THE SONY SERVICE CODES - Articles, Comments, Discoveries - Page 86

Well, I'm happy to report that by using the service menu (D-CONV) I was able to tweak out some annoying convergence on the left side of my newly acquired 30XS955. It's not perfect, but significantly better.

I also had a go at trying to reduce the overscan. My results were mixed. I was totally able to optimize it for an Xbox set to 16:9 mode. (I compared it to my projector at 0% overscan - very close.) However, that resulted in widescreen output from a PS2 being too small with the sides of the image itself visible. So I had to compromise and increase the HSIZ and VSIZ again slightly so both would be OK.

I expect I'll have to adjust this again when I finally hook up an Xbox 360 to the set. I've heard that I might have to use the MID3 group to adjust 1080 input. (By the way, is there no way to see what the input signal format is other than being in the service menu?)

I was really glad I could adjust out that convergence error. All this is a bit more inconsistent and finicky than my 1280x720 projector, but hey this is about as good as it can get on a CRT (TV) as I understand it, so I can "put up" with small issues.

One thing I'm worried about is whether or not I have maintained a correct aspect after playing with HSIZ and VSIZ - that is, I hope circles are still truly circular! It looks fine, but I haven't measured it yet. Part of the problem is that the DVD playback from PS2 is weird. I put the THX optomizer in there from a movie and could not get the circle in the widescreen check to be circular. For some reason it was still letterboxing in my 16:9 screen - lame. Game material does not look stretched or squished (I didn't try the actual movie).

One thing I noticed last night is when I changed a PS2 game to run progressive (there are a few) the image shifted to the right so now I have a small gap of black on the left side...huh? (I was not in the service menu - no other changes than going from 480i to 480p.) This did bug me - any ideas?

Well, I'm not intending to tweak forever (addicting as it is) but sometimes I just don't get why the image is so inconsistent across inputs/sources/formats. (All the above is on component connections via inputs 5 and 6.)

I labeled PS2 input 5 "Beta" just to give Sony props (and because, yes, I actually was a Beta user...)

Don't be embarrassed. You should be proud!

I'm STILL using an HFR-900 Super-Beta (vintage 1984, and still working perfectly) as my "D* composite pass-through" for one of my SD TV's. It doesn't have S-video, but neither does that TV... just composite.

And I STILL use an EDV-9500 ED-Beta (vintage 1989) as my "D* S-video pass-through" for another SD TV, and an EDV-7500 (vintage 1990) in a similar use for watching D* via S-video on my PC (which has an ATI TV Wonder 650 PCI TV card, also supporting OTA via built-in ATSC tuner and amplified indoor antenna).

All of these Sony Beta machines are still working flawlessly, both electronically and mechanically. I don't use them for recording any longer but definitely still use them for the occasional playback of Super-Beta and ED-Beta recordings made many many years ago (and which still have not yet disintegrated into dust, but still play perfectly). For actual recording of SD from D* I have a Hughes E45 receiver and Hughes HDR-205 D-VHS VCR at each TV node. This gives me digitally perfect recordings and playback from D*, which is why I no longer use analog VCR's to record.

I do have JVC S-VHS VCR's (9400U and 9800U) also available on these same SD TV's and PC, so I can watch anything I want on any TV. And I have JVC D-VHS VCR's (40K and DT100U) for offloading HD content to D-VHS tape from my DCH3416 from TWC. If I'm going to be away from home for several weeks, I'll use the JVC D-VHS VCR's in LS3 mode to record SD from D*. That gives 21 hours of better-than-Svideo quality LS3 recording on a DF420 tape (which would provide 7 hours of D-VHS recording from D* on my HDR-205 machines).

So yes, I'm a Beta man too. And I even have a second "spare" EDV-9500 and EDV-7500 that are simply sitting on a shelf, in case I ever need parts (since you can't get them any longer), along with six brand new still-in-wrapper never opened ED-Beta blank tapes... maybe for some possible future use someday.

But JVC has made giant progress in the quality of their S-VHS machines over the past 10 years (although I've stopped buying them), and now with their HD D-VHS machines (which have super-fabulous S-VHS picture quality as well). So I now do any VCR recording on JVC machines, either in S-VHS or D-VHS.

Try adjusting your MID2 settings as a last resort, that is what I ended up doing on my 34xs955.

I've finally accomplished what I thought would be impossible with my 34xs955. I made it look very similar to my 24"FW900 computer monitor. Took me forever and a day to get here, but now that I'm here I'll never go back to a downgrade in technology. I truly hope SED gets here soon or my tubes last forever.

These are my final~ settings for the 34xs955 HDMI input. I only use this input because that is what my Pio 91 connects to, and I like having the HDMI conversion since it forces my 480i connections to 480p with the proper 4:3 ratio with black bars, or 16:9. Most of my settings came from reading, and seeing first hand, what some of the service codes do to the image, and other settings came from the 34xs955 service manual. I tried to eliminate any instance of video source alteration to get as true and clean a signal as possible.

The key here is to get the MID1 codes right, then adjust the MID2 codes. If you have either group too far off the focus and resolution is very far off and the Sharpness = Min will not work. The ENHA settings are also key here too. Combining all of these correctly will allow you to keep the sharpness slider set to Min or off.

I don't like to add sharpness, personally, for three important reasons.
1. It makes jagged lines stand out more.
2. It alters the source material. (My FW900 computer monitor doesn't even have a sharpness slider on it.)
3. It is a bad compensator for focus.

I've attached a text file with many of the codes I use for my TV.
I will be uploading some images later to show how great this set looks, especially for video games.

Please keep in mind that these settings are for those of us that normally play video games on this TV. These settings are probably not optimal for low to medium quality broadcast material.

 

34xs955_8_28_07.txt 2.3876953125k . file

Nextgen, good to see you have your TV where you want it! I'm just curious as to what you mean by getting the "mid 1" settings right? From what i heard ( on my TV) the mid 1 settings shouldn't be tinkered with at all ? Mid 2 i'm not as sure about. When i put a pattern up and mess with some of the mid settings on my set, you can see that some adjusting actually effects the quality of the lines when using a test pattern. I haven't noticed these problems with setting most of the mid 2 settings like "DHHP,DHVP" But most of the other ones like in mid 1 do something to the overall picture quality ( only noticeable when viewing a static test image with white lines) i think i read in this topic that there is actually some connection between some of those settings that have to be kept the way they are. (they interact and if one is off, they are all off)

You right. I have left all my MID1 settings exactly as they are printed in the service manual. However, most of my MID2 settings for various display modes and resolutions had to be changed to get things like overscan, pixel cropping, vertical and horizontal centering and sizing correct. This does indeed cause some of the sharpness patterns to act strange, but I think by changing the DYSS value in the MID1 group of codes either corrects or compensates for the MID2 changes. Or maybe, based on your post, I just have something that should be on turned off or vice versa and I simply "think" I've got the right settings for my set. I'm not sure what DYSS stands for, but the factory default setting is 1, but if I change it to either 0 or 2 my sharpness patterns seem correct to my eye, and my eye is the only real measuring equipment I have been using.

*edit*
Just went back to double check everything, and based on the test patterns I'm using, movies I've watched parts of, and games I've tested out, changing the MID2 group of codes appears to be perfectly fine after adjusting the MID1 DYSS values. Here is a shot I took with my digital camera, it isn't the best quality as I'm not very skilled at photographing a tv.

After reading and re-reading the posts in this thread, I'm about to "grow a pair" and go into the service menu. But before I do, can someone briefly explain to this SM newbie when to use a test pattern from a DVD (my Avia disc), and when to use the test pattern generated from the tv itself. (I have an XBR970.) I assume the pattern generated from the tv would be best suited for global adjustments only, yes? I dunno. Thanks in advance.

I would assume the one from the TV itself will give you a more true representation to work with and it should work for all inputs and resolutions. However, I'm not sure and just taking a guess here, I would assume that if parts of your geometry, overscan, etc are out of whack then the TV's patterns will also be off, so it might be a good idea to start with a DVD. If your DVD player supports upscaling and can read from some type of memory stick you should be all set. Just write down EVERYTHING before you start, that's the key to the whole thing.

Since I'm only concerned with HDMI, I just used my PS3 and upscaled and/or double scaled my AVIA and DVE disks 99% of the time.

Hi Sony CRT´s fans
I found a site where you can download the SERVICE MANUAL FOR FREE of 30/34/36xs955 and 34xbr960(all with DA-4 chassis):go to www.schematicsforfree.com and 1)click on "Click here to see the files" in blue big letters 2) click on "Sony" 3)click on "Video" 4)click on "KD34XBR960" or "KD34XS955".It´s a Zip file.

Huge thanks to you britanico for this pointer.

duwdu

I'm having a problem with underscan (I think this is what it is) on the top portion of the picture.

Everything else is more or less centered but the top is "cut off" Even if I drag the picture all the way down, part of the top is cut off.

Anyone know what service setting I'm suppose to change?

I dealt with this over the weekend with my xbr970.

Go to the 2170D-1 and 2170D-2 groups. Decrease HSIZ and VSIZ until you can see the image borders. Then VPOS and HPOS to center the image, then resize as desired.

If you're like me though you'll notice pincushioning and bowing that you'll want to massage before resizing.

No, all those settings are done. What I'm saying is that the top is underscanned BUT the TV is cutting off the picture.

Like the TV is blacking out the top of the image. I know that there is a setting that expands the bottom of the image by REVEALING more of the image, but can't seem to find a similar option for the top of the picture.

Has anyone had success getting SD sources on a 36XS955(or a 960, etc) to look like they do on a SD native TV?

I've read every page of this thread and signifigantly improved the image of SD & HD material, but I can't seem to get the SD picture to look like it does on my 24" SD Trinitron CRT. The picture itself is very similar, but looks rather "flat". It's missing something I can't seem to quantify. (SYSM = 3, VM to 4, MID5 to KenTech recommended settings, DRC set to interlaced, 480i coming in via component cables)

I'm very interested if people are having success replicating that true SD CRT picture on this set. Mine is close, but every time I do an A/B comparison the HD CRT loses hands down to the SD set. Thanks in advance for any help.

I have a somewhat similar problem, when playing a ps2 game on 480i on full mode, theres some black space on the 4 sides of the screen, while this is annoying I can live with it because the image from my cable box fills the screen completely and I dont want to mess with it.

However, when i switch to 480p on (on both component inputs and hdmi) the image is way too high on the screen, as if the vpos setting was off by a few values.
I can fix this with the mid2 DHVP settings but I'm a bit averse to using it from all the warnings I've read before. I guess this is more of a "should I, or should I not?" post, lol.

Thanks for all the help in this thread, I've learned lots from it and fixed most of my overscan and geometry problems.

Uh oh. What warnings have you read? I just messed with DHHS and DHHP in MID2 to fix my XBox and Wii underscan issues. Did I do something wrong? ( I have an XBR970).

Evening, all.

I've been sitting here trying to tweak the 1080i HDMI input using my PS3, which I intended to transfer and test the results in the component part of the TV where my X360 is, and noticed that I had knocked the image to the left in the component portion.

I originally had used the component input of the set to adjust the image, using all the great tips I found in this thread, and after getting the PS3, I noticed the image was pushed off to the right. I was hoping that HDMI and component had separate geom. settings. But, now that I've made the adjustments, I really don't want to reset the HDMI settings.

Plus, I got the screen to look as pretty even as i could get. For now.

What I would like to know is if there was a specific set of menu setting that would let me adjust the component and HDMI inputs separate from one another.

I started to adjust in anticipation for Halo 3. Now I feel kinda dumb for screwin' around with it so close to release.

I would also like to point out that about a year and a half ago, I had to re-install my OS after I caught a virus on my PC, and lost all my default settings that I had saved.

Still using my KV30HS420.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

It could be one of two things:

Least destructive route: Try the BLANKING adjustments. They act like masks/curtains/mattes.

Potentially more destructive: You can shrink and shift the screen so that you can see the entire picture using MID adjustments.

There are all methods of comming to what you consider a "good" picture. What's important is to write down a log of your changes so that they can be undone, if need be.

I'm sure there all manner of adjustments in the MID menu that can ruin the "scaling" of the picture. I still fiddle with these and try to create a more "dense" picture by shrinking the picture as much as possible, then working with the geometry, then resizing to the minimum ammount of overscan (covering any residual uglies with the blanking shutters.)

Blah, blah, blah....

Read and do what you feel.

Cheers,

Bryan

What are the adjustments for the right side of the screen of XBR970. Everything else is
straight but there is a pinching effect towards the right. So what are the adjustments for
that.

I have a small reddish spot in the middle right side of my KD34XS955. It's near the edge of the screen about half way up the right side. I know the Landing controls can change the red/green shift of the corners of the screen, but I haven't found a control specifically for the right center area of the screen.

Another one I've been unable to fix is a slightly downward bending of horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the screen. Any idea which service menu control would correct that?

Thanks in advance for replies.

Hmmmmm. I was gonna ask a similar question in a few days. I seem to be doing the opposite of you, component first and then moving on to my PS3 / HDMI. (I have the XBR970). If it turns out that HDMI and component can't be treated separately, perhaps you can keep your PS3 at 1080i and your 360 at 720p. Surely the resolutions are treated separately, no? (I am by no means an expert, so beware my words! I'm still learning the ins and outs of the service menu.)

You mean a pincushion effect? Horizontal or vertical?

I know what pincushion is. I don't need the whole screen to be affected.
Everything else is straight but towards the end it has a PINCHING EFFECT.

------------\\

------------/

Sorta like that but not that dramatic. Just a sense of what I am saying.

I just would like to thank all those who participated in this wonderful thread, and much respect to KenTech for creating it.

I was thinking about tinkering in the service menu back in early 2006 when I purchased my first HDTV the 34XS955 in order to fix some color errors and geometry problems I recognized when using DVE to calibrate the TV.

However I saw all this information and was admittedly overwhelmed by the information and just plain scared of messing up my new TV. But the problems really irked me whenever I tried to enjoy my TV and just yesterday started to look at the this thread again to see what could I do, nothing fancy of course, to improve the image of my set. After gathering up enough cajones to jump into the service menu, I simply adjusted such fields as RYB, RYG, GYR, GYB to get the corresponding colors practically perfect through the DVE supplied color filter and used VPOS, VSIZ, HPOS, HSIZ and HTPZ to manipulate the geometry errors I had and basically eliminated the annoying cutting off of info at the top of the right screen. I still have some vertical bowing which I understand needs the use of magnets, but it's not that bad. Plus I don't feel like shelling out the money for a minor nuisance nor do I feel like getting electricuted to death.

I will definitely be looking at the more intricute adjustments when I feel I have a full understanding of the source material contained within this thread.

Again, congrats to all who participated in this thread and to those who benefited.

I have a KV-27HS420. When I run an OTA HD tuner (Samsung) into the TV at 720p or 1080i, the top and bottom black bars on the TV cut off part of the channel's signal/picture. Is there a way to reduce the height of the bars at top and bottom via the TV's settings?
Thanks in advance.

Try looking for settings that are labled VPOS, VSIZ, HPOS and HSIZ.

Sounds like you have a overscan problem and those values are very good at fixing that issue.

Thanks. Adjusting the vertical and horizontal size and position along with the top and bottom blanking shutters (TBLK, BBLK) seemed to do the trick.

Hey guys,

I've been trying to follow this thread for a while now, and thanks to you, I've been able to ajust most of my geometry problems. But while messing around with the geometry I've managed to mess up the right bottom corner of my KV30HS420. It looks like there's a second shadow on everything. I have attached a picture with how it looks like. Notice on the word "FREE" there's an dark orange/red showdow. Any help would be appriciated.

Ah, yes - the PS3 store home page on a CRT HDTV. I swear, if Sony had any mercy in their souls they'd do a "curved blade" look on their store page like the Xbox 360 so we CRT owners would quit being anal about geometry. I have no solutions for you, just comfort that you aren't the only one bugged by such things. I straighten one part of the screen, and the edges go bendy. I straighten the edges and .... well you get the idea. I had to compromise. The good part is I don't notice such things when playing a game. Do you?

I wish I could be more help. Good luck!

The geometry itself isn't the problem. I did compromise with that. It's the shadow effect that really driving me mad. For example, Motorstorm has a lot of red/orange/brown/dark brown colors in the menus as well as in the game (like the split times and stuff). So when I see orange onscreen to the right, I noticed the red outline around gauges that shouldnt be there, almost like a shadow. Besides, Im the type person, when I see something that bothers me, it pesters me till no end.