On my recent phillips 32" HDTV, the color setings (there are several presets) all seem to be over the top on color. I set the personal setting to much less color, and the result is a much more natural look. Is this unique to my set or just in general the way it is. This is the 1st newish TV I have had, my others are all pre 90's

It's to impress the mouth-breathers who like to see over saturated color, and equate that with a good TV picture. :drool:

Agreed.

Also, there are many times when I prefer a rotary variable resistor control as opposed to some newer EEPROM based menu setting.... but remote control IS nice at times...

On some Sony and JVC sets it's also a good idea to turn down or shut off the velocity-scan modulation feature for most applications....

OT: the thread title reminds me of a quote from Seinfeld or something :thmbsp::smoke:

My ten-year-old RCA CTC185 XL-100 19" set has an "auto color" menu option (in the "picture quality" on-screen menu), but I set it to "off" a long time ago and forgot about it. Don't need it anyway, with today's rock-stable cable/satellite signals and vastly improved color processing systems in today's color TVs and stations/networks, as opposed to sets and broadcast signals/equipment of the '70s and earlier.

I agree that the so-called "auto color" preset controls, switched in and out via a front-panel button, are often set too high and almost always not to the viewer's preferences. I think these controls are preset at the factory, using a color-bar test pattern from a generator rather than with a broadcast signal. My CTC-185 has a menu option on the picture-quality OSD menu (option number seven, "reset picture controls") as well, but I'm sure all this does is reset the picture controls (except contrast) to midpoint (and the auto-color option on), which I think are the factory defaults.

I think the best way to deal with these so-called "auto color" schemes is simply to shut them off, forget them, and adjust the color controls on the set to your liking. IMHO, viewers should not allow a preset system to determine the looks of their color picture; everyone's preferences are different, and I think a person's eyes are a much better judge of screen color, flesh tones, etc. than any fancy electronic circuitry in the TV set. One manufacturer of flat-panel HDTVs (I don't recall which one) advertises an automatic feature in their sets it refers to as "Intellibrite" or some such. This system is supposed to adjust the LCD backlight brightness according to the brightness of room lighting, not unlike RCA's Colortrak system, Magnavox's Videomatic, "TAC" or Total Automatic Color, et al., all of which also used a photocell mounted under the CRT to monitor room lighting and adjust the brightness accordingly. I once had a GE portable b&w TV in the '70s (the set itself must have been pre-'64 or fifties vintage, as it was VHF only) that used a photocell to adjust image brightness according to room lighting, with a defeat switch on the rear of the chassis; I've never seen anything like it on a b&w set since.

all 3 of my maggie B&W all have that photo cell on the front, adj brightness to room lighting (all use the same mid 60's chassis). Works pretty well, but you need to select on of 3 possisble ranges (think its called magna lux for something like that) from a jumper on the chassis. Works pretty well, and amazes folks that see it (there are a LOT of people that have never seen a B&W set, guess I am getting old).

Factory settings on TVs are almost always very high, so that they will look "dynamic" when displayed in stores, to compete with all of the other brands (that are also set that way). The manufacturers do this because few store employees will actually adjust their display TVs at all, other than to pick the input that matches the store's in-house signal distribution.

this may be off topic,but i remember when my parents bought a d-16 sylvania with slide controls.my dad used the factory presets.very little color and the fleshtones were a little green for me."keep the button pushed in" he said.finally we figured out that in the back where the controls just for preset.with the help of a dot bar borrowed from mr dixon,it was soon rectified.dad never knew about it,we think.occasionally,we would readjust them and he would comment that "something isnt right".joke on dad.not quite.my dad was a tinkerer and fixer.no education at all,(3rd grade),but my dad was a born engineer and scientist.dad had long known of those controls and had been manipulating them himself to irritate us!this went on for a couple of years.finally the gig was up and my dad set them with a dot bar.he marked the controls and the issue was settled.always some little game going on and he kept you sharp.we had alot of fun until he passed when i was 17.this man nevere called anyone out for repair.he would simply reverse engineer an object to see how it worked.i learned so much.i learned to learn.sorry off topic but a fun story.

all 3 of my maggie B&W all have that photo cell on the front, adj brightness to room lighting (all use the same mid 60's chassis). Works pretty well, but you need to select on of 3 possisble ranges (think its called magna lux for something like that) from a jumper on the chassis. Works pretty well, and amazes folks that see it (there are a LOT of people that have never seen a B&W set, guess I am getting old).

I remember some Magnavox b&w TVs of '60s vintage having the "Magnalux" system, with the photocell that adjusted picture brightness according to ambient light levels. (IIRC, RCA also had a system similar to this on some of its high-end three-way entertainment-center consoles in the early '60s; I seem to remember seeing a photocell on such a set one of my great-uncles owned.) However, I did not realize that this system was adjustable only by means of a chassis jumper; I thought there would be a three-position switch on the rear chassis apron that would set the sensitivity level, with a defeat switch (or a fourth position on a rotary switch) to disable the feature if manual control of screen brightness was desired.

My '79 Sylvania had a photocell out front, too.