out of "Torch" / showroom mode)..