I purchased a DVI to HDMI cable to connect my Comcast cable box to the KD-34xbr970. I found the picture to be different rather than better than the component cable connection. Perhaps a little brighter and harsher.

I then tried connecting my progressive dvd player using the component cable. This enabled the dvd to play in 480P. I seem to recall that with this set up, the 970 would not allow DRC, I'm not sure though. When the dvd was connected via s-video to the 970, I could use DRC.

What I found is that the component cable connection from the cable box seems to be a better picture for my taste. The cable box is set to 1080i.
The dvd is better with s-video since the 970 can use DRC in its 3 modes. I like CineMotion.

My conclusions are that the cable box does a better job at converting the digital signal to analog for the 970 to display. The 970 does a better job at up converting the dvd than the dvd player.

Do these seem to be the correct conclusions?

.....I then tried connecting my progressive dvd player using the component cable. This enabled the dvd to play in 480P. I seem to recall that with this set up, the 970 would not allow DRC, I'm not sure though. When the dvd was connected via s-video to the 970, I could use DRC......If you set your dvd player for 480i output on component, DRC will be available. I prefer my dvd player to output 480i and set DRC to interlaced so the set upconverts.

....What I found is that the component cable connection from the cable box seems to be a better picture for my taste. The cable box is set to 1080i.....I am using dvi for my cable stb by necessity but I also prefer component. I also prefer setting the cable box to pass SD material at 480i and let the set upconvert. The set usually has a better scaler than a cable stb. The set allows you to have more control of the zoom/stretch process.

....The dvd is better with s-video since the 970 can use DRC in its 3 modes. I like CineMotion....DRC is available with 480i over component and hdmi.

......My conclusions are that the cable box does a better job at converting the digital signal to analog for the 970 to display. The 970 does a better job at up converting the dvd than the dvd player.

Do these seem to be the correct conclusions?I disagree with the first and agree with the second conclusion. BTW, what cable stb do you have?

IMHO

I don't know about the cable box, but my experience with DVD over component is the same. Depending on your DVD player's scaling, you may prefer interlaced or progressive. On my Sony DVD player, proscan is greatly preferable. But coming through my old Xbox, progressive is jagged and harsh on DVDs.

Depending on your DVD player's scaling, you may prefer interlaced or progressive.
I usually choose based on the source material -- progressive for progressive and interlaced for, well, interlaced.

Maybe some of you can help me with this situation. I recently bought an upconverted DVD player. When I play a DVD on it with upconversion I notice the picture is vertically stretched for some reason. I know this is not because of the service menu (I have it set where it is recommended based on the service book). I know it can't be the player mistaking the TV for a 4:3TV because I have the DVD player and TV set to read each other correctly. In other words, the DVD player knows it's connected to a 16:9 TV and vice versa. I also have the TV set to "full" so I know I have it at 16:9. Anyways, I notice this "vertical stretching" situation only when it upconverts to 720P or higher. With regular 480P or less the picture appears to be normal. Or at least it appears to have the right dimensions so to speak. Now the manual for my player says (If I recall correctly) that this "vertical stretching" situation only occurs if there is an S-video or composite connected to the TV from my player when I upconvert. However, I am using an HDMI cable with no other cables attached except for some audio ones. Anyways, hopefully some of you can understand my situation or at least have some idea what is going on. If you need more detail I'll try to provide it if necessary, but that's my problem in a nutshell. The player does not seem to be defective and I've had my TV for over a year without any major problems.

Any ideas on what to do?

Also, is there any way to make changes in the service menu so that, for example, you can have changes apply only to "Video 5" but not to "Video 6" or regular TV?

i have ben looking for a new hdtv for our living room for a few weeks. i wanted something between 32 and 42 inch hdtv. i first got a great deal on a toshiba 42 lcd for $900, but got it home and all hooked up and about an hour later it had a 3 inch vertical line running from top to bottom ,so it went back, then i tried a 37inch toshiba lcd and it was ok ,but to much graininess and motion blurr on sports hd programs. i then looked through todays paper and seen a local store having the kd-34xbr970 on sale for $599 and i couldn't believe it. i called to make sure they had some before i took back the other lcd to the other store i purchased from and they did. got this beast home lol and all hooked up and i am very happy. the blacks are actually black and no grain or motion blurr on sports. i saved my self $300+ and feel i goit a better hdtv in the end. now anyone have some good setting and things to make it look even better then it is now. i have a hitachi crt rear projection tv and have tweaked it so it looks better then most hdtv's i have seen except maybe the pioneer plasmas that are $5,000+ . i love crt and wished it would stick around. anyway i would appreciate any info/help since most of you probably have had this tv for a while. still can't believe i got this for $599+ taxes plus two year warranty. :D

Daddye,
Leave it alone for a couple weeks so it gets broken in nice and stable. During that time, peruse the Sony service conde thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=531494

This TV is fully adjustable by the user who researches the service codes and settings that can optimize image quality. It can also be badly screwed up, so heed the cautions, including writing down settings before and after you make changes. I've followed KenTech's recommendations with excellent results. I hop you do too!

Have fun,
Frank

Daddye,
Leave it alone for a couple weeks so it gets broken in nice and stable. During that time, peruse the Sony service conde thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=531494

This TV is fully adjustable by the user who researches the service codes and settings that can optimize image quality. It can also be badly screwed up, so heed the cautions, including writing down settings before and after you make changes. I've followed KenTech's recommendations with excellent results. I hop you do too!

Have fun,
Frank

thanks, i kind of had the feeling someone would say that lol i did the same with my rear projection crt letting it get broke in around 100 hours before tweaking. the thread you linked is a lot of info wow thanks i don't plain on going all out i just want to do some basic/easiest stuff that will improve my set like with my rear projection tv. again thanks

now anyone have some good setting and things to make it look even better then it is now. anyway i would appreciate any info/help since most of you probably have had this tv for a while. still can't believe i got this for $599+ taxes plus two year warranty. :D

Nice find there thedaddye,

You could start by making a small adjustment to the picture from the user menu. Contrast/Picture is set high by default. Here is where I have mine;
http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pUI5AEYeWVu_AcaudwZwJiJCKWcbYdjZQ6UDIfGOaGIX340IcDu368f5Wj 6PudBUDVTiaEFyXuI0

Congrats on the find,
hyghwayman

Nice find there thedaddye,

You could start by making a small adjustment to the picture from the user menu. Contrast/Picture is set high by default. Here is where I have mine;
http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pUI5AEYeWVu_AcaudwZwJiJCKWcbYdjZQ6UDIfGOaGIX340IcDu368f5Wj 6PudBUDVTiaEFyXuI0

Congrats on the find,
hyghwayman

i always keep the "picture" level higher or equal to the "brightness" level on all my tv's

am i doing something wrong ?

or is it different for everyone

i always keep the "picture" level higher or equal to the "brightness" level on all my tv's

am i doing something wrong ?

or is it different for everyone

otk, check out this artical on Picture perfect: HDTV tune-up tips

By David Katzmaier (David.Katzmaier@cnet.com)
(October 22, 2003)

The average American spends hours in front of the TV each week, but the picture on an average American TV looks like Times Square on steroids: too bright and garish to seem anything like real life. That's because default settings for TVs are configured to make an impact on the sales floor of your local electronics superstore, not necessarily in your living room. With the emergence of higher-quality wide-screen and high-definition TVs, not to mention the DVD movies and HD programs that fill their big screens, living-room images can look better than ever before--as long as you don't settle for the manufacturers' default settings.


Read the full artical over at CNET.com: Picture perfect: HDTV tune-up tips (http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108543-1.html?tag=main.optimize)


Hope this helps ya,
hyghwayman

otk, check out this artical on Picture perfect: HDTV tune-up tips

By David Katzmaier (David.Katzmaier@cnet.com)
(October 22, 2003)

The average American spends hours in front of the TV each week, but the picture on an average American TV looks like Times Square on steroids: too bright and garish to seem anything like real life. That's because default settings for TVs are configured to make an impact on the sales floor of your local electronics superstore, not necessarily in your living room. With the emergence of higher-quality wide-screen and high-definition TVs, not to mention the DVD movies and HD programs that fill their big screens, living-room images can look better than ever before--as long as you don't settle for the manufacturers' default settings.


Read the full artical over at CNET.com: Picture perfect: HDTV tune-up tips (http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108543-1.html?tag=main.optimize)


Hope this helps ya,
hyghwayman

yeah, i know about that, i've been using video essentials since 1997

but i always end up with the contrast higher than the brightness, not the other way around

i have ben looking for a new hdtv for our living room for a few weeks. i wanted something between 32 and 42 inch hdtv. i first got a great deal on a toshiba 42 lcd for $900, but got it home and all hooked up and about an hour later it had a 3 inch vertical line running from top to bottom ,so it went back, then i tried a 37inch toshiba lcd and it was ok ,but to much graininess and motion blurr on sports hd programs. i then looked through todays paper and seen a local store having the kd-34xbr970 on sale for $599 and i couldn't believe it. i called to make sure they had some before i took back the other lcd to the other store i purchased from and they did. got this beast home lol and all hooked up and i am very happy. the blacks are actually black and no grain or motion blurr on sports. i saved my self $300+ and feel i goit a better hdtv in the end. now anyone have some good setting and things to make it look even better then it is now. i have a hitachi crt rear projection tv and have tweaked it so it looks better then most hdtv's i have seen except maybe the pioneer plasmas that are $5,000+ . i love crt and wished it would stick around. anyway i would appreciate any info/help since most of you probably have had this tv for a while. still can't believe i got this for $599+ taxes plus two year warranty. :D



Congrats man i love this tv so much! it has not made me buy a flat panel,i did calibrated some geometry setting's and color and i got it to near perfection.I'ts still manages to impress me by the hd content amazing!
Btw i got it for $ 502 at frys about 6 month's now and it was the last one new in box! :)

Just wanted to say, I've been trying to calibrate the color on this TV and corrected the color decoders thanks to my DVE disc. But the cable box has been a bit of an issue. Of course, different cable stations have different color saturation, but I've been trying to find the best compromise. It's so rare to get a decent color test pattern from the cable box.

I've tried the HDNet color pattern and it leaves a little something to be desired...mainly the fact the two bars you have to look at are too far apart. From what I can tell, it seems their pattern has me somewhere between 47-50 (out of 100). I tried to use the color bar tests on PBS at the end of the day, but they have me as low as 38!

Finally a stroke of luck. I was getting ready to watch Face The Nation on an HD CBS station Sunday morning and the station was having technical difficulties. Staring me right in the face was a perfect SMPTE color test pattern! I immediately went into the TV's service menu to switch off all colors but blue (instead of using the filter) and found the color setting perfect at 48! And sure enough, that seems to be the best setting overall.

I already had my DVD settings fine, but I was definitely questioning my color settings for cable. Thanks to that station for their technical difficulties!

Maybe some of you can help me with this situation. I recently bought an upconverted DVD player. When I play a DVD on it with upconversion I notice the picture is vertically stretched for some reason. I know this is not because of the service menu (I have it set where it is recommended based on the service book). I know it can't be the player mistaking the TV for a 4:3TV because I have the DVD player and TV set to read each other correctly. In other words, the DVD player knows it's connected to a 16:9 TV and vice versa. I also have the TV set to "full" so I know I have it at 16:9. Anyways, I notice this "vertical stretching" situation only when it upconverts to 720P or higher. With regular 480P or less the picture appears to be normal. Or at least it appears to have the right dimensions so to speak. Now the manual for my player says (If I recall correctly) that this "vertical stretching" situation only occurs if there is an S-video or composite connected to the TV from my player when I upconvert. However, I am using an HDMI cable with no other cables attached except for some audio ones. Anyways, hopefully some of you can understand my situation or at least have some idea what is going on. If you need more detail I'll try to provide it if necessary, but that's my problem in a nutshell. The player does not seem to be defective and I've had my TV for over a year without any major problems.

Any ideas on what to do?

Also, is there any way to make changes in the service menu so that, for example, you can have changes apply only to "Video 5" but not to "Video 6" or regular TV?

Quick question:

This morning the power flickered a few times while my girlfriend was watching TV. When the TV powered back on the colors were whacked. The corners and the overall color scheme was messed up. We were both getting ready to leave (I had to go to work) so we couldnt mess with it.

So what caused that? I'm kind of worried that when I get home it will still be there....... I hope not!

Fortunately, If I recall correctly, this TV has a 2 year warranty on it... and I got it a year and a half ago.

Quick question:

This morning the power flickered a few times while my girlfriend was watching TV. When the TV powered back on the colors were whacked. The corners and the overall color scheme was messed up. We were both getting ready to leave (I had to go to work) so we couldnt mess with it.

So what caused that? I'm kind of worried that when I get home it will still be there....... I hope not!

Fortunately, If I recall correctly, this TV has a 2 year warranty on it... and I got it a year and a half ago.

A lot of problems can be solved by just unplugging for a minute and plugging back in.

That warranty doesn't cover power surges. Just hope you get a technician who doesn't know that's what happened. Don't tell anyone that's how it happened.

Maybe someone can give me a hand with this one. I have the XBR970 hooked up via HDMI to a PS3 for Bluray, component for HD-DVD (HDA2), and component Directv HD. I watch a lot of black and white films and have noticed during darker scenes some vertical lines have a green color. Lowering the sharpness control to its minimum nearly eliminates the color but softens the picture beyond my liking.
Adjusting convergence settings in the service mode has no effect. I normally watch Bluray and HDDVD sharpness set at 50.

Update: Had a great Sony certified tech take a look at this problem. Took him 3 trips but he finally fixed it. Replaced the B board and the M board. Looks great!

Maybe someone can give me a hand with this one. I have the XBR970 hooked up via HDMI to a PS3 for Bluray, component for HD-DVD (HDA2), and component Directv HD. I watch a lot of black and white films and have noticed during darker scenes some vertical lines have a green color. Lowering the sharpness control to its minimum nearly eliminates the color but softens the picture beyond my liking.
Adjusting convergence settings in the service mode has no effect. I normally watch Bluray and HDDVD sharpness set at 50.

Is it worse on one side of the screen than the other?

Is it worse on one side of the screen than the other?
It seems to be the same on both sides.

The infamous green lines. I went through 3 of these, one pathetic with them, the other 2 not as bad as the one, but still there. The only way to get rid of them without tweaking in the SM, you still can't get rid of them without screwing something else up, is to crank the brightness up. That green crap drove me nuts.

Ive got an issue with mine that is a little difficult to explain. On the right side of the screen it is most noticeable on white text. If you have a white letter, you will have a reddish ghost of the white letter shifted off the left edge of it. Almost like the red is missing the mark by a couple of millimeters. It does this on both sides of the screen but not really in the middle and it seems to get worse the further you go towards the edge of the screen. Any ideas what to do?

Yes. This sounds like one of the adjustments I did using the service manual - convergence I believe. The Sony Service Code thread has the service mode references and directions if you dig a little. You should be able to get the service manual. This can be fixed!
Frank

Well I was able to fix the convergence for the most part through the service menu. Problem is, I can only fix it horizontally as far as i can tell. I assume vertical convergence has to be fixed inside the housing somewhere. is that correct? I have a bit of vertical convergence issues.

I was under the impression that when you set VPOS and VSIZ it does so independently for the input you are on so that you can then go and set it differently for another input. However, when I change these settings for one input, they change for all inputs. I need to adjust them independently. Any suggestions?

I was under the impression that when you set VPOS and VSIZ it does so independently for the input you are on so that you can then go and set it differently for another input. However, when I change these settings for one input, they change for all inputs. I need to adjust them independently. Any suggestions?

Yes, you should be able to adjust those by using the MID2 adjustments. Keep in mind that if you change one type of input (component, composite, etc.) it will make the change for all of those type of inputs (video 1,2,3 / and video 4,5). It will also only adjust the picture for the resolution indicated on the service mode screen at the time you make the changes.

Good luck.

A quick question of my own...


I'm noticing (particularly during credits) that the white text has certain letters that appear to have a yellow tint. This same yellow tint also happens to white (or light colored) objects surrounded by a darker background as they move off of the screen.

An obvious example of this was my 2001: ASO blu-ray, when a spaceship was slowly moving across the screen. The light parts (surrounded by darker colors) of the ship turned yellow immediately as they came onto the screen and again right before they left the screen.


Help? :o

Edge convergence? When i set convergence it had the otion to do the whole screen and several sections of both edges. I'm not too bright but it seems to make sense.

Oh and the MID2 setting was EXACTLY what I needed. I had no idea that setting existed. To get your screen setup right you need to use MID2 in conjunction with the other settings. Thanks a million!

OK, I finally went through and taught myself the difference between global and specific geometry adjustments. Now my overscan is pretty close on all inputs, and picture quality is a lot sharper as a result. Unfortunately there's one nagging problem: the offset angle in the bottom portion of the screen (pictured). It extends all the way across at the same angle, so it's not pincushion. I've tried every vertical geometric adjustment in the menu with no luck. Is there a magic trick to this, or is it a mechanical problem that I just have to cover up with overscan?

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2140/tvproblemmd8.th.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tvproblemmd8.jpg)

I'm pretty sure all the 970's have that problem when adjusting the bottom overscan Johnathan. Anyways, i remember G-bull posting the fix a while back when i had the problem. What you need to do it adjust "PSTP" in service menu ( i think under mid3 settings, but i can't remember) Adjust it till everything straightens out on the bottom and you should be good to go!

You rock! That was perfect, and I am one happy little fellow. Man this set has a beautiful picture when all the geometry is straightened out. Me so happy!

Thanks, ClayPigeon for the PSTP tip. I had the same problem and that appears to have fixed it, but now I have a new problem that is worse..... I have somehow activated a service pattern grid and don't know how I did it or how to turn it off. It was handy for straightening out the PSTP setting, but when I turn on my set I now get a few seconds of very nice picture which then blanks to show the grid. Any help on this would be appreciated.....

Thanks- I have no idea how I accidentally activated this menu, but am out of the test pattern now. What a great television...... Once you figure it out......

If I remember correctly, you have to exit the test pattern before turning the set off, otherwise it's still there when you power on. I actually did my last batch of edge + overscan fixes just by using signals coming from the input sources. I'm lucky though, as my local OTA stations broadcast in a variety of HD signals, and my PC and old Xbox can output 480/720/1080.

I've had my sony for only a few months, but it becomes very obvious anytime a dark (typically black) object comes in contact with a lighter object that there is a thin to very thick red band on the edge of the black object. I notice it in every input, HDMI, RCA and Coaxial on all parts of the screen. I've had a repairman out and he only checked convergence and of course it wasn't convergence. Any ideas?

These TVs have problems where light meets black. I went through 3 of them with that problem, only it was green, not red. The only way I found to get rid of the green was to crank up the brightness to an unacceptable level. Convergence on these TVs changes depending on picture settings. If the repairman had picture settings different than where you normally watch the TV when he checked convergence, that could be a problem.

How come nobody posts about this tv anymore? Are we just so happy and content with it? I know I am!!

How come nobody posts about this tv anymore? Are we just so happy and content with it? I know I am!!

Maybe people are too busy with other things to worry about this TV right now.

I'm looking through this thread and others and cannot seem to find an answer to this. Please excuse my ignorance.

I've had this xbr970 for about 3+ years now. Around 2 years ago I had a sony tech come visit me & my TV to fix some problems. Mainly, the overall picture was too dark. He quickly adjusted some settings in the service menu and was on his way. (Didn't say much, was kind of a jerk.)

He's my problem, if someone could point out the proper way to fix this in the service mode I would be forever grateful: Everything is "bleached out". No matter what setting (vivid through pro, but pro esp.) I use everything is majorly white. It's like he went above and beyond what was necessary to brighten the image. I get no great blacks anymore, the colors are washed out, and overall HD looks bad. Can someone help me, or direct me to what the proper codes I should be looking for are? I realize this is a noob question of sorts, but I've been looking for a while now and I can't seem to find the answer.

Thanks so very much!

atomheart2000

I'm looking through this thread and others and cannot seem to find an answer to this. Please excuse my ignorance.

I've had this xbr970 for about 3+ years now. Around 2 years ago I had a sony tech come visit me & my TV to fix some problems. Mainly, the overall picture was too dark. He quickly adjusted some settings in the service menu and was on his way. (Didn't say much, was kind of a jerk.)

He's my problem, if someone could point out the proper way to fix this in the service mode I would be forever grateful: Everything is "bleached out". No matter what setting (vivid through pro, but pro esp.) I use everything is majorly white. It's like he went above and beyond what was necessary to brighten the image. I get no great blacks anymore, the colors are washed out, and overall HD looks bad. Can someone help me, or direct me to what the proper codes I should be looking for are? I realize this is a noob question of sorts, but I've been looking for a while now and I can't seem to find the answer.

Thanks so very much!

atomheart2000

did he go into the service menu ?

i watched the tech turn some knob "inside" the back which was making the picture get really bright or really dark. he turned it up and down a few times till it looked right to him

i had the same problem, the black bars looked grey but when he left the black bars were black again

atomheart2000, there is a few things he probably messed with while in the service menu, Probably the gamma settings and or the UBOF/SBRT(brightness offsets) and maybe SPIC, which is the contrast setting in the service menu and maybe some others that could make the set looked "washed out" There is a bunch of miscellaneous other settings he could have played around with too. I don't know why he would do that though, only thing i can think of was whatever problem you were having when he showed up, he decided to instead of trying to fix it, he decided to just wash out any color/screen problem you were having.

Even when you lower the regular settings like "picture" and "brightness" things still look washed out? Do you know anything about the service menu and navigating around it? it would be a lot easier if you could find out the values for some of the service menu items, especially the ones i listed to see which he jacked up. If you don't know though and if it's really bothering you try and read up about navigating through the service menu, or if you don't want to mess around with that maybe see about having another tech come out if you still have a warranty. Although like 90% of people who have techs come out say the techs don't know what they are doing, or make the problem worse.

I think i'm going to have to redo my overscan :( I thought it was fine on my 360, but i was playing GTA 4 and noticed some cut off on the top, the sides were fine though. I downloaded a overscan pattern and put it on my 360 and saw my overscan on the top is about 5 % and my sides are like 3% Thing is thats as low as i can get it without messing with the mid settings. And messing with the vertical mid settings degrades the picture quality by blurring lines and creating false outlines ( none of which is noticeable watching content in motion, but you can see it when you have a test pattern up with white lines on a black background. So i had my mid settings back at default and have just lived with the overscan, i mean 5% on top and bottom isn't bad, but i really want all the picture i can get. I just can't decide if it's worth degrading the picture for more screen real estate.

Whoever set up this Tv at the shop didn't center the screen on the raster ( i think thats what it's called, i don't remember, it's been a while) right , so even at my default settings before messing with service mode, when i stretched the screen down with VSIZ/HSIZ there was a ton more overscan on the bottom, and more on the right side, but then it would just cut off unless i messed with the mid settings. Then to my surpise i noticed when i lowered the the mid settings for vertical stretch or whatever i saw a nice discolored blue line that the the Sony guy must have tried hiding with all the extra overscan, That rascally rabbit!

It's going to be a project though going through all the modes, resolutions/inputs to get everything equal, then there is the cable box which i can't even run any test patterns for since i don't get hdnet, and i would have to do that in real time. I don't know if it;'s worth the effort really, or just live with the 5% on top and bottom.

Thanks to all who replied! :)

Yes, he did go in the service menu and tinkered with a few things. :mad:

If I lower the picture or brightness settings, it gets so dark I can't really see much at all...but the more I raise these levels, the more washed out and blurred it all looks. I wish I could explain more how this looks...it's almost like he knocked out a bulb...ha.

I am aware of the service menu, and fixed a slight geometry issue with it not too long ago. However, an issue I run into again and again is that whenever someone says "just adjust xxxx to xxxx" I can't find that code in the service menu. Is the 970 just an odd duck with these codes?

If you can specify what codes I should be looking for in the service menu, and even perhaps the general settings they should be at, I will gladly go into the SM and tell you what my 970 is currently at.

It's so frustrating, I know this is a much better TV than what it's showing. I know that a CRT won't exactly "pop" like a plasma or lcd will (espicially with my 360 and ps3), but what I have now certainly doesn't even come close to being acceptable.

Thanks so much for reading all of this and hopefully helping!!!

atomheart2000

I'd just like to add that....

I find that the pro setting is the best, but it also is the most washed out.

Do you think that when this service guy messed around with my system that he adjusted all 4 modes, or just the one I was using at the time? I mean, if I set my TV to pro, then turn it off, then go into the service menu (display/5/vol+on) will any adjustments I make only be made for the pro setting?

Ok so you know how to navigate and just need help finding where the settings are? I'll go into service right now and give you directiosn on where they are at.

I need the ones i posted in the last message.

SBRT- is in the 2170p-1 settings. meaning on the top left corner it should have those numbers, then a few clicks of the number 1 on the remote will get you there, let me know what number it's at.

Also know that i'm in here i'm notciing more things he could have changed, so while your in there also take note of the drive/cut settings like RDRV,GDRV,BDRV, RCUT,GCUT, BCUT, SBOF,RDOf, GDOF, BDOF,RCOF,GCOF,BCOF. Some of those settings differ from set to set, but they have defaults in the service manual, which you could get into the ballpark with if your Tv is really that out of whack.

UBOF- In the 2170p-3 set.

SPIC- is in the 2170p-4 settings while in there take note of GAMM,GAMS,GAMR,GAMG, GAMB, and ABLT.


If i come across anymore that affect brightness and make things look washed out i'll let you know while i'm in here.

I'd just like to add that....

I find that the pro setting is the best, but it also is the most washed out.

Do you think that when this service guy messed around with my system that he adjusted all 4 modes, or just the one I was using at the time? I mean, if I set my TV to pro, then turn it off, then go into the service menu (display/5/vol+on) will any adjustments I make only be made for the pro setting?

depends, i use pro for everything and thats what i calibrate everything for. Some of the things in service mode are universal settings, while others will affect only that certain mode, or input/resolution specific. But you saying pro is the most washed out looking one he probably only changed the settings for that Picture mode.

You are awesome. Thanks for taking the time!

I'm at work right now, but I will check these settings and get back to you as soon as I can. Please let me know if you notice anything in your SM travels...

One quick question, please: I've read conflicting reports about this. If this tech guy did mess some stuff up in the SM (pretty darn sure he did) can I just reset my TV to the factory defaults to get back to where I was before his helpful visit? Or is that a really bad thing to do? It does give directions in the manual on how to reset to factory settings...(turn on TV, hold down reset butter, then press power on the TV itself).

Is that worth a try?

One more thing, what temperature setting do you use? warm? and you are positive you can't get things looking good just using the regular settings on the TV? it's either too washed out, or too dark when lowering/raising things like Picture and brightness?

About that reset thing, i never did it and it might just reset the settings in the regular menu back to the defaults. Or it could reset everything back to before the TV was even set up in the factory ( which would be BAD) But i think thats only possible through service mode, maybe someone else who knows for sure can chime in. You can keep different settings though for each input if you go to menu and "advanced settings" and toggle mode memory on. Like say if you using hdmi input and it looks darker then say video 5 ( which is component input) you can adjust the picture settings so they are brighter on the other video inputs, but keep your settings for the other ones.

I think i'm going to have to redo my overscan :( I thought it was fine on my 360, but i was playing GTA 4 and noticed some cut off on the top, the sides were fine though.

I've been browsing the GTA forums on this site, and a LOT of CRT & projector owners are fussing about the same problem. Nice of Rockstar to place critical information right at the screen edges wasn't it? :rolleyes:

atomheart, check out the "Sony Service Codes" thread. It's huge and intimidating, but there are some great files available, like the default Sony values for most of the service menu settings. You can use that to see if you're way off on anything. It was a great help with my XBR970.

I took a browse through some of the settings you mentioned.
GAMM 0
GAMR 0
GAMS 0
GAMG 0
GAMB 0
GYB 3
RYB 15
GYR 9
ABLT 0
SBRT 46
UBOF 1
SPIC 7

Is SBRT way out of whack? Should it not be in the 20's?


Thanks for helping, TC

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner man, but that definitely sounds wayyy too high for SBRT and from what i remember is no way in hell even close to the default number, so he definitely jacked that up. I have mine set at 20, then just use the regular brightness control set at 50, Everything else looks fine though, try lowering it and let me know how things look and if it fixes things up. Hope it helps!

I've been browsing the GTA forums on this site, and a LOT of CRT & projector owners are fussing about the same problem. Nice of Rockstar to place critical information right at the screen edges wasn't it? :rolleyes:


LOL right? I don't know if it's a problem with the game itself? like how bioshock had that wide screen problem, Or 5% overscan is too high for it? Whats weird though is i never had any problems with any other games cutting off, Like when i hit up for the cell phone in GTA, the B button and where it says quit is like totally cut off.

I'm really not on the mood though to go messing around again, cause once i tweak that then it's back to tweaking geometry and others that get distorted due to the size change. The worst though is back in the day when i thought i had everything fixed. Then once a 4:3 window box came on with normal TV it was way off center then it was back to square 1!

I was thinking maybe to just change the mid settings for 720P to like 2% overscan just for my 360, but keep what i have for 1080i for my cable box/dvd player. Cause i don't think 1080i and 720p has any difference on these sets, plus this way i would'nt have to go around changing every resolution.

Here is what i meant though about mid settings messing up the picture though, just so you guys know. I don't know how crazy you guys are with this stuff, and even though it's not even noticeable unless viewing a test pattern, just me knowing that it has an effect on the picture quality makes me crazy, which is why i just went back to default settings for the mid a while back.

The post from kentech;


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7909446&&#post7909446

So if that is correct , all these sets should have the EXACT same settings in the mid groups, correct? So then why isn't my screen centered when i have the default values in and vsiz/hsiz set to 0? Even when i adjusted the blanking shudders.

Then how come in the service manual it says DHPH- 108 and my set came with a default of 101? or other way around, i'm not even sure. I know whatever i had as a default for DHPH was different then what was in the service manual, yet all the other numbers were exactly the same.

I don't usually ask for numbers and such, and never mind posting what i got and helping people out, but next time one of you guys gets a chance can you run through your (DEFAULT, if you wrote them down, not what you changed them too if you did( mid settings for every resolution for me? I want to see if they really are all the same by default.

I need:

MID1

DHPH
DVPH
DHAR
DVAR
DHPW
DVPW
MDHP
MDVP
MDHS
MDVS

MID 2

DHHP
DHHS
DHVP
DHVS
DHVL

And thats it. Once again for every resolution though as they change depending on what res it's at. Only if you have them written down already, and if it's not a problem. I want to know why some of my mid settings ( well only one that i know of) are different from the manual, or if they are the same on one of your sets.

When looking over my notes and the defaults i noticed that i tweaked the horizontal mid settings to get the lower overscan, as for some reason it doesn't seem to blur any lines, or degrade the picture when doing the horizontal in mid 2 like it does with the vertical settings such as DVPH and what have you. But then once you do ( since you are basically stretching the pic from one side when doing so) you have to make sure you check for any Horizontal linearity issues, especially that will be noticeable during a news ticker, or if you messed with the vertical ones you'd notice during end credits froma movie.

So if that is correct ,...

Are you just looking for someone who has not altered the new-TV settings? I'd be happy to write mine down for you, but I have modified some of them myself.

Yea Johnathan, I need the default values , if you have the originals written down somewhere, not the ones you changed though, the factory defaults before you changed them. I just realized though that are different for inputs as well though, such as HDMI and component. if it's not too much of a hassle I'd really appreciate it, if you don't have them written down though, don't worry about manually going through to get them, as that would be a pain and take a while. It's no big deal though if it's too much of a hassle as i'm going to be tweaking mine again anyway. The cut off in GTA is really pissing me off.

I have no choice though man but TO have to change some of the vertical mid settings. Cause like i said when i shrink my screen down it is NOT centered, and the picture itself is cut off, like just cutoff! i don't mean like HPOS centered, i mean the picture itself inside the raster is off. Like they didn't make the raster big enough to fit the actual image ( if that makes any sense, i'm confusing myself actually, i think you know what i mean though)

changing the blanking settings do nothing and don't reveal more of the pic, it is off and just cut off. It HAS to be re centered in order for me to get the WHOLE picture inside. Did you have that problem too and it caused you to change the mid settings?

I lowered SBRT down to 20. It made it seem less washed out, at least a little bit, but it's not really that much better, and now everything is too dark, but when I mess with contrast & pic, increasing either value washes everything out. :(

Is there anything else I should be looking for? And a random question - do you have the 2nd Halo 3 disk, the one with the calibration tool? If you do, I can explain exactly what my problem is, but it's hard to explain. You're supposed to raise the brightness until these figures disappear, but they never do, which makes me think my brightness was set by the tech guy in the SM at a crazy high level. Thoughts?

I've had the GTA issue as well with the 360. It seems so widespread i wonder if this is an game specific issue...can it be?

I lowered SBRT down to 20. It made it seem less washed out, at least a little bit, but it's not really that much better, and now everything is too dark, but when I mess with contrast & pic, increasing either value washes everything out. :(

Is there anything else I should be looking for? And a random question - do you have the 2nd Halo 3 disk, the one with the calibration tool? If you do, I can explain exactly what my problem is, but it's hard to explain. You're supposed to raise the brightness until these figures disappear, but they never do, which makes me think my brightness was set by the tech guy in the SM at a crazy high level. Thoughts?

I've had the GTA issue as well with the 360. It seems so widespread i wonder if this is an game specific issue...can it be?

Did you make sure to put brightness up to 50 in the menu? while having SBRT set to 20? Nah though! i don't have the halo 3 disc, i didn't get the LE version that it came with. I heard bad things though about calibrating using it! PLUS you shouldn't use the 360 to calibrate as for some reason the black level seems to low.

What you should do next though is set brightness to 50, then adjust SBRT until you can see details in blacks/shadows. Try using a DVD that has the THX calibration on it if you can.

OH also you forgot to post the values for the drives/cuts! as that could have an effect as well, the ones i posted like "RDRV, BDRV,RCUT" let me know what those are at.

I've had the GTA issue as well with the 360. It seems so widespread i wonder if this is an game specific issue...can it be?


I'm starting to think that maybe it is. WJohnathan said he saw people complaining about it too. I'm guessing though that it's only CRT specific though, as most LCD's Plasmas have like 0-2% overscan.

I ran an overscan pattern though to my 360. Can you do that too? i streamed it over ( or you could put it on disc) and my overscan was at 5% on the top and bottom. let me find the overscan pattern link.

here, save this to either disc, or desktop, then run it on 360, you too WJohnathan. Let me know what you guys are at.

Yea Johnathan, I need the default values , if you have the originals written down somewhere, not the ones you changed though, the factory defaults before you changed them. I just realized though that are different for inputs as well though, such as HDMI and component. if it's not too much of a hassle I'd really appreciate it, if you don't have them written down though, don't worry about manually going through to get them, as that would be a pain and take a while. It's no big deal though if it's too much of a hassle as i'm going to be tweaking mine again anyway. The cut off in GTA is really pissing me off.

Oh, sorry then...I changed a number of them and didn't record the originals.

Oh, sorry then...I changed a number of them and didn't record the originals.


No problem! Thanks anyway though bro.

I did forget!
RDRV 40
GDRV 36
BDRV 33
RCUT 40
GCUT 25
BCUT 26
SBOF 7
RDOF 31
GDOF 26
BDOF 16
RCOF 31
GCOF 27
BCOF 19

There ya go. Oh, speaking of the 360 and black levels, is there any use in setting the reference levels to anything besides standard? Is this TV equipped to show intermediate & expanded?

THanks!!!

EDIT: wow, just looking at my #'s compared to the defaults...mine seem waaay off. BCOF should be 63 and I'm at 19???

I did forget!
RDRV 40
GDRV 36
BDRV 33
RCUT 40
GCUT 25
BCUT 26
SBOF 7
RDOF 31
GDOF 26
BDOF 16
RCOF 31
GCOF 27
BCOF 19

There ya go. Oh, speaking of the 360 and black levels, is there any use in setting the reference levels to anything besides standard? Is this TV equipped to show intermediate & expanded?

THanks!!!

Nope! Thats for VGA i think, just keep it on default ( standard) It's for when viewing movies thought i think. Ok i'm going to check with my drives/cuts right now. Almost all these Tv's have different settings though for these, but i just want to see if they are close to the default settings and my set.

I thought these reference levels worked w/ HDMI as well... I can certainly tell the difference between the 3 levels, but I can't really tell instantly if they are improvements or not!:p

Oh, and I don't know if this helps...but putting my SBRT makes it so freaking dark it's useless. I set it at 30. But if 20 is where it "should" be, does that mean that something else is messed up besides the SBRT level?

I did forget!
RDRV 40
GDRV 36
BDRV 33
RCUT 40
GCUT 25
BCUT 26
SBOF 7
RDOF 31
GDOF 26
BDOF 16
RCOF 31
GCOF 27
BCOF 19

There ya go. Oh, speaking of the 360 and black levels, is there any use in setting the reference levels to anything besides standard? Is this TV equipped to show intermediate & expanded?

THanks!!!

EDIT: wow, just looking at my #'s compared to the defaults...mine seem waaay off. BCOF should be 63 and I'm at 19???

Wow, are drive/cut settings are pretty similar. Here is what i have, just to compare( all default too as the drive cuts need to be calibrated using a tool) so don't put mine in unless you want to see if it looks any different just to mess around, but like i said very similar. Well a few off, a few the same.

RDRV-40
GDRV-33
BDRV-31
RCUT-40
GCUT-21
BCUT-17
SBOF-7
RDOF-31
GDOF-26
BDOF-16
RCOF-31
GCOF-27
BCOF-19

I thought these reference levels worked w/ HDMI as well... I can certainly tell the difference between the 3 levels, but I can't really tell instantly if they are improvements or not!:p

Oh, and I don't know if this helps...but putting my SBRT makes it so freaking dark it's useless. I set it at 30. But if 20 is where it "should" be, does that mean that something else is messed up besides the SBRT level?

Oh my bad! maybe HDMI, not really sure. I have the regular xbox360 though and not the elite. There really isn't a "should be" setting for SBRT though. You want it set so you don't crush blacks and don't wash them out while brightness slider is set to 50. You really need a test disc/pattern to check it with besides the halo 3 one. I really don't know what else it could be, maybe he messed with some of the voltage settings as well? or some other service menus. I'll keep trying to help you figure it out though and go through my menu looking for something else that could be affecting it.

Oh my bad! maybe HDMI, not really sure. I have the regular xbox360 though and not the elite. There really isn't a "should be" setting for SBRT though. You want it set so you don't crush blacks and don't wash them out while brightness slider is set to 50. You really need a test disc/pattern to check it with besides the halo 3 one. I really don't know what else it could be, maybe he messed with some of the voltage settings as well? or some other service menus. I'll keep trying to help you figure it out though and go through my menu looking for something else that could be affecting it.


I have DVE, I'll give that a spin in a bit. What are your settings for pro?

I have no choice though man but TO have to change some of the vertical mid settings. Cause like i said when i shrink my screen down it is NOT centered, and the picture itself is cut off, like just cutoff! i don't mean like HPOS centered, i mean the picture itself inside the raster is off. Like they didn't make the raster big enough to fit the actual image ( if that makes any sense, i'm confusing myself actually, i think you know what i mean though)

changing the blanking settings do nothing and don't reveal more of the pic, it is off and just cut off. It HAS to be re centered in order for me to get the WHOLE picture inside. Did you have that problem too and it caused you to change the mid settings?

I never saw the value to blanking either. Did you try my sequence I posted a while back? It was the only thing that worked for me on the 970, but it involved resetting the universal raster to start, which meant going back and re-doing all the input-specific settings too.

"First, adjust H Raster Center. This is a universal adjustment that should be done before the resolution specific ones.
1.Go to 2170D 2 group and set HPOS and HSIZ to 31 each, or at least until you can see the sides of the raster. Then set HCEN (or HCNT).
2.Go to MID1 and reduce overscan and center. Resize to edge of raster. This is another universal adjustment group.
3.Back to 2170D-2 and set raster back out to screen edges.
4.Go to MID2 and set your scan sizes and centering. This group is resolution and input specific, so you'll have to do it for each available resolution with each group of inputs (see your TV back for groupings). "

I've had the GTA issue as well with the 360. It seems so widespread i wonder if this is an game specific issue...can it be?

Short answer "yes." All CRTs are build with a little overscan, and most game developers account for this by not putting critical info on the very edge of the frame. But Rockstar has their own way of doing things...

I have DVE, I'll give that a spin in a bit. What are your settings for pro?

Oh cool, i wasn't sure of you had a calibration disc. I use Avia.

My settings though? Depends on what input. I'll list them all and what i have plugged in.

All PRO , warm temp, clear edge off.

For hdmi ( upconverting dvd player)

Picture-35
Brightness-47
color-47
Hue-0
sharpness-min

For xbox 360 (component)

Picture-37
brightness-50
Color-43
hue-0
sharpness-20

HD digital cable box made by scientific atlanta (component) My cable provider used to have the sweet Sony set top boxes, but stopped using them cause they were too expensive to rent out and Sony would never service them. So know we have scientific Atlanta and let me tell you UGLIEST menus i have ever seen! OK settings though!

Picture-37
brightness-57
color-43
Hue-0
Sharpness-20

I never saw the value to blanking either. Did you try my sequence I posted a while back? It was the only thing that worked for me on the 970, but it involved resetting the universal raster to start, which meant going back and re-doing all the input-specific settings too.

"First, adjust H Raster Center. This is a universal adjustment that should be done before the resolution specific ones.
1.Go to 2170D 2 group and set HPOS and HSIZ to 31 each, or at least until you can see the sides of the raster. Then set HCEN (or HCNT).
2.Go to MID1 and reduce overscan and center. Resize to edge of raster. This is another universal adjustment group.
3.Back to 2170D-2 and set raster back out to screen edges.
4.Go to MID2 and set your scan sizes and centering. This group is resolution and input specific, so you'll have to do it for each available resolution with each group of inputs (see your TV back for groupings). "

Yea thats exactly the problem.I did this to my set a while back, it's exactly what i was trying to explain about the raster not being big enough to fit the whole picture. Only difference is i used to raise brightness all the way up when doing this so i can easily see the edges of the raster and make sure the whole picture fit inside without it being cut off or off center.

So you pretty much had no other choice too then mess with the mid settings? must be all the xbr970's! i wonder what calibrators do though? Just keep the sets at like 5% overscan all around, or actually tweak the mid settings?

Short answer "yes." All CRTs are build with a little overscan, and most game developers account for this by not putting critical info on the very edge of the frame. But Rockstar has their own way of doing things...

LOL. I think i saw the topic you were talking about on the xbox360 section of avs. MAN... some people have the overscan BAD! even on the sides as well as top/bottom. They must have never touched there service menu settings though! One pic i saw the phone was cut off even on the right side. But you know it's bad when even the average Joe gamer who doesn't even know about service menus/overscan complains about it!

Oh cool, i wasn't sure of you had a calibration disc. I use Avia.

My settings though? Depends on what input. I'll list them all and what i have plugged in.

All PRO , warm temp, clear edge off.

For hdmi ( upconverting dvd player)

Picture-35
Brightness-47
color-47
Hue-0
sharpness-min

For xbox 360 (component)

Picture-37
brightness-50
Color-43
hue-0
sharpness-20

HD digital cable box made by scientific atlanta (component) My cable provider used to have the sweet Sony set top boxes, but stopped using them cause they were too expensive to rent out and Sony would never service them. So know we have scientific Atlanta and let me tell you UGLIEST menus i have ever seen! OK settings though!

Picture-37
brightness-57
color-43
Hue-0
Sharpness-20


Hm, right off the bat I can see that your settings would make my tv very dark. damn.

Are my all my gamma settings set "correctly"? (0). Would setting them to 1 help brighten my pic without washout?

Then again perhaps I shouldn't be playing GTA4 so much...it seems like such a washed out looking game anyways, perhaps I'm blaming too much on my tv.

A problem with using any calibration disk in the 360 is that since the 360 uses different values for blacks for dvd watching and games, and I don't use the DVD player (i have a ps3), setting these values on the dvd side won't really help me on the game side, if you know what I mean...:)

Hm, right off the bat I can see that your settings would make my tv very dark. damn.

Are my all my gamma settings set "correctly"? (0). Would setting them to 1 help brighten my pic without washout?

Then again perhaps I shouldn't be playing GTA4 so much...it seems like such a washed out looking game anyways, perhaps I'm blaming too much on my tv.

A problem with using any calibration disk in the 360 is that since the 360 uses different values for blacks for dvd watching and games, and I don't use the DVD player (i have a ps3), setting these values on the dvd side won't really help me on the game side, if you know what I mean...:)

Theres no way to really tell unless i was looking at you screen and we had a pattern that shows the gamma level of your set. I have mine set to 0 like you. You can try raising it though and see if that helps open up the blacks more without washing them out with the brightness/SBRT level. Yea though man GTA 4 is a DARK game! so dark i have been setting my brightness to like 60 so i can see lol. Yea i don't use the 360 for dvds either, i know what you mean. Maybe your best bet would be to put in a different game and try to just eyeball the brightness to a level you feel comfortable with. It's weird though that there is no happy medium, and i'm really wondering what that tech did as to why things are either too dark, or two washed out. definetely see if Gamma helps. If i remember correctly setting "GAMM" to 1 or higher sets up the other values in the gamma settings, so you don't have to go changing them all. Let me know how things go.

Yea thats exactly the problem.I did this to my set a while back, it's exactly what i was trying to explain about the raster not being big enough to fit the whole picture. Only difference is i used to raise brightness all the way up when doing this so i can easily see the edges of the raster and make sure the whole picture fit inside without it being cut off or off center.

So you pretty much had no other choice too then mess with the mid settings? must be all the xbr970's! i wonder what calibrators do though? Just keep the sets at like 5% overscan all around, or actually tweak the mid settings?

Hang on, let me make sure we have our terminology synched here: When you say "raster'" you mean the electronically defined artificial edge of the picture frame as controlled by 2170-D HSIZ, right? And you're saying that it can't extend to the physical edge of the screen, even with the numbers maxed?

From my XBR970 service manual:

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/5159/raster1on1.th.jpg (http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=raster1on1.jpg)

I may have the terminology wrong. But you knew what i think you know what i mean, since the instructions you wrote a few posts back in regards to the mid settings and hsiz/Vsiz adjustments is what i need to do. It's like the "raster" or Picture doesn't fully fit inside the frame or raster or whatever it's called lol, therefore i need to use the mid settings to shrink and get the picture to fit inside. Just lowering like Hsiz/Vsiz doesn't fully show the whole picture, it cuts off. Know what i mean?

Back to Atom's problem, so I understand...the SBRT setting is for overall gun drive, or max brightness parameters? And the xDRV/xCUT are for individual color drives? If so, then is there such a thing as a Picture (contrast) parameter set in the service menu? It seems to me that's the heart of Atom's problem, not just overall brightness but the contrast between light and dark.

Only one i can think of off the top of my head is "spic" which is the contrast setting in the service menu. But his was fine, same as mine and same as in the xbr970 service manual. There is probably some other settings though that affect contrast in the service menu, just can't remember. But i'm pretty sure a few times in the past when messing around to see what does what there were a few things in there that when adjusted or toggled on would make the screen go into a washed out looking mode. I just don't know which one. I'll go through again and see what else i can find.

Atom, if all else fails you should try the display calibration page and see if some of the calibrators can help you out and might know exactly what the tech did.

I ran an overscan pattern though to my 360. Can you do that too? i streamed it over ( or you could put it on disc) and my overscan was at 5% on the top and bottom. let me find the overscan pattern link.

here, save this to either disc, or desktop, then run it on 360, you too WJohnathan. Let me know what you guys are at.

This is off my PC which is outputting 720p right now. I'm actually underscanned a little, and need to work on linearity obviously.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/801/1368x768overscanyw8.th.jpg (http://img210.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1368x768overscanyw8.jpg)

I took a browse through some of the settings you mentioned.
GAMM 0
GAMR 0
GAMS 0
GAMG 0
GAMB 0
GYB 3
RYB 15
GYR 9
ABLT 0
SBRT 46
UBOF 1
SPIC 7

Is SBRT way out of whack? Should it not be in the 20's?


Thanks for helping, TC

I've gone back and re-read more thoroughly, and noticed that your GYB/RYB/GYR values are way off from recommended in my SM. I'm seeing:

________Normal________Special Axis

RYR_____8____________15
RYB_____9____________15
GYR_____9____________9
BYB_____6____________3

Have no idea what "normal" and "special axis" refer to.

It depends on what the color axis is set to in advanced settings in the regular menu. I have mine set on monitor(special axis), which helps with red push, if it's set on that then the RYR, RYB is going to be 15, if it's set on default(normal axis). So you must have yours set to default Johnathan, unless you tweaked the color gun settings for default when you were in service menu, and thats what you got after the calibration.


Oh though, you have your PC hooked up to the 970? through what hdmi?

It depends on what the color axis is set to in advanced settings in the regular menu. I have mine set on monitor(special axis), which helps with red push, if it's set on that then the RYR, RYB is going to be 15, if it's set on default(normal axis). So you must have yours set to default Johnathan, unless you tweaked the color gun settings for default when you were in service menu, and thats what you got after the calibration.


Oh though, you have your PC hooked up to the 970? through what hdmi?

Nuts, I meant "Service Manual" by SM. I don't know my personal settings on the TV,

Pc through component cables.

I found this by Ken on black levels:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6280448#post6280448

with comcast cable, is it better to use 720p or 1080i with this tv ?

it could be my imagination but horizontal movement looks much smoother with the 720p setting

i know that all hdtv's convert all incoming signals to the native resolution, just wondering what others may have noticed

i also heard that comcast is compressing the HD channels so that they can fit more of them in the same bandwidth

i know that all hdtv's convert all incoming signals to the native resolution, just wondering what others may have noticed


direct view HDTVs convert all incoming from whatever is sent (could be native or could already have been converted by box) to 1080i. So for 1080i native material it would seem ludicrous to use a 720p setting and experience one conversion from 1080i to 720p in the box and yet another one from 720p to 1080i by the TV.

Perhaps for 720p material you would be better off with a setting of 720p out of the cable box. Really is a question of what does the better job converting to 1080i - the STB or the TV.

Sorry to be long winded - but I don't have that model to give specific feedback on what would look better. Seems like your own experience indicates its better having the TV do it (convert 720p to 1080i), so just leave your comcast box set to native output.

direct view HDTVs convert all incoming from whatever is sent (could be native or could already have been converted by box) to 1080i. So for 1080i native material it would seem ludicrous to use a 720p setting and experience one conversion from 1080i to 720p in the box and yet another one from 720p to 1080i by the TV.

Perhaps for 720p material you would be better off with a setting of 720p out of the cable box. Really is a question of what does the better job converting to 1080i - the STB or the TV.

Sorry to be long winded - but I don't have that model to give specific feedback on what would look better. Seems like your own experience indicates its better having the TV do it (convert 720p to 1080i), so just leave your comcast box set to native output.

i never had a problem with 1080i before the comcast compression nonsense

god knows how the signal is arriving "before the box" it could be getting converted up to 1080i in the box from some other format, who knows

anyone else with comcast and this tv notice a difference between the 720p and 1080i setting from their cable box ?

I just set my cable box to "pass through" and set it to only display 1080i over 720p. There is no noticeable difference to me. Plus it's annoying when the set switches over whenever i'm skimming the HD channels and hit the sports channels and it blinks and goes to 720p. I mean this set is native 1080i right? so why even bother using the 720p setting? Unless like ralph said if the box/TV does a better job of converting it. But this TV has a great built in scaler.

On a side note i finally re-did my overscan :) yea i had to tweak some mid settings, also made a few adjustments to the mid 5 settings after re-reading some of kentechs tweaks. I can't help but notice now ( not sure if it's in my head, and always been there) but it looks like whenever i'm watching HD content on my cable box whenever there is fast movements ( especially noticeable when watching Apocalypto the other night) things would get
pixelated looking, like whenever there was a fast movement with the camera. Not sure if it has anything to do with the mid 1/2 tweak adjustments. or if it's coming from the cable box. I don't remember noticing it before though, so who knows.

Also i fell a sleep on my couch last night watching TV and woke up at like 4:30 am and starring me in the face was a color bar pattern! First thing i thought was to go into service mode and get my color right for my cable box! FINALLY a way to get it accurate, since i never got HDnet. It actually wasn't that much off from my color settings the xbox 360 gave me using Avia ( both the cable box and xbox 360 uses component) Only had to do a few more clicks over. So now my color is at 50 for my box. The pattern was on the channel Starz HD and regular Starz by the way. Said it was "off air" in the programming. Not sure if they do it every night or i just got lucky. Then again not sure if all color bar petterns are created equal, and i didn't check to see how other channels look yet. Might just look right for Starz programming and i might be better off just going back to my original color setting.

Now if there was only a way to set black level accurately :( I went as far as to unhook my dvd player from hdmi and use component just to set the black level for my box, but it was still way too dark after tweaking. Same with the 360's black level. Too dark.

i was watching starz HD when it went off the air last night from 4 to 5 also

first they said they were going to test the transmitter or something then the color bar came up

i should have saved a few minutes of it on my DVR so i could always have it testing directly from the source

I just set my cable box to "pass through" and set it to only display 1080i over 720p. There is no noticeable difference to me. Plus it's annoying when the set switches over whenever i'm skimming the HD channels and hit the sports channels and it blinks and goes to 720p. I mean this set is native 1080i right? so why even bother using the 720p setting? Unless like ralph said if the box/TV does a better job of converting it. But this TV has a great built in scaler.

On a side note i finally re-did my overscan :) yea i had to tweak some mid settings, also made a few adjustments to the mid 5 settings after re-reading some of kentechs tweaks. I can't help but notice now ( not sure if it's in my head, and always been there) but it looks like whenever i'm watching HD content on my cable box whenever there is fast movements ( especially noticeable when watching Apocalypto the other night) things would get
pixelated looking, like whenever there was a fast movement with the camera. Not sure if it has anything to do with the mid 1/2 tweak adjustments. or if it's coming from the cable box. I don't remember noticing it before though, so who knows.

Also i fell a sleep on my couch last night watching TV and woke up at like 4:30 am and starring me in the face was a color bar pattern! First thing i thought was to go into service mode and get my color right for my cable box! FINALLY a way to get it accurate, since i never got HDnet. It actually wasn't that much off from my color settings the xbox 360 gave me using Avia ( both the cable box and xbox 360 uses component) Only had to do a few more clicks over. So now my color is at 50 for my box. The pattern was on the channel Starz HD and regular Starz by the way. Said it was "off air" in the programming. Not sure if they do it every night or i just got lucky. Then again not sure if all color bar petterns are created equal, and i didn't check to see how other channels look yet. Might just look right for Starz programming and i might be better off just going back to my original color setting.

Now if there was only a way to set black level accurately :( I went as far as to unhook my dvd player from hdmi and use component just to set the black level for my box, but it was still way too dark after tweaking. Same with the 360's black level. Too dark.

use UBOF to balance your black level among your inputs. UBOF is input,resolution specific.

use UBOF to balance your black level among your inputs. UBOF is input,resolution specific.

But how does that help me if i don't have a test pattern to set black level on my cable box? Plus UBOF would mess up my black level on anything 1080i since my xbox 360 is also using component. Thats why i have it set to change the normal "brightness" menu settings on every input. UBOF would just mess my other black levels up for 1080i component. Should i just keep black level where it's at for my 360 then just guess for cable and set it with ubof? Thats what i was doing, but not knowing where it should be is pissing me off lol.

i was watching starz HD when it went off the air last night from 4 to 5 also

first they said they were going to test the transmitter or something then the color bar came up

i should have saved a few minutes of it on my DVR so i could always have it testing directly from the source

Well depending on your STB and whatever other tweaks you did to color and if your using component cables with your STB then 50 for color should be good for you also. This is with my set on monitor/warm with the settings. Could be way different though depending on what you already tweaked in service menu. But for me that starz color bar was perfect. Normal TV programming (standard def) looks a little over saturated, but all my HD channels looks great.While i was tweaking though while it was up i thought even though the color bars looked fine at 50 it might be too much , so 47 was another good setting. I'm keeping it at 50 though as normal programming already looks out of whack and it's not even worth trying to get it to look good at the expense of 1080i programming.

My color settings though are;
RYR: 14
RYB: 14
GYR: 6
GYB: 4

It's me again. Something i been meaning to ask but always forgot. Does anyone else have a problem getting HDMI input to show up when in service mode? Like if i was to turn on my dvd player it would work fine normally, but whenever i would turn it on then turn the tv on into service mode all i would get is a black screen. It usually takes me a few on off cycles with the tv/dvd player to get it to finally work. I usually have to turn the dvd player on, turn the TV on, then leave the dvd player on and turn the TV off then power on into service mode. Is it a handshake issue? Makes no sense though why it always works normally though.

But how does that help me if i don't have a test pattern to set black level on my cable box? Plus UBOF would mess up my black level on anything 1080i since my xbox 360 is also using component. Thats why i have it set to change the normal "brightness" menu settings on every input. UBOF would just mess my other black levels up for 1080i component. Should i just keep black level where it's at for my 360 then just guess for cable and set it with ubof? Thats what i was doing, but not knowing where it should be is pissing me off lol.

yeah that sounds like a good strategy, despite not having a test pattern to adjust cable properly.i was in your same situation once, for cable i just adjusted the black level for that input by eye by switching back and forth on the channels to see if i found a black level UBOF value that was consisitant with the other channels.

It's me again. Something i been meaning to ask but always forgot. Does anyone else have a problem getting HDMI input to show up when in service mode? Like if i was to turn on my dvd player it would work fine normally, but whenever i would turn it on then turn the tv on into service mode all i would get is a black screen. It usually takes me a few on off cycles with the tv/dvd player to get it to finally work. I usually have to turn the dvd player on, turn the TV on, then leave the dvd player on and turn the TV off then power on into service mode. Is it a handshake issue? Makes no sense though why it always works normally though.

no it's not a handshake issue, i ran into the same issue with my PS3 when i was adjusting in the service menu for HDMI to calibrate it for PS3. it seems you have to have the tv on first, let it warm up for about 10-15 minutes, then shut the tv off, then enter the service manual codes on the remote to turn the tv on again and you should get a picture.

it seems you can't start the service menu first, you get a blank screen when first turing the tv on. you have to turn the tv on then shut it off and enter the service menu, that's how it works. also you shouldn't have to turn your dvd player on and off ..just the tv.

Well depending on your STB and whatever other tweaks you did to color and if your using component cables with your STB then 50 for color should be good for you also. This is with my set on monitor/warm with the settings. Could be way different though depending on what you already tweaked in service menu. But for me that starz color bar was perfect. Normal TV programming (standard def) looks a little over saturated, but all my HD channels looks great.While i was tweaking though while it was up i thought even though the color bars looked fine at 50 it might be too much , so 47 was another good setting. I'm keeping it at 50 though as normal programming already looks out of whack and it's not even worth trying to get it to look good at the expense of 1080i programming.

My color settings though are;
RYR: 14
RYB: 14
GYR: 6
GYB: 4

what a coincidence i'm using the same color settings! :D

although i'm still comtemplating where to set color at. currently it's at 50, and looks pretty perfect for HD material, but for SD and DVD's it looks to be a bit much and i often lower it to 47 or 46 seems to be a good setting although 47 is a little better.i can't really lower the color setting for my cable inputs since it's already at the lowest setting possible at 0.

so right now i'm trying to find a good compromise for color settings for both HD and cable and DVD's.

I see. How come you don't turn mode memory on though this way you can change each input setting? This way you don't have to use the same color setting for dvd /cable box/ xbox 360? after calibrating all my inputs have different settings.

Thanks for the advice though Matt. How about overscan though? did you also have to tweak the mid2 settings to get overscan at a reasonable percentage, or did you leave it as is? I recently tweaked my mid settings again ( cause of grand theft auto 4 )

Now that i'm pretty much done with GTA4 though ( the multiplayer got old quick imo) I don't see the need to keep my sets overscan so low. All my other games were fine, with nothing cut off, but in GTA 4 the cell phone was cut off at the bottom (the red exit/hang up button) But now just the fact of knowing those mid settings mess with the scanning and degrade the picture i been contemplating going back to the defaults and just live with the overscan. If i don't change the DHVP/DHVS in mid 2 then the best i can get is around 4.5 % overscan on top and bottom, but i can get like 3 on the sides. Thats how i used to have it actually ( since you usually need less overscan on sides as opposed to top/bottom to see important things (in a game) But it should be equal on all 4 sides, so i would have to make it 4.5 % all around. I have OCD when it comes to stuff like this and even though i don't notice any problems while watching any cable TV, just knowing it degrades and seeing it happen while viewing test patterns makes me want to go back to defaults and live with the overscan. Just recently i noticed how it messes with the resolution patterns in avia, just moving the picture with DHVP and DHVS.

Now what i could do is fix the mid 2 settings and go back to defaults for 1080i for cable/dvd viewing, and sinc ei have my box set to not display 720p , have my xbox 360 output 720p, this way i can change the mid 2 settings for that while not messing up my cable/dvd viewing, since you really don't have time to notice anything when playing a game.

This is what i had to change my 1080i mid 2 settings to to get to around 3% overscan. Way out of whack from the defaults as you can see.

DHHP- 27
DHHS-186
DHVP-20
DHVS-69

Also out of nowhere i started getting a blu color patch problem on the right corner of my set, along with a brown one along the side!! i have recently moved my sub closer to the set along with my speaker, but they are magnetically shielded! could it still be causing the discoloration? i'm guessing it has to be the sub since i'm getting no discoloration on the other side where my other speaker is. I went and tried some of the landing settings, but it didn't do anything! i mean nothing at all, like no matter what i changed. So it must be from the sub then i'm guessing , since it wouldn't go away after tweaking the landing settings. Thing is i really can't move my sub any further away since surge protector is on the other side of the room and the AC cord just reaches. So this is kind of off topic, but i'm only using one of the two outlets on the wall outlet where my surge protector is plugged in, can i safely just unplug the sub from the protector and plug it in directly to the same wall outlet? or should the sub remained in the surge protector? Or could i plug in a seperate protector and just use that for the sub? or would that be overloading the outlet? I only ask cause then i would be able to move the sub further away from the TV set if doing that.

Ive had this happen with my 30xs955 from turning it off and then on real fast. It freaked me out because I had just be messing around in the SM as you were. All I did was turn the TV off for like 5 min turned it back on and it was gone. I think by turning off and on real fast the tv did not have time to Degauss (demagnetize) the screen which caused the look of magnetic interference.

I see. How come you don't turn mode memory on though this way you can change each input setting? This way you don't have to use the same color setting for dvd /cable box/ xbox 360? after calibrating all my inputs have different settings.

Thanks for the advice though Matt. How about overscan though? did you also have to tweak the mid2 settings to get overscan at a reasonable percentage, or did you leave it as is? I recently tweaked my mid settings again ( cause of grand theft auto 4 )

oh that's because i own the 34HS420 sony tv, not the 34XBR970 so i don't have that user menu feature, i had to balance everything on all inputs via service menu.

for overscan mine was pretty dead on out of the box..only thing i adjusted was center the image with HPOS. overscan should be no more than 5%, but you can go lower if you want. mine was pretty dead on though out of the box.

no problem about the help!:D been tinkering in the service menu for years, learned the tips from the sony service menu codes thread.

Hello.
Sorry I can find the exact procedure on how the access the service menu on my KD-34XBR970.

The geometry is WAY off. Looks like it's doing two things.

1. Overscanning by quite a bit

2. Bending or bowing the picture at it's corners (top and bottom).

I've tried everything in the regular menu... nothing works.

I have a DVE / BlueRay calibration DVD with charts ready to go.
I just can't figure out how to access the damn service menu.
Any advice ?

Hello.
Sorry I can find the exact procedure on how the access the service menu on my KD-34XBR970.

The geometry is WAY off. Looks like it's doing two things.

1. Overscanning by quite a bit

2. Bending or bowing the picture at it's corners (top and bottom).

I've tried everything in the regular menu... nothing works.

I have a DVE / BlueRay calibration DVD with charts ready to go.
I just can't figure out how to access the damn service menu.
Any advice ?

To enter the SM on a Sony tv use the remote control. By "hit" I mean press and release these buttons on the remote, in this order:

-with tv off
-hit the "Display" button
-hit the "5" button
-hit the "Volume Up" button
-hit the "Power On" button

That's it. To navigate through the settings, use the remote's "1" and "4" buttons. To change values use the "3" and "6" buttons. To save and write a change first hit "Mute" and then "Enter."

Has anyone connected a computer to this TV using HDMI connection?:cool:

I'm trying to get a 1920x1080 resolution, but all I get is 1024x768 using S-video connection and the geometry is very messed up. (older computer with Gainward Geforce 4200TI card)

Also got another computer with a XFX GeForce 8600GT card (HDTV ready) Gonna try that out later today. (only DVI and S-video connections)

Just wanted to know if building a new computer with HDMI connections is worth getting?:confused:

Has anyone connected a computer to this TV using HDMI connection?:cool:

I'm trying to get a 1920x1080 resolution, but all I get is 1024x768 using S-video connection and the geometry is very messed up. (older computer with Gainward Geforce 4200TI card)

Also got another computer with a XFX GeForce 8600GT card (HDTV ready) Gonna try that out later today. (only DVI and S-video connections)

Just wanted to know if building a new computer with HDMI connections is worth getting?:confused:

I have this TV hooked to a GEForce 7600 card, and it really looks best when fed 720p. I don't know what version of NVidia software you're using, so I can't really tell you exactly what to do. But I do know that when fed a 1080 resolution, text on the Windows desktop, internet surfing, or in games is pretty much illegible. The TV's clarity just isn't good enough. So I wouldn't waste time trying to get 1080 to work. I find 720p input is great for gaming.

Had Sony repairman out for subject issue. He replaced the C R T Board
Assembly, replaced the connector and installed some sillicone insulation
epoxy on the pins - all under warrantly.

I hope this corrects the problem for good.

I had that problem on my TV. The picture tube was replaced and it still had the problem, along with many others it didn't have before it was worked on. I think the newer TVs of the production run already had the modification done and the older ones didn't. There's a service memo on the problem. I guess the guy that did my TV didn't bother to read the memo.

Damn guys. Has anyone one actually had a reliable Sony tech come and actually fix their set? Do they even make sure nothing else is causing the problems first, like a bad outlet or interference from other electronics? or do they just open up the set and play with some boards and knock other things out of whack in the process?

I was definitely not impressed by the Sony technician that came out. He used almost a "shot-gun" approach, i.e., lets try this to fix it. He dropped parts on the floor and
was about to break the cover when reinstalling it until I pointed out he was reinstalling it wrong.

I had 2 different techs from 2 different shops come and screw my TV up. By the time they were done with it a bottom-of-the-line piece of crap would have looked better. At least Sony bought me out for the purchase price minus tax.

hey, what do you guys think is a good price for one of these beasts used?
i have one in my area asking price $450. Not sure if this is a good deal or not.

hey, what do you guys think is a good price for one of these beasts used?
i have one in my area asking price $450. Not sure if this is a good deal or not.

If they picture quality is good, and everything works, that's in the ballpark. $400 would be great to me. These sets typically need some service menu work to really make the picture shine, but they're very nice once you spend some time with them.

Sounds expensive for a used TV to me. They practically give CRTs away on Craigslist where I am. In fact, someone gave me a 27" Panasonic TV off Craigslist last Saturday. It had some scratches in the screen and I didn't know if the neighbor I was getting the TV for would want it, so they ended up giving me the TV instead of having to move it.

Anything new going on here?

Does anyone have a "baseline" list of settings for the geometry of this tv like the VSIZ, VPOS, HSIZ, HPOS, etc. that I could get my tv back to? I think I may have overtinkered.

Does anyone have a "baseline" list of settings for the geometry of this tv like the VSIZ, VPOS, HSIZ, HPOS, etc. that I could get my tv back to? I think I may have overtinkered.

you might want to PM ClayPigeon

i think he's done the most tinkering :)

You know what sucks? I decided to set my mid2 settings back to default and live with the overscan while watching TV. But i still want as little overscan as possible for when playing xbox360, so what i did was set up my 360 for the 720p setting ( since this TV upscales everything anyways) This way when i game i have like 1% overscan.

Now thats all fine and dandy but big problem i noticed while watching TV. When i see like a news ticker scroll.. watching and watching then when it gets to a certain point on the screen it does that fun house effect and looks like it's sticking out ( i think it's known as barrel roll) I'm sure you guys know what i mean though. I notice it too when something pans the screen up and down real fast or side to side. I had this all fixed too and had no problem when i had my mid2 settings tweaked for less overscan. What sucks though is i don't know what i should do. On one hand i wanted the best picture possible for when watching HD tv, which is why (with the help of wjonathan) i got the default settings back. But even know with the set back to defaults, i'm NOT getting the best picture possible due to the funhouse effect. So i'm really not getting the best picture possible.

Which now brings up the point. Do i want to re-do ALL my Geo settings to fix this just for the cable viewing, which would in turn mess up my 720p for gaming and that would be all out of whack, since 1080i and 720p share the same geo settings, OR just go back to my old settings with the mid2 settings tweaked. It's like this... DEAD END DEAD END DEAD END LOL.


Heck i even asked on the calibration forum a few weeks back about messing with the mid2 settings, just to get an idea if calibrators ever mess with them to minimize overscan or just leave them as is.. lol of course NO REPLY. They can answer the same question about setting black level/ contrast over and over and over again though.

Does anyone have a "baseline" list of settings for the geometry of this tv like the VSIZ, VPOS, HSIZ, HPOS, etc. that I could get my tv back to? I think I may have overtinkered.


You mean defaults? I HAD the xbr970 service manul on my PC a while back but don't anymore. There was link to it in this topic, but after checking when i needed it again the link was dead :( I might have the defaults you listed written down somewhere. But if it's just the parameters you said you should just lower those to 0 then center your raster then work from there. I have mine set to (for 1080i, component)

VPOS-26
VSIZ-32
SCRL-32
hPOS-22
HSIZ-32

edit- oh wait i see you also said "etc" you'd probably be better off finding someone with the manula that can shoot you the defaults, i'll take a look at my writings to see if i have all the geo defaults written down ( i'm sure i do)

You know what sucks? I decided to set my mid2 settings back to default and live with the overscan while watching TV. But i still want as little overscan as possible for when playing xbox360, so what i did was set up my 360 for the 720p setting ( since this TV upscales everything anyways) This way when i game i have like 1% overscan.

Now thats all fine and dandy but big problem i noticed while watching TV. When i see like a news ticker scroll.. watching and watching then when it gets to a certain point on the screen it does that fun house effect and looks like it's sticking out ( i think it's known as barrel roll) I'm sure you guys know what i mean though. I notice it too when something pans the screen up and down real fast or side to side. I had this all fixed too and had no problem when i had my mid2 settings tweaked for less overscan. What sucks though is i don't know what i should do. On one hand i wanted the best picture possible for when watching HD tv, which is why (with the help of wjonathan) i got the default settings back. But even know with the set back to defaults, i'm NOT getting the best picture possible due to the funhouse effect. So i'm really not getting the best picture possible.

Which now brings up the point. Do i want to re-do ALL my Geo settings to fix this just for the cable viewing, which would in turn mess up my 720p for gaming and that would be all out of whack, since 1080i and 720p share the same geo settings, OR just go back to my old settings with the mid2 settings tweaked. It's like this... DEAD END DEAD END DEAD END LOL.


Heck i even asked on the calibration forum a few weeks back about messing with the mid2 settings, just to get an idea if calibrators ever mess with them to minimize overscan or just leave them as is.. lol of course NO REPLY. They can answer the same question about setting black level/ contrast over and over and over again though.

It's funny, the more time I spend trying to perfect a CRt's images, the less the shortcomings of flatpanels bother me. :D

i'm curious where everyone keeps their contrast brightness color tint and sharpness settings ?

You mean defaults? I HAD the xbr970 service manul on my PC a while back but don't anymore. There was link to it in this topic, but after checking when i needed it again the link was dead :( I might have the defaults you listed written down somewhere. But if it's just the parameters you said you should just lower those to 0 then center your raster then work from there. I have mine set to (for 1080i, component)

VPOS-26
VSIZ-32
SCRL-32
hPOS-22
HSIZ-32

edit- oh wait i see you also said "etc" you'd probably be better off finding someone with the manula that can shoot you the defaults, i'll take a look at my writings to see if i have all the geo defaults written down ( i'm sure i do)

Yeah, I could really use the complete list of defaults if anyone happens to have them or knows who I should PM for them.

i'm curious where everyone keeps their contrast brightness color tint and sharpness settings ?

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pUI5AEYeWVu_AcaudwZwJiJCKWcbYdjZQ6UDIfGOaGIX340IcDu368f5Wj 6PudBUDVTiaEFyXuI0

http://blufiles.storage.live.com/y1pUI5AEYeWVu_AcaudwZwJiJCKWcbYdjZQ6UDIfGOaGIX340IcDu368f5Wj 6PudBUDVTiaEFyXuI0

thanks

did you set that by eye or use a test dvd ?

i'm curious where everyone keeps their contrast brightness color tint and sharpness settings ?


Depends on what input i'm using. You guys take advantage of the mode memory right? All my inputs have different settings. Clearedge VM off on everything.

For HD cable using component
Picture-37
Brightness-55
color-50
Hue-0
color temp-warm
sharpness-25
clearedge-off

For xbox 360 using component
Picture-37
brightness-50 (always have to use in game brightness though and jack it up, depending on the game)
color-43
hue-0
color temp-warm
clear edge-off

Oppo upconverting dvd player using hdmi;
Picture-35
Brightness-55
color-47
hue-0
color temp-warm
sharpness-15

and thats it! Keep in mind for somethings in service menu set, such as ubof to 2 for 1080i and various others. I tweaked with avia and other patterns.

Yeah, I could really use the complete list of defaults if anyone happens to have them or knows who I should PM for them.


Did you get them yet? I checked and I don't have them. I have A TON of settings but i couldn't find the one with my defaults. I think i had that in saved in notepad along with my service manual before i had to reformat and forgot to back them up. I never plan on going back to the default geometry values on this set though, and i have all the important default settings written down in case of anything. If nobody helps you out i can go through my set, jot doen what i have and you can maybe work from there? It would atleast get you in the ballpark and you cans et from there for your needs. Let me know, i'll check back in a few hours. Off topic but i have a leak to attend to in my basement. It's mostly used for storage and it's furnished, but i just noticed the other day water leaking from the drywall onto the floor. I went down there right after a shower so god knows how long it's been leaking and it probably just finally went through the ceiling now. Must only happen during showers though. I don't know what i should even do? Rip the ceiling out myself? once drywall gets wet it's pretty mush done, but damn, i can only imagine how much mold must be there if it's been leaking for this long and i didn't even know!

It's funny, the more time I spend trying to perfect a CRt's images, the less the shortcomings of flatpanels bother me. :D


Looking through some advertisments today i see so many older model sony Bravias for the price we got these xbr970's! Susre they are older models and all, but i remember a year ago when i was deciding on to get this xbr970 i said to friends " No way will LCD's be this price in a year and this set is a steal for this price" I was wrong! :D don't get me wrong i love this TV, i mean it's already been a year and i'm still tweaking LOL. I'm still thinking about getting a professional calibration, but not sure if it's still worth it. I'm at that point where i think i would be disappointed by it since all the tweaking i did. I don't think it would be that far off. Most of the calibrators on here said this set is pretty close to d65 at warm, so how much of a difference could the calibration make? Sure having gamma and contrast set correctly would be a bonus, but how much of a difference would it really make? all the other tweaks we pretty much do/did ourselves. LOL and i really doubt any calibrators could get the geometry looking any better than us, especially on these sets, unless they have special geometry tools they use besides there eyes for those adjustments.

Still , i think i'll have thise set for atleast another year or two. Cause i'm not even sure it's worth to get a lcd or plasma until the OTHER technologies come out! Damn, is this going to happen every few years now? we had crt for so long, then bam! lcd/plasma! now oled then what? nano? lazers!??!?! I hate when new stuff comes out so soon, then it makes me think what i have is junk and that i wasted my money, then i want the newer tech usually. Maybe it really hasn't been that soon, but it feels like it, same thing happened with dvd, then blu-ray and HD-dvd ( i feel bad for the people who adopted that,especially the ones who bought a hd dvd player a week before it went under)) It's like you go to the store and when you come home and hook something up it's already obsolete.

Did you get them yet? I checked and I don't have them. I have A TON of settings but i couldn't find the one with my defaults. I think i had that in saved in notepad along with my service manual before i had to reformat and forgot to back them up. I never plan on going back to the default geometry values on this set though, and i have all the important default settings written down in case of anything. If nobody helps you out i can go through my set, jot doen what i have and you can maybe work from there? It would atleast get you in the ballpark and you cans et from there for your needs. Let me know, i'll check back in a few hours.

That would be awesome of you! I'd certainly appreciate it. Right now people look a little too thin but it doesn't seem to be related to the hsiz, hpos, vsiz, vpos. It must be something else and I'd just like to have a good starting point for my notes.

Ok. I'll do that for you right now. It's going to take a while though! I forget which settings are universal! so i'll just go through every resolution and write them down. I just better not tweak anything myself while i'm in there, that usually always happens :p

Just so you know though i don't use 480i. I use 480p even for my normal standard def cable viewing. I'm pretty sure they share geo settings though 480i/p. I also don't use any of the zoom modes vertical correction and all that is changed in service menu so i don't use that either.

480p Normal mode
VPOs-26
VSIZ-32
VSZO-1
VLIN-5
VSCO-4
VCEN-7
VPIN-18
MVPN-0
NSCO-11
HTPZ-21
MHTZ-0
Zoom-0
APSW-1
ASPT-3
SCRL-33
UVLN-0
LVLN-0

HCNT-29
HPOS-21
HSIZ-32
slin-3
MPIN-10
PIN-14
UCP-33
LCP-29
UXCG-0
LCXG-0
UXCP-2
LXCP-2
XCPP-0
PPHA-22
Vang-33
LANG-18
VBOW-25
LBOW-38

*blanking settings for that*
HBLK-1
LBLK-60
RBLK-37
VBLK-1
TBLK-4
BBLK-8


For 480p FULL mode only difference is
SCRL-29
VPIN-20
and BBLK- 15
------------------------------------------

1080i/720p

same as 480p normal settings except:
VSZO-0
VPIN-20
APSW-0
ASPT-0
SCRL-32
HPOS-22
UCP-34
LCP-28
UXCG-2
LXCG-0

*Blanking settings*

LBLK-57
RBLK-37
TBLK-4
BBLK-8

And there you have it! only took 20 minutes, not as bad as i thought.
Now what about your mid settings? did you change those also? Let me know and i hope this helps.

Wrong thread, sorry.

I have a question about the SCRL on my Sony.

I've been doing a lot of work on my TV. There were major overscan problems (I didn't even realize I had until I saw how much picture my dad had on his Panny plasma). So I corrected much of that. I have as much of the picture on my screen as possible. Yet it also took me some time to get the image to look okay geometrically. I was getting awful wavy images when panning across the screen. You can see from the crosshatch pattern on the calibration disc where some columns are wider than others. Anyway, by adjusting the HSIZ and SLIN just right, I think I finally got that to where it was before I messed with everything. It was never perfect to begin with...I guess direct-views never are when it comes to geometry. That's what happens when you try to fit a single-tubed image onto a flat screen.

Anyway, somewhere along the way, I lost the ability to change the SCRL (which scrolls image up/down) on one source (like my DVD), while keeping SCRL at a different setting from my cable box.

Does anyone know how I can keep my SCRL thru the DVD on one setting and the SCRL thru the cable box at another?

I know this has been addressed previously, but I'm having a difficult time and I am hesitant to make changes to my set without clear directions.

Overall I am very content with my 970. However, what does bother me is the fact that my image is not centered (which is particularly obvious with 4:3 material). I need to bring the picture about 1 inch to the right. It is my understanding that this can be adjusted with the HPOS setting in the service menu. I tried getting into the service menu with no avail. Regardless, I'm hesitant to adjust anything in the service menu without step by step instructions.

If its not too much trouble, could someone please provide me step by step details on how to adjust this particular setting? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I consider myself fairly technical, but I also know my limitations and dont want to screw up my TV and have to rely on technicians! Thanks!

Does anyone know how I can keep my SCRL thru the DVD on one setting and the SCRL thru the cable box at another?

You can't :( SCRL is shared , well depending on the resolution. Did you change your mid settings? thats probably why everything is off. SCRL is not input specific though, the same value is shared between 1080i and 720p, and a separate for 480. Is your dvd player upconverting or is just a standard def player?

I know this has been addressed previously, but I'm having a difficult time and I am hesitant to make changes to my set without clear directions.

Overall I am very content with my 970. However, what does bother me is the fact that my image is not centered (which is particularly obvious with 4:3 material). I need to bring the picture about 1 inch to the right. It is my understanding that this can be adjusted with the HPOS setting in the service menu. I tried getting into the service menu with no avail. Regardless, I'm hesitant to adjust anything in the service menu without step by step instructions.

If its not too much trouble, could someone please provide me step by step details on how to adjust this particular setting? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I consider myself fairly technical, but I also know my limitations and dont want to screw up my TV and have to rely on technicians! Thanks!



Ok first thing you need to do is look at your remote for the TV ( make sure it's the official sony one and not a universal) Now look at the numbers 7 and 9 and remember to NEVER touch those numbers EVER while in service mode. If you accidentally hit 7 just don't press anything else and nothing will happen. People tend to panic though and start hitting other numbers in combination and reset there TV in the process. You'll be fine though if you remember to look at the remote at all times and don't blindly just hit the numbers like when your channel surfing, it's easy for your finger to slip off and think you are on the number 6 when your on 9m or 4 and on 7. Be carfeul!

With that out of the way here is what you need to do;

- On the remote hit

DISPLAY
5
VOLUME +
POWER
1

You want to do this a little fast, like the speed at which you would out in a video game code back in the day before the title screen comes on if you catch my drift. Not superfast though. Just a steady motion.

Now you will notice a bunch of green lettering and weirdness. Don't get scared, you didn't break anything! catch your breath and let your heart rate slow back down :)

Sit back down and look at the remote again, just don't hit anything! The numbers you will be using and what they each do are these;

1 and 4 =1 scrolls up a group of settings in a given set, 4 scrolls down, these don't increase or decrease any values, so you don't need to worry and think you changed any settings if you hit these.

2 and 5 = These skip right over each group so you don't have to scroll through every single parameter in any particular setting. Like, if you were to hit 1 you would go through each setting one by one, but with 2 you skip to the next grouping and get to where you have to go. 2 goes up through them, 5 goes down.

3 and 6 = The biggins. these are the ones that increase and decrease any values that you want to change. 3 increases 6 decreases.

Now say you raise something up using 3, but don't want to save the setting and forgot what the default was ( whatever you are about to change make sure to write the original down, in your case the default for HPOS) the value wont save until you have it write to the memory, so if you just shut off your TV it will go back to the default it was at previously, unless you write the new value into the memory.

To write a changed value into the TV's all you have to do is hit "MUTING" when you do that you will notice on the top right of the screen where it says service in green will change to "WRITE" when it says this you hit "ENTER" (little button under the 9) and write will turn red. Congrats! you just saved your first setting! Now kiss TV watching goodbye as you will start to notice more and more problems that you don't like with your xbr970 and venture back in to make new adjustments. :p I'm going on a little over a year! Nah, i'm done tweaking for good now.....


OK, now with the buttons on the remote out of the way here is what i want you to do. First go into normal 480 screen mode (black bars on left and right side) not the full mode. ( don't worry this wont change any service setting)

from where you are at service mode should read

VERSION 1 0 SERVICE
DMY1 NORMAL Video4 ( or whatever video input you on)


from here i want you to hit the number 2 eight times, slowly count as you change it. The top left should now read;

2170d-2
HCNT

on the top left.

from here hit the number 1 one time, and you should now see HPOS.

Now you said you need to bring the picture an inch to the right? In that case you will need to adjust using the number 6 to decrease the value of HPOS, thus moving it over to the right. TAKE a look at the black bars on the left and right side while doing this to make sure you have the same amount of black bar on both ( you could even measure it with a ruler if you can judge by eye)

Now once you find the right value hit MUTING then ENTER to save that setting to the TV's memory and you should be good to go :)

Now to get out of service mode all you have to do is power off the TV and everything will be back to normal like before, cept your picture will be centered.


Any problems with my instructions or need any more help let me know.

ClayPigeon -

This is great! Thank you for taking time out of your day to provide these instructions. I definitely feel more confident in making this change now. I will give it a shot this evening and let you know how it goes. Thanks again I really appreciate it.

No problem Drako. I'll be on the PC for most of the night tonight, so if anything else comes up while your tweaking i'll be glad to help. I'll keep checking this site to see if you post.

One thing i just remembered though is that i'm not sure if you're just having having this problem with 480 in normal mode? or is the picture off while in 480 full mode too (screen mode) It would be hard to tell since the picture would take up the whole screen, and you wouldn't be able to tell without the black bars unless you have a calibration disc to test. Cause if it's just with normal mode (black bars on each side) You might have to change one of the mid 2 settings. Depends though if you can live with it or not, or if some of the actual picture is being cut off. With me personally, I don't mind tweaking 480 material with mid settings, since it looks like crap anyway (yes i'm spoiled now and loathe watching anything in standard def lol)

My set refuses to go into service mode. I've done some researching and it appears like there are in fact some sets that mis-behave like this. Very frustrated. I'm going to keep trying though!

Nevermind! I just got it! My remote was not in the "TV" function. Which is odd to me cause it still powered on the TV?? Oh well I'm in! lol Now I'm a little confused on how I adjust to my liking cause the screen is entirely black (no black bars for me to adjust).

My set refuses to go into service mode. I've done some researching and it appears like there are in fact some sets that mis-behave like this. Very frustrated. I'm going to keep trying though!


Nah! it's just getting the code right man. Keep trying and i'm sure you'll get it.

Nevermind! I just got it! My remote was not in the "TV" function. Which is odd to me cause it still powered on the TV?? Oh well I'm in! lol Now I'm a little confused on how I adjust to my liking cause the screen is entirely black (no black bars for me to adjust).

LOL disregard my last message then. Turn on a cable box, or whatever else you use to see any 480 material. Thats why you just see no picture.

Any other problems though just PM me! I don't want the topic to be taken over with me and you asking/answering questions.

Hey man I think I got it centered! I can feel the addiction growing just as you predicted. I want to tweak everything now. lol

Overall I'm pretty content even though I know I'm getting probably around 8% overscan. Maybe someday I'll get the guts to try and tweak that too!

Thanks again for helping me out. I would've just lived with the off-centered image otherwise. Thanks!

Hey man I think I got it centered! I can feel the addiction growing just as you predicted. I want to tweak everything now. lol

Overall I'm pretty content even though I know I'm getting probably around 8% overscan. Maybe someday I'll get the guts to try and tweak that too!

Thanks again for helping me out. I would've just lived with the off-centered image otherwise. Thanks!

Sweet! Glad you got it fixed. Weird thing is i just tried to Pm you back, and when i did it said your username was invalid?!?!? Did you get my PM? i tried to resend it again but it keeps saying the same thing.

edit: nm lol i think it was cause i kept hitting forward instead of reply.

You can't :( SCRL is shared , well depending on the resolution. Did you change your mid settings? thats probably why everything is off. SCRL is not input specific though, the same value is shared between 1080i and 720p, and a separate for 480. Is your dvd player upconverting or is just a standard def player?
Yeah, it's an HD-DVD player vs. my HD cable box. So I guess that's why I can change SCRL on my regular progressive scan DVD player without affecting anything, but not the HD-DVD player.

Yeah, I changed some mid settings, but I forget which ones, lol. The odd thing is I have my overscan problem fixed overall thru my cable box and HD-DVD player...but now my regular DVD player (which I use as back-up) is WAY underscanned. Is that a word? I mean, there's too much space around the picture.

Worst case scenario, I'll keep it the way it is. I rarely use my back-up DVD player anyway.

Yeah, it's an HD-DVD player vs. my HD cable box. So I guess that's why I can change SCRL on my regular progressive scan DVD player without affecting anything, but not the HD-DVD player.

Yeah, I changed some mid settings, but I forget which ones, lol. The odd thing is I have my overscan problem fixed overall thru my cable box and HD-DVD player...but now my regular DVD player (which I use as back-up) is WAY underscanned. Is that a word? I mean, there's too much space around the picture.

Worst case scenario, I'll keep it the way it is. I rarely use my back-up DVD player anyway.


I had the same problem with my hd cable box and my xbox 360. i wanted to keep my HD cable viewing perfect and just live with the overscan. BUT with gaming overscan can't be tolerated. So what i did was go back to the default mid 2 settings for 1080i, then use 720p for xbox 360 cause seriously, there is no difference in picture quality with these sets, it just gets upconverted anyway to 1080i.

Is your xbox and cable box both using the component inputs? or you have an elite 360? if your using them both through a component the best thing to do is download this overscan pattern. I'll link it after this post and edit it in. I used it to get both my 360 and cable box to the overscan i wanted. I noticed though with the 360, the best way to adjust the overscan is to just lower EVERYTHING ( like hsiz, vsiz, kill the blanking like hblk,tblk etc) and just get the pic in the middle when it's squeezed and center that while it's small.

Here is the overscan pic voyeur. throw that on a CD or just stream it over to your 360 and see whats up.

I had the same problem with my hd cable box and my xbox 360. i wanted to keep my HD cable viewing perfect and just live with the overscan. BUT with gaming overscan can't be tolerated. So what i did was go back to the default mid 2 settings for 1080i, then use 720p for xbox 360 cause seriously, there is no difference in picture quality with these sets, it just gets upconverted anyway to 1080i.

Is your xbox and cable box both using the component inputs? or you have an elite 360? if your using them both through a component the best thing to do is download this overscan pattern. I'll link it after this post and edit it in. I used it to get both my 360 and cable box to the overscan i wanted. I noticed though with the 360, the best way to adjust the overscan is to just lower EVERYTHING ( like hsiz, vsiz, kill the blanking like hblk,tblk etc) and just get the pic in the middle when it's squeezed and center that while it's small.
Much of this is over my head, I think. But my HD-DVD player is connected thru HDMI and my cable box is connected thru component video cables (as is my back-up DVD player).

wait, i reread your last post and what i posted is kinda pointless i think? You can still use that overscan image to fix your scrl when viewing DVD in standard def (480i or P) Like i said, scrl for 480 can be changed, it only shares the same value with 720p 1080i.


For some reason i am not making any sense when i read back what i post?!??! I'm having such a hard time understanding what i'm even posting. LOL i don't know why.. sorry for the confusion!

Much of this is over my head, I think. But my HD-DVD player is connected thru HDMI and my cable box is connected thru component video cables (as is my back-up DVD player).

LOL over my head too, no worries! Does hdmi have it's own setting for scrl? I don't think it does , as i'm pretty sure scrl is just resolution dependant. I would check for you right now, but for some reason my xbr970 doesn't like it when i try to go into service mode and check hdmi. It just shows a black screen until a few random on offs, then it magically works.

wait, i reread your last post and what i posted is kinda pointless i think? You can still use that overscan image to fix your scrl when viewing DVD in standard def (480i or P) Like i said, scrl for 480 can be changed, it only shares the same value with 720p 1080i.


For some reason i am not making any sense when i read back what i post?!??! I'm having such a hard time understanding what i'm even posting. LOL i don't know why.. sorry for the confusion!
Thanks for the help. I have a DVE which has many test patterns. I'm glad I can alter my SCRL on the standard DVD, I just can't do it on the HD-DVD.

I don't think I can change HSIZ/VSIZ on my 480 player...I wish I could.

BTW Clay, do you remember where your MPIN and PIN are? I'm trying, thru my crosshatch test pattern which looks better. If I have MPIN relatively low and PIN relatively around 14-16, you see the verticle lines curve. Is that pretty much how it has to be?

Thanks for the help. I have a DVE which has many test patterns. I'm glad I can alter my SCRL on the standard DVD, I just can't do it on the HD-DVD.

I don't think I can change HSIZ/VSIZ on my 480 player...I wish I could.


You can, but it will mess up your viewing when watching standard def cable. I'd still download that image i posted and run it on your hd-dvd player and see where your at. The dve you have is probably standard def, right?

You should go back to default mid settings though for now, and see what you are working with, and center things from there. Calibrate everything for 1080i, get that perfect, then mess around with the mids for the other resolutions if you want overscan/underscan where you want it.

BTW Clay, do you remember where your MPIN and PIN are? I'm trying, thru my crosshatch test pattern which looks better. If I have MPIN relatively low and PIN relatively around 14-16, you see the verticle lines curve. Is that pretty much how it has to be?


I'll check in a second

MPIN=10
PIN=14

You can, but it will mess up your viewing when watching standard def cable. I'd still download that image i posted and run it on your hd-dvd player and see where your at. The dve you have is probably standard def, right?

You should go back to default mid settings though for now, and see what you are working with, and center things from there. Calibrate everything for 1080i, get that perfect, then mess around with the mids for the other resolutions if you want overscan/underscan where you want it.
I wouldn't even know where to begin with the mid settings. Yeah, my DVD is actually an HD-DVD.

BTW Clay, do you remember where your MPIN and PIN are? I'm trying, thru my crosshatch test pattern which looks better. If I have MPIN relatively low and PIN relatively around 14-16, you see the verticle lines curve. Is that pretty much how it has to be?

It's pretty much impossible to get the vertical lines perfectly straight. Your best bet would be to use VBOW/LBOW to straighetne them out after tweaking mpin /pin. Also looks can be deceiving, don't forget about the corner pin ones) UCP,LCP,XCP,etc) if they are off it can make any crosshatch patern look bowed.

I wouldn't even know where to begin with the mid settings. Yeah, my DVD is actually an HD-DVD.

You changed them though right? Well i got the defaults if you need them. Thats how i got my overscan down.. but at what cost? LOL this is the cost.. not to scare you or anything, but read this.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7909446#post7909446

Even though he is talking about a different model Sony TV, it still applies to our sets. I seen he effcts while changing the mid settings when having a crosshatch pattern up. I lived with it though, but i'm the kind of guy who hates knowing that i'm not viewing something at it's fullest potential. It may not bother some, but it was always in the back of my mind when watching TV/movies.

You changed them though right? Well i got the defaults if you need them. Thats how i got my overscan down.. but at what cost? LOL this is the cost.. not to scare you or anything, but read this.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7909446#post7909446

Even though he is talking about a different model Sony TV, it still applies to our sets. I seen he effcts while changing the mid settings when having a crosshatch pattern up. I lived with it though, but i'm the kind of guy who hates knowing that i'm not viewing something at it's fullest potential. It may not bother some, but it was always in the back of my mind when watching TV/movies.
Thanks, I'll take a look.

What he is saying is technical, but when i post instructions for us n00bs i try and make it easier. So in other words he is saying don't mess with the mid settings, the default values ARE the right values and should not be tweaked to improve overscan.

But like i said before, when it comes to videogames i don't care if some quality is lost, which is why i tweaked my mid settings for 720p and use that exclusively for my xbox 360 and have the overscan down to 2% BUT with HD cable i have my 1080i set to the defaults and i live with the 5% overscan.

But what i STILL dont get, is what do professional calibrators do to achieve low overscan on these sets without tweaking the mid settings? cause i sure as hell know that you can't get any lower then 4% normal with just hsiz,vsiz on these TV's without that. I guess they just leave them as is?

I made a topic on the display calibration board a few weeks ago asking, look at all the replies i got..0!!! I should edit the question and ask "how do i set contrast" :p I guess they don't say cause they WANT me to get a calibration.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13918843#post13918843

But what i STILL dont get, is what do professional calibrators do to achieve low overscan on these sets without tweaking the mid settings? cause i sure as hell know that you can't get any lower then 4% normal with just hsiz,vsiz on these TV's without that. I guess they just leave them as is?

I made a topic on the display calibration board a few weeks ago asking, look at all the replies i got..0!!! I should edit the question and ask "how do i set contrast" :p I guess they don't say cause they WANT me to get a calibration.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13918843#post13918843

There is some logic to leaving a touch of overscan on a CRT due to the thermal expansion of the aperture grille. When I first turn mine on, the signal is actually underscanned a hair until the AG expands horizontally.

As far as getting answers from the pros, I'm betting most of those guys have moved on to high dollar plasmas and don't even check in on the CRT boards any more.

Dudes.. i'm starting to get really pissed off. So last night i figured i would throw on a dvd after helping people with everything. Well, i noticed that green blob that so many people have posted about. I noticed a discoloation while ago, but it never got bad to the point where i saw green. I just moved my speakers closer to the set, including my svs subwoofer, i figured that must be why. So i unhooked both my right speaker and my subwoofer and moved them away. I gave it the night and turned on the Tv early this morning and both discoloration blobs are still there, even after a few degauses. SO wtf could be causing this if i moved my speakers out of the way? I tried messing with the landing settings and they did nothing as well! I'll take some pics of the problem after i eat dinner then maybe someone can help with which landing setting would fix the problem. What doesn't make sense though is if it was due to the speakers why wouldn't the other side have the same problem right? well thats why i thought it was possibly due to the subwoofer, but guess not.

There is some logic to leaving a touch of overscan on a CRT due to the thermal expansion of the aperture grille. When I first turn mine on, the signal is actually underscanned a hair until the AG expands horizontally.


I know what you mean. My set was like that too when i had my overscan REALLY low, too low actually! I would see the borders of the pictures until the set properly warmed up.

I just did a google for green blob on xbr970 and post came up from our very own Voyeur! Sounds like the same problem, his didn't go away either after moving his speakers and had it replaced! LOL thats not an option for me since there are none left! The warranty from sony itself is two years parts and labor if i'm not mistaken?

Here are the pics. Doesn't look as bad on camera and after my TV warms up, but they still there. Also shows where my speakers/sub are in relation to the set. They are magnetically shielded and i didn't have this problem until recently. Maybe it's the magnets inside the set coming loose? I haven't moved the set though since when i had it delivered over a year ago. Any ideas as what landing settings i can try ( if they even work) to try and fix it?

Clay,
FWIW, I use the original Advent Loudspeaker as my mains, with wholly unshielded drivers next to my 970 with none of the effects you point out. The woofers are lower than the TV, but the tweeter are level with the bottom of the picuture. My right one is about as close, but lower than your picture, and on the other side of a much larger enclosure.

Glad my replacement speaker project uses shielded mains ...

Best of luck,
Frank

PS Tried the old unplug for 10 min trick? How about degaussing? Just some thoughts ...

Clay,
FWIW, I use the original Advent Loudspeaker as my mains, with wholly unshielded drivers next to my 970 with none of the effects you point out. The woofers are lower than the TV, but the tweeter are level with the bottom of the picuture. My right one is about as close, but lower than your picture, and on the other side of a much larger enclosure.

Glad my replacement speaker project uses shielded mains ...

Best of luck,
Frank

PS Tried the old unplug for 10 min trick? How about degaussing? Just some thoughts ...

Actually, i forgot all about the unplugging the set, and just left my set off that night with the speakers away. I think that whole "unplug" the set is just some BS customer service tells us to do, as the degausser works regardless if the set is unplugged or not after like 10 minutes. Another thing i remember reading about on here, which also blows my mind is how one person called Sony customer service and the lady on the phone said the problem is that he had his set plugged into a surge protector and it should be plugged directly into a wall outlet LOL yea ok, i'll take that chance! I could understand if maybe having it plugged in one could affect how well the degausser works? but i always hear the "TWANG" noise from it when powering on, so i don't think thats it. When i first got my RROD on my xbox 360 ( this is before microsoft actually admitted there was a problem with their hardware) the rep told me it was cause i had my xbox 360 plugged into a surge protector, thats what the problem was and it should be directly plugged into a wall. So we should all throw away our surge protectors guys and just direct connect to everything. who wants to be first? LOL

I don't know what to do. I'll give the unplug trick a go and move my speakers away again and cycle a few degausses. If i have a tech come out he'd just tell me it's within specs, especially since it's not as bad as some blobs i have seen. If that don't work then i'll give the landing settings a go. Thanks for help/ suggestions fbov, i'll let you know how it goes. I can't do it now cause i'm watching Yanks/Mets :)

Come to think of it, i think unplugging would help with certain problems, like if it being plugged in built up a magnetic field or something.

When you guys get sick of having to mess with CRT TVs, check out this year's Panasonic plasmas. I have last year's 42" and this year's 50", the 50" actually looks a lot better than the 42". I thought last year's 42" looked pretty good until I got this year's 50". Panasonic really hit it out of the park with this year's TV, absolutely stellar PQ. A 34" CRT just doesn't compare to a 50" plasma.

When you guys get sick of having to mess with CRT TVs, check out this year's Panasonic plasmas. I have last year's 42" and this year's 50", the 50" actually looks a lot better than the 42". I thought last year's 42" looked pretty good until I got this year's 50". Panasonic really hit it out of the park with this year's TV, absolutely stellar PQ. A 34" CRT just doesn't compare to a 50" plasma.

I would rather get a 100" projector image if i'm going big screen, 50" gets small pretty quickly.. Having owned this years Panny for about 2 weeks, it doesn't look nearly as good. The screen sure is bigger, I'll give you that.

I don't agree. None of the convergence, overscan, geometry, colored lines at the edge of blacks problems. That crap used to drive me crazy. You're right it doesn't look nearly as good, it looks far better. I'm not putting a 100" projector in a bedroom where I'm 10' away. If anything 50" is a little big for the room.

Yea, i'm kinda at the point now where i wouldn't mind dealing with gray blacks and inaccurate color instead of all the geometry/convergence issues with this set. Funny about size too, when i first got this Tv it seemed sooo HUGE compared to my old sd 27" Sony . Now this set seems so small, screen wise. Plus the fact that i'm only able to get black level PERFECT through my dvd player, as trying to set it with the xbox360 is impossible, unless i don't want to see anything in the games i'm playing, and with my cable box the best i can do is set it by eye, since there is no way to accurately set with a disc, plus have to take into account the quality of the channel feed, as they would all be different anyway.


I still have the color blobs BTW after trying some of the fixes and even the landing settings. I noticed it's worse when watching dvds through HDMi for some reason.

I don't agree. None of the convergence, overscan, geometry, colored lines at the edge of blacks problems. That crap used to drive me crazy. You're right it doesn't look nearly as good, it looks far better. I'm not putting a 100" projector in a bedroom where I'm 10' away. If anything 50" is a little big for the room.

MY CRT doesn't have any of those issues.

Also you're a plasma owner, so obviously you're going to try justify your purchase by saying it's the best thing ever. Having most likely owned the set you're raving about it's a downstep in PQ aside from the screen size.

Yea, i'm kinda at the point now where i wouldn't mind dealing with gray blacks and inaccurate color instead of all the geometry/convergence issues with this set. Funny about size too, when i first got this Tv it seemed sooo HUGE compared to my old sd 27" Sony . Now this set seems so small, screen wise. Plus the fact that i'm only able to get black level PERFECT through my dvd player, as trying to set it with the xbox360 is impossible, unless i don't want to see anything in the games i'm playing, and with my cable box the best i can do is set it by eye, since there is no way to accurately set with a disc, plus have to take into account the quality of the channel feed, as they would all be different anyway.


I still have the color blobs BTW after trying some of the fixes and even the landing settings. I noticed it's worse when watching dvds through HDMi for some reason.

wouldn't it be nice if sony made a 42" 1080p CRT

When you guys get sick of having to mess with CRT TVs, check out this year's Panasonic plasmas. I have last year's 42" and this year's 50", the 50" actually looks a lot better than the 42". I thought last year's 42" looked pretty good until I got this year's 50". Panasonic really hit it out of the park with this year's TV, absolutely stellar PQ. A 34" CRT just doesn't compare to a 50" plasma.

I'd have to agree although I bought a 50" Kuro plasma .. I love my 34XBR960 but it just doesnt compare to the plasma's overall wow factor especially when it comes to Xbox360 / PS3.

...the convergence, overscan, geometry, colored lines at the edge of blacks problems. That crap used to drive me crazy....

MY CRT doesn't have any of those issues.....Bliss, a wonderful state to be in. :) I suggest you NEVER look for them. ;)

wouldn't it be nice if sony made a 42" 1080p CRTIt would be nice, but at 250 -300 lbs that would be a tough one to move and would be VERY expensive. Of course, all of samijubal's crt issues would be its downfall. For a price greater than a bigger plasma, owners wouldn't stand for the inherent crt problems and Sony would lose money on warranty work trying to align them. IMHO.

wouldn't it be nice if sony made a 42" 1080p CRT

Wouldn't it be nice if you moved it into my living room for me? :eek:

Wouldn't it be nice if you moved it into my living room for me? :eek:

do you own a refrigerator ?

Bliss, a wonderful state to be in. :) I suggest you NEVER look for them. ;)

LOL If only I could do that.

MY CRT doesn't have any of those issues.

Also you're a plasma owner, so obviously you're going to try justify your purchase by saying it's the best thing ever. Having most likely owned the set you're raving about it's a downstep in PQ aside from the screen size.

Well didn't you buy a used Sony hs420 or something? or do you have a 970 also? maybe your set was already calibrated by a professional. I mean if you say it doesn't have any of those problems. Have you used a calibration disc to see? or do you just measure everything while full motion video is playing?

There's no such thing as a CRT without any of those problems. He just hasn't looked close enough. Like Raouliii said, NEVER look for them.

i took mine out of the box, set it up with video essentals and the picture quality is awesome

do i wish it was bigger? of course

if i had a 50" plasma would i want a bigger one ? of course

if i had a 100" projection screen would i want a bigger one ? of course

the performance i get from this tv for the money i spent is ridiculous ($500 free delivery brand new in the box. they even took it out of the box, moved my old tv and put the new one up on the stand and took the packaging away for nothing. i did give them a nice tip)

my next tv is going to be a DLP projector with a 2:35 anamorphic lens and a nice big acoustically transparent screen so i can put my 3 tower speakers behind it

but for the money, this sony is holding me over very nicely. i still can't believe how great the picture quality is

starz HD went off the air last night @ 4am and i was able to capture the color test pattern to my DVR

Nice otk! were the colors pretty close to what you had them calibrated for on other inputs?

i took mine out of the box, set it up with video essentals and the picture quality is awesome

do i wish it was bigger? of course

if i had a 50" plasma would i want a bigger one ? of course

if i had a 100" projection screen would i want a bigger one ? of course

Yea, i noticed no matter what size TV you get after a while you just get so used to the size and it seems normal. Leaves us always wanting something bigger. It sucks when going down in size, i'll never do it. I started with a 19 inch crt and worked my way up ever since. LOL i can't even imagine going back to something like that nowadays, i'd never watch it.

I noticed my black bars when viewing 4:3 material weren't right after going back to the mid defaults a while back and decided to fix them lastnight. What should the exact measurements be of the image width inside the box? has to be a certain number since the height is fixed, hence the 4:3. but i got the width right now at 23.5"

also 99% of the fun house mirror effects/barrel distortion have to do with messing with the mid settings i noticed, and the linearity controls really doesn't help correct it that much. Especially if you have to move the picture, then use something like DHHS to stretch it out, cause you're stretching it out on one side and only moving it on the other. Even if it looks fine, same space between lines it usually isn't. Cause now that i expanded my 4:3 window using mid i noticed this problem.

Nice otk! were the colors pretty close to what you had them calibrated for on other inputs?

didn't fool around with it yet. i have to find my blue filter :D

What? don't use the blue filter! kill the color guns cept for blue. Much more accurate and easier to do it.

Well didn't you buy a used Sony hs420 or something? or do you have a 970 also? maybe your set was already calibrated by a professional. I mean if you say it doesn't have any of those problems. Have you used a calibration disc to see? or do you just measure everything while full motion video is playing?

Yeah I did buy a 30hs420, and it's possible it was calibrated by the previous owner. The only issue was a touch more overscan then I'd like for games. Most of the service menu tweaks that everyone raves about were already applied to my set.

But what i STILL dont get, is what do professional calibrators do to achieve low overscan on these sets without tweaking the mid settings? cause i sure as hell know that you can't get any lower then 4% normal with just hsiz,vsiz on these TV's without that. I guess they just leave them as is?

I made a topic on the display calibration board a few weeks ago asking, look at all the replies i got..0!!! I should edit the question and ask "how do i set contrast" :p I guess they don't say cause they WANT me to get a calibration.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13918843#post13918843

I didn't see your post in the display calibration board when you first posted it, but I just checked it out. I'll take a stab at it, but I'm going from memory because I don't have the set in front of me.
It's true the MID size controls can reduce resolution, as you saw. It is not much of an issue at all at 480i/p, but it is at HD resolutions. The MID centering adjustments do not cause a problem, though. They are OK to use in moderation.
When I calibrate these sets, I use the standard sizing/centering controls, but I use them in conjunction with the MID centering controls for centering different scan rates/input types. I may also use the MID size controls for 480i/p. Before starting, I put up a resolution chart and make sure the MID sizing adjustments are at the optimal sweet spot for 720P and 1080i.
I usually get around 3-4% overscan on Sony CRTs. With some inputs and resolutions I can get lower, to around 2 %. I think that the reason you are having trouble with part of the pic being cut off even after releasing the blanking may be that you need to use a combination of MID centering and standard size/centering adjustments. I say this because I run in to the same problem some times, and I always get it fixed after going back and re tweaking. It reminds me of raster centering on a CRT front projector. If the top is cut off, try moving the picture down with the MID centering control then moving it back up with the standard VCENT.
Unfortunately since I do not have a set in front of me I can't try it out to troubleshoot, but I know this process works for me. I have had some stubborn sets (Sony XBR960s and similar) on which it is very challenging and time consuming to get all inputs from composite to 1080i centered and sized right with 3-4 % overscan or less, but with enough patience and re tweaking I can almost always get it.

Awesome Chad, and thanks for even taking the time to dig up that old post and help out.I remember seeing some of your posts on display calibration and notice you always help out people whenever you can. LOL my post you quoted came off as pretty snobby, sorry about that and hope you don't think i was singling you or other calibrators out, i was just going CRAZY trying to get a definitive answer from someone in the know.

Yea thats all i really wanted was a confirmation from a professional, as to whether or not it would be ok to tweak those settings. You made my night saying it's ok in moderation :) BUT, you saying only use the centering ones? So i shouldn't use the ones that stretch out the picture? cause thats what i usualy have to do to fit the whole image inside the raster, is squeeze it inside. But now i willgo back to see if i can get int better using your tips.I just wont over do it as much as last time to the point of where the picture actually looked like it was tearing if i went one more click over one of the mid settings. Whats weird is i actually have that fun house mirror effect when text pans cross the bottom of the screen, i notice it worse now though since going back to the default mid settings, even though everything lines up and should not cause any problems. But i'm going to redo it again with some mid setting tweaks and i'll fix up any other geometry errors i can after. But i'm just trying to be too much of a perfectionist? For HD viewing i'm at around 4% all round, i used to have it to around 2.5 but that was with MAJOR mid setting adjustments, but what is weird is even after all that my picture didn't seem too distorted. I just could have swore the picture become "dirty" looking, and pixelated, but that might have just been in my head lol.

Thanks again for the help man, i appreciate it.

PS. If i don't end up drop kicking this TV out the window and decide on a calibration down the line you will be the first calibrator i 'll check about booking.

Sure, no problem!
Well, the MID sizing controls have an effect on the resolution. With HD scan rates there is a discernible "sweet spot" with them. In the sweet spot you can almost make out single pixel wide lines in a resolution pattern (on a 960; you can't see the single pixel wide lines on the 970, but otherwise it acts the same), and there is no banding in 1 or 2 pixel wide resolution patterns. Just one click away from the sweet spot you start to get slight banding in the resolution patterns. Several clicks away and you start getting the super weird effects and tearing you noticed. You need to have the right test pattern to see this sweet spot setting.
The MID sizing controls expand or compress the entire picture width and height very evenly. The regular horizontal width control stretches or compresses the edges slightly more than the center. That's just an annoying thing I've found. Don't know how much help it'll be...
Sometimes I am tempted to use the MID sizing, but because of the slight resolution issue I try not to.

Yea, i know exactly what you mean about the "sweet spot" I noticed the best pattern to use for checking with this is the 970's built in patterns in "PATN" The one with the grey lines on the black background, looks more like an overscan test pattern but works great for this. I noticed whenever changing something in mid vertically some of the lines began to dim, like it's throwing the scan lines out of whack. This never happens when adjusting the VPOS, SCRL settings. But when i got all the mid settings on default all the grey lines are evenly bright!


So it really all depends on how these sets come from the factory right? cause like i said, i'm at 4% overscan right now on HD TV viewing, but that was unacceptable for video game playing. So what i did was change the settings on my HD box to only display 1080i when watching TV for HD, BUT i have my xbox 360 set to use 720p, since this set just converts to 1080i anyways, and i tweaked those mid settings to around 2-2.5 overscan. This way i was able to do whatever with the 720p setting overscan wise, but able to keep my TV viewing perfect, be it at 4% overscan, but with no picture quality issues. I mean, can't notice any picture degradation while playing games, and i don't watch movies on my 360. The 4% was too much for gaming! I don't think game developers take into account things like that when programming games.

Thanks for taking the time and explaining everything to me man! Very helpful! I'm probably going to keep my mid settings at default, since you say you usually get around 3-4%, and im at 4% right now, probably not worth it to change the mids and degrade the picture for an extra percent of underscan! I still need to fix some geometry issues i been putting off that i'm going to tackle tonight. LOL i keep putting it off cause it's so time consuming. But now that i know more about those mid settings i can finally set everything without having to worry about changing things again.. well until next week or i decide to tweak something else! Thanks again and take care Chad!

Could someone post the default Mid 2 settings for 720p and 1080i? I basically have overscan eliminated but I want to go back to the original settings and compare picture quality. I always write down the settings I change but I bought the 970 used and the Mid 2 settings had already been fiddled with so I do not know what the default settings were.

Could someone post the default Mid 2 settings for 720p and 1080i? I basically have overscan eliminated but I want to go back to the original settings and compare picture quality. I always write down the settings I change but I bought the 970 used and the Mid 2 settings had already been fiddled with so I do not know what the default settings were.

Yea, i'll help you out. Sorry it took so long for me or anyone else to reply, i wasn't around a PC the past few days. But i just need to know what you need the defaults for? The mid2's have different settings for every input you use. PM me what you need. All of them for every input? or do you just use HDMI, component?

Yea, i'll help you out. Sorry it took so long for me or anyone else to reply, i wasn't around a PC the past few days. But i just need to know what you need the defaults for? The mid2's have different settings for every input you use. PM me what you need. All of them for every input? or do you just use HDMI, component?

I sent you a PM. I need the Mid 2 defaults for the component and hdmi inputs for both 720p and 1080i resolutions if you have them. Again, thanks for all your help.

Let me know how it goes Amazin, and other other questions PM me, or leave any on here. Back to my one of many problems though, The color blobs. I still can't get rid of the color blobs on my set! It's starting to make every white scene look dirty, instead of crisp. I don't notice anything changing when i tweak with the Landing settings.

Even though i didn't think unplugging the set would do anything i did that, moved my speakers away,moved some components. STILL there and going nowhere fast. If landing isn't doing anything does that mean it's something inside that can't be fixed in service menu? I posted a pic on here and know what has to be donn when tweaking the landing settings, like turning off corners first, etc, well i don't remember off hand but i wrote it down with my 500 pages of other TV notes and will find it later tonight. I'm going to give the landing settings one more go, just wondering which of the settings would i have to change to rid my set of the blobs? I will find the pic i posted of it in a second and edit this post so it shows it. Any help would be appreciated

Let me know how it goes Amazin, and other other questions PM me, or leave any on here. Back to my one of many problems though, The color blobs. I still can't get rid of the color blobs on my set! It's starting to make every white scene look dirty, instead of crisp. I don't notice anything changing when i tweak with the Landing settings.

Even though i didn't think unplugging the set would do anything i did that, moved my speakers away,moved some components. STILL there and going nowhere fast. If landing isn't doing anything does that mean it's something inside that can't be fixed in service menu? I posted a pic on here and know what has to be donn when tweaking the landing settings, like turning off corners first, etc, well i don't remember off hand but i wrote it down with my 500 pages of other TV notes and will find it later tonight. I'm going to give the landing settings one more go, just wondering which of the settings would i have to change to rid my set of the blobs? I will find the pic i posted of it in a second and edit this post so it shows it. Any help would be appreciated

I had this problem with my 34XBR960 and using the landing settings cleared the problem so i would actually say it is something outside of the set causing some sort of interference but I am certainly no expert so I cannot be sure and also believe it or not i had a tech tell me to plug the set directly into the wall which also fixed the problem. I received your email and will resume tweaking sometime tonight maybe...about the BLK setting there is 0 for off, 1 for low, 2 for medium, and 3 for high...I use SBRT 25, UBOF 1, and BLK 1 and see no black crush while preserving inky blacks. The BLK setting is resolution dependent. One way to see a difference is using the XBOX 360 dashboard and go through the settings from 0-3...you will definately see black crush on anything above a setting of 1.

I'm kinda worried about doing that though, the whole plug the set directly into the wall. Granted, no lightning strikes ever directly hit my house/power lines, but i do get power surges ever now and then, especially when my AC or dehumidifier kicks in, the lights dim. I wouldn't feel safe, unless this TV has some preventative surge suppressor tech built in ? maybe i should plug in in the wall for a few days and see see if it clears up on it's own after the degusser runs a few times after a couple of on/off cycles. I know for a fact now it's now my speakers though. I recently replaced my wall ac outlet too, BTW, i have the set plugged into Pure AV line conditioner, surge protector.

where do you guys keep color temp ?

i find "cool" to be the best for me

Warm. Calibrators themselves have said it's the closest setting to 6500k, i don't go by what looks "good" i go by what is right lol. That may sound stupid, but it's done for a reason. There have been a few times though when i have adjusted picture modes while viewing and thought 'damn this looks better than what i have it at, cause you get used to whatever setting you are using for a long enough amount of time, so switching while watching would make you think 'damn this looks so much better!' like with the cool setting noticed the "added blue" makes everything look more vibrant, but i always go back to warm. But keep it at whatever you like and looks best for you. I'm a sheep!

Those are the settings i never fret over though, that and picture mode. I just keep always set them to warm and pro. It's the geometry problems and color blobs that i'm trying to tackle, i keep trying to reach video Nirvana, but know it's not possible, but i keep trying!

I'm kinda worried about doing that though, the whole plug the set directly into the wall. Granted, no lightning strikes ever directly hit my house/power lines, but i do get power surges ever now and then, especially when my AC or dehumidifier kicks in, the lights dim. I wouldn't feel safe, unless this TV has some preventative surge suppressor tech built in ? maybe i should plug in in the wall for a few days and see see if it clears up on it's own after the degusser runs a few times after a couple of on/off cycles. I know for a fact now it's now my speakers though. I recently replaced my wall ac outlet too, BTW, i have the set plugged into Pure AV line conditioner, surge protector.

Yeah i understand the worries of plugging directly into the wall which is why I have my 970 plugged into a Monster surge protector but the 960 i have directly into the wall or I run into the discoloration problems...with the landing settings plus plugging directly into the into the wall these problems go away. On a side note I use UBOF set at 2 instead of 1 which i said earlier. Also if you are still messing with the overscan issues i have found something interesting...if you use the built in crosshatch pattern in the PATN setting the Mid 2 Settings are different when not using the pattern at 1080i and i would assume this is the same for 720p. What I am saying is my Mid 2 settings change when I activate the crosshatch pattern with PATN setting in the service menu and then they return to what they were when I deactivate it. So I decided to use a pattern that I had on a usb drive and connected it to the XBOX 360 and came up with a perfect 2.5% overscan around the entire image in 1080i. The only setting I changed from the deafaults in the Mid 2 section was the DHVS to center the image vertically. I see no image degradation when centering the image so I am going to leave it. I get perfect circular shapes with the overscan at 2.5 % so I think I am done tweaking and will start doing more enjoying now.:) I changed some other geometry settings slightly, at this point I am happy with all inputs and picture quality and geometry including overscan. Thanks for the help and if you are still having trouble I could go through and record my settings if you are interested but with every set being different they may or may not be helpful.

Yea, i never use the PATN patterns to actually tweak the picture though, i use my avia calibration disc. I just used the PATN patterns to see what was gong on with the image when messing with the mid 2 settings. What do you mean about the PATN pattens being different though? you have to keep scrolling to get to the res you want to tweak, is that what you mean? Each res has different mid settings. The mid settings and other service menu settings are different when using the TV's built in pattern generator, so it may look right on the TV, but once you use a dvd player or video game you would have different settings. Sorry if i'm not making sense, i'm confusing myself at this point lol.

I think i have UBOF set to 2 as well, with HD viewing, but have it at 0 with standard def.

Yea, i never use the PATN patterns to actually tweak the picture though, i use my avia calibration disc. I just used the PATN patterns to see what was gong on with the image when messing with the mid 2 settings. What do you mean about the PATN pattens being different though? you have to keep scrolling to get to the res you want to tweak, is that what you mean? Each res has different mid settings. The mid settings and other service menu settings are different when using the TV's built in pattern generator, so it may look right on the TV, but once you use a dvd player or video game you would have different settings. Sorry if i'm not making sense, i'm confusing myself at this point lol.

I think i have UBOF set to 2 as well, with HD viewing, but have it at 0 with standard def.

Lets say you are feeding the tv a 1080i signal and you enter the service menu and you go to the Mid 2 settings...the values that these settings are currently at will change once you enter 1 for the PATN setting to get to the crosshatch pattern...with the crosshatch pattern up on screen go back to the Mid 2 settings and they will be something else and when you exit the PATN setting by changing it to 0 and go back to the Mid 2 settings these values will be the same before entering the PATN setting. Long story short use your own test pattern...but also I believe you shouldn't make changes to some maybe all settings while using the PATN feature because I do not believe they will be accurate nor will they stick once you exit PATN. Very confusing.

Yea that happens cause no matter what res you are in once you go into PATN it starts out showing images in 480 i thinks. So you have to scroll to the other images until you get to the res you want. Is that what you mean?

Anything new going on with our TV?

I guess not.

I have yet to see a flatscreen television that performs like the XBR970 (speaking in terms of picture quality alone). I would love to go flat to rid myself of dealing with my slight geometry/overscan issues, and the massive size, but until I see some great improvements in picture quality, and a price tag under $1000, I wont be replacing my 970. I've heard some of the new plasmas are starting to look better. Maybe LaserVue will live up to the hype. What will be your next TV purchase?

I have yet to see a flatscreen television that performs like the XBR970 (speaking in terms of picture quality alone). I would love to go flat to rid myself of dealing with my slight geometry/overscan issues, and the massive size, but until I see some great improvements in picture quality, and a price tag under $1000, I wont be replacing my 970. I've heard some of the new plasmas are starting to look better. Maybe LaserVue will live up to the hype. What will be your next TV purchase?

If I get another TV it will certainly be an LCD or Plasma. More likely it will be LCD since it's cheaper. I probably won't have this 970 TV forever. I know when I move and get my own place I will not take this TV with me. The reasons being it will be a bitch to haul and I don't want to blow money on getting a stand just to support the weight. I'd rather just buy a new one and save myself the aggrivation. Besides, even thought his TV and its technology are still good, the CRT is now obsolete. So even if my TV, god forbid, broke down I'm S.O.L in terms of repair. And I'm sure as hell not going to try to haul it somewhere to get it fixed. It's better to save up some money and get a decent LCD to hold me over. Also, LCD's and Plasma's are gradually becoming cheaper. So even when I do get my own place the TV's should be cheap enough that I can get a good model at a decent price. Even if I don't get my own place I can still save up for a good model some day and replace the TV. When that happens, I'll either have to haul this TV somewhere for storage or dismantle it. I'm sure as hell not going to move it around to different places.

A part of me regrets getting the TV because of the size, weight, and how CRT's are pretty much obsolete now. A part of me doesn't regret getting the TV since it has good picture quality sound despite geometry issues. When I first got this TV I knew there were pros and cons so I live with my decision. I've had my TV for about 1.5 years and it's still in good shape despite the geometry problems. In terms of those I've done what I've could with the service menu to get the geometry as correct as possible. I also regulary keep it free of dust and take care of it.

I'm sure down the line I'll buckle down and finally get an LCD or Plasma, but I'm not in any hurry. I'd rather wait a while and let the prices gradually go down. When I do finally decide to replace this TV I can get a great model and enjoy it. But in the meantime, I'm glad my TV works and I hope it can last. So far it has served me well and I hope it can continue to do so. I take care of it so it should take care of me.

The only LCDs cheaper than plasmas are the generic brands. Name brand LCDs are more than name brand plasmas the same size.

I have yet to see a flatscreen television that performs like the XBR970 (speaking in terms of picture quality alone). I would love to go flat to rid myself of dealing with my slight geometry/overscan issues, and the massive size, but until I see some great improvements in picture quality, and a price tag under $1000, I wont be replacing my 970. I've heard some of the new plasmas are starting to look better. Maybe LaserVue will live up to the hype. What will be your next TV purchase?

i know exactly what you mean, CRT still has the best overall PQ Bar none..and is perfect for gaming, LCD just isn't good with motion, and the reason why i game on a CRT. i look foward to laser vue tv's though, and hope it lives up to it's promises.

But for now my CRT SONY will do. it's about 4 1/2 years old now and hopefully lasts for a long time, i love this tv!:)

I have yet to see a flatscreen television that performs like the XBR970 (speaking in terms of picture quality alone). I would love to go flat to rid myself of dealing with my slight geometry/overscan issues, and the massive size, but until I see some great improvements in picture quality, and a price tag under $1000, I wont be replacing my 970. I've heard some of the new plasmas are starting to look better. Maybe LaserVue will live up to the hype. What will be your next TV purchase?

Panasonic makes a couple of sub $1000 32" LCDs with great picture quality. I gave the $700 model to my mom for Christmas last year, and it was a pleasant surprise. I also own an XBR970, and would rate it even overall with the LCD. Better black level on the CRT, but better overall contrast and perfect geometry on the LCD.

LaserVue?!??! What in the world is that? I never even heard of it, i'm out of the loop! I need to do a google an see whats up. Damn, by the time i get a new TV there is going to be like 20 different technologies to choose from.

On a side note i got kind of worried, i just turned my 970 on and it seemed like it took longer for the set to start up and the red lights were blinking more times. I don't know though.

But for now my CRT SONY will do. it's about 4 1/2 years old now and hopefully lasts for a long time, i love this TV!:)

Amen. My six year old KD-34XBR2 still looks great. :cool:

LaserVue?!??! What in the world is that? I never even heard of it, i'm out of the loop! I need to do a google an see whats up. Damn, by the time i get a new TV there is going to be like 20 different technologies to choose from.

On a side note i got kind of worried, i just turned my 970 on and it seemed like it took longer for the set to start up and the red lights were blinking more times. I don't know though.

It should be ten blinks to picture, at least that's what mine always is.

on my 970 when ever im watching tv just regular cable no box or anything, the picture will get a like greenish pulse through the picture. its hard to explain but the picture will turn slighty green for just a second just long enough to distort the picture then will do this every couple minutes or so. then i might not notice it for awhile. i thought it was the actual cable i would move it around then it would stop then come back. the ps3 has a very good picture and no problems when its playing through hdmi. the tv is 1 year old i got one of the last ones i think. and through component is good too. but could this be the tv itself or my cable service, i still have the tv under in house warrenty for another 11 months. any help is appreciated.

Mitsubishi LaserVue
I know it's not CRT related, but this technology might be the closest(or even the same) to CRT.

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/884/884742/mitsubishi-reveals-new-laservue-details-20080626025156336-000.jpg

LaserVue > Plasma > LCD

If the Claims are true.

But already, it's been proven that LaserVue has the advantage in color based on pictures, videos, information and most importantly opinions from people who have seen it face to face for themselves. The LaserVue reps claim that Plasmas and LCDs only show 40% of Color based on what the eye can see, when LaserVue shows 80%....I mean really, all I want is for the color to be as good as a high end CRT and I'll be happy. And LaserVue will obviously hit that mark.

http://gearmedia.ign.com/gear/image/article/884/884742/mitsubishi-reveals-new-laservue-details-20080626025129383-000.jpg

As for Black levels, IGN's Gear editor stated that they "looked black enough" and as for response time, don't know yet. But it is based on DLP technology, and arent DLPS fantastic when it comes to motion? Anyways, as it stands....The Color and Black levels will be most likely be CRT PQ, but the question is, will the motion?Besides that, they're environmentally friendly and consume half less power than an LCD and are Brighter than a DLP. And they'll offer a 'Smooth 120-hz' Mode, as well as a 3D Mode and support xv Color(whatever that is)

Also, the downside(for some) besides the fact that they're not flat panel(I could care less, because they're still only 10 inches deep) is that they only plan on releasing a 65" and 73" this year....I for for one, would love one at 46" and if I had to, i'd go 50"

Anyways, the awesome news is that 'this' September(as in NOW, this month) Mitsubishi will be releasing the 65"
What can I say, I'm super stoked, i can't wait to see if it lives up to the hype and not to mention CNETs review.
Ah, and Here's an Article and a Couple of LaserVue Videos, enjoy ;)

LaserVue Article > http://gear.ign.com/articles/884/884742p1.html
LaserVue Logo Video > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdE_gJhDBO8
LaserVue Footage with Rep > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRDBVByybDc&feature=related

And if rumers are true about LaserVue, i wont even think twice about buying a Plasma or an LCD(especially).

and they will cost 1 million dollars for the first 20 years

and they will cost 1 million dollars for the first 20 years

Probably.
And it was obvious BS when Mitsubishi revealed(way back) that Laser HDTVS would cost half the price of a typical display. But now they say they will cost as much as any other high end Plasma or LCD.

How long do you guys plan on keeping your Sony 970 TV's?

How long do you guys plan on keeping your Sony 970 TV's?

till they come out with something better

i forgot to add, for the same price i paid for the 970

and only if it's a lot better and only if my 970 is dead and out of warranty

How long do you guys plan on keeping your Sony 970 TV's?

Until it breaks. It's too heavy to move around for no good reason. :eek:

How long do you guys plan on keeping your Sony 970 TV's?

Until it breaks. It's too heavy to move around for no good reason. :eek:

Forever, or until it no longer works:confused:. Which ever comes first:eek:!

How did you guys get the TV in your house? I know you didn't move it alone.

I bought a plasma and im happy with it ,but im still in love with my 970 for some reason pq,I guess i'll keep it till i get a bigger place it's currently in my garage :( unused.

How did you guys get the TV in your house? I know you didn't move it alone.

circuit city delivered it for free

brought it into the home. took it out of the box. placed it on the stand

even took my old tv off the stand which was a big heavy CRT

turned it on. made sure everything was ok

i gave them a nice tip

I've gotten 5 good years of use out of my sony, and hope to get another 5 years worth. i love this tv!:D

So yes i'm keeping it untill it dies, actually i might get it repaired if it comes to that and only something else fails besides the tube, i'd have no probelm paying a repairman to replace a part. Tube CRT is still more reliable IMO compared to LCD.

I'd love to upgrade but don't feel the need since the sony is pretty much perfect for my needs.

i wonder how long parts will be around for it

I'm sure parts for the TV still exist, but you'll have to look carefully for them.

i have had my 970 for almost a year now and i still love it, i especially love it when i have buddies over to watch football, who have their own HD sets and comment on how great my picture is

i have had my 970 for almost a year now and i still love it, i especially love it when i have buddies over to watch football, who have their own HD sets and comment on how great my picture is

I agree i've had some compliments like that too.I also had it almost a year now.I now own a Panasonic Plasma looks great,but i keep going back to my Sony for picture quality it beats the plasy for me :p

I've gotten 5 good years of use out of my sony, and hope to get another 5 years worth. i love this tv!:D

So yes i'm keeping it untill it dies, actually i might get it repaired if it comes to that and only something else fails besides the tube, i'd have no probelm paying a repairman to replace a part. Tube CRT is still more reliable IMO compared to LCD.

I'd love to upgrade but don't feel the need since the sony is pretty much perfect for my needs.

Do you have the 970? or an older Model?

How did you guys get the TV in your house? I know you didn't move it alone.

I bought it from an out of town Circuit City. It barely fit into the Jeep Cherokee (in the box) that I borrowed to bring it home. My 18 year old weightlifting nephew had one end and I and my father in-law had the other end. We still managed to scratch the stand that I specifically bought for it because my nephew sat it down too quickly. He is all muscle, no brain...

I intend to use it as long as I can. The almost six bills I paid for it was the most expensive "luxury" item I have purchased. The WAF isn't going to happen until it dies.

...I intend to use it as long as I can. The almost six bills I paid for it was the most expensive "luxury" item I have purchased. The WAF isn't going to happen until it dies.

You paid almost $100K for a Sony Tube? :D

Do you have the 970? or an older Model?

i have the older model the 34HS420, great tv!

i have the older model the 34HS420, great tv!
is there a diference between your set and the 970?

PSN : Kruzifixxion666

is there a diference between your set and the 970?

PSN : Kruzifixxion666

it's pretty much the same tv but the menus are different and the XBR970 uses a digital tuner which my tv lacks. besides some cosmetic differences, they are both the same tv.

oh ok cool.I was playing ps3 on my 970 yesterday and noticed that the clear edge enhancedment improves the picture by adding extra sharpness,but doesnt it add false information? I used to have it on high,but then turned it off and the letters on the tv look full not too skinny.What setting do any of you keep your clear edge enhancements?

i keep mine off for games and movies, i find it adds too many issues with it on.

Nice Surfingmatt yeah i kept it off and noticed it did look better to me,I still love this tv over my new Panny plazy Lol .

i keep mine off for games and movies, i find it adds too many issues with it on.

Issuise like more noise and picture,skinny text?

*bump*

Issuise like more noise and picture,skinny text?

yup! pretty much..

*bump*

Is this a sign the thread is falling off:eek:?

hyghwayman

P.S. My xbr970 is pumping out a great picture.

Is this a sign the thread is falling off:eek:?

hyghwayman

P.S. My xbr970 is pumping out a great picture.

I think the TV puts out a very good picture overall. Sony does make pretty good TV's for picture and sound.

they do make good tv's but i find the premium prices not worth it sometimes.

You paid almost $100K for a Sony Tube? :D

My bills only have two zeros on them. :D

Well, mostly they only have one zero on them but with 12 months same as cash, they looked like they had two zeros on them...:rolleyes:

Meh i had it Lol I like my new Plasma for it's size 42 inch but the black's arent there! ahhhhh! and it doesnt give me a 3d image like my old 970.My wife thinks im crazy she says she doesnt see the diference,meh im going back to my 970 :D