I paid the Geek Squad $115 bucks to come over and calibrate my new Samsung 58" "Touch of Color" HDTV. The technician hooked up is laptop running the Spider 3 software and adjusted my brightness level up a few numbers and the contrast down a couple. Everything else was manufacturer's default setttings. WHAT A RIPOFF! I only did it because I thought it was recommended. The sales reps recommended it, I have seen it recommended on this site. There is nothing in the owners manual for the product that says anything about having a technician calibrate the settings. This is a new scam for dealers to make extra bucks providing someone to adjust the settings on the customers new HDTV. I did not have anyone "calibrate" any of my other new LCDs. They look great.
If you really want to get your TV calibrated you should use a Pro from the Image Science Foundation (ISF). Getting a TV calibrated this way is not a waste of money, getting it done by the Geek Squad is a waste of money. ISF calibrators will go into the factory setting that are not available to the customer and set the Gray Scale to properly display the best picture. ISF calibration is not cheap $300-500 so it may not be for evryone.Simply setting the picture mode to any thing but Vivid is a good start. Set the Tempeture to warm and turn down the Sharpness will give you a better picture thtan the one you get straight out of the box.