Editing to Look Good on TVs
 

It seems like every TV has a different brightness/contrast setting (and I know you can adjust this, but I'm just talking default settings). Some are a lot darker than others while most are brighter. I'm just trying to figure out what to do as far as adjusting gamma/levels/contrast so night scenes look good on the majority of TVs.

If it's not dark enough, the night scenes look really bad on bright TVs since you can see more noise, but if it's dark enough to look good on bright TVs, then it looks way too dark on darker TVs. Does this make sense to anyone?

For example, my little crappy TV has a game mode as far as the picture settings go. When it's on, the TV is a lot darker than when it's off. I figured I'd just go the dark route... maybe it'd look too dark on some TVs, but I'm not sure what else to do.

Any advice or ideas? Isn't there some standard?

Coupla things...
first, get your "little crappy TV" calibrated. You can do it.
Second, understand that gamma on a computer monitor is different than gamma on a television monitor. This is why we generally use some sort of calibrated monitor for checking our color, etc.
This link will help you understand how to calibrate, and how the process overall works.

Get my TV calibrated? You mean use a test pattern and make sure the IRE levels are correct like on that page you linked to? My TV has no S-video input so I'll have to render a test pattern to a DVD. Will that still allow me to correctly calibrate my TV? And my TV has no precise brightness controls. It just has two picture modes... one brighter than the other. So I should see which setting makes the middle 7.5 IRE bar indistinguishable from the left 3.5 IRE bar?

Not everyone is going to have a calibrated TV though, but I should just level adjust as if they will?

I know gamma on a computer monitor is different than that of a TV, but how does getting a calibrated monitor help?

I read the link. Thanks. As long as I'm exporting my project to a DVD player, I don't need to worry about the digital black level being incorrectly converted?

Okay, I'm using a Broadcast Colors filter with the settings defined in that tutorial. Should I have Studio RGB checked if I'm not using a Sony DV codec and just going straight to DVD?

With this filter applied, I don't have to worry about producing illegal video levels?

Yes! Same with audio. Mix things on a flat/calibrated monitor. Make them sound/look as good as you can. Half of the TVs will be too bright; the other half too dark. And half of the audio systems will have a big 100 Hz bass boost and the other half will be playing through 3 inch speakers and abused ear buds.