Owners ONLY thread - >>>KDS-A2000's<<< - Settings/Tweaks - Page 5

By the way, going by the before calibration results for the set that umr calibrated, assuming that the color temperature setting he started out with was Warm 2 and that the default grayscale across A2000's is similar (note the second assumption, in particular, may not be a valid one ), then the grayscale you're seeing is already reasonably close. Judging from that grayscale graph, I would say the grayscale would be reasonably flat to D65 by turning red drive / gain down a couple notches and green drive / gain up a couple notches. If those settings are all max'd out-of-the-box (I didn't look at the scale on them on my coworker's set to see where their default position is), then instead, you'd leave the green one alone, turn the blue one down a couple notches, and the red one a couple more notches beyond that. Since the low end is already good-looking, they probably would need less work than that even, though they'd likely be thrown off a little bit due to interaction with the gain controls used for the high end.

I've found a menu bug in my A2000 TV, and I was curious if you guys have the same bug. In a nutshell, the "Horizontal Center" setting is reset (internally) to 0 whenever any picture settings are changed (even though the screen menu still lists the horizontal center value you specified). Here is how to reproduce this issue in a very noticeable way:

1) Go to the Setup->Screen menu.
2) Change your "Horizontal Center" option to something extreme (like +5).
3) Go to the Setup->Picture menu.
4) Select the Picture->Adjust option (you need not edit any values).
5) Notice that the screen snaps back to a horizontal center equivalent to 0, even though the "Screen" menu still has your extreme value listed.

Do you guys get this bug? It is kind of annoying (and reproducible even with a +1 horizontal center adjustment). I wonder if rebooting resets the horizontal centering (I'm not power cycling right now to find out).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...52#post8156152

At what distance should I be from the television to check for convergence errors? Is it something that should be noticable from normal seating distance or something that you must closely inspect?

When I get right up close to the set, I can see on the convergence patterns that there is a redish line slightly above and a greenish line slightly below the white bars, however, when I step back a foot or 2, it is not noticable. Just wondering if this is normal.

Eric

EricBurg,
There is virtually no MC on my 60A2000, even up very close. MC will tend to be harder to see the further you move back from the screen. However, it's still there and will result in a "softer" picture. I doubt that this is correctable via the service menu either and may require more drastic service (replacement of prism block) to correct. At least, that's usually the case with the Ruby.

AVBill,
I also set my horizontal to +1 in order to center my overscanned display. It seems to reset back on me as well. I've seen service menu settings for H & V centering. I'm scheduled for in-house service on Friday between 3-5 PM EST so that they can attempt to correct my overscan and check out my LPF setting. I'll post after they're done.

do u use ur xbox360 to view dvds?

Received the 60A2000 3 days ago and so far very pleased with the purchase. Have TWC SA 8300 running over component (HDMI had issues more on that later), OTA with optical out to receiver, PS2 over s-video, DVD over component, and tested 1080p from PC dvi->hdmi. Used custom settings, following examples from this thread to tweak each input individually. Here's a run down on each input:

TWC SA 8300 (HD cable box with DVR):
PQ with HD sources is amazing, SD looks decent if you follow the tweaks in this thread to enhance. I am running into a problem though with HDMI I am hoping some fellow 8300 /A2000 owners can assist with. Problem I am running into with HDMI is that it seems to loose sync and the screen will fill with snow when changing from 1080i to 480i or vice versa, but it does not always happen (HDMI goes direct from 8300 to input 6 on A2000). The sound from optical out is still there. Jumping back to the previous channel/resolution will not recover from the "snow". The "snow" resolution will match the channel's resolution you change to. In the 8300 setup menu all resolution types are enabled and HDMI/pass through is set. Once it looses sync I have not found any way to recover but power off / hard reset of the 8300. Have tried another HDMI cable and the other HDMI input with same results. Using component now without any issues and PQ looks the same, would like some input if anyone else experienced this or knows of a fix (want to make sure it is not A2000 related).

OTA with optical out:
PQ looks very good, know it should be better than TWC since "uncompressed", but you couldn't tell the difference in my opinion. Optical out from the TV to receiver works fine.

PS2 with s-vid:
Only tested with GT4, but was pretty disappointed in the PQ. That game looked beautiful on my 27" wega, but the resolution just isn't there for the tv to work with (didn't try the higher resolution options in the game w/o a component cable). I know it is not a fair comparison, but perhaps component or further tweaking will help. Picture had blocks every where, but good motion.

DVD with component:
Using a philips dvp-642 (no upconversion) and the PQ looks good on high quality DVDs, esp the pixar movies, Gladiator seemed to have lots of grain (perhaps display settings). High quality dvix/xvid was great after some tweaks.

1080p out from ATI 9800, 2.5GHz, 1GB ram PC, XP:
Connected home PC after dragging it out of the home office with dvd->hdmi to input 7. Took a while to get the settings correct in ATI catalyst so the TV didn't reject the signal (will fill in more details later), but got 1920x1080 @ 60Hz to the TV with 'display' listing 1080p input. The overscan was clearly visible since I could only see a little bit of the start button. I found that if you unlock the taskbar and drag it to double the height it works fine. Have yet to find the overscan options in ATI catalyst similar to what they used in the CNET review for nvidia. Anyone know if you can fix overscan in catalyst or if you need powerstrip software program to correct? Tested 2 things with this setup: WMV HD, and DVD upconverting using a great guide in the HTPC forum section (use ffdshow, dscaler, and zoomplayer). The WMV HD running full screen 1080p looked great, Microsoft has great test material for this. There were also a few HotFixes to optimize play back speed if you search. The DVD upconversion with software produced great results, but I had to turn the quality and LancosResizing down to get decent play back speed at that resolution. For folks unfamiliar with that software combo it allows you to scale the video and apply image processing on the fly in real time with great results. I could see a dedicated HTPC in my future.

The only issue I have found with the set so far is a slight tilt in the picture, noticeable when watching 2.35 aspect ratio DVDs. Tilted counter clockwise a few degrees, and over that large size does make a difference (perhaps as much as .5" if you measured). Hate to have service come out for that, but I'll wait to see if anything else comes up before making that call. Anyone know a fix for this? Think there is Horizontal and vertical TILT in the service menu, but not about to go into there yet.

Hope someone can assist with the SA 8300/ A2000/HDMI issue, and ATI catalyst overscan. Lot of great information in this thread and appreciate all the valued input.

Jeremy

I contacted Sony Customer Service about the Low-pass filter and received a call back from Qualia Customer Care (as others have in the other thread). Sony says the issue only affects the test pattern and not normal images (as reported byCNET), but they are working on a solution. Since we know that there already is a solution via the service menu, does this mean Sony is debating the cost/benefit of unleashing customers into the service menu vs. sending out technicians to everybody's homes? I really hope for the latter, because maybe I can an ISF-style calibration for free out of it Maybe we can get them to tell us how to adjust overscan while they're at it.

No. My Xbox 360 (maybe this is the way everyones 360 is) has a noticabley brighter (read black level) output at 480i/p than it does at 720p and 1080i. This means, if I calibrate it for 1080i, then the 480p DVD output will be too bright. Right now I'm borrowing a friend's Oppo 970, and I expect to buy a different DVD player after I give him that one back.

In regards to the FAQ section...


How about someone post the defaults settings for reference. I would do so myself, but I don't have my 50" yet. (It is being delivered Saturday)

I've seen the horizontal center bug, too (was just coming here to ask about it). +2 seems right for my set, but since it doesn't stick I'm hoping to leave it at 0 and achieve the same effect via the service menu.

Can anyone say which setting I should be looking for?

Thanks. That's good information. On my set, the low-end of grayscale has a little greenish tint. I'm gonna try the picture and white balance tonight.

KlingKlang,

There are an awful lot of service menu settings, but if we were to split it up the job of writing down settings among several people, we could get it done fairly quickly. I am interested in seeing if there are any differences in the service menu between June SP3 builds (what I have), July builds, and any newer builds.

If anyone wants to join in this project to note all the service menu settings, send me a PM.

I agree. I'm not even sure how to make heads or tales out of what I see when I get into the menu. Can someone shed some light on this?

JeremyR:

You probably should posted info like that in the owners thread, not in this one.

However, on the 8300/HDMI issue, I did see something like this (screen of static) when the DVR was first being installed (on 2 different ones). After a couple of hard reboots and re-plugging in the HDMI cable they both starting displaying OK and haven't had a problem since. I'm assuming you are using an 8300HD but I don't know which software you have. You might want to go over to the HDTV Recorders topic and look there. There is a ton of info for the 8300 and all its different software versions (including how to find out what you have).

There's a very distinct possibility that the service menu settings vary slightly (or even significantly) between A2000s. I've seen this on older Sony's where settings have been posted. Therefore, I don't believe that some of the service menu options actually have a default. You need to write down YOUR own settings and even though there are a lot, you're likely to only need to change a small subset. Therefore, the record keeping will be minimal. Keep in mind that you could be voiding your warranty too by saving any changes. It's best to stay out of harms way and avoid the service menu. If something's bothering you, call Sony and have it serviced in-house on their dime.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I'm pretty sure that the V & H centering variables are under PANEL SERVICE section 1 TG. They're labeled 28 V_CENT and 29 H_CENT. Mine are set to 24 and 48 respectively. There are other variables in there named 4 VST_POS and 5 HST_POS too, but I forgot what these affected, if anything. The 11 ACT_TOP and 15 ACT_END control blanking for the top and bottom of the picture. Mine are set to 6 and 1088 respectively.

As I said earlier, I'm having in-house service Friday between 3-5 PM EST to look at overscan and LPF settings. I'll post my observations after they're done. I didn't see anything obvious that might correct overscan and have been told in this thread that it can't be fixed. On the other hand, Sony said that it could via service and they're sending someone out. We'll see....

I've confirmed the bug as well. It's only a problem for me when using my DVD player. Hopefully there is a fix besides making changes in the service menu...

Well, the tech just left and it was a total waste of time. The guy has obviously never seen an A2000 and I had to help him navigate his way around the remote. I had my HD test pattern disc on my HD-A1 over HDMI input 6 and my HDNet pattern up on HDMI input 7 which was up when he walked in. I used it to point out that I'm at about 6 all around and 2 on top. It's a tick off horizontally to the left (I use +1) and even more vertically, but those are grayed out. He says that they're not allowed to use or comment on these patterns. They have to use some standard pattern/device.

He hooks up his test pattern generator over input 4, which is component. Apparently, the pattern is 1280x720 to start with and I'm more concerning with my two HDMI inputs, but lets assume for a moment that neither of these are relevant. After turning input 4 back on, the pattern he has displaying is a simple crosshatch. He looks at it and says that everything is fine. It's centered. Well I point out that in fact, it's not. It's off slightly in both directions. AND that's not what I called about. My complaint is overscan and his pattern can't even begin to test for that. It's really for MC, etc. At this point, I'm already shaking my head and wondering if he also works for BB on the weekends. I tell him that I need it to be corrected so that I'm not losing any information displayed from my sources including a PC at 1920x1080 via HDMI.

He tells me that his office had spoke to Sony and that everything is controllable via the user menu. I tell him that's BS and that he needs to look into service menu settings since my horizontal is off and won't stay at +1, I can't do anything about vertical since it's grayed out, and the Display Area does nothing but add more overscan. I show him exactly what I mean via the menus and my HDNet pattern. I also put it into normal from wide and using the horizontal slider, I'm able to show him that there's information not being displayed (pattern starts at about 3)and what is being displayed can't be fully seen when shifting and in wide. It's off the screen or blanked out when sliding horizontally. Clearly something is stopping it from showing the complete image. He sees what I'm saying, but says that there's nothing further he can do based on the info that he has and needs to contact Sony and come back. I said that they need to provide him with instructions on the service menu settings and if that's not the solution, then some type of firmware upgrade.

He also had absolutely no idea how to check for LPF settings and that it wasn't on his work-order either. So I have no idea if my set is OK in that department either. He was here for a total of 10 minutes. What a total waste of time. Good thing that I work from home most of the time, so this wasn't inconvenient and neither will the next visit. Yes, there will be another visit by someone who knows what the hell they're doing. I'm on the phone with Sony right now....

Sony is now aware of my experience and issues in even more detail. They know that over both HDMI inputs, I can demonstrate overscan from several sources, I have slight horizontal shift and these settings aren't retained permanently, and the vertical shift can't be adjusted (grayed out) via the user menu. They also know that I want LPF settings checked while they're in the service menu.

They'll be contacting the Service provider and sending someone out next time that knows what they're doing or at least willing to work with a specialist over the phone. They promised me a call back early next week and service set up quickly. I'm out of town, so another service call won't happen until the following week.

EDIT: I promise to still post any service menu settings that they use to correct overscan and LPF. It's just going to take longer than I expected/wanted it to.

I got my 60a2000 last Fri. Try a few settings from the thread. Basically HD is great. SD is acceptable. But there are two things I can't figure out.

1. There are several people mentioned the washed out color or the gray haze. Set the black corrector to low or medium can make it better. How come only AVBill mentioned this?

2. There are a few times I saw a green tint on people face, like Morgan Freeman. Today I saw Mike Tyson boxing. There is a green tint on his back. I already followed the settings from the thread. But it seems that no one else sees this problem. I play the Sin City DVD and can't see any green tint. What could cause this problem?

Is there any setting I should try? Thanks.

My preferred method of getting rid of the gray haze (as of now) is to turn the Gamma off (which is generally a main contributor to what I think of as the gray haze from my experience). The gamma control brings out shadow detail, but at a notable cost to PQ. I use the black corrector only for poor feeds (standard def cable for example) because it tends to crush blacks with the settings I've tried. Of course I'm still playing around with the settings. It is tough balance to have nice deep blacks, shadow detail, and minimal hazing (for a weekend amateur enthusiast like myself).

Sony Service has checked out my minor green convergence problem and determined that it is within spec. I talked to the qualia service center and they said it is virtually impossible to have perfect convergence with this high of a display resolution and that as long as it is 1 pixel or there is no black pixel spacing between the white/green border it is fine. There is no service level tweak, because the display panels are mechanically coupled (I assume that means glued together).

Out of curiousity, does anyone else see any very minor MC issues on their sets? I ask this because I am still within my return period and could just exchange it for another set. My biggest fear is that I will get on that is worse...haha.

Eric

There are way too many settings. And they may be specific to each set, not standardized for all sets, although I don't know whether that's actually the case.

I am on my second set. My first one has pretty bad green MC problem. My new on has it too but to much less of a degree. I think that the delivery people are not careful enough with them. From what I have seen I think it is more of a prisim or optic focus block problem that the glued chip. The first one that was real bad was almost perfect in the bottom right corner and off by a country mile in the upper left. When you look at the white lettering in the menu displays you should be able to see it but not at a distance of more than 1-2 feet. On my new one I can see it within 1 foot and that is close enough. One the old one I could see it at 8 feet barely and that was a no-go. Hope this helps.

Hmmmm........

My green-blob-infected R60XBR1 was exchanged on 2006-08-13 (Sunday) for a new R60A2000. The delivery guys left just after noon PDT.

After many hours of tweaking (including the use of a THX configurator,) and also after considering the settings suggested by others in this thread, the CNET recommendations, and last but not least, the recommendations made by lovingdvd in his great review of the A2000 , here are the settings I have chosen in an attempt to reproduce the "3D," "depthy" and "filmlike, not-a-TV" look of my XBR1:

"Picture" Page (Custom Mode)

Advanced Iris: Auto 2 (use Auto 1 if the ambient light is especially bright)
Picture: 88
Brightness: [range from 50 to 58, depending on ambient light]
....Bright ambient light: 58 [daytime, lots of bright lamps]
....Single dim light far off to the side: 50
....Good "general purpose" value (on my set, with my usual lighting conditions) is 56.
Color: 36
Hue: 0
Color Temp: Warm 2 (with white balance adjustements)
Sharpness: 30
Noise Reduction: Off [HDMI/Internal Tuner] or Auto [Component]

Advanced Settings (Custom Mode)

Black Corrector: Low
Gamma: Off
Live Color: Off
Detail Enhancer: Medium or Low
Edge Enhancer: Off

White Balance (same as CNET):
r-gain: -2
g-gain: -1
b-gain: 0
r-bias: -3
g-bias: -2
b-bias: -1

"Setup" Page

Color Matrix: Custom (using the default color mappings)
CineMotion: Auto
DRC: (86, 26)
Power Saving Mode: On

Settings not mentioned are set to factory defaults.

I find that my settings result in PQ for HD content on the A2000 that is superior overall to that of my XBR1 (which had issues other than just the Green Blob, and so may have had a worse PQ than other XBR1s, especially the later builds.)

Up til now, my practice when configuring TV picture settings has been to use a contrast (picture) setting closer to the middle of the set's range. The reason is that it always seemed to me that the higher settings for contrast caused black crush, and also caused some other form of distortion for which I have no name--it makes the picture look less natural, at least to me.

Thanks to lovingdvd's comments (see above,) I think I now know what the problem has been with setting contrast too high. Also thanks to him, I decided to try setting the A2000's contrast to some value in the 80-88 range. I finally settled on 84 (which just happens to be the same as the value recommended by CNET, by the way.) I have to say that that is the highest contrast setting that has ever worked for me. I hope that's a sign of the technological progress we're making in TV technology.

Thanks for the information. Since I'm getting the 50', would the settings reproduce the same picture as it would on the 60'?

Also I would sugest you compare your settings to these. There AGZELA's settings after an ISF calibration.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...68#post8150268