Scott, I've never used Digital Video Essentials, however, I do own both Avia and Sound and Vision set-up disks. There were no printed instructions with either, but they do come with little pieces of colored transparent plastic, or gels, I guess you could call them. They are red, blue, and green and help adjust the color.
With the Avia disk, there is a short tutorial before each test pattern explaining what it does and what your screen should look like. You might want to look in to buying one of these disks. That and an SPL meter are helpful tools whenever building or tweaking an HT set-up.
