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If you decide to play with your HDTV factory default settings and calibrate them to better suit your viewing environment, there are couple of options available out there. Depending on how much perfection you are seeking in picture quality and how much money and time you want to spend, these options range from using freely available calibration software, to buying a calibration disc, to using the services of a professional calibration technician. While individual viewing preferences may vary, the free/low cost calibration software would definitely help improve the picture quality. For even better results, you can go for a professional calibration.
In either case, knowing a bit about the picture related terminology helps you make a better decision. Picture quality can be improved by adjusting TV's Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, Backlight and Tint. Advanced options like Color Tone, Dynamic Contrast, Gamma, White Balance, Edge Enhancement and Flesh Tone can be used to further improve the quality. Note that different TV manufacturers may use different terminology to refer to these advanced options. Table below lists color settings for a typical HDTV:

Parameter	Value
Backlight	7
Contrast	95
Brightness	45
Sharpness	6
Color	50
Tint (G/R)	G50/R50

Like everybody else, I am starting to enjoy the amazing and crisp video quality of Blu-ray movies compared to Broadcast HD or DVD movies. But, while watching Broadcast HD shows or movies, there are occasions that make my eyes believe that Broadcast HD video quality is as good as Blu-ray, if not superior (especially with animation movies). It is not easy to compare these two video qualities without taking into consideration factors like Transmission mode, Compression, Bitrate, Load on Broadcast provider's network and type of the content and your TV settings.

Compression: Blu-ray discs use 1080p maximum and MPEG-4 compression which results in higher possible bandwidth. Broadcast HD transmissions are 1080i maximum and use MPEG-2 compression which results in lower possible bandwidth.

Bitrate: Blu-ray technology transmits the content at 40 Mbps (total 48 Mbps for video and audio). Broadcast HD transmits at around 20 Mbps. Lower bitrate for broadcast HD means squeezing the content resulting in loss of details.

Network Load: Broadcast HD quality is affected by network load which depends on number of subscribers availing the service at a particular time and other infrastructure related factors.

Content Type: CGI rich animated movies lose less details in broadcast transmission compared to a normal movie. This, sometimes, results in a Blu-ray quality comparable movie experience from broadcast HD.

TV Settings: TV Settings play a big role in viewing experience. Factory defaults are not always the ideal settings for a typical home viewing environment. By optimizing your HDTV settings, you can enjoy better picture quality for both Blu-ray movies and broadcast HD content.

All things considered, Blu-ray content has superior quality over broadcast HD content.

Over the weekend, Netflix announced that PS3 owners soon will be able to watch Netflix's streaming content. This is an interesting announcement from Netflix, considering the fact that their streaming service is already available on XBox and they are using Silverlight technology from Microsoft in their players. PS3 now joins the long list of devices that support Netflix's streaming: Roku player, Tivo player, XBox 360, LG/Samsung/Insignia Blu-ray players, LG/Sony/Vizio HDTVs, LG/Samsung Blu-ray Home Theatre Systems, Windows and Mac computers. This will help Netflix get more gaming customers subscribe to their service with the possibility of starting their own game rental service to PS3/XBox community (Beware, Gamefly!).

Next step for Netflix would be to provide the streaming service to Mobile users. An iPhone app that can start playing the show that is paused before. Also, the ability to edit 'instant queue' from the Mobile app or TV remote. I see three hurdles associated with this Netflix iPhone/Mobile app. i) iPhone compatible player technology [either Microsoft should make Silverlight iPhone/Mobile ready or Netflix should abandon her bedfellow for a while and go with different player technology for Mobiles ii) Bandwidth - While you may enjoy the streaming content on a 3G mobile, content streaming to 2.5G mobiles will not yield desired results. iii) Apple's reluctance to host such an app, as it would cut into it's iTunes service.


As the ever increasing customer base demands more quality, Netflix would have to improve it's streaming service by providing more 'new' movies to the "watch now" list and improving the stream quality. Improving stream quality is costly and time consuming. The quality of a typical streaming content falls between that of DVD and broadcast HD content (depending on your internet speed). Also, at present, streaming does not support multi-channel audio (just stereo) or closed captioning. The devices that come pre-installed with Netflix streaming service are capable of 1080p. So, Netflix should aim at providing atleast broadcast HD quality content through the streaming service in order to keep the new customers coming to them.