3/5 Not what I expected! HD material is there.. but no HD instructions... So you need a good memory!
  by Charlie
This ran fine on my Toshiba XA2.. both the HD and the standard DVD sides. I am somewhat familiar with the configuration and setup of HD sets.. I tinker with mine a lot. The DVD side... good instructions on how to do anything you need to do, and will get fairly in depth. The HD side is a rip... they just give you the test patterns and configuration screens.. no how to's, no instructions. I guess they just wanted to sell the DVD version all over again, with the addition of the HD material. Since I already had the DVD version... I feel like I wasted my money. I can download most of the HD stuff on the dvd from the web.

IF you dont have a disc like this already.. this would be a good disk for you.

If you already have a something (Non HD).. then dont bother.. just use what you have. Hopefully someone will bring out a decent disc with ALL HD content including the instructional videos and info, so we can have the HD config screens with the instructions... for those of us who dont do it for a living.

1/5 Pretty much useless.
  by Steven Rogers (Los Angeles, CA)
Let me start by saying I've been using Digital Video Essentials since the days of LaserDisc. I've always found them informative and helpful when calibrating television audio components to their highest standards. Well, the HD DVD version is simply awful. I don't know who authored this, but navigation is nearly impossible. See, normally these discs begin with simple explanations (of, say, what chroma and luminance is; how it "should" look), then it starts with the test patterns to help you...well, this HD DVD is set up using menus and titles. The menus are fine, but if you want to get to "presentation and help" you must use the "Titles." I have a Toshiba HA3 (no, not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed but I'm not sinking any more than $130 in a player while the HD DVD / BluRay war is still raging). My player does not have a "Title" button. I cannot get to certain menus...what?...what's that, you say? There's other ways to get to the titles? No, there isn't. Get this: in the manual for this disc it states, "If there is no 'Title' key on your remote, the Program Menu can be reached from the lower menu system by highlighting the 'Program Menu' option. This is illustrated in Title 3." Other words: use Title 3 to see the Program Menu if you haven't a Title button. WHAT??? I don't have a Title button, so how can I see Title 3? Catch 22 anyone? And I've updated my players firmware (whoever thought that was going to be something you'd have to do with a player?) and I've emailed them...without reply (that was about a month ago). AND (insult to injury) if I pop in this hybrid disc into my standard def DVD player it starts right in with the aforementioned explanations and test signals. Frustration and disgust doesn't begin to cover my feelings. I know a thing or two about authoring DVDs (even HD DVDs) and there are simply better ways to do it that using Titles. It's a shame, really. I bought this, sat down, ready for a couple of hours of geeking out and calibrating my home theatre. Instead I ended up downloading firmware, gnashing my teeth, pulling my hair out, and finally emailing Joe Kane only to be ignored. It's simply terrible. I know there are other discs on the market like this and after nearly two decades of using Joe Kane's version (since he is the guru) I have to recommend you look to the other solutions. This one is just awful.

Steven
December, 2007.

1/5 147 Pages of required program notes = Intolerable Cruelty
  by Movie Fan (LA, CA USA)
The DVD version was a bit cheesy but did exactly what it was supposed to do. They've had a full decade to improve upon menu navigation, so I was hoping for something a little more user-friendly.

Much to my astonishment, the HD-DVD side of this disk only includes demonstration materials and test patterns, with no audio instruction accompanying the test patterns! Leaving the unlucky user with 2 choices:

1. Memorize or write down what you're supposed to do on the DVD side of the disk, then flip it and find the HD-DVD test patterns, or

2. Print out the 147-page "book" to make sense of it all. Joe, what were you thinking?

Avoid this disc like the Black Plague. For the reader's reference, the rest of this review is a direct quote from the 147-page "book":

"The original reason we chose to provide just the test and demonstration materials in HD was one of hoping to be able to reach the market near the time of the introduction of the format. As with Video Essentials in 1997 we found the challenge of producing a test disc in a new format to be far more difficult than we expected.

Knowing we still needed some form of tutorial for use of the basic test patterns, we decided to include the SD version of DVE in the HD DVD package. That capability, providing HD content on one side and SD content on the other, is part of the HD DVD format. It's called a Hybrid or Combo Disc.

We've taken the test materials on the HD side of the program much further than anything that is described on the SD side so we needed some additional documentation. That's what you have here.

In writing this description we decided to detail the entire contents of the HD side of the disc rather than covering just the materials not mentioned in the video tutorial. It's become a "book"."

2/5 A most excellent disappointment
  by Mike Meyer (Herndon, VA)
I have the HD-DVD version of this disk, and it's incredibly hard torate.The SD side is much like the older "Video Essentials" disk. It's greatstuff. If you sit down and walk through the disk in order, they'lltake you by the hand and guide you through setting everything aconsumer is liable to be able to set on a TV set and the associatedaudio system to get the best results from your system. They provideall the test patterns you need, and the Red/Green/Blue filters aswell. They don't provide a sound meter, but that would raise the costof the disk significantly. The worst flaw is that the instructions areconfusing in a few places, as they try and explain how to adjustsomething both for sets that behave properly and sets that don't,requiring different instructions. This rates at least 4 stars, and isworth every penny the disk costs.On the other hand, there's the HD side of the disk. Nothing but testpatterns and demo material. No instructions whatsoever. They claimthat the entire instructional set is in 1080p - why isn't that on theHD side of the disk? My player also has troubles with the disk - noinfo displays, all I get for the various tests is "play all", with noway to select independent tests, and the tests don't seem to playproperly. I'm apparently not alone in this. Given that they tend topush the media, this shouldn't be a surprise. Giving this side twostars is generous.If you're spending money on an HD TV setup, this disk will be a greathelp. But don't waste your money on the HD-DVD version; get thestraight DVD one.

5/5 Just what the doctor ordered!
  by Charles Griffin (DeLand, FL USA)
For the longest time, I've just relied on my eyes to adjust my television sets. But that meant constantly changing color, contrast, brightness, even sharpness. I never thought of using a DVD to calibrate my TV. That is until I borrowed my dad's old Video Essentials DVD (released from the late 90's). And it was very helpful.

So I decided to get one of my own...this new HD-DVD of Digital Video Essentials. It's amazing! Though they sometimes talk over my head a bit, the producers are extremely informative about television (and audio) technology. Consider their tutorial about sharpness settings, why they were originally created for monitors and why they are usually unnecessary for today's monitors.

Brightness is incredibly easy to adjust thanks to the grey bar test screen. Contrast is pretty basic (nobody seems to make the ideal contrast test for my particular TV, but I judged it as best I could).

They have blue, red and green color filters attached on one single card, making adjustments of color easy and convenient. I love the DVE's color test. There's no reason to believe you won't get your color just right after using their color bar and tint test. And if you prefer the older SMPTE color bar test (the one you used to see on you set when broadcasting ends at night), you can find it in their color tutorial. Just pause and use that one.

Which reminds me...All the test patterns can be paused or will pause themselves in this video, which is more than can be said for the well-known Avia DVD. All the test patterns and informative tutorials really give this disc the edge among the calibration discs I've seen. I will admit, navigating through my dad's old VE was a nightmare. The producers have greatly improved their chapter selection choices on the DVE.

Much negative has been said of the HD side of this disc and it's lack of instructions. But I don't see the big deal. You're pretty much supposed to watch the standard side to get the full tutorial, which you can view on your HD-DVD player. Heck, you can even use the standard side to calibrate your HD-DVD settings. I also have a standard DVD player so I worked on that one first (whose settings I transfer to my HD cable box settings as well). So remembering how to perform the adjustments for the HD side was easy, especially since much of the adjustments are extremely logical (make sure the very black bar disappears into the background, make sure all the blue bars match on the color test, etc).

Finally, this disc includes a montage of images to observe once your settings have been adjusted, including impressive footage of a space shuttle in launch. This is featured on both sides of the DVD.

Ever since I bought my new HDTV, I've struggled with the settings. It certainly looked "good" but something just wasn't right. Joe Kane is a name I had never heard of a month ago, but his DVE has completely opened my eyes. I was off on everything: color, contrast, brightness, sharpness...even my tint was incorrect! Now I'm viewing HD and standard-def the way it was intended. This DVE set me and my television straight!