Sony WS510/WS550 Owners Thread - Page 2

If I'm not mistaken, I think "ER" is supposed to look more like a movie so it looks like your Sony is giving you the more "correct" picture. I don't know what to say when it comes down to the skin tones that you're talking about... I have a WS510 and I haven't run into any problems. You may want to tweak your TV a bit following the guide I linked to above. I found that I got a more consistent picture afterwards...

Chris, glad you found that guide useful. I know I found it really helped my set. It's coming up to a year since I bought my set so I should probably start to think about cleaning the CRTs. If I have it apart for that I imagine I'll give the internal focus adjustments a try as well.

Yeesh....I finally am home and remembered to post the picture illustrating what I've been talking about with regards to how much image is getting cut off in Underworld. (Forgot to bring AOTC home, but this'll do for now.)

This is the frame and the pink lines are what my WS550 is showing off the Zenith player and the green line shows the Xbox's right-side cut line. I can't locate the scene like this, but in Cowboy Bebop The Movie, I noticed a shot where someone was cut off because they were in that right margin - not cool.

3.6% on the left and 5.5% of the right is missing. I've seen things around that make it seem like 5% overscan is nominal - is it?

One more question: Is there any way to exit Service Mode with powering the TV off, than on?

Just received my new 57WS550 this past saturday. Being my first big screen and hdtv I'm really impressed with how good it looks. After doing the AXIS tweak in the service menu and going through DVE the PQ, imo, looks really nice. I watched the academy awards last night and law and order, both in HD, and was really impressed. Especially the Oscars, it looked awesome.

Hopefully this thread stays alive and people post some good tweaks to make our tv's look even better.

Went into Service Mode and adjusted the DEF3 HSIZ setting from 18 to 8 and got almost all of the edges onto the screen, but it introduced a wicked football-shaped bowing to the horizontal boundries of the image and knocked convergence out of whack. Changing DEF1 VSIZ from 13 all the way to 0 flattened the image, but didn't correct the bowing or convergence issues. Didn't save the changes - status quo.

I've brought home AOTC, so a capture of the blue-skinned girl frame is forthcoming.

Watching the Oscars last night in HD was right spiffy. Biggest surprise was that where Angelina Jolie had lasered off "Billy Bob" it was clearly visible, whereas they must've been fixing that in magazine photos, I've never seen it like that before.

As shown in Buji's photo, our Windex-hued gal only rates her left eye in the eyes of our Sonys, so take a look at the attachment here to see what you've been missing.

Hello, excuse me if this has been asked before.
I have recently purchased the 46wt510, but the picture quality is troubling. I have directtv, and the picture is good on some stations, usally the higher numbers, but is very poor on the local broadcast stations, very blurry. Also when watching sports on local broadcast or espn, the grass looks very pixelated (sp?)
The local channels are being received fromt he directtv box (hughes directors series) using s-video.
When I watch a dvd, the picture is very good, especially movies like "Saving Nemo". The dvd's play through a playstation2, using svideo also.
Note, I have calibrated the set using the sound&vision disc.
Any help or adivce is welcomed
Thanks
(sorry for any spelling errors)

I returned a KP51ws510 which had a great picture for the 57 inch model. The problem I have with the 57 inch is the corners are darker than the rest of the screen, most noticable when the screen is very bright. Is this normal for larger RPTV's? I did not notice this on the 51 inch.

I'm just curious, but what do all you guys have your Brightness, Picture, Contrast, and Color settings set to?

Do you guys use a certain mode (pro, movie) depending on what you're watching (HDTV, SD, DVD, etc.).

I'm pretty new to RPTVs and am just trying to get a feel for how other users are setting things up. I have the 550 model so I guess I'm probably more interested in users with that model as opposed to the 510. Thanks.

In a neat "Could my life suck any harder?" sort of way, I was watching a movie last night when a saw that a bug (small moth or something) had landed on the screen. When I went to shoo it off, I was horrified to discover that it was on the INSIDE and most likely resting on one of the CRTs!!!! OMFG WTF?!?!?!?

Looking at the back of the set, I now notice that there are plenty of sizable vent holes at the bottom by the I/O block, so how much more crap can infiltrate, I wonder?

Also, anyone got a fix for the overscanning problems illustrated above. The 30-day return window is now closed, so a non-costly fix would be appreciated. Thanks.

I highly doubt the moth is on the CRT itself. It would be blocking a significant portion of the picture. If you mistakenly thought it was on the outside of the screen, then it's far more likely it was just sitting on the INSIDE of the screen.

Either way, I've read on a different thread that a good way to lure such uninvited guests out of your set is to turn off the set and all lights except for a lone incandescent bulb in the room. The Moth or other insect is likely to come out of the set to fly around the new light source.

Looking at your previous post where you compared two pictures, I'm quite certain that overscan is not your problem. You're missing a very large portion of the image - far more than overscan usually accounts for. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it doesn't seem like overscan to me.

When I tapped on the screen, it wobbled, but the shadow remained constant and around the shadow was fringed in red and blue, so I'm guessing it was parked on the green gun.

If it's not overscan, what is it? As I posted, I tried tinkering with the HSIZ setting and it reclaimed a lot of the missing bits.

I've read that some DVD players don't output the full screen. There is a resolution test on AVIA that shows you what portions of the screen your player is cutting off. You might want to check that out as well.

yeah, signal output, or 'cropping' is discussed here:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...on-9-2000.html

...as well as a ton of other useful info.

Dirk: what do you get when you connect the zenith to another TV?

They do specifically say somewhere in that article that software based DVD players and computer DVD players don't every have cropping issues because they don't have to adhere to certain timing requirements.

Other than that, it seems that the amount of cropping is a performance factor that varies between players AND sets.

It really reminds you that this is still all analog stuff. (from the player on out...)

Do any of you guys know what's different between 'Movie' mode and 'Standard' mode? I have everything set the same for each of them (brightness, picture, etc.) but Stardard seems a bit 'brighter'. Any thoughts?

Movie has some things like SVM (scanning velocity modulation) set to more sane settings.

For the WS550 sets, SVM is a separate setting in the regular picture menu, you can set it to any level you like in any of the settings.

On the 500 (and I assume 510) the SVM is a service mode item that is disabled in Pro and Movie modes.

If SVM is a user menu item on the 550 the I'm sure there are other service menu items that are enabled/disabled for Movie vs. Standard on the 550... not sure off hand what they would be though... red push, perhaps?

Hey guys. I've got Sony replacing my 40XBR for defects. It's taken a year to get this done and I don't want to screw it up. They are sending me a 51ws550. My local store is willing to take the 550 in exchange for a 2004 mits. My problem is this: I can't find anywhere to demo the particular mits that would be replacing the 550. So I need you guys to tell me why you picked the sony over a Mits. Sell me on the sony 550, PLEASE. There HAS to be something you guys saw on the mits that kept you away, if so please share your thoughts. Thanks guys,

I got the Sony over the Mits, because OOTB it looked better PQ-wise and also had a much better viewing angle (doesn't get as dark quickly like the Mits does, very dark and narrow sweet spot compared to the Sony imho). If viewing angle is not a concern of yours then either would be an excellent choice imo.

Thanks NorrinRad. I noticed this too when comparing the 550 to another Mits. I also could see some kind of video noise in reds with the mits I saw. Wasn't there on the Sony with the same signal. At several stores I could see some kind of video noise in the mits as well, especially in the reds. Anyone else see this? I've got 12 days to decide and I'm leaning Sony 550.

I bought a 550 because I got a really good deal on it and because I could hardly find anything bad about the tv. This is my first HDTV and I've got to say that i'm really impressed with it. SD quality imo, is decent. DVD viewing is excellent, especially when watching a movie like Monsters Inc. And of course HDTV is really good. Playing ninja gaiden on my friends xbox even looks really good.

My only qualm is sometimes certain dark scenes seem to dark or certain black clothing seems to dark. Like it's kind of hard to pick to see detail in clothing or in dark scenes. This doesn't happen a lot, but tends to happen more when watching SD tv.

Overall though, i'm really happy with my purchase and am sure you'd be happy with yours.

I wouldn't worry too much about the bug. I had the same experience when I saw a fairly large spider crawling up the screen of my 51HW40. Turned out that he was on the inside of screen. Saw him a couple of times after that and then he disappered for good. Probably dead and shriveled somewhere inside of the cabinet.

This is a helpful thread. I've had my 51HW40 for 2 1/2 years and it still looks great.

I had an ISF do mine last year, and it looked 1000% better. Aside from adjusting the geometry, focus and convergence, I think the best tweaks overall were draping the inside of the cabinet with black cloth (to prevent interior reflections), and removing that horrible glare screen (although you don't want to take it off if you have children, etc., who might touch the screen.)

The Sonys have taken a lot of criticism because of the flickering CRTs that showed up in a number of units. I've never had that problem and have been extremely pleased with my set.

My 51WS550 was delivered yesterday. Went through all sorts of decision trees with different sets, decided that this one was the best for my situation. Got a fantastic price from CC(~seventeen).
Anyway , the picture OTB was very nice. The only thing that I have done was to get it out of torch mode on all picture modes , and ran the flash focus. I plan to get the DVE or Avia and do a basic tuneup. I currently have DirecTv and the Sd looks pretty good. I hooked up an indoor RCA UHF antenna and got the local PBS station in HD and was very impressed. I have ordered the Winegard SquareShooter and it should be here next week. I watched a DVD on my el-cheapo DVD player and it looked great. I have order one of the Norcent DP501 DVD sets which upconverts to 1080i and I hope my results are as good as some of the other reports that I have heard. Please the tweaks tips coming as I am planning to do basic tweaking on mine initially and get an ISF cal in a few weeks.

JW

Congrats. I have had mine for just over a month now and it is some of the best money I have ever spent. I can't even stand to watch my 32" digital set anymore.

I'd first kinda noticed this when I was running the 16:9 test from the THX Optimizer, but didn't nail down what was happening until last night - the set doesn't seem to automatically catch anamorphic properly.

The pattern looked a little egg-shaped - squeezed vertically - but if I cycled the Zoom mode button, first switching it to Normal then back to Full, the circle became properly round.

Then the other night I was watching Logan's Run and it struck me that people looked squeezed and after cycling, not only did it look OK, but the letterbox bars were noticeable wider, so last night I put it to the test.

Using the From Dusk Till Dawn CE disc, after switching to progressive DVD feeding Video 5 via component from the DSS input (S-Video - TV set to automatically Wide Zoom 4:3 content) the movie had letterbox bands of 1-1/2" on top and 1-3/4" on the bottom. (Measurements on a 51" set - movie is 2.35:1 IIRC.) After cycling the Zoom modes, the bands increased by a full inch - to 2-1/2" and 2-3/4" respectively - and will retain properly scaling UNLESS you switch back to a 4:3 signal source. After switching inputs, you'll have to reset the proper Full mode display on the DVD.

WTF is that about?

I am in the service menu for my 57ws550, but am having trouble navigating. For instance, I see references to go to 2150P-4, but as I toggle through 2 and 5 I see nothing resembling this code. For instance, this is what I am looking at right now:


COMB 0 8 SERVICE
NSS HD FULL DTV
1080





NVMO: G NVM1: G

Any help would be appreciated

Yup, that confused me too for a bit. I think on the 550's they named the categories instead of giving it a cryptic menu id. For example, I think the category above you're referring to is the CLTY category on the 550. Instead of looking for the category, look for the item, like UVML, AXIS, etc. as they are still listed that way on the 550s. It will take longer since you're using the 1 or 4 buttons, but you'll find it eventually. Most of your major PQ settings (other than convergence, overscan, pincushion, etc.) will come from the COLR and CLTY categories anyways, so it should be Ok.

Thanks Norrin

I have the 57 inch model, great TV, PQ out of the box is unbelievable. As far as the picture modes, Pro and Movie are the only ones worth using, unless of course, you go into the Service menu and perform the "Mother of all tweaks" which basically eliminates SVM and makes them all comparable.
The other thing I suggest is removing that useless Glare screen, you can do it yourself and you won't believe the difference it makes.