Toshiba XF550 series calibration service menu access and usage - Page 7

LeRoyK,

I read my settings from a preference based off of movie mode. I actually used your settings as a basis so thank you for that.

TC

first off O M G!! Leroy, you are so awesome. i used your settings on an 46rf350u thinking that the settings would apply. DID THEY EVER! i now know what gray is supposed to look like. all this time i was looking at saturated blue gray. the settings are amazing and the black level and detail in it is unmatched to any setting i previously had. you are the kind of person that make this forum worthwhile visiting.

thank you Leroy.

I tried your settings from post 30 leroy on my 42, it looked good intially then I spotted some problems. I popped in I,Robot after I changed all the settings and yeah the skies were grey, the green color of will smith's wall in the opening scene turned greyish also. I also backed out of my PS3 onto the XMB in which I have a white background, it looked way too red. I did adapt some settings though, such as not using Dynamic Contrast and set my SG to -4. I also turned down the blue drive a little. my previous settings made it looked too blue. I'm just hoping someone with a 42 calibrated and shared their settings already lol. Thanks though man, I really wished your settings worked on my tv.

isthere a way to update the firmware on the xf550

Yesterday a friend of mine who ordered a 52XF550U set from Costco after seeing mine, asked me over to do a calibration of his with my meter. His software was the April 7, 2008 version so his CUT service menu settings worked.

I only saw his set in daylight, so I can't comment on clouds or flashlights in a dark room. None were visible with the light in the room.

In Movie mode, I wrote down the values in the service menu before making any adjustments. They were:

R-CUT 00H
G-CUT F0H
B-CUT 00H
R-DRV 77H
G-DRV 7AH
B-DRV 7EH
BRTC 77H
COLC 8BH
UVTT 79H
CNTX 7FH
SHRC 08H
VBIS 00H
CC 90H
ID1 88H
GG 40H
OPT1 00H
OPT2 00H
OPT3 E0H
OPT4 6BH
OPT5 00H
SETID D2H
VOLX 64H

To start things off I set Movie mode, before starting my settings. This is an important first step. Movie mode indirectly sets up a number of settings not directly available in the user or service menus.

My friends room was not overly bright or dark so I first set the Backlight to 50 and turned on Dynalight. (I am a fan). From experience I turned of Dynamic Contrast and set Static Gamma to -4 in the Advanced Settings menu.

He has a Motorola 3416 DVR connected via HDMI, and a very old 480i Sony DVD connected via Component. I brought my Pansonic BD30 Bluray player with my AVS HD calibration disk, laptop, eye-one light meter and HCFR calibration software. I connected the Bluray with HDMI.

Using the excellent AVS HD Brightness and Contrast setting screens, I set Brightness to 57 and Contrast to 88. (Use Native sizing mode for this one, scaling artifacts can occur on the edges of the luminance blocks otherwise)

Next up was setting the gray scale using the meter and HCFR. I began by putting up a 10% gray image and using continuous measurements. The factory settings had Blue much higher than green which in turn was higher than red. I decided to leave green alone and move blue and red to match. I raised R-CUT to 20H and lowered B-CUT to AA in the service menu. This put the 10% gray image right on 6500K. The register values tracked fairly well with what the sensor saw, so the adjustment was pretty easy. I you do this yourself, be patient. The meter needs to take multiple readings at these low light levels so move slowly and give it at least three screen updates before moving on.

With the low light levels at 6500K, the next thing to do was set the higher levels. I chose a 70% level. In the user Advanced Settings Menu under the Warm temp setting there are Blue and Green drive settings. I wound up with Blue -3, and Green -2 for this set. At this point the 10% and 70% luminance images both measured 6500K. I then did the complete set of luminance values from 0 - 100%. Happily each value was very close to 6500K with delta e's of less than 2. From the meters perspective the grayscale was nearly perfect. It looked very good to me too.

With the grayscale set, next up was color. In previous posts on this thread I have discussed trying to set colors within the standard triangle. Each attempt with this set has resulted in limited success. When the meter was happy, my eyes were not. So for my set and for my friends, I now set the Color saturation to the proper level and let Toshiba handle the rest. For this May build, the Color saturation was almost perfect at the default setting of 50, the correct value was 49.

Next up was that old DVD via Component. I reset the input using the Bluray settings, but the Brightness was way too high for that old DVD player. I wound up with a Brightness setting of 28 using a DVE disk. I left the other settings at the Bluray levels.

For the cable box, I matched the settings for that input to the Bluray levels, remembering to start in Movie mode. The CUT values in the service menu remained constant between the inputs, there was no need to revisit them. Remember to set the Drive levels under the Warm temp setting for each input.

Here is the complete set of changes.

In the Service Menu

R-CUT 20H
G-CUT F0H
B-CUT AAH
R-DRV 77H
G-DRV 7AH
B-DRV 7EH
BRTC 77H
COLC 8BH
UVTT 79H
CNTX 7FH
SHRC 08H
VBIS 00H
CC 90H
ID1 88H
GG 40H
OPT1 00H
OPT2 00H
OPT3 E0H
OPT4 6BH
OPT5 00H
SETID D2H
VOLX 64H

In the Picture Setttings user menu

Contrast 88
Backlight 50
Dynalight On
Brightness 57
Color 49
Tint 0
Sharpness 50

In the Advanced Picture Settings user menu

Dynamic Contrast Off
Static Gamma -4
Color Temperature Warm
Blue Drive -3
Green Drive -2

We then watched a Bluray movie, a DVD movie and scads of Olympic coverage on the set. All looked great!

I've been watching the olympics using LeroyK's settings on my 52xf550 (latest software) and I find the skin tones too intense and a bit towards the red/magenta. I'm willing to play around with the settings a bit to try to improve things, but I'm not sure where to start.

I did reduce green drive (under warm) by 1 and I've reduced sharpness down to 35 to reduce some edging I was seeing. I've also reduced color down to 20 to reduce the overall skin color to something much more natural, but the picture seems to be shifting yellow.

Any suggestions?

From my calibration experience from both builds there are some diffferences. My set is a Feburary build, his is a May build

Some can be attributed to sample differences. For example Contrast and Brightness. His set liked 88 for Contrast, mine likes 90. His liked 57 for brightness, mine liked 58.

Some of the difference is firmware related. His firmware allows one to set the CUT values in the service menu, Mine does not. His can be adjusted for 6500K grays even at lower IRE values, mine cannot.

Some of the differences are related to the Service menu settings that leave the factory.
His factory service menu settings:
R-DRV 77H
G-DRV 7AH
B-DRV 7EH

My factory service menu settings:
R-DRV 74H
G-DRV 7AH
B-DRV 85H

This accounts for my Warm setting needing a -9 Blue and -6 Green and his only -3 Blue and -2 Green.

Also the factory setting for COLC has changed in the Movie mode.

His factory service menu setting
COLC 8BH

My factory service menu setting
COLC 9DH

This accounts for my Color setting of 40, and his at 49.

It looks like the factory refined the default service menu settings in the right direction as time has gone on.

These differences make it necessary for owners of the May build sets to use the May build calibration settings of Yzfbossman http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post14264522 or myself http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...8#post14462708 as a starting point for their own calibrations.

Just checked my setting (Costco):

R-DRV 7FH
G-DRV 7AH
B-DRV 85H

Also a number of othe mismatches
brtc 75
colc 83
uvtt 77
shrc 15
vbis 01
cc 01
id1 01
gg 01

I don't think I dare change any of these....

LeroyK,

I've added your friends information to the spreadsheet. I've also updated the contrast and color for yours, since the numbers you gave today were different than what was in the spreadsheet.

Thanks for taking the time to post your findings.

Interesting numbers ghstudio. The DRV numbers look like my set, but the COLC looks more like my friends set. I would try the older Warm offsets of -9 and -6 first, based on your DRV settings.

Are you certain that you started out in the Movie mode before changing any settings? Or had you made some changes to the registers yourself?

Maybe Toshiba lets each technician do thier own thing when setting up the service menu at the end of the line. Makes a good case for each of us who are interested in accurate picture settings having access to a calibration meter and calibration software.

BTW Since I got my meter, I have calibrated lots of CRTs, laptop computers, desktop computer LCDs and LCD TVs. Each time the picture improved, and the average cost per device is now under $10 and falling.

Darn....I have to go back to reading 101....no, I was in the preferred mode which, of course, means the numbers could be anywhere. I'll look again in movie mode and post.

LeRoyK,

If you don't mind, how much did you pay for the meter and the calibration disk?

Cheers

dynaudio

I listed my setup on page 2. Here is a link http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...5&postcount=39

This is a fairly short thread, you might enjoy reading the whole thing, if you have the time.

Thanks much.

LeroyK,

Can you double check the settings I have for you in the spreadsheet? I heard from another member that you might not be using the Colormaster anymore? Is that correct?

Thanks,

Most of the settings are correct, except that I am keeping Color Master Off, and letting Toshiba handle the color. Color Master can dial back the greens to shrink the gammut into the REC 709 color space, but I find those colors less pleasing than just setting Color Saturation properly and letting Toshiba show me the expanded color space.

If your COLC value is around 9DH use 40 for the user Color control
If your COLC value is around 8BH use 49 or 50 for the user Color control

My 52xf550u has green push, does anybody know settings I can change in the service menu to reduce/eliminate this while still maintaining calibration?

I have a May 2008 build from Costco,

I have not seen a 52xf550 with green push. But there are only three service menu settings that apply. R-CUT, G-CUT and B-CUT. All of the other service menu settings can be adjusted in the user menus.

The values in the CUT service menu registers will influence the dark areas of the screen. For the lighter areas, the Color Temperature and B-Drive, G-Drive offsets do the trick.

The big 'catch' is that eyeballing these values without a proper reference is not practical. Without a calibration meter, finding the right values for CUTS and Drives is darn near impossible.

If you can, please post the values of R-CUT, G-CUT, B-CUT, R-DRV, G-DRV and B-DRV from your service menu. That will give us an idea of what you are starting out with.

Here are my settings:
R-CUT 00H
G-CUT F0H
B-CUT 00H
R-DRV 78H
G-DRV 7AH
G-DRV 7AH
Hope the problem can be fixed!

And thanks for your help LeRoyK

I see that you duplicated the G-DRV setting above, what is the B-DRV setting? The JAM2001 spreadsheet predicts a value of 7EH or above.

Your factory settings are much like my friends May build set. What we did for him is increase R-CUT to 20H and decrease B-CUT to AAH in the service menu. Then in the Advanced settings menu select the Warm temperature, then set B-Drive to -3 and G-Drive to -2. On his set this produced a very good grayscale.

Also make sure you start in Movie mode before you make changes to the Picture settings. Starting in another mode will get the computer inside the set to act differently from what I have seen.

Once you arrive at settings you enjoy, make sure to do them for each input. For me HDMI1 is the only connection from my reciever. But my friend had seperate inputs. All of the HDMI inputs should be ok with the same settings. The composite, component or s-video inputs may need thier own set of settings. My friends component input needed a drastic reduction in the Brightness setting.

Is there anyway to get the latest firmware for 52xf550?

I have been trying various settings listed here and on the owners thread, but still have not settled. I do have some flashlighting going on after the panel warms up that I can't seem to remove. I have tried loosening the screws on the back panel which helped, but even with trying different brightness/backlighting settings, the upper corners still light up a bit when I get to the credits. I am usually in a totally dark room, so I was wondering if bias (back) lighting helps de-emphasize the uneveness in the blacks when a dark screen is displayed.

No one has reported a firmware upgrade here, or in the main thread. I would think the place to start would be Toshiba customer service.

I have not pursuded getting the firmware updated.

Dermott, If you are happy with your set otherwise, you might try a little indirect light in front of the screen. The slight reflection of light from the room should hide a minor flashlight.

Flashlights are often caused by an uneven pressure or strain on the panel. Is the face is exactly pependicular to the floor?

Actually, my G-DRV and B-DRV settings are the same, just a typing error on the input.


I did make these changes, and I actually prefer the picture on the previous settings, there is something that doesn't look natural to me, I think it may be too much red.

But I am wondering if anybody has been able to reduce/eliminate the green push in these sets (but you have to have it to be able to fix it). I love the picture, but the green in dark scenes and the bars is annoying to me.

I'm loving this TV (52xf 550). There is one area where I could use some help. In dark scenes or higher contrast images, I lose detail in dark areas...have tried gamma changes,
exhaustive contrast and brightness settings. Would CUTS adjustments help? SUGGESTION PLEASE?

In theory, cuts won't help the contrast in low light situations. The cuts are a carry over from service controls on analog CRTs. Their purpose is to rebalance the light output of the red green and blue channels so that the same gray color temperature can be maintained from 1% to 100% white.

On CRTs, the different color phosphors used might respond differently to the same voltages. So the voltages delivered for each color channel would need to be adjusted individually. The cuts were used to adjust the low light values, the drives for the medium and high light values.

These controls were carried over into LCD panels. The cuts and drives are used to balance the color channels for the same color temperature of white from 1% to 100%.

Do you have Dynamic Contrast engaged on the Advanced Picture Settings menu? Any setting but off, will crush blacks.

You will need a test disk to set brightness levels properly. For HDMI input on the two machines I have calibrated, the proper brightness settings were 58 and 57. That setting was way too bright for my friends DVD on component though. His component DVD brightness setting needed to be way lower at 28.

The Static Gamma adjustments have the greatest visible effect on the medium luminances. Lower numbers darken, higher numbers lighten the medium luminances. You should see only minor differences (if any) at the lowest and highest luminance levels.

If you have access to a Bluray or HD-DVD player, I highly recommend setting brightness and contrast with the AVS HD 709 test disk. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496 The disk is a free download and has the best brightness pattern that I have seen.

For SD DVD players, I don't know of a free equivilant to AVS HD 709. There are commercial disks, DVE and Avia have several titles. Getgray is a downloadable DVD image after a 'donation' for the developer. Check out the Display Calibration forum for more specifics on those disks. I have both Avia and DVE disks, the brightness patterns on those disks are IMHO not as good as the AVS HD 709 disk.

Can anyone confirm whether this set can display the FULL RGB values of 0-255 via HDMI or should the settings remain on LIMITED on the blu-ray player? I can't get past the visual differences of FULL vs. LIMITED. FULL just seems to deliver more, and eliminate the artifacting I see in LIMITED. Sorry if this is out of scope for this discussion.

A couple of other sources for settings that may/should be added to your spreadsheet, perhaps. Thanks for keeping a central doc for settings, btw. Cool stuff.

1. LINK --- UltimateAVmag has a review with settings. A very good read. Link for the actual settings with comparison to post calibration via consumer level vs. service level settings.

2. LINK --- Not to sure on these, much more limited in overall setting changes.

Anyone, actually calibrate theirs to the output of a PS3 for games and movie playback? A very darkly lit game like SIREN is a very good thermometer for black levels considering the nature of the game being in mostly dark poorly lit environments....in which so far I am unable to get good results with the HDMI set at LIMITED.

Great community here, and also big thanks for all of LeroyK's contributions!

I'm not sure if it's technically correct or not, but I have my PS3 set to Full. I agree with you that it looks better.