Olevia 542i Calibrating the Television and Viewing Evaluations

We used the Sencore Color Pro 5000 (CP5000) to calibrate the display. As I stated, I used the 6500_User menu to adjust the color of the unit. With the 6500 auto setting, the unit came nearly dead on with a slight blue bias. I spent hours calibrating the set and I only really managed to get it a bit closer to the target with a bit of a red emphasis. The blacks were the hardest to get right for me but that was probably more a function of reviewing back to back plasmas before this LCD. With a bit of tweaking (and really, it didn't take all that much) this unit looked fantastic. Even out of the box, just adjusting the Power Up to Home, Lighting setting to Medium, and the Color Temp to 6500 will ensure you'll be looking at a very well calibrated image with nearly no work on your part.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Olevia 542i LCD Benchmark Score: 60

Comments of HQV Testing

All the testing was done via Component since I did not have the capability to send 480i via HDMI. In addition, many of the picture enhancing features of the 542i (found under the Idea heading) are disabled when using an HDMI connection. I felt that my subjective experience with the unit was slightly better than these results indicate. You might want to look into good source for this set such as a high scoring DVD player and a digital cable box. If you have a good quality HTPC, you'll benefit greatly letting the video card do the scaling and de-interlacing for television and DVD playback.

Viewing Evaluation

Ah, my favorite part of a display review. The "watching movies and getting paid" part - not a bad gig in my book.

Author's Note: The pictures of the display do not do the display justice. Aside from the obvious problems of taking a picture of an image on a direct-view pixel-based screen, our in-house digital cameras leave a bit to be desired. There is also evidence of pixelization that was not noticeable during playback.

Fires of Kuwait (IMAX)

I actually rented this movie thinking it was something else. The images of the fires that Saddam set as he pulled out of Kuwait and the efforts that the workers took to put them out is something that I can watch over and over again. Which is a good thing as I watched this movie a number of times during the course of this review.

This movie was a kind of unfair test for an LCD as it is full of fire shooting out of oil soaked desserts under a smoke covered sun. It took a bit of finagling to strike the proper balance between getting the unit as dark as possible and not losing all the detail in all those dark scenes. I noticed some banding, especially at the beginning credits and around some of the larger fires. The unit also had a hard time locking onto the names on the map during the first scene. The detail and color on the other hand were completely remarkable. I was especially happy not to notice any macroblocking in all those dark scenes. Even sending a 480i signal to the unit, I didn't feel like I was missing all that much from a 480p. The pictures of this movie came out particularly bad.

The Incredibles

Once again, The Incredibles made an appearance over the course of my review. I'm starting to think that this movie isn't the best for a review as it seems that it looks good on every display. I did notice that in order to see the detail in the Fires of Kuwait, I found that The Incredibles looked a little too bright. Bumping the brightness down just a point or two made all the difference. What was impressive was the level of detail and the colors. The texture in the rug, the creases in a jacket, all those little background details that makes Pixar pictures so special really popped. I found myself looking as much at the supporting characters and backgrounds as I was noticing a lot of detail that I hadn't paid attention to before.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I'm not sure why I was so interested in this movie but I honestly went in not knowing at all what to expect. Robert Downey Jr. stars along with Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan with a couple of appearances by Corbin Bernsin (which usually is the kiss of death to any production, but not in this case). The whole movie is very tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself too seriously. The voice over by Downey often comments on the ridiculousness of the plot and the obviousness of some of the scenes. It follows a gumshoe-like story that is two parts film noir and one part comedy. This is not going to be a picture for everyone, but for those with the right sense of humor, it could be an instant favorite.

The first thing I really noticed about the playback of this movie was the need for a little noise reduction. I'm usually not all that sensitive to a noisy picture but in this case, with this movie, it was sorely needed. It wasn't all that distracting but it was noticeable. Other than that, I was constantly amazed by the level of detail and the vibrancy of the colors. One of the stylistic features of the production was the abundance of muted tones and lightings. This would be offset by the occasional splash of color. On the Olevia 542i, the vibrancy of the color really conveyed what the director had in mind. It drew your eye like a magnet.