Toshiba XF550 series calibration service menu access and usage - Page 8

I'll be setting up my 46XF550U at the end of the week, and I was planning on having all components (cable HD DVR (HDMI-In), PS3 (HDMI-In), 360 (HDMI-In), and Wii (Component-In)) all run into an Onkyo TS-SR705, and then have all video come out of the reciever via a single HDMI cable to the Tosh.

Does this make sense? In thinking this over, it seems like having so many different video sources of such drastically different quality (Wii --- lol) coming in through a single HDMI input would lead to one source looking good, and potentially the other 3 looking anywhere from "OK" to just plain bad.

Has anyone in this thread had a similar experience to this, and can give me a heads-up for what I should expect, or what the proper procedure should be? Calibrate to the PS3 set to "Full" and then let the cards fall where they may? Or will this be more about calibrating to the Onkyo as opposed to any of the devices behind it?

anachronous...

I would set the PS3 and 360 to their normal output, then calibrate your display. All three HDMI devices should then perform similarily. Your cable box will not have an expanded option for color space. With all three sending normal black to white reference levels digitally, the calibration for that one HDMI input should remain constant.

You should consider running the Wii directly to the tv. There is often a large difference in signal levels between digital and analog signals.

Also note that all signals are not perfectly encoded, so even after you calibrate, you may have to touch it up for certain source material.

I highly recommend the free AVS HD 709 blu-ray calibration disk found on the display calibration forum for setting brightness and contrast levels with your PS3.

We don't have many reports for the 46 inch sets here, so please report back here once you have achieved the proper levels.

Hi XF550 users,

I have a quick questions for setting up and using the close caption option in my 52" XF550. I am using an HDMI cable to connect my comcast cable box and my TV. But the problems I am having is using the close captions options. I am not able to select and get the close captions displayed from the TV remote. When i press the C. Caption button, I get No Service on the screen and when i go to preference and select CC1 for Close Caption, i get nothing, The only way to get the close caption working is to take my cable box remote, press Cable, Power and menu button in quick succession and then selecting the close caption option. This fine but to switch it on and off, I essentially have to switch my cable box. Not sure if i am missing anything. Read through the manual, called Costco concierge service but not help. Any tips etc will help.

Has anyone else tried using the settings from ultimateavmag.com? My God. I just made the changes and it looks horrible. I had to go back and reset everything...the noise that was present in the picture was unbelievable.

Hi everyone! Happy new owner of a 46XF550 and am looking for some calibration assistance.

Right now I view my TV shows and movies based under Movie mode, but with the medium color temperature instead of warm (Too red for my liking). I've bumped up the backlight to about 50, left Brightness at 50 and Contrast at 90. I am not using color drive.

Sometimes I notice when looking at blue objects, they give off purple shadows or tints. Sometimes even red fleshtones give off a purple effect depending on the lighting in the scene. Everything else seems to be color accurate to my liking.

I am not comfortable going into the service menu, but I was hoping for ideas of how to eliminate this effect? I'm not very good with calibration..

Thanks in advance!

Post #210 in this thread has a pointer to a calibration spreadsheet, It has several sets for the 46".

Where would you guys recommend I start as far as calibrating my 40XF550U? I've done some manual calibration via the obvious menus, and it looks like there is a service menu to be considered too.

The TV is only hooked up to a computer and all Blu-Ray viewing is done from the computer. Am I getting the benefit of the 120Hz? Should I leave ClearFrame on all the time?

Great looking TV so far.

ClearFrame... according to Toshiba... doesn't need to be turned on and off depending on the source. When it can be used it is used, when it can't be used it isn't used. So leaving it on all the time should be fine -- if it really works the way Toshiba says it works. So far, it seems to match their description.

My 40XF550U is connected to a computer via a DVI-HDMI cable at 1920x1080 resolution. When watching a Blu-Ray disc on the TV through the computer I notice a kind of shimmering effect in certain scenes with ClearFrame turned on. Luckily I just found a web page with a graphic that demonstrates this perfectly. With ClearFrame on, the shimmering effect is clearly seen, and with ClearFrame off, it disappears. Please visit makemkv.com and examine the top green graphic with ClearFrame on and off. It's very obvious.

Is there really no way to update 40XF550 firmware?

Couple questions...

1. What are the BRTC, COLC, UVTT in the service menu used for/stand for?

2. So I am assuming that the service menu settings stay the same across each of the inputs, is that correct?

Thanks!

BRTC = Brightness Center,
COLC = Color Center,
UVTT = effectively Tint Center, I don't know what the initials stand for

You will need to watch the settings carfully as you change inputs, preference modes and source resolutions on your set. Any register can change. I have seen COLC change when switching from SPORTS to MOVIE mode for example. But most of the time they are constant.

I also know that if you change a value in one mode, it may not carry over to another input, preference or source resolution. I made a change to the COLC register using my meter for my Bluray source. But the change only applied to 1080p material, when I feed it other resolutions, COLC went back to the factory default. I wound up setting COLC back the factory default for all resolutions and used the user Color control for saturation.

gotcha, thanks!

although I am noticing I should have looked back at the first page for the answer to #1. doh!

YZ - thanks for posting these, I may try them with my XV540. Has anyone tried these settings with the XV540?

Also, can you post your original SM settings?

Thanks!

For those who have the xf550 and Dish Network I found a code to program the Dish remote to operate ALL functions. It is 785. Igot this code from the dish dtv pal dvr manual.

NEW FIRMWARE

Hello everybody. I don't know if anyone has posted this yet. There is a new firmware update for several Toshibas, including the XF550 series. I was hoping it would allow those of us who bought an early model to change the values of the CUTS, but the firmware fixes other issues, specifically: "As part of our commitment to provide world-class service to our customers, TOSHIBA is supplying this “Seine Software” update to improve compatibility between the TV and set top boxes connected via HDMI."
This might be of help to some of you. The link is through the Canadian Toshiba site under Document ID D000018

http://support.toshiba.ca/support/ce...oads/index.asp

Italiano: does the firmware enable the setting of cuts in addition to other fixes? I am interested in whether the lack of cuts setting has been fixed.

I called US customer service for Toshiba. As explained to me, the firmware fixes audio dropouts with some TVs when hooked up to set top boxes via HDMI. I use external speakers so this update really won't help me. Shucks, I was hoping for a fix for the ability to set cuts.

I'm going to guess it does, I've got an RV530 so my cuts worked from the start, but I"m gonna flash this soon. I'll let you know what kind of changes I see.

If I were you I'd install it anyway. Since clearly they did fix the cuts at some point I think a newer firmware would be cummulative. I doubt a customer service rep would have any idea about something arcane as RGB cuts.

How do you update the firmware on a 40XF550?

follow the instructions in the above link.

My question would be is what format of SD card does the reader accept or if it matters or iif the card had to be empty. I have regular FAT and a FAT32 card.

The documentation reads as if they provide you an SD card and at the end it even says to throw it away. haha!

yeah that's what I don't know either.

Id guess fat would be fine looks like everything conforms to 8.3

Hi mikey ra, I don't know if the new firmware fixes the cuts. I haven't flashed my older firmware yet. I'm pretty happy with the PQ of my set, even though I can't change the cuts on my 52XF550.

I called Toshiba and they are sending me the firmware (I tried to download it, but I cannot get it to update on the Toshiba - even with customer services' input). Once it gets here, Ill fill everyone in on the results.

Thank you Italiano!

Successfully updated my 52XF550U from the Feb firmware to the firmware from the link this afternoon.

First unzip the .zip file to your hard drive. Then copy the files and folders to the base directory of an erased SD card.
I used a 1GB SD card that I had. (No, I am not going to throw it away.

The rest of the directions given on the download site are fine.

Write down all of your settings on every menu for every input before updating. All of your customization will be reset when you load the firmware.

After the update my software version infomation is this:

Software Version

4.2.46.0

Oct 6 2008 - 11:45:30

FW: 0F


I did a quick check on the RGB Cuts in the Service Menu. I can report that the values now stay where you set them. This is good news. I will need to do some work with my meter to see if the cut values actually change the picture levels at low luminances.

I will continue to update my progress in this thread.

LeRoy is a happy boy... for the moment at least.

good to hear, thanks for the info!

mikey ra,

What number do you call?

Good news, the CUTS work!!

Mikey asked what files / folders to put on the SD after the unzip.

HelixVer46.txt
ustv08e3.prg
ustv08l3.prg
Folder ustv08e3
Folder ustv08l3

all go in the root directory of the SD card

Toshiba Customer Service: 800-631-3811