Proper Calibration

[Outland]

What is the cheat?

The washout is the camera's fault, his hair is quite detailed in real life. The problem with the red does come across in the photos though. I turned down the color again so it doesn't obscure details, but now the scene looks a little dull again.

I don't understand why the factory preset is so dark.

Until a few years ago, my friend's family had a huge 1988 Mitsubishi Diamond Vision II 3503. Towards the end, it was so dark you could barely see the outline of colors on a screen that almost looked off. At one point, I looked in the settings to find that brightness was already turned all the way up.

Why does this happen? Is deterioration accelerated by certain picture settings? I've heard contrast is the biggest decider. Yet on my set, it appears picture has plenty of headroom, it's brightness that's in shortest supply.