THE SONY SERVICE CODES - Articles, Comments, Discoveries - Page 2

10 - "PRESETS" AND RELATED SERVICE CODES

Understanding the following is really important to working in service mode: Some codes do not have effects of their own but rather point to a *group* of real parameter-codes that are set elsewhere. For example, GAMM = 1 means whatever the settings for GAMS, GAMR, GAMB, and GAMR define for it. The GAMM settings of 0 thru 3 are presets, represented by four columns in the service-data table for GAMS-GAMB, and these settings dictate each value of GAMM to mean whatever you want it to mean. Likewise, the user-menu choices for Warm and Cool color-temp variations are determined by the values in two columns for codes 2170P-1 #14-22 (WBSW-DCOL). This is hard to discern from the Excel-based service-code listing, and having an appropriate service-data chart is essential.

Here are some preset groups that are likely to be most important to tweaking color and image quality:

(1) User menu: Color Temp > Warm/Cool. Set by the two columns of 2170P-1 #14-22 (WBSW-DCOL). Neutral color temp is set by the fundamental white-point settings of 2170P-1 8-10 (RDRV-BDRV). Warm and Cool are *offsets* from Neutral, and 31 = no offset. See article #03 for more.

(2) 2170P-3 #16, MIDE points to a column in the immense MID5 table, which has 18 unique codes (rows) and 64 columns. MID5 #0, POP is a temporary pointer to any particular column in this table, so you can make changes without schlepping back and forth between 2170P-3 and MID5. Example: If you wanted to make changes in the settings for MIDE = 21, you can go to the MID5 #0, POP, and set it to 21. Then you are in column 21, and you can step thru the codes, make changes, and write them. Now any time you set MIDE in the 2170P-3 tables to 21, those settings you just made will take effect. (Of course, more than one column in the 2170P-3 tables can have MIDE = 21, and it will be the *same* 21.)

(3) User menu: Advanced Video > Program > Color Axis > Default/Monitor Set by two columns in the table for 2170P-4, #13-16 or 7-10, RYR-GYB. For the XS955 table, the columns are labeled Normal and Special Axis for Default and Monitor, respectively. After calibrating the Default color axis with Digital Video Essentials (RYR-GYB = 13-15-6-4), I found that the memory stick color was off using that setting: a real green push was still a problem. So I set the memory-stick axis to Monitor in the user menu, and recalibrated it in service mode (this time making changes in the Special Axis column. You can make changes in the user menu and watch the values change in RYR-GYB.) I used a memory-stick/jpeg custom test pattern that duplicates the DVE pattern. The settings ended up at RYR-GYB = 12-15-14-9. Perfect. Bottom line: You have *two* sets of color-axis adjustments you can apply as you wish with the Default/Monitor setting in the user menu. How you set them up is up to you.

(4) 2170P-4 #11 or 17, GAMM is a table of 17 columns for every possible video/input mode and 4 rows for each picture mode. However, the values of 0-3 simply point to a column in a 4 X 4 table for the four codes following GAMM: GAMS, GAMR, GAMG, and GAMB. (GAMS is a brightness offset and has no effect at GAMS = 7.) To set GAMM = 0 for maximum gamma, for example, set GAMM to 0, then immediately set GAMS = 7, and each of the GAMR, -G, and -B codes to 0. (But see Article #09 for how to fudge the gamma settings to get a perfect grayscale.)

(5) 2170P-4 #22 or 16, BLK controls the Dynamic Image feature advertised by Sony, an automatic modification of contrast and the brightness-response curve that depends on what is being displayed at any moment. It is described by a table just like GAMM, above, whose values of 0-3 point to one of four columns for several related codes following BLK: in 2170P-4, DCTR, APED, DSBO, ABLM, DPSQ; and in 2103-1, #24 and 25, ATPD and DCTR. [BLK is a little tough to figure out, but the factory's BLK = 0 seems to kill all dynamic effects. More another time. This feature is not to my taste.]

Well, um, [squirms visibly] aside from reducing overscan a bit for 4:3 material and reducing height slightly for 480i and HD compressed mode with 2170D-1 #13, ASPT, I actually haven't done much for myself. I did some basic recentering, using the SM instructions (attached), but very little was amiss on my set -- compared, say, to the poor folks who have sets that were accidentally reset to factory-newborn status.

I have been writing this stuff as I do it, making sure I walk the talk. I'm really not quite ready to write up anything comprehensive yet for geometry, as other matters have been of greater importance to me -- such as focus, gamma, correct image brightness and color, and image-detail rendition. They contributed the most to my immediate enjoyment of this excelent set.

As I find the time, I will likely get to geometry. But my set has a few static-convergence defects that a Tech will have to resolve first. I'll be calling someone to come out this week. I want *him* to be the first to open the back of the set.

 

xs955|xbr960 geometry.pdf 146.7265625k . file

While I'm at it . . . for the 30-, 34-, and 36XS955 owners among us, see attached. Now, in living color!

 

xs955 service data.pdf 405.4189453125k . file

And for the 34XBR960 . . .

 

34xbr960 service data.pdf 346.224609375k . file

Yes, you can watch any video input, change channels, switch to memory stick -- all while in service mode, with the SM green character-based readout superimposed over the picture. When you make a change, you see the effect on the picture immediately. You just can't use the number buttons on the remote for channel hopping, as they are used for controlling service mode, as are a few other buttons, too. You can exit SM without saving any changes by simply recycling power. In case any of the settings "stick" anyway (as one Audio setting seems to), pulling the power plug fixes that.

11 - IMPROVING THE AUDIO

I was very pleased to find that my 36XS955 has a decent subwoofer and not much of a plastic-cabinet sound. Nice! But of course I've been mucking around in service mode on just about everything else, and there *is* a group of codes for AUDIO just waiting to be tweaked. So . . .

On my set I found that voice had an annoying nasal quality, and high-quality piano sounded honky in the same frequency region. Mid-range boost maybe? And the Treble slider in the user menu boosted the annoyance factor lots faster than the extreme highs. So what's up with that?

The 21 codes for audio are in the group called AUDIO. ASYS switches all effects on and off, and only ASYS = 1 (on) sounds anywhere near decent.

I found that #1-3, TRCV, BACV, and MDCV all are controlled by the menu sliders for Bass and Treble, but that they affect treble, bass, and midrange, respectively. If all are set to 3, the tone-control sliders do nothing. It's hard to imagine how this works with the midrange! Seems that settings lower than 3 vary the width or impact of the frequency range affected by the sliders. I set the tone sliders to their midpoint (31) to start, and set the above three codes to 2 for moderate effect. Sony's original settings for these made no logical sense to me.

I discovered that codes #6, 8, and 10, MIDL (midtones), SBAS (lows), and STRE (highs), sort of act like a 3-band equalizer, affecting the tonal balance of the set when the tone controls are set in the middle. My set came with them set at 8 - 7 - 6, respectively. Changing those to 6 - 7 - 9 removed the honkiness and added transparency to the highs.

I noted that the subwoofer-supplied bass was really tubby. Thump - thump on pop music, but no real warmth to voices or other instruments. Warmth in the 300Hz region adds pleasantly to the illusion of size of the presentation (best metaphor I can think of). So I diddled with #7, LOFQ, and found that increasing it to 5 from 0 added back something that was missing. I haven't figured out exactly what #4 and 5, SVHI and SVLO, do, and so for now I have left them each at 4, the original settings. And I haven't a clue about #12, 19, and 20 (PSEF, TRS1, TRS2). So they remain untouched.

I had hoped that the SteadySound feature might miraculously control the nasty-loud commercial breaks. Mine, however, had almost no effect! Then I discovered that, when SteadySound is enabled, #13, AGCL, controls its effect, with AGCL=15 minimum (no effect) ranging to 0 (very substantial compression, obnoxious). My set had 9 as a default - no wonder it had little effect. I reduced it to 4 for now, and am pleased with the results. I generally don't like any compression, as the broadcasters lay it on quite heavily anyway. But how about music for accompanying a memory-stick slideshow? Or afternoon football? I would try settings of 2-4 and then use it with discretion.

Finally there are what appear to be dynamic bass-boost settings with big-time control over the subwoofer. #14, BBE, turns all of it on and off, and off sucks! So BBE will stay at 1. I found it interesting (as opposed to enlightening) to tinker with the four main settings, #15-18, BBEP thru BB2L. But it's really hard to deduce what they do and which of them might be responding dynamically to volume level - like the bass-impact switch on some CD players. So, after playing around a bit, I have left them alone. The other changes detailed above made such a substantial improvement overall, that I am content for now.

So, to summarize:
-- Get one of the service-data charts in front of you. Write down your original settings. <<
-- Actual noted original settings (#0 thru 13) for my 36XS955 = 1-2-0-2-4-3-8-0-7-0-6-7-5-9.
-- For the 34XBR960, Sony's data chart lists 0-2-0-2-4-4-10-0-8--10--5-9. (The first value of 0 has to be a misprint!)
-- My improved settings = 1-2-2-2-4-4-6-5-7-0-9-7-5-4. #14 thru 20 weren't changed. I sometimes boost the bass a bit with the Bass slider in the user menu.

You're very welcome, Rick.

You'll find the settings you are looking for in 2170P-3 #13-15, UBOF, UCOF, and UHOF. These are brightness (black level), color, and hue offsets on top of the global settings. Each increment here is equivalent to two clicks or so in the user menu.

Good strategy is to find your input source that has the *highest* predictable black level, and assign it a 0 for UBOF. (Touch up 2170P-1 #7 SBRT to recalibrate global black level, if needed.) For me it was my DVD player. Then a little switching around among sources and channels will let you find suitable settings for everything else. Write the change after each input or mode switch or you'll lose it. My favorite VCR has a slight pink shift to skin tones, so I was able to fix that with UHOF without screwing up other inputs.

Note that there are a maximum of about 60-something values that can be stored for *each* of the three offsets: one for each picture mode (4) times one for each input video mode (16 for my 36XS955). That's each of the four input resolutions (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i) for each of V5/V6 together (component), all S-video, HDMI, and ATSC (tuner, SD and HD), plus individual settings for "RF," memory stick, and TwinView. Whew! Means you can tweak to your heart's content. Note that V5 and V6 component inputs are *not* separate, but the video modes are. Same with all S-video. Two 480i sources connected to V5 and V6 will have to share the same offset; but if one of them is *not* 480i (a set-top HD converter, say) , then they can be different.

SD broadcasts are completely inconsistent in black level, so the best you can do is choose a UBOF setting that causes you the least hassle when changing channels. HD broadcasts seem much more consistent, and your external devices (DVD, etc) may be easy to set & forget. I generally want the "base" setting for Brightness, Color, and Hue to be slider-midpoint = 31. Then I can adjust from there on the fly.

[Some channels (e.g. MTV, FoodTV) broadcast way too much color, and I have to tweak Color down to 25 or so. Is there no respect for standards? Don't they monitor the signal with a vectorscope or something?]

Very soon I will post an article of all of the 2170P-3 settings -- a big project! These settings determine the "look" of the picture: all of the detail rendering, enhancement, and filtering. With a few adjustments, you can do much better than Sony's factory settings!

12 - OPTIMIZING IMAGE DECODING, "SHAPING," AND ENHANCEMENT

This has been the most difficult article to write, since it involves *subjective* judgments of image quality. So, up-front, my goals here were to try to get the images on my 36XS955 to *not* look like video but like realistic, high-quality film, at its best, where possible. Maybe even reality! The hardest part to get right is the reproduction of *texture*: human skin, clothing, rock and sand, distant trees, hair. Many image enhancements smear or attenuate this texture, but I am happy to claim that these particular Sony sets seem capable of reproducing it very well - providing it's not killed within the set by misguided filtering and over-the-top enhancements. What have helped me are (1) an extensive photography background, and (2) expectations in line with reality. TV is a crummy picture by most standards, but there's no reason one can't maximize its quality for what it is. And HD raises the stakes.

Video can have a look, and I have typically found it unattractive - overly bright, compressed luminance range; over-sharpening of all detail (historically called aperture correction; exaggerated color, especially food colors and reds; and *way* over-sharpening of high-contrast edges independent of other detail. Speaking optimistically, I have found that, even among SD channels, there is a great deal of first-rate NTSC video, whether local news, Survivor on CBS, or some documentary on the History or Food channel. I don't want the set tinkering excessively with good video. Just pass it to the screen, thanks, with suitable noise suppression and a little sharpness enhancement to compensate for losses in the long signal chain from camera thru editing to broadcast.

So I am striving for *transparency.* Some broadcast and VCR video is hopelessly bad, and so it will appear on-screen. It seems that attempts at manipulation just make it worse! So transparency works for me there, too, and I just deal with it.

There are too many technical details to write about in a forum message, so I have attached a PDF document converted from a Word document of the real article in its entirety. A detailed chart expresses succinctly what I have discovered about the very important 2170P-3 settings and the related MID5 chart, and I note a couple of newly-discovered (9-8-05) settings in 2103-1. (The charts' boundaries may print better than Adobe Reader will display.) In addition, please download one of the service-data charts available in this thread before attempting to make changes, as it makes plain the relationships among the picture and video modes and these settings. (Note: No discussion here about gamma, black level, color, geometry, convergence, etc. See other articles.)

That said, this continues to be a fascinating discovery process, and experiments can be conducted *safely* by (1) using one of the useless picture modes for playing around and (2) by laying claim to a couple of the columns in the MID5 table for your own purposes. If nothing else, I think just trying out the settings suggested in the table will really please some folks who are searching for this image perfection.

Feedback from readers is VERY WELCOME. Please! And let me know if there's any trouble with the PDF document.

[Small changes to message and major revisions to PDF document 9-8-05.]

 

Image_Processing_rev1_1.pdf 147.017578125k . file

Here are a couple of excellent memory-stick test patterns for image tweaking. Edge effects, oversharpening, image "ghosting," and smear are all revealed quite well. These are only 4:3, as there is no advantage to a special 16:9 version (heights are the same).

 

image_optimizing-pats.zip 187.22265625k . file

Here is an excellent memory-stick test pattern (not my invention) for focus adjustment. To remove the confusion of any misconvergence, it's recommended that you use 2170P-2 #1 RGBS = 2 to turn off all but the green gun when tweaking the 2170D-4 dynamic-focus settings. (You don't have to, but it helps.)

If the display is filled with the pattern, it won't compress into a file <512K to fit the limits for filesize here.

This is the 4:3 version. The following message has the 16:9 version.

 

focusmatrix_4x3sparse.zip 332.6533203125k . file

Here is the 16:9 version of the above.

 

focusmatrix_16x9sparse.zip 288.0087890625k . file

(1) This is almost certainly correctable only with magnets, and Sony does not offer a single service-mode adjustment for it. Tilt, yes; bowing or curving, no. A magnet placed properly on the side of the CRT in the center of the botton will "repel" or "attract" the electron beam as it approaches this area, and the effect is to pull the scan lines outward or push them inward. Same with the corners and top. The sides can be corrected with correction signals added to the horizontal deflection, and that's what is available in the service code adjustments. But not top and bottom.

Since it's the same electron-beam that does both 4:3 and HD, I wonder if you are just not bothered by it on 4:3 because you don't have a perfect horizontal line staring you in the face al of the time, as you do at the bottom of the HD raster.

(2) Mine is very slightly this way, too, but I can easily ignore it. For now. According to the service manual, this is either a slight lateral misalignment of the deflection yoke (established with rubber wedges fixing the position of the yoke's front edge), or a slight adjustment of the main central purity magnets may be required.

All of these require opening the set and are best accomplished by a trained service person. If the set is still under warranty, this is the *only* way, and I would prompt the service organization sending out the tech to make sure it is someone who is savvy about placing magnets. (It's a very "organic" process, and requires common-sense skill, not following a recipe.) Tell them what you need done -- e.g. bottom-curvature geometry and yoke alignment. Make sure your convergence is okay; he can diddle that, too.

Personally, I *will* remove the back from my set and try a few adjustments myself -- I have a long history with this kind of thing that makes me fearless! But it ain't for the faint-of-heart or undisciplined.

I *wish* these adjustments were possible electronically, but the physics of it argue against that, to our inconvenience.

The thing to avoid is having some tech-bozo-in-training to mess with convergence on your set! I would ask around at high-end TV or home-theater specialty stores as to who does competent "magnet work" or who their favorite Sony service store is. Then call them, and grill them on whether they have a good "magnet guy." If they mumble or say, Oh yeah, all of our guys can do that," um, I would be a bit skeptical and try elsewhere.

I haven't gone throught this yet, but the specialty shop that sold me my TV pointed me to a service shop whose manager has already convinced me that he has two of his several service people who are especially good with magnets (a credible reply). I just haven't gotten the nerve yet, and my service warranty runs out in about 10 days.

Unless they operate physically in your city, they wouldn't have a clue! No, I would visit a few stores in person. It's not much of an imposition to humbly ask for a referral to a service center they like. "I really don't know who else to ask," you could say. Just be really cool about it.

Even though I already have a referral, I think I will make a small tour of a few stores and see what they recommend, too. Maybe mention the service shop for which I have that referral to see if they agree.

That might work really well. It's just that no one has given me any feedback yet, and I have set up only one set.

The exact voltages at which each tube produces a minimum glow on the tube face (darkest gray) has quite a bit to do with physical parameters in the three electron guns, and I have to believe that tiny variations in spacing of each emitter/cathode to grid #1 would alter the curve and cutoff. In my set, the blue gun has a slightly different response curve, and so I have to fudge it by knocking GAMB up one notch. I don't know if that's typical.

That said, I believe starting with my settings would put you in the ballpark of the brightness range I have come to appreciate, and tweaking of the settings for perfect color tracking and black cutoff might be minor.

Please post what your experience is because others may wish to try this without all the experimenting I find peversely delightful!

For convenience, here's a summary of my settings:

(1) (Brightness slider target average = 31.) 2170P-1 #7 SBRT = 31.
2170P-3 #13 UBOF for various inputs varies from 0 to 4. Choose 0 for the peripheral or input that gives the highest black level, and adjust others to match. Mine was a Toshiba DVD player. SBRT can be fudged if all of the UBOF settings are too high or low.

(2) 2170P-1 #8-13 RDRV-BCUT = 42-28-22-31-18-14 for a Normal color temp about 6400K. See my article #03 under "Normal Color" for my "white cloud" suggestion.

(3) For 2170P-1 #12-19: Warm = 0-7-34-31-28-34-31-28; Cool = 0-7-28-31-34-28-31-34.

(4) Suggestion: For a display gamma = 2.2 (TV standard), set 2170P-4 GAMR-GAMB to 3 for the picture mode of your choice; Set GAMS = 0. I have set Movie = Pro for all settings except gamma, and I use Movie for the "3" settings. For Pro, GAMR-GAMB = 0 = display gamma of about 2.45. My set requires fudging GAMB one higher for accurate blue tracking in grayscale. YMMV.

If there is black contamination with a color on an input relative to the others (my 1080i HD/tuner was yellow-green!), it has to be compensated with 2170P-1 #3 and 4, CBOF and CROF. For me 44-47 became 58-54 for 1080i broadcast OTA. Only blue and red are adjustable.

Nope. No pots, except a couple on the high-voltage transformer for focus, G2 voltage, and one other, perhaps astigmatism. Everything else that you mentioned is adjusted in software/memory by setting numbers in a special service mode. You don't need to take the back off the set.

This seems to be the manufacturing trend. There are about 540 or so to this line of sets we are discussing here, and some of those have 1, others 60+ possible "memorized" settings, depending on type of signal, which input, etc. How could that ever be accomplised with pots?

(1) Sorry, but this is incorrect. See my article, which you apparently won't read for some reason. SYSM 0-2 is mapped to Sharpness, true, but the effect is very coarse. If Sharpness-control effect seems to disappear when SYSM = 3, you are feeding a signal which is much too coarse itself to show it. 2170P-3 #6-8 most certainly *are* also affected by the Sharpness slider, and a sufficiently sharp test pattern shows it readily (only a few of which can be found on DVE, for example).

There's not much you can do with this TV to improve really mushy SD material. (Travel Channel comes to mind.) The TV's enhancements are designed to work on small detail, except for SYSM = 1, and that level of detail simply doesn't exist in lots of broadcast video. But it *does* exist in some of it, and that's what I try to optimize.

(2) Wrong. Sorry. But 0 and 1 do seem identical.

(3) I disagree. If you *like* it, leave it alone (at 1 or 2), and this might be what *you* should do. But its effects distort image-texture quality for fine images from DVD or HD sources. That's why Sony has it initially set to 3 = OFF for all HD sources. My DVD images are harmed by the coarseness of SYSM, and I recommend *not* using it on those inputs for 480i and 480p. That said, my goal has been to *inform* people how to see these effects, and then to make up their own minds about what effects they want. This puts the control into the users' hands, not strictly Sony's. That, obviously, includes you. You get to pick your poison! My choice is to leave SYSM at 3, as it does not serve any of my purposes.

(4) Dude! Been there! Read the articles. I've spent *hours* researching this *before* writing the articles. (By the way, I'll stop saying that if you are dyslexic or something that prevents you from reading them. Is it that you don't have Adobe Reader?)