Mfusick suggested that I start a thread with my tweaks and experiences with my new set, so I'm going to do just that (then again, he may be lying...) (joke, you'll see his signature line if you look at any of his posts)
I recieved my set 2/7/04 and have been doing some research on the usual tweaks to get the set as best as I can before I decide to plunk down the $$ for an ISF calibration.
I was holding out on replacing my 61" 4x3 sony (7 years old) with a fixed pixel display like lcos or dlp because I was so frustrated with having to recalibrate my old sony, where convergence servicing was a major pain. At the end of last year, my old sony really started to show it's age in needing the convergence set about once a month, and since I'm an avid gamer, I've been kicking myself every time I read about how nice the xbox games look on the new sets.
I'd been lurking here for about 6 months or so, and was tracking the latest news regarding the toshiba LCOS sets. When toshiba basically announced that they were backing off of LCOS, I decided that maybe I'd be better off waiting a couple of years and to look at a midrange CRT RP set to tide me over.
I'd had good experience with my old sony as far as no screen burn in issues despite (estimated) thousands of hours of gaming, and for all of it's faults, my old sony was pretty rock solid, so I had a bias to the sony sets to begin with.
Two weeks before the superbowl, my local goodguys store was selling a KP-65WV700 set for "a good sale price", and I started thinking about going that route. I ended up getting the newer KDP-65WS550 because on most accounts I got firm knowledge that the newer set either met or exceeded the WV700's features, and it included an ATSC tuner. I got my local goodguys to meet the price on the WV700 for the new set, which was a substantial cut below MSRP. This, plus the $200 rebate from sony started to make the set look like a good interim replacement.
About that time, I got an unexpected bonus from work, and my girlfriend (who is a movie and tv buff too) offered to go halfsies on the sony with me, so that pretty much made it a slam dunk for me.
Ok, now that I've gotten the background out of the way, I'll list what I've done at the bottom, and edit it as I make new changes.
Note: I'm writing this at work, so I'll add info as I can between phone calls and work duties. :-<
Also, this is my first thread in this forum, so I'll try to remember the bigh gotchas (no price posting, etc) so if I do something that isn't kosher just holler.
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Day 1: Initial Setup
Set got dropped off (almost literally) but the delivery folks who spent a total of 2 minutes delivering my set. I had just stepped out for coffee around the corner and left my best friend/neighbor to watch for the guys. They didn't even give him a chance to call me to let me know they were there (I was 30 seconds away), nor did they even plug it in. To make matters worse, they didn't leave the UPC code I needed for the rebate, so I'm having to deal with that.
I got back to the house after my neighbor rang me, and there it was in the middle of the room.
I quickly powered up the set and did a quick inspection to see if I needed to call the delivery guys back or anything. (hadn't yet thought about the UPC code). I needed to run to the store to get my HDTV antenna and HD pack for xbox.
Ok, back from the store, and now I can spend a little time checking out the set.
First impressions: Better overall build quality than I expected. I had not had a chance to inspect the build in person on this set before I ordered it. (According to the sales agents at the local hifi stores, they aren't carrying these sets on the floor because they compete too much with the Mitsus and LCD/PDP/DLP sets. Lotsa WAF in the $$ for this set, if ye ken what I speak.)
Very nice grab handles on the sides, I'm 5'4" and fairly fit, and have no problem scooting this set around on it's casters.
You can find the details regarding the connectivity options online and there is a pic of the read down below:
The front is pretty nice, the beveled edge is a litttle bit deeper than I thought on this sides, but since this set is pretty deep (29" but count on 31" because of the cables.) it actually looks kinda nice. One cool note about the bevel: it's slightly larger than the main cabinet of the set, so the bookshelves I have actually kinda tuck behind the edge, making this set look like it's part of the bookshelves.
Set it up, hooked up Zenith Silver Sensor antenna and within 15 minutes my neighbor and I were stupefied at the HDTV signals from the local pbs station. We drank a beer and watched some beautiful canyon footage. caught our breath and talked about how much better it would look when we got it pushed back against the wall instead of being 4 feet from the screen. :D
I also ran Video Essentials through my xbox dvd and did a quick fix of the levels.
Hooked up the xbox via component, made the necessary changes in the xbox dashboard, and started going through my game library. I was specifically looking to prove or disprove whether or not this set displays 720p natively.
After having to run a bunch of other errands I didn't get too much time to play with it, but that night we all (Me, gf, neighbors, cat) watched Lion King on HDTV from ABC. ab sol utely am a zing. I was not prepared for that.
Day 2: HDTV, XBOX, DVD tweaking
Started out the day playing with the antenna location, and noting the kind of things that affect my reception for hdtv. Since I have the digital (optical) audio out of the tv running to my reciever, I found out that only digital stations will have the sound output to the reciever. This is fine with me, since I seem to be getting all of the digital stations (with one exception, it's down off/air) so I won't need the analog ota variants. I took this opportunity to remove the analog versions from the channel list so I don't have to wade through them when I'm changing channels. I also removed some of the sub digital channels from some of my area channels which were providing spanish language versions of their regular broadcasting, and removed the two spanish digital stations I was getting.
I was worried that my radio shack kameleon remote would have a problem with the new button features, since it doesn't have a '.' option for tuning the digital stations. I found out though, that if you only have analog channels on your channel list, and you just press '3' it will auto-tune to 3.1 so no worries there! I just need to get the 'wide mode', 'drc mode', 'twin view' and 'pallette' buttons learned to the kameleon and I should be good to hide the sony remote back in the end table drawer.
I found that the zenith silver sensor is a cool antenna. It works best for me in the 'flat' orientation, and works best when pointed towards the stations. For me, most of my hd stations are all in one area except one, but I'm getting them all pretty well most of the time. When I do have a problem with one of the stations, it seems to be on their end (corraborating info from other users in the hdtv info and reception forum).
Messed with this for about an hour before I decided it wasn't going to do anything different. Ended up leaving the antenna behind a plant (although I don't think it's all that ugly really) on the left bookshelf next to the tv. It's about a foot from the wall and points across the major open area of the house.
Took a break to watch the NHL all stars game on ABC in HD. This was pretty cool, I could see details like the skate tracks in the ice, and because all of the players are from various teams, they had their team patch on their arm, and I was amazed at how well I was making out the team patches on the jerseys.
Also I noticed that the 16:9 format is much better for hockey, less jerk-o-cam movement as the cameraman tries to keep up.
After the game did some honeydos and then got back to playing with my new toy. I was specfically wanting to nail down what the set does with a 720p input. There has been some debate over this because sony gives conflicting information than what other more educated and equipped (than I) users of this forum have reported.
In the xbox, you can set the available modes for hd resolutions. By changing the available modes, and then watching how the set reacts in service mode, I've been able to determine the following:
720p definitely looks much much sharper than 480p. This means (to me) that it's not downconverting the signal.
I also know that in a 720p game, I do not see a sign of interlacing, despite my being able to detect it on regular sources in 1080i.
I also performed the following test to 'detect' interlacing. I put my digital camera on the highest shutter speed possible and took some up close pictures of the screen while it was showing 1080i material. It took a few tries, but I was able to capture interlace lines in my photos. I performed the same test with 720p material playing, and was not.
I was going to try and test pq on a game that supports all three modes, but I found out that the only games that do that aren't worth having really. Unless I find a copy of one of the few games for cheap.
Soul Calibur ][ is a thing of beauty, even in it's weird 4x3 720p mode.
There's a couple of other posts about this, and I think there's a little confusion because if you talk to sony and get any kind of answer, they tell you that it converts it to 1080i, but this disagrees with this and other (more scientific) tests by other members' results.
That took up most of the afternoon, and I needed to take a break for awhile. Went to Best Buy to return the monster hd cable for the xbox, which not only worked worse than the factory unit, but also required an additional $40 adapter to output optical audio. What a rip! I'm using the factory hd pack, with some nice shielded radio shack gold rca cables for the patch to the tv set. xbox is on video 5 input.
Since I'm using my xbox (for now, we'll see about the htpc) as my dvd player, I know that this isn't going to be the best image possible from a dvd player, and since I was scheduled to show Finding Nemo that night I figured I'd get the de-interlacer and drc figured out so I could present the best image.
Because I'd been fiddling with the user controls while I was watching the game for the various picture modes, I started with video essentials again to make sure my 'movie' mode was still good.
It was at this time that I noticed that the xbox dvd player does not render 'blacker-than-black' or <IRE7.5 signals. The PS2 does, but it's not hooked up via component, so the xbox will remain the dvd player (for now)
As I mentioned above, the xbox puts out a 480i signal for dvd's, so this was a prime opportunity to test the line doubler and drc functions of the set.
I used Monsters Inc, Lord of the Rings Two Towers (LOTR2T), Logan's Run (one of the best 3-2 pulldown test dvd's I've seen), Superbit Gattaca (dark amber colors!) Superbit Fifth Element, and Robotech (cartoon) series dvds. I was not allowed to open the finding nemo dvd until the girlfriend got back.
I found that by setting the cinemotion mode to 'cinemotion' (choices are cinemotion, interlaced, cinemotion) I got the best 'fill rate' from the dvd, and then I played with the DRC settings. This made more of a difference than I thought it would, and I really like the button on the remote to cycle between the three drc modes that you can customize. I found content like monster's inc benefitted mostly from a 'reality' based drc setting (vs clarity) but LOTR2T looked best with both settings in the middle, and then Robotech was greaty improved by using a setting that was on the other end of the scale. I did these three first, and I found that one of my presets would be pretty good for each of my other movies.
Gattaca looks amazing. I was woried about the dark shades' detail level and possible pickup of grain or anything like that.
Logan's Run (surprisingly!) wasn't affected very much by changing the main setting off of cinemotion to interlaced or progressive, other than the fill rate changing slightly. Video still looked very smooth. (xbox can't have a 3-2, can it?) My old set did not have 3-2 and I definitely notice a big difference. (I meant to copy down the DRC numbers and write them in here, but then I also meant to take some pictures too and ended up playing guitar all night instead)
Fifth element looks like it might be missing shadow detail, but I verified that was because of the xbox not rendering all of the blacks (put it in the PS2 to check)
Okay, so we're ready for finding Nemo, right? I put the dvd in and of course everyone oohs and aaahs about how it's better than being in the movies and all that and all I can think about ARE THE DANG MOSQUITOES I SEE FLYING AROUND NEMO AND IN THE SHADOWS!!! WTF? Of course, I'm keeping my cool and paying attention, but it looks like the nemo dvd isn't as clean as monsters! (odd!)
Just goes to show you that sometimes ignorance is bliss, no one else could see it even when I finally mentioned something (apologetically to my audience) until I zoomed in with the dvd player (one feature the xbox has that ps2 doesn't) and showed them the mpeg artifacts.
Day 3: DISH 501 PVR, COLOR tweaking, Kameleon Remote
On Day 3 I started to become comfortable with the performance of the set, and also started to recover from being overwhelmed by it. I was now starting to notice all the finite changes I was going to need to address, now that I was starting to grow accustomed to the picture.
My main viewing source for regular tv is a Dish Networks 501 PVR unit. My first thing that I attempted was to change the internal menu on the 501 from 4x3 aspect to 16x9. I exited the menu after making this change, and saw no difference. After powering off the unit and then back on to make sure the change was still selected, I decided to call Dish.
(big sigh)
If you've ever had to talk to a dish CSR before, then you know the apprehension I had in making this phone call. Most of the time I know more about the equipment and programming than the CSRs, and sometimes I even get (or hear about) bad advice/info from dish CSRs.
If you've never had to call a dish CSR before, I hope you never do.
Needless to say, I wasn't surprised, but at least the CSR found something interesting about the fact that the setting didn't make any changes, and asked their manager/lead/whatever, who also had no idea. Way to go Dish!
It MAY have something to do with the way LBX formatted PPV movies are displayed out of the unit, but I haven't purchased any since my move to the new TV so I can't confirm.
So I was stuck with all my user menus and guide in standard 4x3 aspect ratio, which is not that big if a deal, and allows me to try the different zoom modes of the tv with standard content to see if any of them will suit me.
There are three main zoom modes: Full (stretchy wide), Zoom (pan in), and Wide Zoom (adjusted pan in where the center is scaled out less than the sides, and slight overscan is introduced into the top and bottom. This creates a sort of 'waverly' effect because things stretch in and out as they pan across the screen.
The zoom mode usually works pretty well for the 16x9 content displayed within the 4x3 window, although you can definitely see a resolution difference. The 'wide zoom' mode works pretty well for CNNHN, (I was worried it might crop off the bottom ticker) and other dramas, but not so well for anything with any action in it.
At this time, I'm viewing most of the dish stuff in normal mode, with the grey sidebars, which I am growing so accustomed to, I don't even notice.
It was during this testing that I found that each zoom mode has it's own settings for the 64 point conversion. I had labored to get the HD mode converged just so, only to find I still needed to do it 4 more times. (normal, full, zoom, wide zoom). argh.
It was also at this time that I decided I would check into adjusting the overscan, to possibly get more out of the 'wide zoom' mode.
I also called radioshack/all4one about the kameleon, and they even downloaded new codes to the remote over the phone, but I still do not have access to the zoom mode, pic mode, drc mode, buttons. Don't seem to need the '.' button.
That night, ABC was presenting The Mummy Returns in HD, so it was an ideal opportunity to check the color accuracy. During this showing, I reduced the red push, and even the green a little (see the bottom summary for my changes), and I noticed more of a difference between the flesh colors in the faces compared to the desert sets. With the red gone, you feel like these people are dusty, dry, and really in the desert, and later, a noticeable difference in skin tones when they are not.
Day 4: Adjusting for overscan, channel tuning weirdness.
summary: adjusted overscan for various zoom modes, and hence had to re-fix the convergence,
Day 5: The 720p test to end all (almost) tests, Hooking up the test HTPC.
summary: "Tony Hawks Underground" on XBOX is proving a very good test of the 720p native mode on the set.
Day 6: Fighting off brightness flare, noise filters. What the heck is that glowing ORB in the middle of the screen???
summary: at this point, I've got the set tuned as much as a DIY-er can do without opening the cabinet, and I notice a weird glow in the center of the screen during certain conditions. (turns out to be rather funny)
Also, I adjust the set a little more to identify the source of a brightness flare which I believe to be caused by internal reflection of some sort.
Day 7: "Seven days was all she wrote... a kind of ultimatum note..."
summary: there's only so much a mere mortal can do. At this point I'll put my overall evaluation of the set as I've been able to get it, and why I'm making plans to go ahead and spend the $$ for an ISF calibration.
Also, I make plans to replace the front bezel.
Remember: one of the main reasons I got this set now rather than wait was a cost factor. Since I'm trying to keep it cheap, I've hesitated spending another 15%-20% tuning this set.
Environment:
we sit on a straight couch about 9' from the screen (I know, a little close, but my primary use is video games, and I've been sitting that close to my old set so this is heaven to me...)
I have average lighting control, the set is in a large living room/super kitchen area with 5 windows and sliding glass doors. I have regular 2 inch wood blinds, and warm incandescent lighting.
I'll try and take some pics to compare to the 'before' pic after I get some more tweaks in.
My goal is to get this set as good as possible to help me decide if I still want an ISF calibration. There are things that an ISF calibration will give me than I can't do on my own, but there are plenty of things that I can do on my own.
I also don't get a very good feeling from a the few ISF techs I've talked to in the area (who would even return my calls) so I'm also looking for a reccomendation.
I should also make note of the fact that I have a direct view 20" flat tube set (sharp) next to the bigscreen. With the old 61, I had to seriously detune the DV set so it didn't 'overpower' my 61.
I am not having this problem with the new 65 :D
ISF CALIBRATION:Leaning towards it, specifically for the refocusing, and greyscale.
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Pictures:
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Back Panel of the KDP-65WS550
Closeup of the recessed Bevel
Head-on view from the couch
Overall view of the room
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Service mode adjustments to date:
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(changed from-to)
COLR
AXIS: 0 - 1 (reduced 'red push'). Had to make it in all modes
R-GR: 8 - 14 (evened out the reds a little)
G-YR: 6 - 8 (evened out the greens a little)
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User mode adjustments to date:
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Used Video essentials DVD upon intial setup and after major tweaks to set the levels
Have the VSM turned off for all modes except Vivid, which I'm keeping as obnoxious as possible, so I can show people the difference when they ask why my set is so dim.
Created three custom DRC pallettes for the following sources:
tv/older film: 80 Clarity 90 Reality
hi quality movies: 62 Clarity 60
video games/computer animation: 1 Clarity 25 Reality
UPDATE: PROBLEM
9/16/04
The TV suddenly has decided to discard the color correction portion of all component signals. This happened while I was switching from an HDTV program toa menu within the HDTIVO; I don't believe there was a signal change, but all of a sudden, the green tivo menu screens were grey, and on the video, color correction was weird. Colors that were supposed to be red appeared green/muddy and things that were supposed to be blue appeared purple. It wasn't like the RED channel was off, it was more like the colors were shifted or something? After verifying that it was happening on all component inputs, via all component devices, I decided it must be something in the set, so I unplugged it for an hour or so (not wanting to do the factory reset just yet) and the problem did not go away. After leaving it unplugged over night, and the problem still not going away, I knew that before I called sony, that I would need to perform the reset, since that's what they would tell me to do anyway.
Well, performing the factory reset (holding down the reset button on the remote while hitting the power button on the TV) fixed the problem. Good thing I kept detailed notes on all of my changes!
I recieved my set 2/7/04 and have been doing some research on the usual tweaks to get the set as best as I can before I decide to plunk down the $$ for an ISF calibration.
I was holding out on replacing my 61" 4x3 sony (7 years old) with a fixed pixel display like lcos or dlp because I was so frustrated with having to recalibrate my old sony, where convergence servicing was a major pain. At the end of last year, my old sony really started to show it's age in needing the convergence set about once a month, and since I'm an avid gamer, I've been kicking myself every time I read about how nice the xbox games look on the new sets.
I'd been lurking here for about 6 months or so, and was tracking the latest news regarding the toshiba LCOS sets. When toshiba basically announced that they were backing off of LCOS, I decided that maybe I'd be better off waiting a couple of years and to look at a midrange CRT RP set to tide me over.
I'd had good experience with my old sony as far as no screen burn in issues despite (estimated) thousands of hours of gaming, and for all of it's faults, my old sony was pretty rock solid, so I had a bias to the sony sets to begin with.
Two weeks before the superbowl, my local goodguys store was selling a KP-65WV700 set for "a good sale price", and I started thinking about going that route. I ended up getting the newer KDP-65WS550 because on most accounts I got firm knowledge that the newer set either met or exceeded the WV700's features, and it included an ATSC tuner. I got my local goodguys to meet the price on the WV700 for the new set, which was a substantial cut below MSRP. This, plus the $200 rebate from sony started to make the set look like a good interim replacement.
About that time, I got an unexpected bonus from work, and my girlfriend (who is a movie and tv buff too) offered to go halfsies on the sony with me, so that pretty much made it a slam dunk for me.
Ok, now that I've gotten the background out of the way, I'll list what I've done at the bottom, and edit it as I make new changes.
Note: I'm writing this at work, so I'll add info as I can between phone calls and work duties. :-<
Also, this is my first thread in this forum, so I'll try to remember the bigh gotchas (no price posting, etc) so if I do something that isn't kosher just holler.
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Day 1: Initial Setup
Set got dropped off (almost literally) but the delivery folks who spent a total of 2 minutes delivering my set. I had just stepped out for coffee around the corner and left my best friend/neighbor to watch for the guys. They didn't even give him a chance to call me to let me know they were there (I was 30 seconds away), nor did they even plug it in. To make matters worse, they didn't leave the UPC code I needed for the rebate, so I'm having to deal with that.
I got back to the house after my neighbor rang me, and there it was in the middle of the room.
I quickly powered up the set and did a quick inspection to see if I needed to call the delivery guys back or anything. (hadn't yet thought about the UPC code). I needed to run to the store to get my HDTV antenna and HD pack for xbox.
Ok, back from the store, and now I can spend a little time checking out the set.
First impressions: Better overall build quality than I expected. I had not had a chance to inspect the build in person on this set before I ordered it. (According to the sales agents at the local hifi stores, they aren't carrying these sets on the floor because they compete too much with the Mitsus and LCD/PDP/DLP sets. Lotsa WAF in the $$ for this set, if ye ken what I speak.)
Very nice grab handles on the sides, I'm 5'4" and fairly fit, and have no problem scooting this set around on it's casters.
You can find the details regarding the connectivity options online and there is a pic of the read down below:
The front is pretty nice, the beveled edge is a litttle bit deeper than I thought on this sides, but since this set is pretty deep (29" but count on 31" because of the cables.) it actually looks kinda nice. One cool note about the bevel: it's slightly larger than the main cabinet of the set, so the bookshelves I have actually kinda tuck behind the edge, making this set look like it's part of the bookshelves.
Set it up, hooked up Zenith Silver Sensor antenna and within 15 minutes my neighbor and I were stupefied at the HDTV signals from the local pbs station. We drank a beer and watched some beautiful canyon footage. caught our breath and talked about how much better it would look when we got it pushed back against the wall instead of being 4 feet from the screen. :D
I also ran Video Essentials through my xbox dvd and did a quick fix of the levels.
Hooked up the xbox via component, made the necessary changes in the xbox dashboard, and started going through my game library. I was specifically looking to prove or disprove whether or not this set displays 720p natively.
After having to run a bunch of other errands I didn't get too much time to play with it, but that night we all (Me, gf, neighbors, cat) watched Lion King on HDTV from ABC. ab sol utely am a zing. I was not prepared for that.
Day 2: HDTV, XBOX, DVD tweaking
Started out the day playing with the antenna location, and noting the kind of things that affect my reception for hdtv. Since I have the digital (optical) audio out of the tv running to my reciever, I found out that only digital stations will have the sound output to the reciever. This is fine with me, since I seem to be getting all of the digital stations (with one exception, it's down off/air) so I won't need the analog ota variants. I took this opportunity to remove the analog versions from the channel list so I don't have to wade through them when I'm changing channels. I also removed some of the sub digital channels from some of my area channels which were providing spanish language versions of their regular broadcasting, and removed the two spanish digital stations I was getting.
I was worried that my radio shack kameleon remote would have a problem with the new button features, since it doesn't have a '.' option for tuning the digital stations. I found out though, that if you only have analog channels on your channel list, and you just press '3' it will auto-tune to 3.1 so no worries there! I just need to get the 'wide mode', 'drc mode', 'twin view' and 'pallette' buttons learned to the kameleon and I should be good to hide the sony remote back in the end table drawer.
I found that the zenith silver sensor is a cool antenna. It works best for me in the 'flat' orientation, and works best when pointed towards the stations. For me, most of my hd stations are all in one area except one, but I'm getting them all pretty well most of the time. When I do have a problem with one of the stations, it seems to be on their end (corraborating info from other users in the hdtv info and reception forum).
Messed with this for about an hour before I decided it wasn't going to do anything different. Ended up leaving the antenna behind a plant (although I don't think it's all that ugly really) on the left bookshelf next to the tv. It's about a foot from the wall and points across the major open area of the house.
Took a break to watch the NHL all stars game on ABC in HD. This was pretty cool, I could see details like the skate tracks in the ice, and because all of the players are from various teams, they had their team patch on their arm, and I was amazed at how well I was making out the team patches on the jerseys.
Also I noticed that the 16:9 format is much better for hockey, less jerk-o-cam movement as the cameraman tries to keep up.
After the game did some honeydos and then got back to playing with my new toy. I was specfically wanting to nail down what the set does with a 720p input. There has been some debate over this because sony gives conflicting information than what other more educated and equipped (than I) users of this forum have reported.
In the xbox, you can set the available modes for hd resolutions. By changing the available modes, and then watching how the set reacts in service mode, I've been able to determine the following:
720p definitely looks much much sharper than 480p. This means (to me) that it's not downconverting the signal.
I also know that in a 720p game, I do not see a sign of interlacing, despite my being able to detect it on regular sources in 1080i.
I also performed the following test to 'detect' interlacing. I put my digital camera on the highest shutter speed possible and took some up close pictures of the screen while it was showing 1080i material. It took a few tries, but I was able to capture interlace lines in my photos. I performed the same test with 720p material playing, and was not.
I was going to try and test pq on a game that supports all three modes, but I found out that the only games that do that aren't worth having really. Unless I find a copy of one of the few games for cheap.
Soul Calibur ][ is a thing of beauty, even in it's weird 4x3 720p mode.
There's a couple of other posts about this, and I think there's a little confusion because if you talk to sony and get any kind of answer, they tell you that it converts it to 1080i, but this disagrees with this and other (more scientific) tests by other members' results.
That took up most of the afternoon, and I needed to take a break for awhile. Went to Best Buy to return the monster hd cable for the xbox, which not only worked worse than the factory unit, but also required an additional $40 adapter to output optical audio. What a rip! I'm using the factory hd pack, with some nice shielded radio shack gold rca cables for the patch to the tv set. xbox is on video 5 input.
Since I'm using my xbox (for now, we'll see about the htpc) as my dvd player, I know that this isn't going to be the best image possible from a dvd player, and since I was scheduled to show Finding Nemo that night I figured I'd get the de-interlacer and drc figured out so I could present the best image.
Because I'd been fiddling with the user controls while I was watching the game for the various picture modes, I started with video essentials again to make sure my 'movie' mode was still good.
It was at this time that I noticed that the xbox dvd player does not render 'blacker-than-black' or <IRE7.5 signals. The PS2 does, but it's not hooked up via component, so the xbox will remain the dvd player (for now)
As I mentioned above, the xbox puts out a 480i signal for dvd's, so this was a prime opportunity to test the line doubler and drc functions of the set.
I used Monsters Inc, Lord of the Rings Two Towers (LOTR2T), Logan's Run (one of the best 3-2 pulldown test dvd's I've seen), Superbit Gattaca (dark amber colors!) Superbit Fifth Element, and Robotech (cartoon) series dvds. I was not allowed to open the finding nemo dvd until the girlfriend got back.
I found that by setting the cinemotion mode to 'cinemotion' (choices are cinemotion, interlaced, cinemotion) I got the best 'fill rate' from the dvd, and then I played with the DRC settings. This made more of a difference than I thought it would, and I really like the button on the remote to cycle between the three drc modes that you can customize. I found content like monster's inc benefitted mostly from a 'reality' based drc setting (vs clarity) but LOTR2T looked best with both settings in the middle, and then Robotech was greaty improved by using a setting that was on the other end of the scale. I did these three first, and I found that one of my presets would be pretty good for each of my other movies.
Gattaca looks amazing. I was woried about the dark shades' detail level and possible pickup of grain or anything like that.
Logan's Run (surprisingly!) wasn't affected very much by changing the main setting off of cinemotion to interlaced or progressive, other than the fill rate changing slightly. Video still looked very smooth. (xbox can't have a 3-2, can it?) My old set did not have 3-2 and I definitely notice a big difference. (I meant to copy down the DRC numbers and write them in here, but then I also meant to take some pictures too and ended up playing guitar all night instead)
Fifth element looks like it might be missing shadow detail, but I verified that was because of the xbox not rendering all of the blacks (put it in the PS2 to check)
Okay, so we're ready for finding Nemo, right? I put the dvd in and of course everyone oohs and aaahs about how it's better than being in the movies and all that and all I can think about ARE THE DANG MOSQUITOES I SEE FLYING AROUND NEMO AND IN THE SHADOWS!!! WTF? Of course, I'm keeping my cool and paying attention, but it looks like the nemo dvd isn't as clean as monsters! (odd!)
Just goes to show you that sometimes ignorance is bliss, no one else could see it even when I finally mentioned something (apologetically to my audience) until I zoomed in with the dvd player (one feature the xbox has that ps2 doesn't) and showed them the mpeg artifacts.
Day 3: DISH 501 PVR, COLOR tweaking, Kameleon Remote
On Day 3 I started to become comfortable with the performance of the set, and also started to recover from being overwhelmed by it. I was now starting to notice all the finite changes I was going to need to address, now that I was starting to grow accustomed to the picture.
My main viewing source for regular tv is a Dish Networks 501 PVR unit. My first thing that I attempted was to change the internal menu on the 501 from 4x3 aspect to 16x9. I exited the menu after making this change, and saw no difference. After powering off the unit and then back on to make sure the change was still selected, I decided to call Dish.
(big sigh)
If you've ever had to talk to a dish CSR before, then you know the apprehension I had in making this phone call. Most of the time I know more about the equipment and programming than the CSRs, and sometimes I even get (or hear about) bad advice/info from dish CSRs.
If you've never had to call a dish CSR before, I hope you never do.
Needless to say, I wasn't surprised, but at least the CSR found something interesting about the fact that the setting didn't make any changes, and asked their manager/lead/whatever, who also had no idea. Way to go Dish!
It MAY have something to do with the way LBX formatted PPV movies are displayed out of the unit, but I haven't purchased any since my move to the new TV so I can't confirm.
So I was stuck with all my user menus and guide in standard 4x3 aspect ratio, which is not that big if a deal, and allows me to try the different zoom modes of the tv with standard content to see if any of them will suit me.
There are three main zoom modes: Full (stretchy wide), Zoom (pan in), and Wide Zoom (adjusted pan in where the center is scaled out less than the sides, and slight overscan is introduced into the top and bottom. This creates a sort of 'waverly' effect because things stretch in and out as they pan across the screen.
The zoom mode usually works pretty well for the 16x9 content displayed within the 4x3 window, although you can definitely see a resolution difference. The 'wide zoom' mode works pretty well for CNNHN, (I was worried it might crop off the bottom ticker) and other dramas, but not so well for anything with any action in it.
At this time, I'm viewing most of the dish stuff in normal mode, with the grey sidebars, which I am growing so accustomed to, I don't even notice.
It was during this testing that I found that each zoom mode has it's own settings for the 64 point conversion. I had labored to get the HD mode converged just so, only to find I still needed to do it 4 more times. (normal, full, zoom, wide zoom). argh.
It was also at this time that I decided I would check into adjusting the overscan, to possibly get more out of the 'wide zoom' mode.
I also called radioshack/all4one about the kameleon, and they even downloaded new codes to the remote over the phone, but I still do not have access to the zoom mode, pic mode, drc mode, buttons. Don't seem to need the '.' button.
That night, ABC was presenting The Mummy Returns in HD, so it was an ideal opportunity to check the color accuracy. During this showing, I reduced the red push, and even the green a little (see the bottom summary for my changes), and I noticed more of a difference between the flesh colors in the faces compared to the desert sets. With the red gone, you feel like these people are dusty, dry, and really in the desert, and later, a noticeable difference in skin tones when they are not.
Day 4: Adjusting for overscan, channel tuning weirdness.
summary: adjusted overscan for various zoom modes, and hence had to re-fix the convergence,
Day 5: The 720p test to end all (almost) tests, Hooking up the test HTPC.
summary: "Tony Hawks Underground" on XBOX is proving a very good test of the 720p native mode on the set.
Day 6: Fighting off brightness flare, noise filters. What the heck is that glowing ORB in the middle of the screen???
summary: at this point, I've got the set tuned as much as a DIY-er can do without opening the cabinet, and I notice a weird glow in the center of the screen during certain conditions. (turns out to be rather funny)
Also, I adjust the set a little more to identify the source of a brightness flare which I believe to be caused by internal reflection of some sort.
Day 7: "Seven days was all she wrote... a kind of ultimatum note..."
summary: there's only so much a mere mortal can do. At this point I'll put my overall evaluation of the set as I've been able to get it, and why I'm making plans to go ahead and spend the $$ for an ISF calibration.
Also, I make plans to replace the front bezel.
Remember: one of the main reasons I got this set now rather than wait was a cost factor. Since I'm trying to keep it cheap, I've hesitated spending another 15%-20% tuning this set.
Environment:
we sit on a straight couch about 9' from the screen (I know, a little close, but my primary use is video games, and I've been sitting that close to my old set so this is heaven to me...)
I have average lighting control, the set is in a large living room/super kitchen area with 5 windows and sliding glass doors. I have regular 2 inch wood blinds, and warm incandescent lighting.
I'll try and take some pics to compare to the 'before' pic after I get some more tweaks in.
My goal is to get this set as good as possible to help me decide if I still want an ISF calibration. There are things that an ISF calibration will give me than I can't do on my own, but there are plenty of things that I can do on my own.
I also don't get a very good feeling from a the few ISF techs I've talked to in the area (who would even return my calls) so I'm also looking for a reccomendation.
I should also make note of the fact that I have a direct view 20" flat tube set (sharp) next to the bigscreen. With the old 61, I had to seriously detune the DV set so it didn't 'overpower' my 61.
I am not having this problem with the new 65 :D
ISF CALIBRATION:Leaning towards it, specifically for the refocusing, and greyscale.
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Pictures:
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Back Panel of the KDP-65WS550
Closeup of the recessed Bevel
Head-on view from the couch
Overall view of the room
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Service mode adjustments to date:
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(changed from-to)
COLR
AXIS: 0 - 1 (reduced 'red push'). Had to make it in all modes
R-GR: 8 - 14 (evened out the reds a little)
G-YR: 6 - 8 (evened out the greens a little)
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User mode adjustments to date:
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Used Video essentials DVD upon intial setup and after major tweaks to set the levels
Have the VSM turned off for all modes except Vivid, which I'm keeping as obnoxious as possible, so I can show people the difference when they ask why my set is so dim.
Created three custom DRC pallettes for the following sources:
tv/older film: 80 Clarity 90 Reality
hi quality movies: 62 Clarity 60
video games/computer animation: 1 Clarity 25 Reality
UPDATE: PROBLEM
9/16/04
The TV suddenly has decided to discard the color correction portion of all component signals. This happened while I was switching from an HDTV program toa menu within the HDTIVO; I don't believe there was a signal change, but all of a sudden, the green tivo menu screens were grey, and on the video, color correction was weird. Colors that were supposed to be red appeared green/muddy and things that were supposed to be blue appeared purple. It wasn't like the RED channel was off, it was more like the colors were shifted or something? After verifying that it was happening on all component inputs, via all component devices, I decided it must be something in the set, so I unplugged it for an hour or so (not wanting to do the factory reset just yet) and the problem did not go away. After leaving it unplugged over night, and the problem still not going away, I knew that before I called sony, that I would need to perform the reset, since that's what they would tell me to do anyway.
Well, performing the factory reset (holding down the reset button on the remote while hitting the power button on the TV) fixed the problem. Good thing I kept detailed notes on all of my changes!
