Hi everybody, i've been lurking while trying to figure out my kp-51WS500 and i've decided to educate myself on achieving display-Zen with the help of this forum and, if you're up to it, you guys. :)

My setup is:

*the kp-51WS500 (everything in the user menu is centered right now)

Service mode adjustments (Let me know if I should add or change anything here for optimal component display):

1.) Centered image and convergence grid
2.) Disabled scan velocity modulation (UVML 0)
3.) Minimized Red-Push (AXIS 1)
4.) Soft and crispy look (SHFO 1 / SHOF 0 / F1LV 0 / CDSP 0 / LTLV 0 / CTLV 0)

Anything here I should add or change for optimal Component inputs?

Inputs:

*Progressive DVD through Component

*Progressive Gamecube through Component

My goal is to have the perfect picture for DVD and video games, which output at 480p component (I dunno how to get them to higher resolutions. :/) So here's the brick walls i'm hitting:

A.) Using DVE at the color bars, I can achieve perfect blue and nearly perfect red; But green is WAY out of whack. Is this a gray scale issue? or a green push? (I found a thread that talked about turning the greens up or down, but I cant find that in my service menu).

B.) This has been bugging me: In DVE there are three black bars on the DVD pluge screen. I can only see 2 of them, the black bar furthest out is invisible regardless of how much or how little the brightness/contrast is set to. Is this the DVD player's fault? Now, through the DVD player, I can adjust its own brightness levels which allow me to see the furthest black bar... why cant the TV pick up this signal on it's own?

C.) Gamma. If you turn it all the way up you get a very movie like screen and really good blacks IMO. But what's the deal with it? How do you know if it needs to be altered or not? In DVE on the Resolution catagory there is a setup screen with the tiny white box inside another box, as well as a black one on the other side. Am I supposed to make the tiny boxes disappear inside the larger boxes? This is impossible for my TV to do unless I alter gamma... so, should I?

D.) I saw you guys talking about overscan so I decided to try it. Big mistake on my part. I ended up with very little overscan (less than 1%) but it was so seriously out of proportion on the edges that I had to put it back to the 5% mark and it's still out of proportion on the edges! No matter what I messed with it wouldn't get straight. So what am I doing wrong? I want 1% overscan dammit! I hate losing image! :D

E.) Something odd I found was that the overall brightness of Video Black would go up or down depending on the input I would select. Why is this? Is there a service mode check I can do to fix it?

F.) I get a slight ghosting around letters and text on gray screens. Is this normal? It makes it difficult to find perfect sharpness levels through DVE because I cant tell what's overly enhanced or what's the ghost image.

G.) Are there instructions somewhere for how to properly 'black wrap' the inside of the TV? I heard that ISF calibrators do this for RP's and I found a place that sells Duvatene (sp?) is that the stuff I want? Do I tape it on or use a *Scooby Doo Gulp* ...staple gun?

H.) Gray Scale. Is there a way to get it 'Okay' without using instruments? I think it's off and i cant afford an ISF tech right now, so i'm hoping there's a way to do it by eye.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, i'm so happy I found this forum. :D:D:D

If these points have been covered I apologize, I could not find them in the search function of this forum. Thanks in advance!

There is on the WS550, but I'm having a difficult time recalling it exactly. I think there's a reset button on the remote that you hold down while you power the set off with the button on the set.

EDIT: that seems to have been it, I have it in an earlier post when my component inputs went out.


Quick question... Is this the confirmed way to reset the TV??? I just did it and was wondering if it actually worked....

I just tried it on my ws500 and nothing happened

hmm.. interesting I've had to reset my set a couple of times. I do know that I have to hold the remote back a little bit so I'm not right on the IR lens...

Also, regarding LFBs questions above:
E.) Something odd I found was that the overall brightness of Video Black would go up or down depending on the input I would select. Why is this? Is there a service mode check I can do to fix it?
I had this too, but later found that it had more to do with the device plugged into the input. (my xbox is notoriously darker than my other component devices)

Dont' know if it's the cabling or the breakout box for the xbox or what, but when I tried the xbox on other inputs the darkness followed. I just have one of my picture modes set aside for the xbox.

F.) I get a slight ghosting around letters and text on gray screens. Is this normal? It makes it difficult to find perfect sharpness levels through DVE because I cant tell what's overly enhanced or what's the ghost image.
and you've turned sharpness all the way down and turned off the SVM and you're still getting it?

It's been a while since I've had to do anything on my set besides the occaisonal convergence, so I'm a but rusty. Must mean it's time for a new tv, right? :D

Anyone know where I can go to get the Tweak sheet that used to be up for our sets???? Seems like the link everyone mentions in this thread is now dead.....

Buji:

I think you're right about the inputs having a difference in the scale of video black, PS2 has a vacuumous gravity well suck black level that kills all shadows but check this out, I removed all my inputs and still found the black level changing! Weird right? Well when i checked out the service manual I found some of the oddly termed 'Vblack, ublack, sblack' etc are all different for the coax, RCA, component, S and DVI inputs. Why would they do this...? I'm trying to figure them out and see if what's up. I'm thinking that the DVI numbers are the most correct, i'll post whatever I find.

As for the ghosting, there's another thread in the RP forum where a guy was also complaining about it. Turns out all RPTV's have slight ghosting and the only sure fix is a mod that requires soldering a circuit in the TV. Yeah, in other words, i aint touchin it. :D strange though that a techie can solder a circuit and fix it when even the most high-end RPTV's have it... you'd think the company's would make that logical leap and fix the stupid thing.

But you said turn the sharpness all the way down... if I turned it ALL the way down, i'd be watching my DVD's through a thin veil of vasoline. ;) Did you find another way to retain crispness without edge enhancement? I mean, dont you need at least SOME edge enhancement?

I'd have to have a gun to my head in order for me to buy another RPTV. But yeah tweaking is fun. Like, addicted to crack fun :D

Thanks for the help Buji. :) As for my other questions, any pointers?

M Diddy: There was a group at Yahoo that had a nice tweak sheet for the kp-XXWS500. I'm looking for it now. Basically, if your set is the same as mine, you can copy my changes as I basically followed the tweak sheet:

Disabled scan velocity modulation (UVML 0)
Minimized Red-Push (AXIS 1)
Soft and crispy look (SHFO 1 / SHOF 0 / F1LV 0 / CDSP 0 / LTLV 0 / CTLV 0)

Paraphrased from the tweak sheet:

Throw in DVE or Avia, find the overscan and center image in the VPOS and HPOS. Then go to PJE mode. Look for TPHP (the reticle should appear) press 6 until you have crosshatch overlay w/overscan image behind it. Now line up your convergence grid to the center of the overscan image.

Perform electrostatic focus, then manual focus on the guns. You wanna see those scan lines which will tell you you're spot on.

If you have huge balls, you can fix gray scale by eye but it's an odd tweak. Turn your screen pots all the way OFF, then start with green: Move it up until you see the retrace lines then move it back down until they JUST disappear. Do the same with red and then with blue. But up a video black signal, look for retrace lines. If you see any, something needs to be turned down. if this happens, re-do all the pots again. The voltage can be goofey at times. This will not get you perfect gray scale, but it will help get the guns out of torch mode and put you somewhere in the 65D range. For me, it put me alot closer than I was. (ie: i'm no longer in the blues).

If you guys know of a tweak sheet that goes in to more detail and offers more tweaks, I'd like to see it too. I mean, on this great big world wide web you would think that someone, somewhere, had their kp-XXws500 tweaked by a certiied tech and posted, in detail, everything he did so we can all copy it at home!

Found the Reset.

Enter service mode, then press 8. You should see "Reset" displayed. Now press enter.

Convergence is now waaay out of whack but hopefully i'll be able to get perfect 'less than 1%' overscan now without compromising geometry....

In case anyone is interested, I found the tweak document.... It can be found here:

http://mvgrafx.ath.cx/~vmark/documents/KPxxWS500.html

Took a LONG time!!!! :D

Well, I finally figured out this crazy service menu we have, and I have to say my picture is MUCH improved! My convergence was WAY out of whack and the picture was a tad of center. I finally got everything straightened out. Had an issue when trying to register FF in 1080i, but figured out I had taken out too much overscan.

I do have one issue though. In 480p, the picture itself is beautiful expcept for a slight bowing I have in the middle top half of the screen. Not noticable on watching regular shows, however, if I bring up a menu or guide, you can see the line starts slightly higher on the top-middle-left, goes slightly downward toward the middle, and then gradually goes back up to the top-middle- right. Is there something I can do to fix this?????

i have a 51" WS510... i get a good amount of jaggies when watchind standard def tv. is there any way to fix that? the lines are noticable while watching tennis, for example.

also, should i leave the DRC setting in "interlaced" or "progresive"? and what picture setting is good (pro, normal etc.) ? is there a tweak sheet for this model?

Hiredgun: depends on the source of your material. If you can send out at 480p or higher, that would be ideal, but I imagine that if you could do that you wouldn't be posting here :D

At any rate, I found the three drc modes to vary very little MOST of the time, but I did end up creating three custom pallettes:

Created three custom DRC pallettes for the following sources:
tv/older film: 80 Clarity 90 Reality
hi quality movies: 62 Clarity 60
video games/computer animation: 1 Clarity 25 Reality

I would think the latter would apply to the tennis you were watching.

hiredgun, you could also watch it in PIP mode so the image was smaller :D

M Diddy: Yeah, that can be fixed. Can't name the setting of the top of my head but I know I had to adjust it too.

Hiredgun: depends on the source of your material. If you can send out at 480p or higher, that would be ideal, but I imagine that if you could do that you wouldn't be posting here :D

At any rate, I found the three drc modes to vary very little MOST of the time, but I did end up creating three custom pallettes:

Created three custom DRC pallettes for the following sources:
tv/older film: 80 Clarity 90 Reality
hi quality movies: 62 Clarity 60
video games/computer animation: 1 Clarity 25 Reality

I would think the latter would apply to the tennis you were watching.

im sorry for throwing these questions out of the boat, but what do these numbers mean? :confused: and by latter, you mean the 62 clarity 60 reality? i went into the menu options and i dont see where i can change clarity and reality. thanks Buji :rolleyes:

When I make a custom palette (via the user menu) there's a little angle chart with numbers for the two values.

I'm not in front of the tv, but I'll see if I can take a snap later today.

Bugi,

What's the PJE setting to line up all the grid lines? Upon further inspection, I've noticed quite a few are out of whack.....

i set my tv to "pro" mode and the text is much much more readable. i still couldnt find the drc custom palletes but whatever. thanks.

Bugi,

What's the PJE setting to line up all the grid lines? Upon further inspection, I've noticed quite a few are out of whack.....

Depends, I'm not sure I understand what grid lines you're talking about.

This weekend I went back into service mode and corrected some geometry issues that have come up oper the past year.

I went into service mode, and then went to the PJE section (text turns pink).

From there I pressed '6' a couple of times to bring up a full screen grid, and had to correct some key and wave and bow settings. (I had a lower left corner that was pinning in, but the right was straight).

I corrected all three guns using the major geometry settings, and then went to do fine-tuning convergence, as documented in the link above:

How to Converge the CRTs

It's much easier to converge the set if you can see what you're converging. Green should be the color to converge to. The geometry (straightness of the grid) of the green CRT should be good enough - If you notice that some lines are definitely out of whack, you should straighten them.

We need to disable the red and blue CRTs. Press 2 until you get to the 2150P-2 category. Cycle through the items until you get to RGBS. Change the value to 2 (Green CRT Only).

Move back to the PJE category by pressing 5. You should be back at the grid with a green bracket - If you don't see one, press 3 until you do (the bracket may have been set on red or blue, which have been turned off). Navigate around the grid, correcting any obvious errors. Once you're satisfied, turn the red CRT back on (RGBS value of 6, Red and Green CRTs on), and return to the grid. Press 3 until the crosshair is red. Now, align the red to the green, getting as close as you can. By the way, not all grid points are selectable. Keep in mind that the edges of the screen will tend to be more out of focus, and harder to get "tight". Get it as close as you can. You also may notice that some points affect the position of other, nearby points. You'll get the feel for it after a short period of time. Now, do the same for blue, making sure to turn off red (RGBS value of 3, Blue and Green CRTs on). When you're all done, turn all the CRT's back on (RGBS value of 7, All CRTs on), and look to see the results. Touch up where it is needed (if needed at all).

Does anyone know if the 65ws550 will split in half? It is too large to fit in my basement and I need to take the top half off to get it down the stairs. I looked in the manual but did not see any instructions.

Thanks
Kevin

I've wondered about this myself, but haven't messed with it. Let us know if you find a safe way to split it.

Wondering if anyone else has seen this.

I have had my TV for over a year and a half (65WS550). Recently I have noticed that there is a outline or shadow to the right of everything. When I go into the menu and do the flash focus I see something strange. I will try to explain it as best I can.

When the large white cross comes up about a quarter of an inch on the left side of everything white is brighter white and bleeds out. This is on the quarter inch that sticks out to the left and the left sides of the part that goes up and down.


When I go into manual convergence I see the same thing. It is uniform across the screen. All the little crosses are brighter and bleeding the same quarter of an inch on the left. I have not found a way to get rid of this in convergence.

Now that I look for it I see it on every input. Especially if there is white text you can see it big time. I am not sure if this is causing the shadows on the right of everything. But the shadows do seems to be the same distance as the brighter white.

I have tried multiple flash focuses and nothing seems to cure it.

I have edge enhancement set to off and sharpness way down. I am getting frustrated trying to figure out what is causing it.

I do have the extended warrenty and am thinking of calling next week. Has anyone else seen this or have any suggestions?

Look forward to your suggestions.

Thanks,

mightyhonda

Well now that my one year warranty is soon to be over next month circuit city has been sending me their extended warranty info. For $148 they give a one year extended warranty. I declined their warranty when I first purchased the set. Didn't see the logic in it since Sony was already giving me a warranty for a year but since it's soon to expire I'm thinking of going with it. Any thoughts?

Wondering if anyone else has seen this.

I have had my TV for over a year and a half (65WS550). Recently I have noticed that there is a outline or shadow to the right of everything. When I go into the menu and do the flash focus I see something strange. I will try to explain it as best I can.

When the large white cross comes up about a quarter of an inch on the left side of everything white is brighter white and bleeds out. This is on the quarter inch that sticks out to the left and the left sides of the part that goes up and down.


When I go into manual convergence I see the same thing. It is uniform across the screen. All the little crosses are brighter and bleeding the same quarter of an inch on the left. I have not found a way to get rid of this in convergence.

Now that I look for it I see it on every input. Especially if there is white text you can see it big time. I am not sure if this is causing the shadows on the right of everything. But the shadows do seems to be the same distance as the brighter white.

I have tried multiple flash focuses and nothing seems to cure it.

I have edge enhancement set to off and sharpness way down. I am getting frustrated trying to figure out what is causing it.

I do have the extended warrenty and am thinking of calling next week. Has anyone else seen this or have any suggestions?

Look forward to your suggestions.

Thanks,

mightyhonda


First of all its probably best to call in the warranty people, make them deal with it.

But if you dont want to do that have you tried the electrostatic focus? or the manual focus as describd here

http://mvgrafx.ath.cx/~vmark/documents/KPxxWS500.html

The manual focus os probably safe, but hte electrostatic may void the warranty, there is glue on the adjustment pots that you have to break to adjust.

Well now that my one year warranty is soon to be over next month circuit city has been sending me their extended warranty info. For $148 they give a one year extended warranty. I declined their warranty when I first purchased the set. Didn't see the logic in it since Sony was already giving me a warranty for a year but since it's soon to expire I'm thinking of going with it. Any thoughts?

Its funny the circut city peaple are trained to say you need to buy the warranty the same day as you buy the tv :rolleyes:

Id forget Circut City for the warranty. Get it directly from Sony.

Its funny the circut city peaple are trained to say you need to buy the warranty the same day as you buy the tv :rolleyes:

Id forget Circut City for the warranty. Get it directly from Sony.


I wasn't aware that Sony had extended plans. I'll certainly check into that right now. Yeah I'd rather get it from the source than from circuit city.

Did a little research and for those interested the number to call for extended warranties is 1-800-378-4590. A recording also is saying go here http://www.extendedplans.com although I'm still on the phone and haven't tried the link yet. I'll put it here so that way you guys can follow my journey as I'm going through it. lol

First of all its probably best to call in the warranty people, make them deal with it.

But if you dont want to do that have you tried the electrostatic focus? or the manual focus as describd here



The manual focus os probably safe, but hte electrostatic may void the warranty, there is glue on the adjustment pots that you have to break to adjust.

I have heard of many people adjusting the manual and electostatic focus on their sets. My question is does this make a huge diffrence in PQ and sharpness.

I am not completly confortable in doing these adjustments unless it does in fact sharpen the image.

I've been curious about it too. I've done pretty much everything else besides open the set.

Doing the eletrostatic seemed to make the same amount of difference as the Manual focus. which for me was not much for either. I did notice a little bit of improvement, but very minor. But it certainly was not hard to do.

If the lines on the convergence grid look clean, and sharp then I wouldnt bother.

A good way to check the Focus is to display the Convergance Grid in the ZOOM mode, you can actually see the scan lines.

Of course once you've done the service level convergance you do not want to run flash focus again, as I believe this will mess with your convergance. You can display a convergance pattern from another source, AVIA or VE.

I have just finished employment with a TV / HT store, we were strickly Sony, (oh well), and each CRT set 51" and up generally needed this focus. A lot of the 46" came in unbelievably dead on.

I would always do an electrostatic and mechanical focus on a CRT set, myself.

Hey Guys/Gals(?),

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but I am considering buying the "KP-46WT510" used from a private party. The seller doesn't have the original invoice but says it's about 1 - 1.5 years old and purchased at Best Buy. I looked at the TV and it appears to be in very good condition comsetically and the production date is August 2003.

Unfortunately the person is moving and didn't have any cable hooked up, only off the air and PS2 so I couldn't really see the picture quality. I plan on returning with my portable DVD player.

How has the reliability of this TV been? (Obviously I am taking a risk buying this w/o warranty and paperwork.) What is the overall feeling from the owners. What would a fair price be for this TV today? It does come with matching stand although I don't really need it.

Oh a little more info: I was originally going to buy a 52 inch JVC D-ILA. However my DirecTV can get HD due to obstruction (trust me been down this harrowing road for a while and cable is NOT an option). But I do need a TV so figured I'd get a 36 widescreen. HD would be a plus since at some point in the next 2 years a may move out of my house and then I would be able to get HD programmig. Plus obviously my DVD watching would benefit. Then I saw this ad for a local seller selling this 46 inch rear projection and it seems to fit the bill perfectly.

TIA!
Glenn

I can see scan lines clearly defined on my KP-57WS520....even in full mode...and sitting back 10 feet.

Does this pretty much mean my focus is in good shape? Is it worth trying to get better?

I turned off each tube (blue, red, green) to look at the scan lines for each color. Red and green were very sharp, but there were no scanlines to be seen for blue. This normal?

Yep David, the blue is usually 'de-focused' because most people's eyes pick up blue a lot easier. or something like that :D It's that way on purpose, and it's also why when you see any fringe ghosting on a high contrast image component, it looks like it has a blue 'halo' or fringe.

a question

My almost 2 year old 57" WS510 gave me a scare the other day.... I cut it on, and noticed that the normally grey bars on the sides were blue. I'm assuming that the red and green guns didnt fire as they were supposed to. I immediately cut the TV off, and noticed that I was getting a blink code on the front LED. It was blinking 5 times, then would pause, and repeat it's self. After about a minute, I decided to try to turn it on again and all was normal, along with the blink code going away.

I havent had a problem since(knock on wood), but has anyone else experienced this? Am I heading down the path to catastrophic failure? Or do I chalk this up as being a hickup and dont sweat it.

Thanks for any replies in advance.

Rams/ This sounds familiar to me

I would make sure on the following - Did Sony put out a recall on your set? You can find this out through Sony's website. Many RP's have 'bleeding guns' which can cause a horrible flicker in the guns, sometimes shutting them off completely. If this is so, the repairs will be free. Second, is your power supply plugged directly in to the wall? Some powerstrips, converters, etc flux the power and make things go stupid sometimes. If the problem fixed by restarting the TV, I dont think it's a major issue but it's worth going in to service mode's problem checker (display > Channel 5 > Volume down > Power) and see what numbers punch up.

If you dont have a service manual, just post what you find and i'll look it up in my manual. It could be that you just happened to turn on your TV at the exact moment that you were getting a power spike

Lastly, and you probably already know this and it probably has nothing to do with your issue but displaying things in 4:3 is harsh on your TV. You will get burn in, period. Your outer sides when watching in full mode will look lighter when compared to the middle. this can be really annoying. So try to avoid 4:3 mode by using Zoom or, if you dont mind the slight distortion, Wide Zoom. To an RPTV, static images are kryptonite.

Mightyhonda/

I would perform a full focus. It's easy;

Unplug the set and remove the front grill, throw in a cross hatch signal (DVE or PJE), turn your focus pots until you get the best clarity possible.

Now Remove the back, tape a piece of white paper to the inside of the screen, throw on a cross hatch and pull the focus knobs (on the guns) until you can clearly see the scan lines. Do this for each gun and put caps on the others. Remove the paper (dont leave any fingerprints ;)), now go the front and make sure your pots are still getting the best clarity - it's worth checking.

If you still have a problem with 'bleeding', then you need to have the magnets adjusted which is a more involved process and would probably best be handled by a techie.

Another thing you could try is write down all the settings and changes (if any) you made to the TV and then reset the entire system (directions are in this thread). If the problem is still there on a freshly reset system then it's either your focus or magnet adjustment. Based on what you said, i'm leaning more towards magnet adjustment which can go out of whack by any number of things.

Hope that helps you guys :)

If anyone here was successful with getting zero/one % overscan on their ws-500 please PM me, i'm having major issues with getting the overscan and geometry correct and I dunno what i'm doing wrong.

LFB.....

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into the recalls, but I dont think mine has been.

If you dont mind, can you check your service manual for the 5 flash blink code that I discussed above? I'd like to know what that meant.

Also, if you ever get your overscan/geometry issue fixed, I'd love to hear how you did it. It's the only thing keeping me from heading into the service menu and tweaking. Right now, I'd say I have about 5 to 7% overscan on the left side of my display. It's noticeable, or at least it is to me..... and I'd love to try and fix it without screwing up the overall geometry of the screen.

Hi Guys:
This is my first thread in this forum and is looking for help,I own a Kp65ws510 but got water on the bottom and the main boards( A board B board) went out for good.The Sony tech in my area told me it would be around $600.00 for parts and $200.00 labor,Question, Is worth to spend $800.00 for this unit or I need to move on?Can I get the parts somewhere else? I'm very frustrated about.Any guidance will be appreciated.

For pretty much everything, I watch it in Wide Zoom. Is that the norm? Also, I'm getting HD this weekend.....is there anything I need to change from the tv configuration to optimize the HD experience?

Are there any owners for the Sony KDP-51WS655 ? Is the unit true 720p or it downscales 720p to 480p like the old model or upscales it to 1080i ?

Unfortunately, activity on this thread has dropped way off and the knowledgable people have moved on, but I'll try to help you last 3 guys.

I have the KDP-57WS655 and the manual also covers the 51W655. Had it for 11 months.

As best I can tell from experience and the manual, it takes inputs and displays at 480p, 480i, 720p and 1080i.

We use WideZoom except when watching DVDs from our Zenith (which upconverts to 1080i in a superior way, so we've been told). Those we watch native so Star Wars III had bars at the top and bottom and that's okay, but you can zoom to eliminate them. Really good, almost HD, picture.

We get HD over the air and the picture is just outstanding. We set our contrast and brightness using DVE disk. Color and tint were just about right as is, turned sharpness to 15, color temp to Neutral and ClearEdge off. I can't tell much difference in the DRC mode so its at Interlaced. Color Axis is at Monitor. Noise Reduction off. Mode Memory Off to simplify
things.

As for Tech G, I would tend to replace if you've got another $1,000 hanging around.

I set the contrast very low when I got the set but nevertheless saw the beginning of the outline of the Fox News logo the other day. Very disturbing!! So I set one of the video modes, Pro, to quite a bit darker than the CVE settings showed were optimum. So whenever I watch Fox, I shift modes, which is a pain. I also wrote Fox and complained but doubt if it will do any good.

Good luck to all.

Hello Everyone,

I have a KP-51WS510 in which the red CRT will not converge. It will not even respond to inputs in user menu convergence or service menu convergence. I'm pretty sure it's not that huge of a problem and I don't want to be milked by a repairman. Does anyone know if this is a user serviceable item?

Thanks In Advance,

Catfish

I would have to say it is a huge problem if it will not converge from the service menu.

Will it move at all? When did it start happening? Could be a convergence board issue.

We were watching a movie on TNT and it ended. The next movie up was LOTR:TTT. I decided that since I hadn't seen it in HD, we would check out a few minutes of it. As soon as the movie started the red CRT made a huge and instant shift to the right. The funny part is we all thought the movie was being shown in 3-D. My kids merrily got their 3-D glasses out and we all started watching. Then it dawned on me, "I don't think they can just add 3-d after the fact" and I changed the channel. It was the same on all channels. The CRT will move vertically but not horizontally. The menus show that the adjustments are being made but the CRT does not move. I can go to any horizontal extreme in both the user and service menus. When I say huge problem I mean in the grand scheme of what could go wrong with a RP TV. Here is a picture and thanks for the reply

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y35/jayfish/DSCF1702.jpg


Catfish






I would have to say it is a huge problem if it will not converge from the service menu.

Will it move at all? When did it start happening? Could be a convergence board issue.

This is definitely an issue that a competent service tech needs to look at.

Sony lists two authorized service centers and they are both 150+ miles away. The main thing about this is I don't want to get bilked.

Catfish

This is definitely an issue that a competent service tech needs to look at.

Ok, I don't want to add to the fire, and you in no way can hold me responsible for what you do with this information; I don't even have the service manual for this set. :D

Having said that, I had te same thing happen on my old 4x3 60" sony. Red got out of convergence in a big way and wouldn't respond/correlate with the settings in the service mode.

(this was 6/7 years ago)

Turned out to be a loose nut/bolt on a bar which allowed the mirror to slide along the adjustment mechanism. Once opened, the tech who came to work on it showed me where the wingnut had been for years and then slid out of place/got loose. Most of the time was spent opening the cabinet. He literally finger tightened the wingnut in about 5 seconds and put the set back together, where it worked fine for years.

I have no idea if the same mechanism exists inside the newer sonys, and I don't have a copy of the service manual (I wish someone would hook me up though) so I can't check, but I suspect...

The thing is, it's not just red that's out of whack, it looks like blue too.

The thing is, it's not just red that's out of whack, it looks like blue too.


That was the morning after pic. I re-converged the other CRT's later that night. I had a tech out today and the damage is gonna be $510.00. I love it! A 2yr old , $2000 TV that I have to spend another $500 on. I'm debating getting it fixed, selling it and getting a direct view set. It won't be a Sony either. Thanks for all your advice.

Catfish

What was he going to do for $510.00?

a chance to talk to him for a split second so I'll clarify the situation tomorrow. From what I got out of it, he is replacing the convergence IC. A part, which I believe, I have found on-line for about $20. I basically told him so and he came up with (and this is where it's grey) the transformer/power-supply needs to be replaced as well or the chip will just blow again. Like I said, I'll call him at lunch tomorrow and clarify. If I don't like what I'm hearing I may call one of the Sony service centers and see if they concur. Any opinions?

Catfish


What was he going to do for $510.00?

If I don't like what I'm hearing I may call one of the Sony service centers and see if they concur. Any opinions?

Catfish

Do that!

and I'm just starting the process of contacting Sony. The part that this tech claims needs to be fixed is a "convergence control board". Funny thing is that I cannot find this part in the service manual or on-line. It may be that the tech is just using incorrect nomenclature for the part but I dunno. Oh he also claims he needs to perform the service in-house rather than on-site which doesn't pass the smell test either. I'll keep ya'll posted.

Thanks Again For Everyone’s Support

Catfish

Do that!

I'm sorry to do this, but since I didn't get any response from my own post I'd like to try here. I'm having problems getting my KDP51WS550 tuner to work. It use to work, but all of a sudden I don't get any digital signals. It just sits there and says "Now Tunning". I've checked the cable and the antenna and all looks good. I can't get it to scan channels through the main menu nor can I even access the digital menu.

I can receive basic analog stations, but no digital.

I hope someone can help. I'm using a Zenith Silver Sensor and never had this problem.

If I tune to a digital channel that is not being broadcast, like 6.1, after about 2 seconds it says "No Signal". It sounds like your tuner is broken and you will need one of those $500 repairs. Just my uninformed opinion.

Good luck.

If I tune to a digital channel that is not being broadcast, like 6.1, after about 2 seconds it says "No Signal". It sounds like your tuner is broken and you will need one of those $500 repairs. Just my uninformed opinion.

Good luck.

No, "no signal", so I guess it's broke. Thanks Sony for making a tuner that last a year and a half. I guess the CRT's will go next.

Is that what tuner repairs are going for? If so, it would be cheaper to just get a set top box.

Thanks BTW.

I've seen over in the Tucson forum a lot of people that like a tuner that Wal-Mart sells for about $200.

I have no idea what repairs are but it's not cheap.

I'm having an interesting issue with my 2 year old WS510. There's a ticking or clicking noise that comes from the TV maybe 2 times an hour (when the TV is on).

It's almost the same sound that the TV makes when you turn it off. Another way to discribe it would be the sound of a coin tapped on a glass table.

It's not very loud and really only happens once, maybe twice an hour. Sometimes more.

The TV is still under an extended warranty (until the end of the month) but I would like to know if anyone has heard of this with these TV's.

I'm a little worried about letting someone mess around inside the TV this close to the warranty ending. I can just imagine the person making it worse.

I've seen over in the Tucson forum a lot of people that like a tuner that Wal-Mart sells for about $200.

I have no idea what repairs are but it's not cheap.

Yeah, he's probably better off going with a STB tuner. I would be surprised if the cost of the repair would be under $200.

I haven't looked into it, but I would bet that you might even be able to pick up a STB tuner with better signal detection/features than the one built in. I use the OTA tuner in my dish reciever for local HD's and it's better than the one built in.

Yeah, he's probably better off going with a STB tuner. I would be surprised if the cost of the repair would be under $200.

I haven't looked into it, but I would bet that you might even be able to pick up a STB tuner with better signal detection/features than the one built in. I use the OTA tuner in my dish reciever for local HD's and it's better than the one built in.

Haven't yet had anyone look at it, but also can't find anything on the web regarding repair of this model.

I don't mind the idea of a STB for a tuner, but the downside is my component inputs are already filled with my PS2 and cable box, so I'd either have to swith the PS2 back or go with a high priced DVI cable.

I hate when people ask for help on boards then never follow-up with the group on a resolution. Here is what's gone on so far. I contacted Sony by e-mail and was quickly brushed off. I tritely replied to the brush-off and was directed to customer relations. I was eventually directed to fax CR my proof-of-purchase and a copy of the estimate for repairs. I had the POP and faxed it but the service provider never gave me a written estimate. I got back in touch with the service provider and over the course of two weeks I could not get them to produce an estimate. Sony sent me an e-mail stating that they had not received the requested docs and were about to close the case. When I told them what was going on, they called the service provider. They got the service provider to agree on procuring his parts directly from Sony at a discount and passing that discount on to me. After that the service provider went dark and Sony has not been able to contact them. Sony then recommended two other providers. Problem is I spent $85.00 the first time and the two providers Sony recommended are not local. They want $125 and $350 just to look at the TV. I'm not happy and I'm stuck with a 51" paperweight.

Catfish

and I'm just starting the process of contacting Sony. The part that this tech claims needs to be fixed is a "convergence control board". Funny thing is that I cannot find this part in the service manual or on-line. It may be that the tech is just using incorrect nomenclature for the part but I dunno. Oh he also claims he needs to perform the service in-house rather than on-site which doesn't pass the smell test either. I'll keep ya'll posted.

Thanks Again For Everyone’s Support

Catfish

............ service provider went dark and Sony has not been able to contact them. Sony then recommended two other providers. Problem is I spent $85.00 the first time and the two providers Sony recommended are not local. They want $125 and $350 just to look at the TV. I'm not happy and I'm stuck with a 51" paperweight.

Catfish


I can't say as I blame you!

Catfish, I really think we are now in a throw-away society. I tried to give my old Hitachi 52" to the local service guy and he didn't want it. They can't use used parts in repairs. He can't even give used TVs away anymore. I ended up using the sledge hammer on it, salvaging the lens and nice front surface mirror. Rest went into the trash.

That's life in the 21st Century in America.

Yeah, I know what you mean but there’s no way I'm going to toss a two-year old $2k TV. It just isn’t going to happen. I'm also not going to pay %25 of the purchase price to have it fixed. I have yet to decide how I'm going to proceed. I'll keep everyone updated though.



Catfish



Catfish, I really think we are now in a throw-away society. I tried to give my old Hitachi 52" to the local service guy and he didn't want it. They can't use used parts in repairs. He can't even give used TVs away anymore. I ended up using the sledge hammer on it, salvaging the lens and nice front surface mirror. Rest went into the trash.

That's life in the 21st Century in America.

I looked through this forum and couldn't find the answer to my problem.

I currently have a KP-51WS510 projection and my problem is that the bottom front plastic panel has a crack in it from moving to my new home. I called Sony and they claimed I needed a new "bezel" part number X40408044. I always thought the bezel was the plastic ring aroujnd the TV screen itself which is what I do not need. The piece I need is the large front panel plastic piece on the bottom of the console (this piece covers the speakers,etc). Does anyone know the name of this part and does Sony offer a replacement?

Thanks in advance.

YEah, that's not the bezel, but I wouldn't know what they call it. Someone with a copy of the service manual would be able to tell you. I sure wish I had a copy of the service manual...

I broke down and bought the service manual and as a result found the part I need.

X40417792 GRILL ASSY, SPEAKER (51)

107 bucks.

I'm having an interesting issue with my 2 year old WS510. There's a ticking or clicking noise that comes from the TV maybe 2 times an hour (when the TV is on).

It's almost the same sound that the TV makes when you turn it off. Another way to discribe it would be the sound of a coin tapped on a glass table.

It's not very loud and really only happens once, maybe twice an hour. Sometimes more.

The TV is still under an extended warranty (until the end of the month) but I would like to know if anyone has heard of this with these TV's.

I'm a little worried about letting someone mess around inside the TV this close to the warranty ending. I can just imagine the person making it worse.


Mine does the same thing. I always thought it was some of the plastic pieces inside the TV expanding as a result of the TV getting hot. Come to think of it, all TVs I've owned have that tapping sound like that at one time or another. I have a smaller TV that makes the same noises.

I have actually had my CRTS replaced on my 51WS500 3 times! At least I neve had to pay for them though.

Whats the normal price to repair something like that?

YEah, that's not the bezel, but I wouldn't know what they call it. Someone with a copy of the service manual would be able to tell you. I sure wish I had a copy of the service manual...
I can email you the service manual if you want.

Here is a snapshot from the manual, looks like this is a breakdown of all part numbers, etc.

http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sonyws5108qi.jpg

I can email you the service manual if you want.


you have a pm. gracias.

Is anyone doing DVD upscaling on their sets? If so, what players and how's the result?

I'm using a windows media center pc with the nvidia codecs. Can't compare because I've always used consoles for the occaisonal dvd playback. the 360 makes a much better player than the other consoles, and my mce is markedly better than the 360. It's a bit like comparing apples to oranges though, because through the mce i'm able to adjust total overscan etc on the dvd player so I have no missing info. much more flexible than a standalone player.

I should mention that I'm gettin much better results by scaling in the mce than by letting the tv do it.

I can email you the service manual if you want.


were you able to get this out in email? I checked and didn't see it...

I have a problem with mine. Turns on and turns off in 2 seconds, no picture, just sound. I tried the service mode, still wouldn't work. Called for service. $150 to pick it up and 300 just to look at it minimum. This is my second one, the first one was replaced because of the "flicker problem". I'm done with Sony. I don't know what i'm gonna do. I've only had this second set for 18 months. I'd like to repair it myself, but I don't know how to troubleshoot it. I originally paid $2300, now another $450. Total rip off. Any suggestions?

We went through four, count 'em four, Hitachi's in two months before finally giving up (thank you Sears!) and getting the almost idential Sony. The Hitachi's developed the same problem you describe, in one way or another. My previous Hitachi big screen had lasted 12 years. That was 14 months ago.

I think servicing these big TVs, or any for that matter, is very expensive these days in our throw-away society. You just have to run the numbers and make a decision. I'm trying to hold out for lower cost LCD or other new technology to match my $2000 price point for a 50-60" TV, so I would probably repair if I were in your place based on my strategy.

Good luck.

I've had my WS550 for 26 months w/o a problem. (Knock wood.) Just like one person can buy a car that runs w/o incident forever, while the next gets a lemon, the same can happen with any technological device.

Update on my troubles that may help others. The flyback transformer assembly fried. The authorized Sony repair center fixed it for 459. The repair center and dealer had no luck in getting Sony to cover it. The tv was already replaced due to the flicker problem, but Sony's 1 year warranty began with the original purchase date so not covered. However, I live in Maine where customers are protected under the "Express Warranty Law" which basically covers anything purchased for 4 years. I called Sony and got a runaround, but finally got up to a supervisor in Proof Of Purchase. if you read Sony's warranty it has a clause stating that limitations of the warranty may be trumped by State law. its under the Boxed in part of the boilerplate warranty. Anyways, I was very aggressive with the supervisor and told them that Sony was well aware of this law. They denied it. I threaten to contact my Attorney General. Sony requested that I fax them the law and the bill. I said I would e-mail the link, he said no e-mail, I said I'll tell you over the phone, he said no internet connection. I replied, the world's technology leader and you don't have web access.

So I printed out the 9 page law, made a copy of the bill and was just getting ready to fax it when my phone rang. I answered it and it was a Bigger Wig from Sony. She asked what my problem was and I went into a rant (first call was an hour long) after 5 minutes into my rant she interrupted and said. Calm down, fax me the bill directly, she gave me her name and direct number, and said Sony will send me check for the repair. I'll believe when I see it. But they are aware, you just have to be pesrisitant and for $459, I was if it was 100 bucks probably not. Not to mention trying to get the beast out of the house and to the repair center. Fortunatly I have a truck.

Link to the law in Maine check you state law you maybe covered.

http://www.maine.gov/ag/index.php?r=clg&s=chap4

Is anyone doing DVD upscaling on their sets? If so, what players and how's the result?

This thread seems to have died back in April; let's see if there's still any life out there for WS510/550 owners. :p

I've have a KDP-57-WS550 for almost 2 years, and love it. To answer David's question: Yes, I was using a Denon 755 (silver version of 1910) for over a year, usually set to 1080i output on DVI. Very impressive. Now, like DavidHir, I've bought a Toshiba HD DVD (XA1), and it's even more stunning on 1080i upconversion on an HDMI>DVI cable. And HD DVD is simply by far the best picture I've ever seen on my Sony.

My question is: Does any know the maximum input/display resolution of the WS550? The manual seems especially vague on this to me. It talks about accepting 480i/480p/720p/1080i input on component & DVI. But I thought I read somewhere that the WS550 series can display all NTSC formats, and then included 1080p24 (24 fps) as a valid NTSC format.

I'm curious if and when HD DVD can output in 1080p 24fps if my WS550 will be able to make use of it.

I pretty sure that it would not accept 1080p. I tried feeding it 1080p with my media center pc, and I couldnt' get it to recognize the signal at all.

As for natively displaying 1080i and 720p (et al) I'm of the opinion that it does, hoever some people disagree, and no one's ever been able to scientifically prove it one way or the other.

I pretty sure that it would not accept 1080p. I tried feeding it 1080p with my media center pc, and I couldnt' get it to recognize the signal at all.

As for natively displaying 1080i and 720p (et al) I'm of the opinion that it does, hoever some people disagree, and no one's ever been able to scientifically prove it one way or the other.

Thanks for the feedback. :)

Yeah, as I said, the manual is really vague concerning native resolution. I talks about accepting 720p / 1080i input, but nowhere states it necessarily displays the source in that resolution. But I'm also of the opinion that it does have 720p & 1080i native resolution. Not scientific proof, but there's a clear difference in the display bewteen OTA broadcasts in 720p and 1080i. And a clear difference when switching an upconverting DVD player (on DVI) between 720p & 1080i.

When you say you tried feeding it 1080p - was that over component or DVI? And when you say it didn't recognize the signal, you mean no picture display at all? Any error message?

Thanks!

It was over DVI, which is another draw against the possibility of it accepting 1080p; since it's an older format than HDMI. I got rolling dots for a second (or some similar garbage display) and then blankness.

Does anyone still have a copy of KPxxWS500.html I just bought a used WT510 and am interested in learning more about the tweaks.

Does anyone still have a copy of KPxxWS500.html I just bought a used WT510 and am interested in learning more about the tweaks.

Do you mean a manual? Go to Sony.com, Support, and then type iin you model number. They should have a PDF of the manual & some other info on it.

I think he's talking about the tweaks page that used to be up at http://mvgrafx.dyn.ca/~vmark/KPxxWS500.html.

here is the tweak guide:
http://uploaded.to/?id=d91cad


now i have a question. I have a slight bowing in near the bottom of the screen (noticeable with 2.35:1 movies or tickers). I have tried going into the service menu and adjusting various things and nothing seems to correct it. Would doing a service menu convergence fix this, and how is this accomplished?

also, when i try to flash focus the screen will get the usual white "+" in the middle of the screen, but the two outside colors will be red and blue and it only takes about a second to complete. When i did flash focus before it took a good 5 seconds and the colors were green and red. any idea why this is?

I reduced overscan and got the bowing on my WS550 set to a reasonable level, but now I'm having convergence trouble. I get everything lined up perfectly and then hit enter to store the settings, but when I cycle back through the inputs my settings are lost and everything is out of whack again. I've flash-focused several times and re-convereged the set over and over, but it keeps losing the settings. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Is there any other fool-proof way to save the settings? Why would this happen?

Are you hiting mute first?

To clarify--when I get the convergence straightened out for one input, it knocks the last input I corrected out of whack.

I meant the "menu" button. I'm not hitting "mute" and "enter" because I'm using the simple non-service menu convergence.

I think I've irreversably screwed this set up. Is there a website where I can find the closest authorized Sony repair center? Sucks--everything is perfect on this set as far as overscan and geometry goes, but the convergence settings won't save.

"here is the tweak guide:
http://uploaded.to/?id=d91cad"


Anyone else getting the "...has been removed..."

I just found this thread this morning; said "finally, after two years I can fix it!"; and "shazam"...every thread to the service codes disappears.

Damn.

Anyone still got the code list?

I think I've irreversably screwed this set up. Is there a website where I can find the closest authorized Sony repair center? Sucks--everything is perfect on this set as far as overscan and geometry goes, but the convergence settings won't save.

I'm assuming you adjusted overscan and geometry in the service menu? If so, you would need to re-register flash-focus or everytime you press it your convergence will be messed up. Most people that use the service menu to make adjustments don't use the flash-focus again.

I have a copy of the Tweak Guide and I posted it here: http://bigfoot48.googlepages.com/sony

I suspect I will be leaving it there for a long time, but all should get a copy to avoid what happened in posts #587 and #594!

BigFoot, thanks a million. That is part of what I wanted. The other thing would be a list of service codes and their meanings. You see, I have a KP57HW40 and I want to compare the codes that are listed with what I find in the service menu.

Again, thanks.

Excellent! Thanks BigFoot. I've got a 65HS510 and I've been looking forward to getting the best picture from it.

Could someone outline the procedure, or point me to a good source, for cleaning the CRTs on my KDP-57WS550 RPTV?

Thank you in advance.

Being a new guy to the RPTV and slowly getting my home theater up to par, is there a noticeable difference between using a component video connection and a DVI connection. A client of mine is getting rid of their KP-57WS510 for $500 to me. So I am just trying to understand the possibilities that this has. I am coming from a 27" Samsung CRT. And I have never had the ability to have component connections, so I am sure I will be amazed... like I said just trying to understand this TV's possibilities.

Being a new guy to the RPTV and slowly getting my home theater up to par, is there a noticeable difference between using a component video connection and a DVI connection. A client of mine is getting rid of their KP-57WS510 for $500 to me. So I am just trying to understand the possibilities that this has. I am coming from a 27" Samsung CRT. And I have never had the ability to have component connections, so I am sure I will be amazed... like I said just trying to understand this TV's possibilities.

AFAIK, you won't get anything other than 480 resolutions with a component connection; meanwhile, if you use the DVI cable you'll get 720 and 1080 resolutions (1080 being all-important when viewing HD content via cable or a satellite dish).

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

AFAIK, you won't get anything other than 480 resolutions with a component connection; meanwhile, if you use the DVI cable you'll get 720 and 1080 resolutions (1080 being all-important when viewing HD content via cable or a satellite dish).

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Incorrect. You can get all of the resolutions (480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i) over component. As for whether or not DVI is better than component, it depends on which works better at converting the signal from digital to analog, your TV or your cable box. I have the same TV and cannot see a difference between the two and I therefore use component. I think a lot of people around here agree there is little to no difference between DVI/HDMI and component on CRT TVs.

I've always experienced lossy artifact exaggeration over dvi.. sticking with component for a while.

I had someone tell me that with component connections it doesn't allow the upscaled signal from say a DVD player to travel to the TV. And that to have an upscaling DVD player you should use a DVI/HDMI connection. He was also saying that it is more likely that the TV which new was a couple thousand dollars, would probably have a better upscaling than say the DVD player, like the new Sony DVP-DS75 or something like that. Since I get the TV on Tuesday I am just trying to figure out what cables I should be ordering.

I had someone tell me that with component connections it doesn't allow the upscaled signal from say a DVD player to travel to the TV. And that to have an upscaling DVD player you should use a DVI/HDMI connection. He was also saying that it is more likely that the TV which new was a couple thousand dollars, would probably have a better upscaling than say the DVD player, like the new Sony DVP-DS75 or something like that. Since I get the TV on Tuesday I am just trying to figure out what cables I should be ordering.

That would be the DVD player or other source not allowing upscaling over component, but DVI or HDMI only. The TV can accept it but for copy protection reasons the other device may not allow it.

As for which has the better scaler, again it depends. For me owning the Sony 57WS510 which is 1080i native, it converts a 720p input to 540p for display. I therefore have my cable box always output 1080i and do the 720p conversion since my TV actually downcoverts it slightly.

Primetime.... I am getting the same TV, so are you saying that it downscales it instead of upsclases it. Again sorry for my ignorance as I am just learning about this.

Primetime.... I am getting the same TV, so are you saying that it downscales it instead of upsclases it. Again sorry for my ignorance as I am just learning about this.

The WS510 series does downcovert a 720p signal to 540p, but the newer 550 series I believe does not. The difference between my cable box converting 720p to 1080i or my TV converting 720p to 540p is very slight. But like I said if you just set your cable box or upscaling DVD player to output 1080i it doesn't even matter. And keep in mind the only 720p signals now are ABC, FOX and ESPN (maybe a few other regional sports stations or something).

I've been playing around with settings in the service menu for overscan and shifting the picture side to side and top to bottom to get it centered. It seems that when I adjust the settings in the service menu with the test pattern showing in the background and get it all right, when I go back to normal viewing it is not quite right. And now that my overscan is reduced what I am seeing is that the positions change slightly, say maybe a 1/2" from day to day or over a couple days. I'm starting to think this TV has some built in circuitry for burn-in where it moves the picture slightly over time. And when I make my settings in the service menu those are the "correct" settings and when I go back to normal viewing it is just adding in that circuitry and hence the picture shifts slightly. It is definately the TV as I see the same shift from both my cable box and DVD player.

Can anyone confirm this? Or is that just how these sets are, they shift slightly with each power-up? Or is mine going bad?

I found myself tweaking things every few days only to be chasing my tail and my theory above makes sense to me.

Does anyone know if technicians are able to do a "factory reset" to restore all original values in the service mode? I'm still covered by a BS circuit city warranty, but I think I'd need a licensed Sony tech to get the original values back.

My set is holding convergence reasonably well now, but the picture is slightly curved on the left side of the screen and I'd just as soon have the default values programmed-rather than keep tweaking with geometry. Obviously, I don't have them all written down. Live and learn.

Can anyone confirm this? Or is that just how these sets are, they shift slightly with each power-up? Or is mine going bad?

I found myself tweaking things every few days only to be chasing my tail and my theory above makes sense to me.

Same thing happened with me. Perhaps moving the guns too drastically permanently screws things up. I was able to straighten the green and blue guns, but the red one would never allign properly (it stops moving at the value of + or -127).

$1300 down the tubes.

Same thing happened with me. Perhaps moving the guns too drastically permanently screws things up. I was able to straighten the green and blue guns, but the red one would never allign properly (it stops moving at the value of + or -127).

$1300 down the tubes.

Since I didn't get a response for a while here I posted over in the Display Calibration forum and someone rersponded there saying his set does the same thing and thinks it is normal for the set. This is what I expected. I found an item in the service menu about burn-in prevention and you can toggle it on and off. I'm guessing this controls this feature but without knowing for sure I have not changed it.

What you mention above seems to have more to do with convergence and running out of adjustment. For me the whole picture shifts, not just one color CRT. The convergence stays just fine.

Have not been here for awhile. Personnelly HAVE NOT used it. Never had the guts.

Can't find my Manual, ex-girlfriend cleaned my house while I was away. Bich! (sic)

I want to hook up MS MCE 2005, Home Built HTPC sytsem through DVI. Can anybody Help me with information on that? I think it said DVI couldn't be used with computer. Thoughts, Please ?

Thanks
Rich
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KP-xxWS500 TWEAKS
Drafted November 19, 2002
By Rob Williamson

I have prepared the following guide to aid those who own the WS500 series Sony Rear
Projection Television (RPTV). Yes, they are known for being great out of the box (OTB), but there is great potential for these sets. The following tweaks should aid you in achieving a more focused, soft, film-like picture with true colors.

I personally have performed the tweaks mentioned herein with great results. My original
thoughts on set were the grainy, weak black levels, and significant enhancement artifacts. After applying these tweaks, my set now shows great true detail, deep blacks, great colors and a more soft (non enhanced) look. Give yourself a week to get used to the picture being soft. Also, even when the service menu, focusing and convergence tweaks are done, the final look of the set will rest heavily upon the video menu calibration performed with a calibration disc such as `AVIA Guide to Home Theater' or comparable DVD.

I must give kudos to the fellow moderators and members of the Yahoo Group `sonhs10'.
Without them I would have not been able to do anything but stare at the picture Sony intended. Ryan Dinan has put together a `Tips and Tweaks for the Sony xxHS10' article that you should read before doing any of the tweaks discussed here. This file can be found in the Files/Improvements section of the Yahoo Group sonyhs10 at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sonyhs10. Read it and read it well. This guy knows his stuff. Thank you Ryan!

Anything in the guide that is in italic font is directly from Ryan's Guide. Any text in regular font is my own and has been added or placed instead of his to make them applicable to the WS500 series.

Be sure that you've had your set on for at least a half hour before attempting any of these
tweaks. Also make sure you have the service manual for your set handy (as a reference). These manuals can be purchased through Sony.

Disclaimer
Please be advised that there is no representation of the accuracy of any of the information
presented herein relative to the Sony Kp-xxWS500 series RPTV maintenance or modification and that the material is presented for information purposes only. In no case will I be held liable for injury or damage (consequential or otherwise) resulting from or arising out of alterations you make to your television.

Opening your television exposes high voltage components that are very hazardous. DO NOT OPEN YOUR SET. The reader should recognize that opening your television could potentially be dangerous, resulting in injury or death, and attempting any alterations to you television outside of the user menu can severely damage or render useless your set. You are encouraged to seek qualified assistance before undertaking any of the procedures outlined herein, and are here by notified that, should you decide to proceed, you do so at your own risk. Always, always write down the original service menu values before proceeding with changes! If you don't understand a tweak, don't do it. Make sure you fully understand what it is you are doing and only perform the tweaks you feel comfortable with.

1.0 KEEP IT SIMPLE

Start your tweaking by changing your picture setting to Movie or Pro. I personally use Movie, but either one will give you a much improved picture. Also, change your color temperature to warm. The Warm setting is closest to the NTSC standard of 6,500 degrees Kelvin and also delivers the most accurate color reproduction. Do not use Vivid or Standard for your picture setting.

If you would rather not do any of the mentioned tweaks outlined below, I would suggest the Use of a video calibration DVD at this point. I use "AVIA - Guide to Home Theater" but Video Essentials is also a very good calibration DVD.

2.0 SERVICE MENU TWEAKS

The Service Menu
You enter the service menu by using the remote. Press DISPLAY, 5, VOL+, POWER in rapid succession. Once the screen appears, you should notice green letters and numbers at the top of the screen. Your remote acts as a navigation tool to allow you to select and change values.

Keys 1 and 4 change the ITEM, keys 2 and 5 change the category, and keys 3 and 6 change the value. MUTE enters the write function, and ENTER executes it. Power exits the service menu. Keep in mind that while in the convergence mode, the keys have different functions, which we'll get to in due time. The service manual will also have this information.

1.1 Center Your IMAGE

In order to get the best convergence/geometry possible, it is imperative that you have your image and convergence grid centered. First, make sure your IMAGE is centered. Use an overscan pattern from VE or AVIA to determine this. Use masking tape and tape measure to mark the center points of each side of your screen, and then use the VPOS (default value of 17) and HPOS (default value of 25) parameters to adjust left, right, up, and down. Center the pattern's centerpoint cross to the physical centerpoints marked on your screen. Write your changes to memory when you are satisfied by pressing MUTE then ENTER. Please note that changes to the VPOS and HPOS values should be confined to the very low single digit range. If more changes are required, then different techniques are needed. I can only refer you to a document outlining the procedure for physical raster centering. This document should be posted in the files section of the Yahoo group `sonyhs10' in the near future.

1.2 Center Your CONVERGENCE GRID

This is very important, and should only be moved after you have your image centered. The convergence grid can be moved horizontally and vertically without actually moving the image. This is done by adjusting a parameter in the PJE section called "TPHP" (test pattern horizontal phase) and" TPVP" (test pattern vertical phase). Please note that changes to the TPHP and TPVP values should be confined to the very low single digit range. If more changes are required, then different techniques are needed. I can only refer you to a document outlining the procedure for physical raster centering. This document should be posted in the files section of the Yahoo group `sonyhs10' in the near future.

Put up a test pattern that shows a center point (overscan or anamorphic pattern will work). Go into the PJE section and move to the TPHP parameter (default value of 069). If you don't see a crosshair in the center of your screen, press 6. You'll want to have both the convergence grid (which you'll be adjusting) and the test pattern displayed simultaneously. Do this by pressing 9 until you have both displayed (it will cycle through crosshatch w/black, crosshatch w/image, dots w/black, and dots w/image - you'll want the crosshatch w/image.

Now, you'll see allot of gridlines on the screen at once. Press the joystick button (left or right) to move the internal grid left or right, aligning it with the external pattern. Get this as close as you can - It's a relatively coarse adjustment, so you may not be able to get it exact.

Now go to the TPVP parameter (default value of 55) and press the joystick button (up or down) to move the internal grid up or down. I noticed that pressing the joystick up, made the grid go down and vice versa. Once you are satisfied, save your changes to memory (Mute Enter).

Now for some tweaks that will alter the look of your set. The WS500 series, as with many Sony RPTV's, have a grainy tendency, over emphasize red and apply many supposed edge enhancing features. The following service menu changes will help you correct these issues and achieve a more true and soft picture.

Most of these need to be set for each picture mode (Vivid, Standard, Movie, and Pro) and some depend also on input type/display format (V/UHF/Composite, Component 480i, Component 480p, and Component 1080i).

Keep in mind that if you are in Pro or Movie mode, some of the items will not require changing.

1.3 Disable Scan Velocity Modulation

The definition of Scan Velocity Modulation from the sonyhs10 Yahoo group:

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"SVM is one of the many tricks manufacturers use to get more light out of a picture tube, at the cost of real picture detail. It changes the speed or velocity of the beam as it is scanned from the left to the right side of the picture. In the process, it distorts real picture detail, causing dark areas of the picture on light backgrounds to be reproduced much larger than normal and light areas on dark backgrounds to be reproduced much smaller than normal. When the beam spends more time "writing" light areas, the phosphors receive more energy and produce more light output. The fact that this will contribute to phosphor blooming, as well as detail distortion seems to be lost on a number of manufacturers calling it a "feature".

The presence or absence of SVM can be easily detected by displaying the needle pulse test pattern. In it the width of the white line, on the black background, and black line, on the white background, are the same. In a set with SVM, the width of the black line will be much larger than the white line.

For optimum picture performance you should always turn SVM off.
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Category: 2150P-3

Item: UVML => 0 (disable Scan Velocity Modulation)

1.4 Red Push

Most RPTV's (including the WS500) over emphasize red, even after adjusting color (saturation) and hue (tint) in the Video service menu. Use the `Color Decoder Check' video test pattern on the AVIA DVD to check your level of read push. I found my set was pushing 10% - 15% more red than it should. This is quite common. The following tweak should reduce the red push to within * 5%.

Category: 2150P-4

AXIS => 1 (minimize red push)

1.5 Improve the Soft-Look

The following teaks were originally posted in sonyhs10 Yahoo group (thanks Eric) for the HW40 series. These tweaks also apply to the WS500 series, and worked very well for me in giving the picture a soft look.

Category: 2150P-3

Item: SHF0 => 1 (select highest f0 frequency for sharpness controls)
Item: SHOF => 0 (offset for USHP)
Item: F1LV => 0 (disable high frequency sharpness)
Item: CDSP => 0 (disable sharpness increase in areas of high color saturation)
Item: LTLV => 0 (disable edge enhancement, Luminance Transient Improvement [LTI])
Item: CTLV => 0 (disable edge enhancement, Chrominance Transient Improvement [CTI])

Category: 2150P-4

Item: UDCL => 0 (disable dynamic color)
Item: UBLK => 0 (select neutral base data)
Item: DCTR => 1 (100% Y system DC transmission ratio)
Item: DPIC => 0 (disable dynamic picture / black expansion)

Due to the flat frequency response obtained with the above settings you may find the resulting picture "too soft". I found that playing a good clean source (DVD through component inputs) and pausing the picture on a well-detailed scene was an excellent way to see the instant improvement of each tweak as it was applied. You may decide some of the tweaks work to your liking, and some may not. Apply the ones you feel improve your picture.

2.0 ELECTROSTATIC FOCUS

This is a very important tweak to perform. I thought my convergence was fine when viewing the 100 IRE Crosshatch pattern on the AVIA DVD. The lines were white with no blue, green or red edges visible to my eye. After adjusting the electrostatic focus, the 100 IRE Crosshatch looked brutal. Way out of convergence! They Crosshatch only looked white before because the individual red, blue and green lines were so out of focus they created a blurred white line.

This procedure requires you to take the front speaker grill off the set. This is accomplished by popping two screw caps near the bottom of the front grill, one at either side (photo 1). I used a small flat head screwdriver to pop the cap off (photo 2). You will need a Philips screwdriver to take the screws out.

Photo: 1 Photo: 2


To remove the grill, carefully pull the bottom out slightly towards you, then grab the sides of the grill towards near the top and gently push it towards the set and pull it in a downward motion. You will see the clips that hold the grill in at the top and why you should remove it this way. If you pull straight out it won't come, it fit does, you'll have broken the clips.

The speaker grill, front panel control area and Video 2 front jacks are all one assembly. As such, there are wires running form the grill to the set. Once you have the grill loose, pull it away from the TV only enough to reach in and release the twist ties holding the wires against the set. This will give you more freedom with the grill allowing you to lay it down in from of the set (photo 3). You could unplug the wires, but as the set is on and it really isn't necessary, I would leave them alone. I suggest laying two pillows on the floor, either side of the grill to prop it up off the floor. Reason being is the remote control doesn't function that well if the grill is flat upon the floor. The pillows will also keep the wires from being taught.

Now remove the center panel, which is held on by four screws as shown below. Behind this is the focus block (photo: 4). The WS500 has the FOCUS pots on TOP and SCREEN pots on the BOTTOM. As Ryan says, you do not even want to accidentally touch the screen pots! They are for adjusting grayscale, obviously not what we are doing here. The focus pots are arranged from left to right (looking at the set), Blue, Green, Red.

Photo: 3 Photo: 4

Photo: 5

Feed the TV a progressive signal (either turn your DVD player on with Progressive scan enabled, or simply switch to DRC mode Progressive). Now lower your picture (contrast) setting to 0.

This will enable you to easily see the scan lines.

Put up the 100 IRE Crosshatch pattern on the AVIA DVD (if you don't have the AVIA or Video Essentials disc, the last paragraph of this section outlines an alternative method). Once the test pattern is up on your screen, I would suggest pressing pause on your DVD player because AVIA will proceed to the next chapter (test screen) after about 30 seconds or so. I suggest the 100 IRE Crosshatch because of the ease of visibility of the thick hatch lines as compared to the converging bracket or the internal crosshatch in the PJE category.

In the service menu go to the Category 2150P-2, item RGBS. The range of values for this item is 0-7 (The values are outlined below for reference). The values allow you to selectively turn the CRT guns on or off. Change the value to 2 (Green CRT Only). Now while looking at the crosshatch lines themselves, turn the green focus pot until you see the best focus or definite scan lines. I would suggest turning the pot in a rocking fashion (back and forth) so you can train your eye to look for the scan lines. I found looking at the vertical line, directly below the center point of the grid was the easiest (seeing as how it is right in front of your nose while turning the pot:).

Category 2150P-2, Item RGBS, Default 7. Options of 0-7 are available as follows:

0 = Green OFF, Red OFF, Blue OFF (Black Screen - don't panic)
1 = Blue ON, Green OFF, Red OFF
2 = Green ON, Blue OFF, Red OFF Use to check/converge Green CRT.
3 = Green ON, Blue ON, Red OFF (Cyan) Use to converge Blue CRT to Green CRT.
4 = Red ON, Green OFF, Blue OFF
5 = Red ON, Blue ON, Green OFF (Magenta)
6 = Green ON, Red ON, Blue OFF (Yellow) Use to converge Red CRT to Green CRT.
7 = Green ON, Red ON, Blue ON

Once you have found the optimum focus point for green, switch to the Red CRT (RGBS value of 4). Then do the same for the Blue CRT (RGBS value of 1). Blue is more difficult, but do as best as you can. This is why I suggest doing the green and red first, because your eye needs to be trained for what to look for. Your electrostatic focus is now almost done. The electrostatic focus can only be as good as the optical focus will allow it. So, now the optical focus must be done. Before we start it, switch back to the Green CRT (RGBS value of 2).

An alternate to using the AVIA DVD 100 IRE Crosshatch while focusing would be would be to simply go to the PJE category in the service menu and hit 9 to bring up a colored bracket. Pressing 3 will cycle the bracket through the colors (Red, Green, and Blue). Press 6 until you have a black background with your colored bracket. You can perform the electrostatic focus by looking at the vertical outside lines of the bracket. You won't have to disable any CRTs, making the job easier. I personally found it difficult to discern the scan lines in the bracket as compared to the AVIA 100 IRE Crosshatch pattern..but each to his own, see what works for you. For the mechanical (optical) focus in the next section, you may want to press 6 in the PJE category until the internal grid on a black background is displayed, I can't say for sure, but I think the bracket would be difficult to focus being so thin and small, especially when trying to focus blue.

3.0 MECHANICAL (OPTICAL) FOCUS

The mechanical or optical focus requires the back of the set to be removed. The pegboard like material at the rear of the set has about 14 screws holding it on. Remove the screws and gently lift the panel up and away from the set. You will see your green CRT shining by itself (because you changed RGBS value to 2 in the previous step). If your first reaction is disbelief that your lenses are dirty, don't worry, mine were too (photo 7) and my set is less than a month old. We'll get to it! You have to slide the piece of angled board up and out of its slot to allow for easy access to the CRTs (photo 6).

Photo: 6 Photo: 7

ON the side of the CRT assembly you will see a wing nut. This wing nut must be loosened in order to turn the CRT into focus. While turning the CRT (back and forth), look at the inside of the screen and watch as the 100 IRE Crosshatch or internal convergence grid (if you don't have AVIA DVD) goes in and out of focus (train your eye). You will need the room to be dark. I did it a night, with no lights on, the CRT puts off enough light for you to see around the back of the set. You could try putting a blanket over the front of the set too (if the room is not dark enough), but I can't say how well that will work. I first tried focusing by looking at the inside of the screen itself. I then tried Ryan's method of taping (with premium grade painter tape) a piece of plain white paper to the center of the inside (fresnel) screen, and it worked well too. I think the paper created more contrast for the crosshatch and made it a little easier to see. See what works
best for you.

Once you have the green CRT as good as you think you can get it, tighten the wing nut to keep it that way. I found my wing nuts were somewhat loose to start with, but probably for a reason, so don't over tighten them, be gentle. After all, your set shouldn't get banged around too much in your living room, so how tight do they have to be? Now go around to the front of the TV and look at your green crosshatch. I would suggest tweaking the green focus pot a bit more, as you may be able to improve the electrostatic focus now that the optical focus is improved. Once your satisfied, switch the RGBS value to 4 (Red CRT Only) and perform the same operation of optical focusing followed by tweaking of the electrostatic focus. Switch the RGBS value to 1 (Blue CRT Only) and perform the same operation of optical focusing followed by tweaking of the electrostatic focus. You may find that once that the optical focus has been done on the blue CRT, you are able to see the scan lines more easily during tweaking of the electrostatic focus.

Switch the RGBS value back to 7 and turn your picture (contrast) setting back to your usual viewing setting (usually in the 20 - 25% range).

4.0 CLEAN YOUR CRTS

Since you have your CRT's exposed, now is the perfect time to clean them. Since CRT's are high-voltage, they ionize the air around them. This makes them very good dust-magnets. Which is unfortunate, because dust can play a huge role in what you ultimately see as a final image.

So, what should you use to clean the lenses? Mr. Bob suggests that you use plain ol' paper towels. Newspaper will also work. Crumple a piece, and moisten it lightly with water - very lightly - and gently, wipe towards you "lifting" the dust off the lens. You should never use Windex, or any other ammonia-based cleaner. These can strip the coatings off. Also, try not to use Kleenex, as allot of them have some kind of lotion in them, which will actually smear on the lens. Use the same material for the mirror and the fresnel lens, using extreme caution. The mirror and the Fresnel lens can easily be scratched (the fresnel lens is the innermost screen in the "sandwich", followed by the lenticular, and then the glare screen).

Under normal use, cleaning should be done at least once a year or more, depending on your environment. The funny thing about dust is that it's so gradual, you really don't notice the effects until you clean it off and see the "refreshed" picture.

I only cleaned the CRTs, and I used a slightly moist soft cloth. The heat off the CRTs
evaporated any moisture very quickly during wiping. The towards you and up motion worked
the best for me!

5.0 MANUAL CONVERGENCE

How to Enter the Convergence Mode
Once you're in the service menu, you need to access the convergence mode. Press the 2 or 5 key until you see PJE in white blocky letters (you should be able to get there quickly by pressing 5 once or twice). Now press 9 on the remote. You will see a bracket appear in the middle of the screen. Press 6 and cycle through the different types of patterns until you get a white grid on a black background.

Controls
Once in the convergence mode (activated by pressing 9 in the PJE section), the buttons on the remote work differently. Keys 1 and 4 move the cursor around on the grid (convergence points) in a spiraling fashion. The joystick on the remote will adjust the position of the current color at that grid point. Key 3 cycles between red, green, and blue adjustments.

You may also depress the joystick, which will allow you to move the bracket freely around the grid. Press it again and you are back to being able to adjust the position of the current color at that grid point. Handy if you are just touching up an area and don't want to spiral through all the points*.

How to Converge the CRT's

It's much easier to converge the set if you can see what you're converging. Green should be the color to converge to. The geometry (straightness of the grid) of the green CRT should be good enough - If you notice that some lines are definitely out of whack, you should straighten them.

We need to disable the red and blue CRTs. Press 2 until you get to the 2150P-2 Category. Cycle through the items until you get to RGBS. Change the value to 2 (Green CRT Only).

Move back to the PJE category by pressing 5. You should be back at the grid with a green bracket - If you don't see one, press 3 until you do (the bracket may have been set on red or blue, which have been turned off). Navigate around the grid, correcting any obvious errors. Once you're satisfied, turn the red CRT back on (RGBS value of 6, Red and Green CRTs on), and return to the grid. Press 3 until the crosshair is red. Now, align the red to the green, getting as close as you can. By the way, not all grid points are selectable. Keep in mind that the edges of the screen will tend to be more out of focus, and harder to get "tight". Get it as close as you can. You also may notice that some points affect the position of other, nearby points.

You'll get the feel for it after a short period of time. Now, do the same for blue, making sure to turn off red (RGBS value of 3, Blue and Green CRTs on). When you're all done, turn all the CRT's back on (RGBS value of 7, All CRTs on), and look to see the results. Touch up where it is needed (if needed at all).

I found the 100 IRE Crosshatch image really showed areas that still needed convergence. I would cycle within the PJE category (pressing 6) between the convergence grid (to fix errors) and the 100 IRE Crosshatch image (to view areas with convergence problems).

Save your convergence to memory by pressing MUTE followed by ENTER.

Remember, you need to do this for each mode you use - This doesn't mean for each input. It applies to 4:3 mode, 16:9 mode, and 1080i 16:9 mode (even though 1080i is a 16:9 mode, it requires its own convergence due to the higher scan-rate). Each mode is separate, and is saved separate, however, each one does tend to affect the other slightly.

Try not to use the Flash Focus. I know it's very easy to use, and they put it right there on the front of the set, so it basically begs to get pressed. But realize that pressing FF will rely on the sensors to converge your set - It will pretty much re-do all your hard work. It may get close, but it will never be as good as a service mode convergence.

Now that your convergence is done, you should re-register your new convergence to Flash Focus (FF). Ryan says below don't use Flash Focus, and I agree. However, if you do or someone else does, it shouldn't require nearly as much touching up if the new convergence is re-registered to Flash Focus. This is simple to do.while in the PJE category, press the Flash Focus button to initiate a re-registration process to the system. If the operation fails (I've never had this happen), press 0, followed by enter to restore the convergence settings you last saved. You'll need to investigate why it did not work. In the PJE category, change to item ERR and it should read a value other than 000 if your attempt at re-registering FF didn't work. If our attempt at re-registering did work, it should read a value of 000. Typically, reasons why re-registering FF won't work are due to overscan being reduced too much but there are other reasons too. Regardless, while you are investigating just don't press FF and you'll be fine.

I have read numerous forums regarding re-registering flash focus. Most say only re-register flash focus in FULL MODE. This is what I did. I only watch TV in FULL MODE anyway, so it worked well. I have read many people having troubles with other modes if they re-register flash focus in WIDE ZOOM mode so I can only say, read forums and ask questions if you do use you set in other modes before you re-register you flash focus in another mode besides FULL.

6.0 BASIC VIDEO CALIBRATION

I think the last visual tweak should be one of these image calibration discs. My reasoning is this: You've just done cleaning, focusing, and converging, which basically changes the `nature' of the set. It's now primed for these "soft" tweaks.

If nothing else, a DVD like Pearl Harbor, Star Wars II or many others out there have a THX optimize feature (usually under special features of the DVD) that will help you with brightness, contrast, colors etc. Its not AVIA or VE, but it's better than nothing.

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If you have any questions of comments about this guide feel free to email me at
jrp.rw@whtvcable.com Also, a great place to ask questions in the Yahoo group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sonyhs10
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DISCLAIMER FROM THE SONY HDTV TIPS AND HINTS YAHOO EGROUP!

By becoming a member of the group, you agree to hold Sony, Yahoo, its sponsors, members, and me harmless against damage you cause. We do not guarantee any link, file or procedure that is suggested and anyone who performs these adjustments agrees to accept total responsibility for any damage that may result.

Changing settings in the Service Menu can cause a lose of your picture and it may not come back. Sony may void your warranty if you change the Service Menu settings. Always write down all of the default settings before you change anything!

DO NOT OPEN YOUR SET! Working inside the TV could render your unit unusable and possibly KILL YOU.

I'm having some ghosting issues on a WT510 (a second, faint image directly to the right) on varoius sources, including DVD. If it were just SD cable I'd consider it the source material but it shouldn't be there on dvd. Any tweaks for this? Or ideas in general?

When doing a manual convergence, I have noticed a faint blue outline on all the lines...both horizontally and vertically... equally around all. Is there a blue push that I should be adjusting for this?

I'd say that if you haven't done an electrostatic focus yet, then go that route first. It's really easy to do. Look in the long post of tweaks above (2.0). I didn't have my Avia disk so I just started the manual convergence and separated the three colors so I could see them clearly, then adjusted to the tightest focus I could get.

OK.. did the focus just now.. Picture was pretty close already, but fine tuned it. Blue on the brackets are still bleeding outside of the lines though...

I believe it has something to do with how the eye sees blue so you will always see some bleeding on blue. Same on my set. Just get it the best you can.

Well, I know what you're talking about.. but there is probably about 30% of the width of the cross hatch on each side that is blue. Seems a little excessive. Personally, I'm happy with my picture, but this site has gotten me critical of details. If there's a better picture hiding in my TV, I'd love to know.

Is there an adjustment for "blue push"? Seems that it's very possible that the blue is just turned up too high...

TTT~ Anyone know how to adjust the blue levels? Or if that is in fact my problem?

the only way I know of is to adjust the countering red and green levels if you feel the picture is too blue, but from what I'm seeing it sounds like the typical blue-is-less-focused-than-others type of scenario that is well documented.

I myself have never messed with the electrostatic adjustment of the blue, but as the set gets a little older I'm thinking about it.

I myself have never messed with the electrostatic adjustment of the blue, but as the set gets a little older I'm thinking about it.

Honestly, I was worried about doing it myself. But took all of a half hour to pull it apart for the first time, adjust and put it back together. Not sure how much it helped though.

You could always go through the back of the set and do the manual focus of the crts. All the focusing in the world won't help if there's a problem at the CRT level. Supposedly it's best to do an electrostatic focus, then the manual CRT focus, then the electro-focus again. I haven't done a manual on this set however, so I can't say how hard it is to get at 'em. It's a breeze on my Hitachi though so I figure the same of the Sony. Once you get in there, you just loosen the wingnuts on the CRTS then slide the pegs back and forth to get the best focus on each of the guns, much the same as the electro-focus.

I've still got a very faint 3-tiered ghosting-to-the-right that's occurring on multiple sources. Any ideas on how to fix this?

I've still got a very faint 3-tiered ghosting-to-the-right that's occurring on multiple sources. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Can you shoot us a picture of the problem? Understand it's really faint...but try? How far are they apart? How wide? Do they move?

Also, what inputs are you using that this is occurring on?

Will do. Probably in the next couple of days when I can find the digi-cam.

Glad I found this site and info regarding my TV!

I currently have my xbox 360 and HD cable box plugged into input 5 via component cables. I have my upscaling DVD player running to the DVI input ( 7 I believe ). Here is the problem. DVD movies look great, the xbox 360 looks washed out and blurry ( with all xbox 360 settings on HD in the console on on the cables ), and HDTV looks awesome! I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem with their Xbox 360's. It's odd though because it appears to occur only when my xbox sends a "true" HD signal i.e. in game. While the game is booting and showing the manufacturer animations etc....it looks awesome.

I typically have my output set to pro or movie and have ran the Avia calibration disk and made all adjustments. I have not done any of the manufacturer menu changes yet as that is next on my list.

Thank you for any feedback.

I've had this TV for almost 3 years now, but the wife and I just moved into a new house, and I think it's time to move on. Our living room is way to small for the tv. So we made the decision to try and sell the thing, and buy and smaller flat panel screen.

So my question is how much do you think the TV is worth, or how much can I sell it for?
It's a KP51WS510 model, in great shape. still have the manual, remote, etc. Basically brand new...

There are some listings on Ebay, but they are misleading because of shipping costs. I think we bought it for around 1500? But I'm not positive.

You're probably going to have to sell it locally for pick-up. Also, try videogon for price listings.

My guess is you could get at least $500 or $600 for it. It has DVI, correct?

You could always go through the back of the set and do the manual focus of the crts. All the focusing in the world won't help if there's a problem at the CRT level. Supposedly it's best to do an electrostatic focus, then the manual CRT focus, then the electro-focus again. I haven't done a manual on this set however, so I can't say how hard it is to get at 'em. It's a breeze on my Hitachi though so I figure the same of the Sony. Once you get in there, you just loosen the wingnuts on the CRTS then slide the pegs back and forth to get the best focus on each of the guns, much the same as the electro-focus.

I have the KP-57WS520 model as it's quite easy. If you take off the bottom front piece (undo speaker wire which is easy) you can reach through to do the manual focus on the CRTs...and of course, electro knobs are in front of you.

You're probably going to have to sell it locally for pick-up. Also, try videogon for price listings.

My guess is you could get at least $500 or $600 for it. It has DVI, correct?


Yes, it does have DVI....

We have a big classified section at my work, so I was going to try there first and see what I can get... My original idea was 800 bucks - do people think that is too high?

I bought my 57" tv that was a couple years old from a client of mine for $500. I had to pick it up and get it out of the basement.

For the 510, is there a service mode adjustment for gamma? Nothing jumps out at me.

Sad... I was just trying to find that adjustment too. The only thing that came close to the word "Gamma" was something like "AGAM" but I don't think that's the gamma adjustment. Anyone else know? Cuz my Gamma is actually pretty far off according to Avia.

I found the AGAM and UGAM. Agjusting them from the default made them worse. I was using the free Color HCFR and DTP44 probe and the gamma appears to be very good, problem is there are so many ways to calculate gamma and determine what it should be set to I gave up and left the default since it looks best.

Hi, I have the kdp-51ws655 and I have been wondering if anyone knows if there is a way to change the sidebars to black as opposed to grey when viewing a non widescreen broadcast. I also have been having some trouble with the convergence and I was wondering if anyone has a copy of the service manual for this tv because I was wanting to get into the manual convergence mode. Thanks in advance for your help.

I believe the bars are grey to prevent negative burn-in (or whatever you'd call not using part of the screen.) I don't have a problem with them, though my g/f has complained occasionally when we've hit 4:3 content.

re: Convergence - Using the manual convergence grid on the Setup menu isn't working for you? If Flash Focus doesn't tighten things up enough, you should try that. (Note: I've got a WS550 - I have no idea how the WS655 is configured.)

Hi,
I was wondering if someone could tell me how to fix a problem I have with my ws510. About 12" from the right edge of the screen, the picture curves slightly upwards. It is mostly noticable when there is news or sports ticker with straight lines going across the top or bottom of the screen. Is there a setting that controls the "tilt" of the picture or is it something else.
Thanks.

Yes there are a couple of settings in the service mode that can correct that. It could be either the keystone (key) or mkey, or a couple of others depending on the actual geometry issue.

dspablo: there is a setting to change the grey bars, but I can't remember what it is either. proceed with caution for obvious reasons.

If it's minor, you should be able to fix this within the convergence fine mode setting - green is for geometry...also, use a tape measure.

Technogov have you checked to make sure your screen is not bowed in? I have taken mine apart and the screens are fairly flexible and if they are loose I could see it causing the problem you describe.

Thanks for the advise, all. I will try all fixes and let you know how it turns out. Wish me luck! :)

For those of you who removed the glare screen onthe 510, how much did in throw off focus and convergence? When removing that screen the other two now shift forward about 1/8 of an inch so I thinking I should add in spacers of the same thickness of the glare screen to keep the other two screens in the same position they originally were in. Thoughts?

The glare screen is now history, and OMG, this is by far the best thing I've done to this TV! Not only is glare a thing of the past, but its almost as though the picture has more of a 3D look to it. There is a definite difference in "look" to it now going from a glassy screen to a matte one and I love it.

As for the spacer issue, I didn't bother and all is well.

primetimeguy, can you describe the process involved in removing the screen?

Thanks much. I hate that screen.

I just followed these instructions I found.....

You have to remove the bottom panel first. There are 3 screws on each side located behind the panel. Remove bottom panel and place in front of tv. There are wires connecting the front panel controls and a/v connectors. I had about a foot of slack so it was no problem. This exposes 4 screws for the top panel. Now remove top panel. There are screws on top and on the sides and also the ones you just exposed below. You definetly need 2 people for the next procedure.
Remove the front panel and hold in place in front of the tv. The person on the left must reach in and unhook the wires connecting the autofocus sensors which are connected to the Rails on the inside panel. This will give you extra slack, maybe 2 feet, I had just enough slack so that I could lay the panel face down in front of the TV. (The best thing to do is place a coffee table if you have one in front of the TV and place a bedsheet on it.) Unscrew the rails holding the panels down. (You don’t need to remove the Sensors) The rails are wired together for the autofocus so just place them on the side. Slide the whole Screen assembly out and place on another bedsheet on the Floor. Lift up the Long Strips of black tape on 4 sides of panels and remove the Glare Screen. Get some cotton gloves and put the Tape back securely on the (2) screens that are left, Gloves prevent smears or marks. Place the 2 screen assembly back in the Front panel.

Reverse above procedure, put everything back in


My onlu other suggestion is when it mentions using a coffee table, be sure that what ever you use it is at least as wide or tall as the screen frame. Other than that, pretty easy. Took me a little over an hour but I've been inside the set many times and know my way around. The hardest part is peeling off the black tape.

Has removing the glare screen improved viewing in the dark at all? I still have my screen on my KP-57WS520. However, my viewing in generally done in a completely dark room so I have no glare with it on.

Has removing the glare screen improved viewing in the dark at all? I still have my screen on my KP-57WS520. However, my viewing in generally done in a completely dark room so I have no glare with it on.


I would say yes but I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Viewing a matte screen definitely looks different. The experiment I've done after the screen was removed was to stand it in front on the TV covering half the screen and compare the two versions side by side. Without the glare screen I do feel the picture is sharper and I can see more detail, but it also means I seem more artificats. I typically view the TV in a dimmed environment but when my wife watches with me she likes to have the light on right next to the couch and the glare and being able to see her and the lamp on the TV screen drove me nuts. This definitely fixed that problem.

Does anyone know how much I should expect to pay for new CRTs? Don't kill me... but I like having a high contrast ratio. Have mine set at 100% and turn down the brightness to get my blacks BLACK. However, I understand that this will cause the CRTs to burn out a lot faster.

Do the bulbs get dark after time? Or do they burn out completely? Seems the picture is a little darker than it used to be

Bump.... Anyone? More of wondering if they get dim over time or just burn out

I was able to receive a Sony P65WS510 free. The loal repair shop says it needs a power board.. When turned on the TV buzzes and turns itself off. The little display light repeadely flashes 8 times. There is no Picture. Is it worth spending 365-435 to fix?

I need to replace the convergence ic's on my tube. Anyone have any advice? I am looking to do this repair myself and save some money.

I was able to receive a Sony P65WS510 free. The loal repair shop says it needs a power board.. When turned on the TV buzzes and turns itself off. The little display light repeadely flashes 8 times. There is no Picture. Is it worth spending 365-435 to fix?

well, that's a tough question since I'm guessing you most likely didnt get to see the TV working prior to the board going bad? If not and you're not sure what kind of PQ it had, it'll be a tough decision to make IMO.

If you know that the TV had a nice picture prior to the board taking a dump, then I'd go for it.

Where else are you going to get a 65" HDTV for 400 bucks?

I've had my 57" for 3 years and it's still running strong(knocks on wood). No signs of any burn-in or strange behavior. If the board in mine went bad, I'd replace it.

someone Help!!! I have the 51" version and have had it since 05'. Last couple days the screen flickers at first and then the screen enlarges itself and flickers and is very blurry? Anyone know what this is? how to fix it? I have HD hooked up via Direct TV.....removed it and its still there. Someone HELP! I recently purchased PS3, I hope thats not a problem.

Have you tried re-adjusting the settings? I think there is something that allows you to readjust in the menu. Otherwise I don't know what to tell you.

I have the kdp51w655. When I hit the power button the unit's standby red light flashes 11 times and the set sounds as if it is warming up but no picture comes up, it is dark the whole time. When I hit power again it sounds as if i turned it off. Recently the set did the same thing, I turned it on walked away and several minutes (20+) I walked back and there was a picture. I am going to try unplugging it over night and try again in the morning. Any advice would greatly be appreciated. I suspect the lamp is not warming up and may be dead. Peering into the back of the set I can see the bulbs glowing faintly.

Anyone use the DVI cable that came with the set to hook this TV up? When I first got this TV 4 years ago, I tried using the DVI cable and the screen was all weird looking. Just curious. Can an HDMI cable be used with this TV?

Anyone use the DVI cable that came with the set to hook this TV up? When I first got this TV 4 years ago, I tried using the DVI cable and the screen was all weird looking. Just curious. Can an HDMI cable be used with this TV?


I've used the DVI input and currently use an HDMI to DVI converter cable with no problems.

I've used the DVI input and currently use an HDMI to DVI converter cable with no problems.


So you have a DVI cable that plugs into the TV, and at the other end, the DVI cable connects to an HDMI cable? Does it make a noticeable difference in picture quality?

So you have a DVI cable that plugs into the TV, and at the other end, the DVI cable connects to an HDMI cable? Does it make a noticeable difference in picture quality?

Yes, HDMI to DVI and DVI to HDMI converting cables are quite common. As for difference in PQ do you mean between HDMI and DVI or between DVI and component?

For the HDMI/DVI difference, there shouldn't really be any. For the most part HDMI just adds audio to the video signal on the same cable (DVI is video only). There are instances of handshake issues with some equipment and not getting a picture when going HDMI to DVI and some times the black level is different (does not pass blacker-than-black). As for DVI compared to component, it depends. For me I get better a picture using component (flatter gamma curve) than I do with DVI on my 57WS510. I therefore have my Dish HD receiver hooked up via component but my upconverting DVD player (soon to be HD-DVD player) via the DVI input. But this "better" picture probably is not noticed by most people who see my TV. It is just me wanting to get the best out of what I have.

I see...I am currently using component cables from tv to DirecTV HD receiver. When I initially tried the DVI cables, I had an SD receiver, and I seem to remember blue and green color and shaking screen--is that what you mean by handshake? I haven't tried the DVI with the HD unit.

I see...I am currently using component cables from tv to DirecTV HD receiver. When I initially tried the DVI cables, I had an SD receiver, and I seem to remember blue and green color and shaking screen--is that what you mean by handshake? I haven't tried the DVI with the HD unit.


Flashing colors, screen shaking, static, picture for a few seconds then nothing then picture all can be signs of bad handskaking. Sometimes you may beed to reboot your DirecTV receiver or cycle power to the TV or both to get the handshake to establish.

I have a kp-57ws510. I noticed that I am having trouble getting a true fade to black, while maintaining decent shadow detail. I thought it might be a situation where gamma adjustment would help, but someone mentioned that it could be a problem with grayscale.

I am using a ps3 for upscaling dvd's via hdmi to dvi. I set the ps3 to output rgb full mode, as this passed blacker than black, while limited did not.

I was able to get a full fade to black with Ninja Gaiden Sigma, only because it has gamma controls within the game. I did use the middle color temperature for games (warm for movies), so maybe it could be grayscale, too.

If my eye's and memory are not deceiving me, I think there is a red tinge to my blacks. I'll try again tonight, and maybe test other color temperatures as well.

I have a kp-57ws510. I noticed that I am having trouble getting a true fade to black, while maintaining decent shadow detail. I thought it might be a situation where gamma adjustment would help, but someone mentioned that it could be a problem with grayscale.

I am using a ps3 for upscaling dvd's via hdmi to dvi. I set the ps3 to output rgb full mode, as this passed blacker than black, while limited did not.

I was able to get a full fade to black with Ninja Gaiden Sigma, only because it has gamma controls within the game. I did use the middle color temperature for games (warm for movies), so maybe it could be grayscale, too.

If my eye's and memory are not deceiving me, I think there is a red tinge to my blacks. I'll try again tonight, and maybe test other color temperatures as well.

The only gamma control for this set is in the service menu (UGAM). I've played with it a bit and didn't like how it worked and left it at the default of 0 in the Pro mode. I'm assuming you've set your brightness and contrast using a test pattern. From there you can tweak your gray scale in the service menu if you'd like, but you'll need the necessary tools to do so. I've used the free software Color HCFR and puchase a sensor for around $125 and have done a lot of tweaking on my set. But to be honest the gray scale was not that far off.

So are the problems with fade to black with shadow detail a gamma issue more than grayscale then?

So are the problems with fade to black with shadow detail a gamma issue more than grayscale then?

I guess I can't say for sure, mine is fine. Which inpunt on the TV do you see the issue on and what is connected to that input? Or is it all inputs.

Another thing is to check your brightness using a higher APL pattern. There is such a pattern on DVE. It has bright white in the middle and on top and bottom of the screen. I've found using this pattern I had to bump up my brightness a couple clicks and that is where mine is set. I'd have to double check but I think my brightness is around 50% to give you an idea.

Also, if you are in a bright room you are going to lose contrast ratio.

I have also removed the "glare screen" from my set but that didn't appear to do much for black level other than reduce any glare.

Your red in the blacks would be a gray scale issue, which I had slightly as well.

I have a PS3 and a BDP-S1. I noticed that the BDP-S1 doesn't display blacker than black while the RGB is set to full, but it does when it's set to limited. On the PS3, no matter which setting, it wont display blacker than black. If you set it to full, it will just make the image much darker, but it wont add anything. I too have a hard time with the brightness setting, as it seems each movie has a different one. I got it set for Wild Hogs which looked perfect, then I popped in The Lookout and the brightness was so high the black bars were lit up. Not sure what to do in a case like that though...

Hopefully a calibration disc like video essentials or avia will be released soon for bluray. All I can do for now is use the sd version of avia. It probably isn't the same as bluray settings though.

As for brightness setting, are you able to set it up with such a pattern, and yet when the screen is a 0 ire, there is absolutely no light coming from the tv? Total pitch black? I had a necxg 852, and I was able to get pitch black on 0 ire and shadow detail in low light scenes because I was using a HTPC and was able to adjust gamma. No such option on the ps3 or my A1.

Just a heads up, DVE comes out for Blu-Ray 10/30 in the U.S. Maybe that'll be helpful in figuring out the whole brightness setting for my TV also.

Hopefully a calibration disc like video essentials or avia will be released soon for bluray. All I can do for now is use the sd version of avia. It probably isn't the same as bluray settings though.

As for brightness setting, are you able to set it up with such a pattern, and yet when the screen is a 0 ire, there is absolutely no light coming from the tv? Total pitch black? I had a necxg 852, and I was able to get pitch black on 0 ire and shadow detail in low light scenes because I was using a HTPC and was able to adjust gamma. No such option on the ps3 or my A1.


You should be fine setting brightness using the SD version of DVE without any problems. As for total pitch black, not quite. If I set brightness using the standard pattern then yes but I felt the blacks were too deep and lost shadow detail much as you are seeing. Therefore I used the higher APL pattern which brings up the brightness setting a few clicks and that is my best compromise. And the sensor I used with Color HCFR isn't real accurate below 20IRE so I don't have good numbers down in that range to show you.

Yeah I've noticed the standard version of Avia produces pretty much the same outcome as if you use the test patterns on the Sony Blu-Ray discs. In case you didn't know, if you enter 7669 (SONY) in a menu on a Blu-Ray disc, a test pattern comes up. In the bottom right hand corner, there's 3 boxes for your brightness. If you turn up the brightness, you should see all 3 of them... unless you're using a PS3 in which case you only see 1 box. But you just turn down the brightness gradually until you hardly see the box. You'll notice the brightness setting is pretty much the exact same as if you used Avia. Same with the color settings.

As for total pitch black, not quite. If I set brightness using the standard pattern then yes but I felt the blacks were too deep and lost shadow detail much as you are seeing. Therefore I used the higher APL pattern which brings up the brightness setting a few clicks and that is my best compromise.

That is exactly what I am talking about. The ideal would be to not have to compromise the absolute black level for shadow detail, and that's what gamma adjustments make possible.

One of the greatest strengths of a crt is it's ability to do a true black (no light). Why be satisfied with anything less. That's why I was trying to get an external device that can adjust gamma. There are some made for front projection crt's, but they usually have a vga or 5 bnc out cables, so you would also have to get a vga to component transcoder as well.

The funny thing is, last night I used the same settings I got using the sddvd Avia, and when I popped in the bluray Pirates, the absolute black level was just about perfect. In addition, it didn't seem to crush blacks hardly at all. I also tried Planet Earth on hddvd and sure enought, same thing. I wonder why I am getting far better results with hd movies than with sd movies? Maybe the movies in hd are mastered with different gamma curves?

If this keeps up, I'll have even less reason to want to watch sddvd. I don't mind, because just about everything is coming out on either bluray or hdvd, and I have both. I just can't watch my old dvd's.

I forgot to mention the other part of my compromise, ambient light. Watching in a pitch black room I can drop brightness to where it should be, but during the day, even in the basement, with shades closed I still benefit from a couple clicks of brightness.

But I have experienced exactly what you are talking about. Once I got my HD-A2 hooked up the first thing I noticed was the black level and the detail in it. So I think we are on the same page.

Hello All...

I Am New Here And Messed Up My Tv Today Cleaning It...i Grabbed The Wrong Bottle Of Cleaner And Used Alchol On It And The Screen Is Messed Up...

I Am Looking For The Contrast Screen Part# 408195411.....

If Anyone Is Throwing This Tv Away And Could Spare This Part I Would Be Willing To Compensate For It.....

I Love Love Love Love This Tv And Hate To Part With It.....sony Customer Support Wants To Charge Me An Absorb. Amount Of $$$$ For It....

Thank You Very Much For Posts...if Would Be Greatly Appreciated....

Assuming your talking about the outer most protective screen, just remove it. It's a bit of work but gets rid of any glare. Downside, you better not spray anything on the screen that would be then exposed. So if you feel you need the protection, find another screen. If not, removing it is one of the best tweaks you can make to this set.

Agreed. I just did that the other day, and it helps a lot in daytime viewing, and night viewing as well.

johnsmith808,

For your black/gamma issue, is this on the DVI input by chance or by component? I know when I did some of my calibrating the DVI input had a higher gamma (darker) at low IRE, where as the component was much flatter. Changing the UGAM in the service mene only made the DVI worse. I guess I can't say for sure if the difference between component and DVI was really the TV or my source (DVD player). For this reason I use component inputs on the TV and not DVI.

Anyone have a quick guide on how to easily remove the glare screen. I think my kids are old enough now that I can take the risk ...

Anyone have a quick guide on how to easily remove the glare screen. I think my kids are old enough now that I can take the risk ...

I think it's somewhere in this thread, but if not here are the instructions I had saved from someone else.




Here are the instructions I used exactly. (I took notes every step of the way)

Remove the bottom panel first. There are 3 screws on each side located behind the panel. Remove bottom panel and place in front of tv. There are wires connecting the front panel controls and a/v connectors. I had about a foot of slack so it was no problem. This exposes 4 screws for the top panel. Now remove top panel. There are screws on top and on the sides and also the ones you just exposed below. You need two people for the next procedure. Remove the front panel and hold in place in front of the tv. The person on the left must reach inside below and untie the twisty wires connecting the autofocus sensors connected to the top inside panel. This will give you maybe 2 feet of slack. I had just enough slack so that I could lay the panel face down (I placed a bedsheet on the floor below). Unscrew all 4 rails holding the panels down. The rails have wires running along them, held down by plastic clips for the autofocus so just place them on the side. Take out the 3 screen layers (taped together) and place on another bedsheet. Remove black tape on 4 sides of panels and try your best to save. "Restack" protection screen to the back (or remove it, that is what I did). Retape. Lay the new stack of screens in the frame. Put the rails back in place and screw them down, routing the wires around into the plastic clips. Put the screen frame back in place, and screw in just enough screws to hold it up there. I did one on each side, and one on top. Now bring back the bottom panel and connect the A/V wires, but don't screw the panel in just yet. From here, you turn the set on and check out the picture and see how beautiful it looks under different light conditions. I'm thankful I did this step because I found that a wire was running down a corner of the pic from forgetting to put it in it's clip. No big deal though. Finished screwing everything in, and that was it.


Refocus and do convergence again.


The process is fairly simple, (coming from a person who's not an expert by any means) and the picture is incredible now. I wish I would've done this the first day I bought the TV. Took me less than 2 hours to complete the procedure above. This seems to be the most effective way to virtually eliminate the glare, and improve PQ for no cost. (besides warranty, but you can restack again to original) Once you've done it and seen it, you'll never go back IMO.

I hope this helps.

By the way, do you think it matters at all that I took off the wires from the screen assembly? I will never use the flash focus, so I just disconnected all of that. It won't affect anything else will it?

By the way, do you think it matters at all that I took off the wires from the screen assembly? I will never use the flash focus, so I just disconnected all of that. It won't affect anything else will it?

I wouldn't think it would hurt anything. But if you accidentally hit Flash Focus I'm not sure what the outcome would be. :)

Plus, if the power goes out or anything, I believe you have to use flashfocus before you can set up the convergence (unless you go through the service menu).

new question: my 57ws655 is not working, and there seems to be a problem getting it repaired under warranty. if they were to replace the tv with a newer model sony, which would you recommend, and what should i expect in terms of picture quality compared to the 655? my two sources are an esoteric dvd player, and off-air hd tv. the one's i'm thinking about are the sony 2020 series, or maybe the new 3000.

HELP!!!!!!!!

new question: my 57ws655 is not working, and there seems to be a problem getting it repaired under warranty. if they were to replace the tv with a newer model sony, which would you recommend, and what should i expect in terms of picture quality compared to the 655? my two sources are an esoteric dvd player, and off-air hd tv. the one's i'm thinking about are the sony 2020 series, or maybe the new 3000.

HELP!!!!!!!!

The SXRD's are pretty nice displays. If that is what they will replace your tv with, I don't think you'll be disappointed. They have the best on/off contrast ratio of the digitals, not to mention the 3000 has 120hz as well. They will also be significantly sharper than the crt, due to being a pixel-based tv, as well as being 1080p.

If worse came to worse, and you absolutely miss your crt, you could sell the new Sony, buy a used Sony crt for dirt cheap, and pocket the extra dough. Not a bad situation to be in at all.:)

looks like they're delivering the repaired guts of my tv today -- hope it works, and that they do a decent job of tweeking it for me -- i'll let you know how it goes....

thanks for the reply.

mark

I noticed a funny thing happening to my tv. It seems like everytime I turn it on after a few hours of being off, the image has shifted a half inch or so. I put up the avia overscan pattern and notice it has moved. Is there some anti-burn-in feature that could be causing this? It happens with both my ps3 and my toshiba a1, with component or dvi inputs. It shifts maybe about 2% or so on the avia pattern, up, down, left, or right. Strange.

I noticed a funny thing happening to my tv. It seems like everytime I turn it on after a few hours of being off, the image has shifted a half inch or so. I put up the avia overscan pattern and notice it has moved. Is there some anti-burn-in feature that could be causing this? It happens with both my ps3 and my toshiba a1, with component or dvi inputs. It shifts maybe about 2% or so on the avia pattern, up, down, left, or right. Strange.

Yes, I see the same thing and believe it is an anti-burn in thing. I found a service mode setting that looks like it could be used to turn it off but you can't modify it for some reason. I posted about this topic a long time ago and no one had any answers. I emailed Sony tech support multiple times, and that went know where.

Yes, I see the same thing and believe it is an anti-burn in thing. I found a service mode setting that looks like it could be used to turn it off but you can't modify it for some reason. I posted about this topic a long time ago and no one had any answers. I emailed Sony tech support multiple times, and that went know where.

Thank you very much for your reply! I was going crazy thinking that my tv was messed up. For I while, I kept readjusting the horizontal and verticle positions, but it would end up going off again.

You don't know how relieved I am. I was thinking that I have a crt curse or something. I had a crt projector (nec xg852), and the convergence would shift on a daily basis. I gave up and sold the pj. Now when this started happening, I was wondering why I bothered getting a crt again. Now I can just enjoy the picture again.:)

As for tech support on this tv, it seems that no one cares about crt anymore. I tried to google for info on it, but came up with very little information. It seems like it's pretty much down to forums, and even that is getting very slow.

My only thing left now is deciding whether or not to get the gamma adjusting transcoder. The model is the Crescendo rtc-2200. It adjusts the gamma on the lower end of the scale, so it won't wash out brighter scenes. Then, I can get a true black and have sufficient detail in other scenes as well.

There are two problems with this, though.

1) It accepts vga and component input, but only has a vga output. Obviously the Sony doesn't have a vga input, so I would then need to get an additional vga to component transcoder. I wonder how much the image will be degraded by the time it gets to my tv.

2)The cost to get all of that would be around $300. I only paid $450 for my tv, so $300 more is quite a bit, relatively speaking.

How much is have a display that can do absolute black while maintaining good shadow detail worth? No other display in the world can do that other than a crt with gamma adjustments.

Now that I know my tv is stable (the image shifting issue is a non-issue), I am more willing to invest a little more on it. Maybe I can get a used rtc-2200 and save a few $.

Hi all, I just received a KP-46WT500 and I'm having some problems hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. When I turn on the TV the Standby/Timer light blinks 10 times. When the TV comes on it looks fine after about 10 seconds or less the TV gets a really blue purple tint to it. There's no blurriness or double images just a perfect picture but with a blue purple tint especially when it should be grey. Any help would be appreciated.

Rob

I actually have that same problem. I have to let it sit for about 5 minutes before the blue goes away? Do you see the wavy lines through yours too? After about 3 years of having this set, I am replacing it with the new A3000. The reason isn't entirely because of the blues (though it is annoying), but I have started noticing more and more shaddows on objects. The shaddows are about a half an inch away from the object so it's getting really noticable. It's always had shaddows, but they were less than a quarter inch away from the object so it didn't really bug me. But now there's that, the gamma issues (I cannot get blacks to look right for the life of me), the lack of HDMI (my picture keeps dropping out even after testing multiple sources) and some weird geomatry issues. I was told that it's probably a faulty motherboard that's causing all this and that I'd have some fun trying to find one.

Here are some pictures of the TV and the blueness.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/203/img4825ko1.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/778/img4827me4.jpg

Rob

Does that go away after a few minutes? I see the calibration lines on my TV when I start it up and the screen has a bluish tint, but I've never had that happen. Maybe I would if I had something on right away when I turn on the TV, but I've never really tried it...

Nope its always blue. The only time I get a great picture is when it first turns on that its good only for about 10 seconds. The TV doesn't power off its just blue tinted. I've messed with the picture settings to see if it was the color but nothing.

Rob

You mentioned a blue/purple tint? That would seem to me that the green gun is not on. Are the only colors you are seeing a mixture of blue and red? Really looks like the green crt is not on.

Do you know how to get into the service menu and toggle the crt's off and on?

I've never tried the DVI input on my 51ws500 so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I have a GeForce ti4600 which has s-video, dvi, and analog outputs.

So far, no luck. I tried the analog output and got rainbow spectrum on the TV. I tried DVI and I got nothing but a blank screen (not even a flicker when I turned the computer on). I'm trying s-video after I buy a cable.

Has anyone successfully connected a ws500 with their computer? I've seen some posts referring to the problems with video cards (HDCP?) or the type of DVI cable.

More info:

I'm almost positive I used a DVI-D Single Link cable so that part of the equation should be okay (I believe the TV has a dvi-d connection which requires this cable).


Also, here's a link to an amazon review from someone who used this tv as a computer monitor:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Widescreen-Projection-Monitor-kp51ws500/dp/B00008OAIL

Also, here's a post on here about "EDID data, and requires a replacement UD board". No idea if that's my problem
http://www.agoraquest.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17082&forum=34

Update: I updated my video card drivers and outputed to both monitor and tv at the same time and it worked! sort of...

1920x1080 looks awful... it only works at smaller resolutions but then the screen is cropped nearly 50%!

im gettin a KP-51WS520 from my work for about 250$. any input on this set?

Looking for a little input, and maybe its in the thread. I will admit I am pulling a newbie thing by not searching hard.... but when I have been watching the NFL on Fox, there is about an 1"-1.5" gap between the score bar at the top of the screen and the top of the screen. At the bottom, it seems as though I am missing about 1/3 or 1/2 of the bottom scrolling bar. Even when watching regular shows that are in HD and they have their logo at the bottom right corner, I always feel as though it is a little higher up on the screen. Move it down an inch or so, and if memory serves me correctly, it would feel like its more in the correct spot. Is there a way to shift the picture up a little. Similar to a computer monitor when you can adjust the vertical position. I read the manual and it says you can adjust the vertical center when you are in a zoom mode, but that doesn't seem to help me when I am watching regular TV. Granted when watching an HD movie, the menu bar seems to be in the right spot, but then again I haven't compared it to others screen shots. I don't know if this falls into the service technician manual and you have to key in a few commands before you can get to this adjustment. I am hoping you don't have to go in and manually move the projectors by hand. I did move recently and this is when I remember started to notice it. So maybe the move adjusted a few things.

Now if the information is within the thread somewhere just let me know and I will find the time to go through it all, but if there is a quick answer I would appreciate it.

Looking for a little input, and maybe its in the thread. I will admit I am pulling a newbie thing by not searching hard.... but when I have been watching the NFL on Fox, there is about an 1"-1.5" gap between the score bar at the top of the screen and the top of the screen. At the bottom, it seems as though I am missing about 1/3 or 1/2 of the bottom scrolling bar. Even when watching regular shows that are in HD and they have their logo at the bottom right corner, I always feel as though it is a little higher up on the screen. Move it down an inch or so, and if memory serves me correctly, it would feel like its more in the correct spot. Is there a way to shift the picture up a little. Similar to a computer monitor when you can adjust the vertical position. I read the manual and it says you can adjust the vertical center when you are in a zoom mode, but that doesn't seem to help me when I am watching regular TV. Granted when watching an HD movie, the menu bar seems to be in the right spot, but then again I haven't compared it to others screen shots. I don't know if this falls into the service technician manual and you have to key in a few commands before you can get to this adjustment. I am hoping you don't have to go in and manually move the projectors by hand. I did move recently and this is when I remember started to notice it. So maybe the move adjusted a few things.

Now if the information is within the thread somewhere just let me know and I will find the time to go through it all, but if there is a quick answer I would appreciate it.

Yes, you can adjust the horizontal and vertical position of your picture in the service menu. But what you are describing on FOX is a FOX issue, their score bar is not high enough on the screen. Also, these sets have a burn-in feature where the picture occassionally adjusts up, down, right and left. I made slight adjustments to my set but I don't have the numbers in front of me. But I don't think they were off much, if at all to get the best centering. The other issue is the amount of overscan, which crops the edges of the picture. This too can be changed in the service menu but also creates geometry errors that then need to be corrected.

im gettin a KP-51WS520 from my work for about 250$. any input on this set?

It's a very good CRT RPTV set assuming there are no issues. I just sold my KP-57WS520 for about $500, so you got a pretty good price.

HI,
I'm new to this forum, it seems you guys know alot about these tv's. I haw a 65ws550 it was manufactured in 03. I am the original owner. Here is the problem, I get up to turn it on this morning and the timer/stand-by button flashes like 10 times the sound comes on but the screen is off then after about 15-20 seconds the tv turns its self off and the timer/stand-by light flashes 5 times then repeats forever :(:( Please help me!!
thanks
April

Hello Forum,

I have the 51WS520 and it has been working fine for over three years. I have noticed a kinda strange happening. After it was on for a few hoursa message appeared in yellow saying" TV will shut down soon" Then in about 5 mins it would turn off. I waited for a short time then turn it back on and it works fine for a couple months then the message shows up again! I am a retired A/V tech and have worked on many CRT projectors but have never seen this before. I have the service manual for this set and there is NO mention of this message in it. Oh I want to mention to all who have any kind of electronic device. NEVER turn on power right after it is shut down! WAIT! for it to discharge itself. If you dont you may hear a grunt sound and then no power!
Regards: Happy holidays
Earl

Hello Forum,

I have the 51WS520 and it has been working fine for over three years. I have noticed a kinda strange happening. After it was on for a few hoursa message appeared in yellow saying" TV will shut down soon" Then in about 5 mins it would turn off. I waited for a short time then turn it back on and it works fine for a couple months then the message shows up again! I am a retired A/V tech and have worked on many CRT projectors but have never seen this before. I have the service manual for this set and there is NO mention of this message in it. Oh I want to mention to all who have any kind of electronic device. NEVER turn on power right after it is shut down! WAIT! for it to discharge itself. If you dont you may hear a grunt sound and then no power!
Regards: Happy holidays
Earl

I never use it, but these sets have a a sleep timer. Is it possible someone is accidentally pushing the sleep timer button the remote and causing it to should down an hour later?

So I was really stupid and I changed all of the values in the PJE menu to 000. Looks just fine for the GRN gun but for the BLU and RED guns everything is ruined.

Nobody has posted the default values in this thread yet so I'm going to offer a proposition. If somebody can go through their own WS500, write down their values and post them, I'll pay you $15 USD through paypal.

If you feel like doing it for free then that's awesome too but I'm desperate and willing to pay.

These are the values I need so if you want to fill them into this matrix I'm sure you'll help a lot of people!

-PJE-

1) GRN

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX

2) BLU

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX

3) RED

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX


Thanks again and if you fill these out then just leave your paypal address and how much you think is worth it.

So I was really stupid and I changed all of the values in the PJE menu to 000. Looks just fine for the GRN gun but for the BLU and RED guns everything is ruined.

Nobody has posted the default values in this thread yet so I'm going to offer a proposition. If somebody can go through their own WS500, write down their values and post them, I'll pay you $15 USD through paypal.

If you feel like doing it for free then that's awesome too but I'm desperate and willing to pay.

These are the values I need so if you want to fill them into this matrix I'm sure you'll help a lot of people!

-PJE-

1) GRN

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX

2) BLU

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX

3) RED

CENT - (000) (000)
SKEW - (000) (000)
SIZE - (000) (000)
LIN - (000) (000)
KEY - XXXX (000)
PIN - (000) (000)
MLIN - (000) XXXX
MSIZ - (000) XXXX


Thanks again and if you fill these out then just leave your paypal address and how much you think is worth it.


Hopefully, this taught you a lesson. NEVER screw with the service menu unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing.

Unfortunately, NO ONE can possibly give you accurate values because convergence and geometry are extremely unique for every display. You would be better off bringing in a competent ISF calibrator (preferable) or a good service tech to do the work.

Hopefully, this taught you a lesson. NEVER screw with the service menu unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing.

Unfortunately, NO ONE can possibly give you accurate values because convergence and geometry are extremely unique for every display. You would be better off bringing in a competent ISF calibrator (preferable) or a good service tech to do the work.

I get it. However, I don't want accurate values. I want ballpark values and, failing those, just the defaults that ship from the factory. People have posted earlier in the thread that they have written them down and I'm just asking for them to post them online. I know I did something hasty but I'm willing to pay good money for someone to do a little bit of leg-work, by typing the defaults into my grid, for the benefit of everyone else on the board.

Thanks!

I get it. However, I don't want accurate values. I want ballpark values and, failing those, just the defaults that ship from the factory. People have posted earlier in the thread that they have written them down and I'm just asking for them to post them online. I know I did something hasty but I'm willing to pay good money for someone to do a little bit of leg-work, by typing the defaults into my grid, for the benefit of everyone else on the board.

Thanks!

You don't get it. Seriously, considering what you've already done to your display, don't you think you should just stop? I'm not trying to be a jerk about it - but I have seen people permanently damage their display attempting to "fix" things in situations you're currently in. The fact you would even consider setting those values to zero tells me you are have NO business at all going into your display. Stop while you're ahead and bite the bullet - call someone out! Best of luck.

You don't get it. Seriously, considering what you've already done to your display, don't you think you should just stop? I'm not trying to be a jerk about it - but I have seen people permanently damage their display attempting to "fix" things in situations you're currently in. The fact you would even consider setting those values to zero tells me you are have NO business at all going into your display. Stop while you're ahead and bite the bullet - call someone out! Best of luck.

Well, if anyone has the same problem and doesn't want to call in a technician use the settings from my next post.

Then calibrate the rest in the electrostatic focus menu. Fixed everything completely for me and it only took an hour or two.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=525976&postcount=7

That has all the settings to get someone to the ballpark.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=525976&postcount=7

That has all the settings to get someone to the ballpark.
Those settings in your post aren't quite right on the default settings in the Svc Manual,But I will give to all members who's still have 510 series a Christmas gift...
Here is the Service Manual for all of you.:):)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wby09k

Those settings in your post aren't quite right on the default settings in the Svc Manual,But I will give to all members who's still have 510 series a Christmas gift...
Here is the Service Manual for all of you.:):)Thanks for posting that link, I had been working with the KP57WS500 service manual for my KP65WS510.

Earlier this fall I noticed my convergence looked off and there was red bleeding into the wrong areas. Of course I looked around and then found out how to get into the service menu without really knowing what I was doing (Mistake #1). I poked around and changed a couple settings and somehow managed to save them (Mistake #2). Now I'm trying to fix it using the service manuals and info I've been reading, which is taking forever. My TV probably looks better than it has in a long time, but after tweaking I see every place where there's too much green or red.

It's too bad there isn't a complete listing of default values. I know that isn't practical for most settings, but for knowing where the center is and a couple other things, it's useful. I'm glad I found this thread and I'll be sure to post the successes I have along with the failures. :p

Tonight I used the service manual to restore the defaults to the SIZE, SKEW, MLIN, and the other settings. Initially it really screwed up the grid, but after doing a VERY LONG fine adjustment all I can say is WOW! The whole reason I got into the mess of using the service mode was because my colors were slightly off and there was some visible image ghosting while watching DVDs. After resetting everything and then using the fine adjustment tool the picture quality got way better. Reds, blues, and greens are all where they are supposed to be and the ghosting is much less pronounced(almost not even noticeable unless you are really looking).

I was considering replacing this TV with a plasma, but after recovering the picture quality and buying a upscaling DVD player I don't see a reason to spend so much money for such a small increase in picture quality. Using the service manuals available online along with a little determination I'm sure anyone can achieve similar results.

Happy New Year! :cool:

I have a KP51WS500
I'm sure this issues has been tackled at some point in one way or another but i could not find it specifically in search and theres a lot of pages here.
My issues is that the tv turns on initially starts to flicker blue, then ultimately turns blue then shuts off. The stand by light flashes 8 times pauses then another 8 times. Any information would be great. either posted here and/or emailed to odelay17@gmail.com
thanks

Service manual says T8005 is faulty on D board
but on the actual schematics there is nothing that is labled T8005
The only thing i could think was either the IC (IC8005) or transistor (Q8005)
or it could be neither and just be a failing CRT. and in that case whats the best way to go about repair of CRTs?

also to be more specific, the tv only stays on for about 5-10 seconds

Further reading on the service manual, its the FBT. Can anyone attest to this possibly fixing this?

hopefully i can get some responses.
But in update, I immediately started a dvd player while turning on the tv and let the movie continue to play. The screen flashed to blue a few times and then gradually lessened. As it warmed up, the flashing seemed to go away. And now when i turn it on it seems completely fine.
I can live with that for sure! especially with only paying $100 for the thing! But im not sure how long that will last, and whether or not more damage is being done.
Just to take the extra precautions i bought HVB-1031
Hopefully I can provide helpful knowledge for others experiencing this problem, and will gladly share the outcome of what happens by replacing the HV Block

We've had our WS655 for three years. We had to re-arrange our viewing room soon after getting it because of a bank of windows that created unacceptable glare. This required running a bundle of cables around the floor, and was generally a poor configuration, but we put up with it. Well, lately I've been noticing the burned-in image of news channel logos (despite efforts from day-one to prevent this), and we've been admiring the new LCDs we see at Costco.

So we decided this morning to remove the glare/protection screen, as I had made a copy of the instructions prepared by others years ago, but after a bad experience doing the same on a Hitachi, that we had to reverse when the set was returned, had been reluctant to attempt.

We wish we had done it the day we got the set! What an improvement to not see reflections. Blacks are black again. (We did dust the tube lens which had a light film of dust. Mirror was fine.)

Here are the instructions created and posted by others that we followed. I've made some clarifications and added some comments. It took about an hour, and two people make one step much easier.

1. Remove the front, bottom panel first. There are 3-5 screws on each side on the rear of the panel. Pull it straight out and place in front of TV. There are wires connecting the controls and a/v connectors that don't need to be disconnected if you just lean it against the set. Removing this panel exposes the four screws for the frame holding the glare screen.

2. Remove the top frame. There are screws on top and on the sides and also the ones exposed on the bottom. You need two people for the next procedure. Remove the frame and hold in place in front of the TV. The person on the left must reach inside below and untie the twist-ties holding the wires connecting the auto-focus sensors on the frame. This will give enough slack so that you can lay the panel face down on the floor, or preferably a wide coffee table, covered with a bed sheet.

3. Unscrew the four rails holding the panels in place. I marked the screw and sensor locations with a silver Sharpe so re-installing would be easier. The rails have wires running along them, held down by plastic clips, for the auto-focus. Leave the wires attached and just place the rails on the side.

4. Take out the plastic screen, which is composed of three screen layers taped together, and place or hold standing up on another bed sheet. Remove the black tape on the glare screen side. I removed it from three of the sides, then taped the two remaining panels back together to insure a tight fit and prevent dust from getting in between them, and then finish the fourth side remove the glare screen. Some people "re-stack" the glare (protection) screen to the back, but it doesn't seem necessary.

5. Clean the three projection lens and mirror while they are accessible, if necessary. Swiffers should do the trick.

6. Lay the new stack of screens in the frame. Put the rails back in place and screw them down, carefully putting the autofocus sensors in the right places, and routing the wires around into the plastic clips if necessary. Put the screen frame back on the TV, and screw in just enough screws to hold it up there for a quick test. Lean the bottom panel on the TV or temporarily insert it.

7. Turn on the set and make sure all is well. You may need to do a quick auto-focus. If it looks good, put the remaining screws for the top frame, then screw on the bottom panel. All done except for enjoying a glare-free TV for a change!

So, that's it, This will extend the useful life our set for a year or two, then its on to flat-panels and all that extra room. Sony has discontinued rear projection TVs so its an end of an era. They've served us well!

Many thanks to those who had done this in the past and posted the instructions and encouragement in this forum. You guys made this possible for me!

Hello forum,

I have the model 51WS520 and I noticed that the edges are slightly out of focus. I tried the electrical focus and optical focus but they dont help the edges. And of course what Sony calls the "AUTO FOCUS" is only AUTO CONVERGENCE. I am a A/V tech so I have been looking to see if this model has Dynamic edge focus. I know other manufactures have this. This adjustment uses the H/V pulses from convergence circuit to make the electron beam stretch to keep in focus when it sweeps to the edge of CRT's since the beam is sweeping in an ARC and the CRT tube surface does not follow that arc this caues the beam to be out of focus on the edges. I dont seem to see that adjustment in the service manual. Any help on finding that information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I own a 51ws510 and I just bought a Vizio 32" LCD for my bedroom,and know matter what anyone says the pq on my CRT is so much better than the LCD,they just don't compare.I did not think the LCD would be better being it is a budget set,but the difference is amazing.

Has anyone figured out how to control the red/green/blue guns with this series Sony crt? I have been thru the service menu mulitiple times and I do not see a RGBS setting with a default value of 7. Any assistance anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

I've been reading through this thread all day and had some quick questions:

For those who have removed the outer screen, what do you use to clean/wipe down/dust the other ones? I think I'd be afraid of ruining them.

I have a blue dot that looks like a stuck pixel except...it's obviously not an LCD. Any ideas?

We just use swiffters to keep the screen clean, but canned air would also work. The watchword is - NO TOUCHING! It's reasonable taut, but not tight or stiff, but man, is the picture good with the reflections gone!

No ideas on your blue dot.

Hi Guys,

I have a question about parts upgrades. I have a ws510, which as you know downconverts 720p signals to 480p. Since my STB handled this for me, I was fine with this until earlier this week when I bought a PS3 and found out that any games that are 720p only will play at 480p instead of 1080i. I understand that the ws520 upconverts 720p signals to 1080i, so what I'm wondering is if there was any way to use ws520 parts in my ws510 to fix this. The TV is out of warranty so that's not an issue. This would also need to be something I could do, I don't need 1080i games badly enough to pay for a service call to do this.

Thanks.

Let's say I have this "friend" who thought he could optimize "his" 51ws510 by attempting to use the Vista Media Center TV/Monitor calibration screens to adjust the 1080i (via DVI) output to match. This included adjusting the values in the service menu, without a firm grasp on exactly what they do. This "friend" did write down all of the original values to revert to if need be; however, this "friend" has two very rambunctious smaller versions of himself who have since turned the paper with the recorded values into confetti. Needless to say, the VMC adjustments did much more harm than good.

I...uhhh...this "friend" has managed to get the screen watchable, however there are obvious geometry defects and convergence issues (slight "fisheye" effect, lines rise on right, droop on left, etc...). The AVIA DVD has been pushed to the top of the queue, but what is really needed is the service manual. If anyone still has it laying around, could such a wondrous tome be offered again?

Thanks.

hopefully i can get some responses.
But in update, I immediately started a dvd player while turning on the tv and let the movie continue to play. The screen flashed to blue a few times and then gradually lessened. As it warmed up, the flashing seemed to go away. And now when i turn it on it seems completely fine.
I can live with that for sure! especially with only paying $100 for the thing! But im not sure how long that will last, and whether or not more damage is being done.
Just to take the extra precautions i bought HVB-1031
Hopefully I can provide helpful knowledge for others experiencing this problem, and will gladly share the outcome of what happens by replacing the HV Block

My KP51WS500 is doing the same thing as yours except it's green. Also, it does it on any source. HD through cable box and PS3. I already bought a plasma but am trying to decide if it's worth fixing. I've had the TV about 4.5 years, it was a display model, and I've never done anything to it. I figure all 3 bulbs should be close to going bad and don't know what it would cost to fix the problem.

Perhaps someone can hit me with some advice here...

I've got the Red Array (curved lines) going on on a black background of my KP-57WS500. Any quick fixes for these before I just sell this set 'as is'? I had a local sony service center quote $145 for pickup and diagnosis, and from $50-300 for parts and labor if it's the convergence board, which is the most likely culprit. How well does adjusting the knobs behind the main panel help with this? (ie, the Red Pot)

If you haven't found your answer by now, there is a guide here on how to fix that somelifeblog.com/2007/06/sony-projection-tv-red-line-repair.html

It is pretty simple to fix, you should just have to barely turn the knob to get it back to normal.

There is also a guide in KP-xxWS500 Tweaks.mht zshare.net/download/131768924ce8d7bf/

And here is the service manual for the WS500 if anyone needs it zshare.net/download/13177134ac428e12/

I am having a problem with my set KP51WS510. I have a copy of service manual(thx to forum) It seems my green is curved on both sides and is cauing the imfamous 3D effect. I added some pics.
Can anyone tell me what should I do.

So are there any WS5x0 owners left? I have a KP57-WS500 and would love to talk to others that have calibrated their units...

So are there any WS5x0 owners left? I have a KP57-WS500 and would love to talk to others that have calibrated their units...

My KP57-WS510 is still chugging along great.

My KP57-WS510 is still chugging along great.Thanks! Would you mind checking out this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1041752) that I started?

Wow - this thread is still here.

I have a 65WS550 I bought when they first came out in 2003. Almost 5 years now and have had zero problems with it - none, zip, nada. Today I watched 2 TV service guys struggle it out to their truck.

For the third time this week the TV turned itself off and would not come back on unless
left off overnight. Then it would come back on for 6 - 8 hours and then turn off again.
The repair guys came this morning and of course it worked fine. Then he turned if off
and it would not come back on. He called his office and said "Ive got a ten-blinker here"
(I didn't know the LED in front of the set blinked a trouble code). He said it was the high voltage card and the set was turning itself off to protect the set. It is an in-shop repair and would cost ~$300. I will try to remember to let you know how this turns out.

I miss the TV already. Doing the Wii Fit on a 32" screen is not the same.

I am having a problem with my set KP51WS510. I have a copy of service manual(thx to forum) It seems my green is curved on both sides and is cauing the imfamous 3D effect. I added some pics.
Can anyone tell me what should I do.

I had the same problem with my 65ws510(Honestly it was worse)And from I learned this could be cause (Convergence problem) by bad STK's or a blown Ic fuses,in my case after I replaced all these and still have the problem I found it was the AD board(Convergence board)So I suggest you get a Svc tech to check that unit.

as information, myTV was picked up on 07/02 for repair and returned on 07/16.

The invoice was like this:

Qty Part NO Desc Unit Extended

2 670581001 IC 39.95 79.90
Labor 220.00
Tax 7.99

Total 307.89

This was after I had paid $100 up front for pickup and delivery.

Those settings in your post aren't quite right on the default settings in the Svc Manual,But I will give to all members who's still have 510 series a Christmas gift...
Here is the Service Manual for all of you.:):)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/wby09k

Since this link is dead, anyway to find this info.?

Since this link is dead, anyway to find this info.?


Join the new yahoo group. The service manual is inth files section.
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/Ws500/

Thanks....I'm considering picking one up today and was also wondering where I can get a replacement lamp for it a this one is aged??

Thanks....I'm considering picking one up today and was also wondering where I can get a replacement lamp for it a this one is aged??

There are no lamps. This is a CRT set.

It has 3 cathode ray tubes, but no replaceable lamps.

Just curious if you got your convergence issue fixed. I'm having the same issue with my KP51WS510.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f164/txleadfoot/SONY%20KP51WS510/IMG_4858.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f164/txleadfoot/SONY%20KP51WS510/IMG_4860.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f164/txleadfoot/SONY%20KP51WS510/IMG_4859.jpg

Due to recent moving, I have cracked the three screens of my SONYTV Model: KP57WS510. Need help if known location or on line location for purchase of used replacement screens: The protection which you have removed from your TV as mentioned and the other two behind. Sony New parts are too expensives especially shipping and handling but this will be last option if have to order if know website or store
Thank you

Assuming your talking about the outer most protective screen, just remove it. It's a bit of work but gets rid of any glare. Downside, you better not spray anything on the screen that would be then exposed. So if you feel you need the protection, find another screen. If not, removing it is one of the best tweaks you can make to this set.

Hello All...

I Am New Here And Messed Up My Tv Today Cleaning It...i Grabbed The Wrong Bottle Of Cleaner And Used Alchol On It And The Screen Is Messed Up...

I Am Looking For The Contrast Screen Part# 408195411.....

If Anyone Is Throwing This Tv Away And Could Spare This Part I Would Be Willing To Compensate For It.....

I Love Love Love Love This Tv And Hate To Part With It.....sony Customer Support Wants To Charge Me An Absorb. Amount Of $$$$ For It....

Thank You Very Much For Posts...if Would Be Greatly Appreciated.... .[/QUOTE]

Sony KP51HW40

I have the exact same problem, except not only is the outer glare screen broken, but the black screen in back of that is cracked also. The TV was working great. Anybody know what that black screen right in back of the outer glare screen is called? Is it worth replacing? And is it relatively easy to do? From what I've read here it would be ok to leave the outer glare screen off. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. :o

Hi all,

Long time 46wt510 owner here. It has served me well at 2 apartments and now a house. Still working well, although shes may be a tad dimmer than her younger days. I use front projection for my main geeked-out system and the wt510 is upstairs in the living room.

The glare has always been a small issue but now that the set is in a brighter room with alot of daylight the screen-glare has become somewhat more noticable.

Have any 510 owners attempted to use an anti-glare covering or plastic on their sets? Something similar to what they sell for LCD screens or PDA screens but obviously larger sheets.

If anybody has experimented with doing this and can let me know their experience with it, or point me in the right direction for materials and such please post.

Thanks in adavance!

*Thought I'd add a comment about this TV too.. Funny how people that are just discovering 1080p dont realize people that have owned these 1080i crt sets have been seeing all that detail for 5+ years. I still say this set can produce a moving image on par or better than that of the best 1080p lcd and dlp sets on the market today. In fact the interlacing (1080(i)) makes motion in HD content smoother to the eye in my experience. One of the reasons they are doing frame-interpolation on progressive devices now.

I have an opprotunty to get a KP-51Ws510 for $300 from a retired couple that says it was hardly used. Good deal?

Yes it is, did you ever get it?

Is anyone with a 51ws510 still surfin here?

yep, but I have the 57" version.

I have that model and that is a great deal. HDMI and by far have darker and richer blacks than my Phillips LCD t.v. Sounds good too.

I seem to have a case of "Black crush" on my KP-57WS520 (poor black detail). Any suggestions on tweaks/service mode changes before I call the tech with my extended warranty? I cleaned my crts and then readjusted contrast/brightness with avia last week, and now things look great except black detail sux. I tried to tweak the cont/bright but didn't do much good. Perhaps I changed something in service mode my accident?

Perhaps some of these? First # = default, second numbers = range

Y-DC 0 0-15 BLACK background level retention (didn't see this on my 520 I don't think)

Are these 3 different from the user settings?
SPIX 30 0-63 Sub-Picture Contrast (Picture)
SCON 30 0-63 Sub-Picture Contrast (Picture)
SBRT 22 0-63 Sub-Picture Brightness (Black Level)

No idea about this one
CROM 28 0-63 Chroma Trap

And I'm sure I saw some gamma settings too, but they aren't on my W510 service mode list (I don't have a 520 service mode list).

P.S. Am now viewing with HDMI but was using component before. Not sure if that would cause a difference.
Thx.

I seem to have a case of "Black crush" on my KP-57WS520 (poor black detail). Any suggestions on tweaks/service mode changes before I call the tech with my extended warranty? I cleaned my crts and then readjusted contrast/brightness with avia last week, and now things look great except black detail sux. I tried to tweak the cont/bright but didn't do much good. Perhaps I changed something in service mode my accident?

Perhaps some of these? First # = default, second numbers = range

Y-DC 0 0-15 BLACK background level retention (didn't see this on my 520 I don't think)

Are these 3 different from the user settings?
SPIX 30 0-63 Sub-Picture Contrast (Picture)
SCON 30 0-63 Sub-Picture Contrast (Picture)
SBRT 22 0-63 Sub-Picture Brightness (Black Level)

No idea about this one
CROM 28 0-63 Chroma Trap

And I'm sure I saw some gamma settings too, but they aren't on my W510 service mode list (I don't have a 520 service mode list).

P.S. Am now viewing with HDMI but was using component before. Not sure if that would cause a difference.
Thx.

I have the 510, and yes there is a big difference between component and DVI on my set.

I have the 510, and yes there is a big difference between component and DVI on my set.

Hmm, well I use component for my HD cable box, and now HDMI for my new PS3 (movies, etc) so even if I get a tech in he'll have to optimize for one or the other I guess. Or find some middle ground :-(

(My receiver does not have HDMI so I can't use HDMI for both).

One other thing I will try tonight is streaming my video to the PS3 using a different transcoding engine (VLC for example). But I don't know if the decoding engine has any effect on the gamma/darkness of what I see on the TV.

-Deuce-

Hmm, well I use component for my HD cable box, and now HDMI for my new PS3 (movies, etc) so even if I get a tech in he'll have to optimize for one or the other I guess. Or find some middle ground :-(

(My receiver does not have HDMI so I can't use HDMI for both).

One other thing I will try tonight is streaming my video to the PS3 using a different transcoding engine (VLC for example). But I don't know if the decoding engine has any effect on the gamma/darkness of what I see on the TV.

-Deuce-

A lot of the service menu items are input specific and/or picture mode specific. I was able to get equal calibration on both component and DVI using the service menu and different picture modes for different inputs. Only difference being DVI clipped BTB and WTW.

But about a month ago I go a new HDMI receiver so that all went away.

Yeah a co-worker told me today about input specific settings. I didn't know that.

And a few minutes ago I found out the main problem of my Black Crush. The PS3 has a setting called " RGB Full Range (HDMI)" Didn't know what it was for as the manual did not say, but found this online at http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/index.html

It says:

Adjust the output settings for TVs that support RGB full range. For RGB video signals, the range of color scale that is input varies depending on the TV in use. This setting is for use when the TV is connected to the PS3™ system using an HDMI cable.

Limited = RGB output signal is output in the range from 16 to 235.
Full = RGB output signal is output in the range from 0 to 255.


Hints:
If black sometimes appears bright and sometimes appears pale on the screen when [Limited] is selected, set this option to [Full].

If black appears dull on the screen when [Full] is selected, set this option to [Limited].
---------------------
I had changed it to "full" when I first set up the PS3 3 days ago (who wants limited Range?!). Anyway it was killing my blacks. Which is I guess kind of weird as I though CRT RPs were supposed to have better blacks than LCDs. Changing it back to limited things are much better.

Anyway this morning I did call for a service visit so maybe it will be even better after he comes...

-Deuce-