Hey all,

Just replaced my 10-year old Sony TV with a Sony KD-32FS170, and the acronyms in the service menu appear to be many more, and different. Some major ones are the same (like VPOS, HPOS, VSIZ, HSIZ, VLIN, VBOW, etc), but many I have never heard of before.

The reason for my question is that I want to get rid of the red-push on the display as it is irritatingly strong even when I adjust the color settings I know. I am quite sure there are new settings that I could use, but am unfamiliar with.

Anyone have a good description of what RCUT and RDRV do? I tried them, but they seem to do little to fix the issue. Other settings I suspect will help me are:

OSLB
OSLG
OSLR
OSDC
YOFF
COBH
COBL
COGH
COGL
CORH
CORL

Also, I am looking for settings to tweak the "Auto White Balance", "Dynamic Picture Processor Circuitry", and "Vertical Aperture Compensation" settings described in this TV's marketing info:

Marketing Specs - KD-32FS170:
http://www.iq.sony.com/srvs/DocsConnect/docget.asp?manualid=70519&DL=true

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

DarkDune :o

Well,

I was able to read through some of the "THE SONY SERVICE CODES - Articles, Comments, Discoveries" post, and after some tweaking on my KD-32FS170 set I have some answers. I will be ordering the Service Manual soon, so I may figure out some more after that. Here goes:


TEST MATERIAL

In testing my settings, I used the following test DVD material:

STAR WARS EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH
This DVD has many good examples of rich Reds/Oranges in the Mustafar Fight, as well as lots of good Blue, and Green Lightsaber use for observing Blue and Green gun quality. Also, many scenes with great contrast and black level detail.

STAR WARS - A NEW HOPE
An older film, with a new tranfer, and color-corrected by the genius' at Lowrey Digital (now DTS Digital Images - http://www.dts.com/digital_images/)...I use it to check Red Push during the scene where Princess Leia inserts a card into R2-D2. The red reflection off of her pale complexion and white robes is useful for verifying skin-tones. There is also good red-checking material in all of the hallway scenes on the Tantive IV Blockade Runner. Check the red glow of the hallway panels!

Now if I could just fix the Lowrey/Lucas "Color-Corrected" Green Tint in Luke's Blue Lightsaber :rolleyes:

PIXAR's FINDING NEMO
Four words, "Blue, and Orange Fish". And the fish are set against some great, richly colored backgrounds (Deep Blue Water, Murky Green Water, etc). All are great for testing for high levels of Red, Blue, and Green in your picture!

OVATION SOFTWARE's AVIA - GUIDE TO HOME THEATER
Test Patterns! Test Patterns! Test Patterns! The test patterns I most recommend for color and resolution correction are:

Special Tests - Color Decoder Check, Overscan
Resolution - Sharpness
Grayscale & Levels - Black Bars, Black Bars+Half Gray, and any Gray Field test.
Widescreen Enhanced - WSE Resolution


TESTING/TROUBLESHOOTING PROCESS

So, with the test material in hand, I got started (Be sure to pick material you are familiar with as it will enable you to better discern if it looks "off").

Some initial discoveries:

The KD-32FS170 has several Option Groups in the Service Menu:

DEF
Default options for all picture modes (TV, Video 1 (S-Video), Video 2, Video 3 (480i Component), etc). Familiar option controls are HSIZ, HPOS, VSIZ, VPOS, VLIN, VBOW, VANG, PAMP, UPIN, LPIN, HBLK, RBLK, LBLK, VBLK etc.

PALLET
This set of options controls the baseline pallet of the different viewing modes (i.e. Standard, Movie, Pro, and Vivid). I set them to be all identical for a baseline so that I can later choose each to be configured for specific viewing conditions. Mine are usually, "movies at night", "daytime viewing", "sports", and an "experimental" one. Familiar settings here are VPIC, VBRI, VCOL, VHUE, VSHA, VVM, VGMA, BKDP, BKRC, BKSP, and CONO which is actually for baseline contrast.

16:9
Settings specific to the 16x9 Widescreen Enhanced mode when in use. Helpful items are again VSIZ, VPOS, VLIN, PAMP, UPIN, LPIN and SCON is a plus if you can believe it.

VP1
The major grouping of Color Correction, Sharpness, and Black Level adjustment options are here. RDRV, GDRV, BDRV, RCUT, GCUT, BCUT, SCON, SHUE, SCOL, SBRT, RON, GON, BON, AXIS, SSHO, SSHP, SHPF, BKON, BKRC, BKDP, BKSP, UOFS, VOFS.

VP2
Velocity Modulation, Gamma, and some other Color and Black Level control options are in this list. VMOF, VMLO, VMHI, VMDL, VMPL, VMWD, VMCL, VMMX, GAMM, BGPP, BDOF, GDOF, BCOF, GCOF, DCTV, DCTG.

Y/C
Only two options in this list, YCMD, and ALFA.

NR: ---
Don't know what this list controls yet, but it has some familiar items in it which I did not observe altering the image when I changed them. SCOL, SHCL, SHMX VMHI, VMCL, VMMX, GAMM.

ASIC
There are many options in this list, and I am not sure what they all control. The one's I am interested in are CORL, CORH, COGL, COGH, COBL, COBH, BGST, YOFF, DCCK, and OSDC.

MICRO
Again, there are several options in this list, and I am not sure what they all control. The one's I am interested in are OSLR, OSLG, and OSLB.


TESTING/TROUBLESHOOTING DISCOVERIES

PROBLEM 1 : Red-Push or "Why is Everything Glowing Pink?"

When I first turned on the set, I noticed something we all dread. Tremendous RED-PUSH! Having loved the fact that I am able to tweak Sony TV settings for over ten years now using the Service Menu, I was delighted that I could get into the Service Menu on this set too. However, I got concerned when A LOT of the settings that were there were entirely unfamiliar to me. I was especially concerned when I couldn't find descriptions for any of them on the Web, and I also couldn't figure out which ones adjusted the Red specifically, because my eyes were telling me that Red-Push was the major issue.

After a night or two of frenzied searching, I finally found some info that confirmed for me that I would be able to adjust the Red using the familiar RDRV and RCUT settings. Furthermore, I discovered that I could use these other options as well:

SCOL - Use this option along with the regular TV Color Menu option to get started. The best test I have found to help fix Red-Push is the Avia Color Decoder Check test, along with a follow-up using one of the Gray Field tests and adjusting the CUT and DRV settings for Red, Green, and Blue (see next note).

RCUT, RDRV - In order to set these correctly, use one of the Gray Field tests from Avia. Turn the regular Color setting to 0, and ensure that there is no Red tint to the Gray image. This will help you set the Red Gun correctly. I ended up only needing to adjust the RCUT setting.

NOTE: This is also a good test to perform if the Gray Field is slightly Blue, or Green. BCUT, BDRV, GCUT, and GDRV can be adjusted to fix that!

BGPP - Seems to increase/decrease the Red Color Push excessively. I ultimately set this one notch higher than what it was when I first got into the Service Menu. I did this because the other tweaks I did allowed me to add a touch more color later. Increasing the BGPP setting made the colors richer still, and when black level is set correctly, those Lightsabers and other colored light sources would literaly "glow" on the screen!

WARNING! - VOFS and UOFS
These two settings also appear to adjust color and hue, but I am not sure what it is that they are doing when you change them. So I suggest leaving them alone unless you cannot figure out how to fix Red-Push using the methods above. BE SURE TO RECORD THE INITIAL SETTINGS! You never know when you might need to go back to them. I played with these two settings on my Video 3 (480i Component) connection before writing down the initial settings, and I am finding myself scratching my head trying to figure out why the Component image is so muted green and blue. BE CAREFUL WITH VOFS and UOFS!


PROBLEM 2 : How do I fix Bluriness?:

See my next Post on Velocity Modulation and Sharpness tweaks for the Sony KD-32FS170!

COMING SOON!

The service manual identifies AALS as the Analog ACL On/Off Control. It is set to 1 by default, but when I set it to 0, I get MUCH better picture. The only problem is that when the Picture setting is set too high, the TV shuts off.

Any idea why the TV would shut off?

Thanks in advance...

I don't have your set but the RCUT and RDRV are gray scale controls for red, which does not affect red push. Red push is a color decoder issue. On my set there is an AXIS in the service menu which is 0 by default. It needed to be set to 1 to correct the red push. But you are right, use the CUTs and DRVs while looking at gray scale patterns to get them gray. CUTs affect low IRE or percent output and DRVs affect the high IRE.