Video Essentials

"Video Essentials" is a visual tutorial for optimizing your home theater setup. It is easy to follow and understand, and I came out of it with a MUCH better understanding of the science behind creating the perfect home cinema environment, especially the video aspects (adjusting tint, color, sharpness, contrast, ect.). It isn't necessary to have a surround sound system to make use of the audio tests, but, of course, it won't be as useful overall. Perhaps not enough to justify the pricetag of this DVD tape, which I had the biggest problem with. I mean, you spend maybe 1-2 hours with it, and that's the end of it. You have to ask yourself whether it's worth 40-50 bucks to see a moderate home theater improvement. The difference is NOT earth-shattering. In my own case, the greatest adjustment necessary was to lower the brightness level on the television to achieve a perfect picture. Personally, Im glad I got Video Essentials, because I wasn't going to watch a film like "Saving Private Ryan" before I knew it was as sharp as it was going to get. I suppose this makes me a die-hard movie viewer, so all others will need to think twice before deciding to buy it. 4 out of 5 stars.