no moving bars in Avia black level test

[drewface]

thanks mitch,
i know my dvd player has some sort of black enhancement on it, now that you mention it... i'll give that a shot and see if it works.

EDIT: turns out that was the problem, however on my dvd player the setting is kind of weird...
it's called "Y/Pb/Pr Black Level" and the default is OFF, which is supposed to be "sets the black level of the output signal to the standard level. normally select this position." turning it to ON ("raises the standard black level. use this setting when the picture appears too dark.") allowed me to see the moving lines to adjust the brightness correctly... odd, but i'm happy i could adjust it properly now...