Looks to me as an serious (but not uncommon) PSP board problem with Sony plasmas. Contact a Sony service center.
What problems have people had with quality control on these displays? Are they covered under warranty?
- Certain displays emitted an extremely loud buzz. This was covered by warranty repair.
- Certain displays had a problem with the Y/C delay on their S-video input. This was also correctable.
- One person reported red vertical lines on his display.
Was this covered by warranty? Was it an input problem or a pixel
problem?
- Afew bad pixels here and there are not covered under
warranty. Largeclusters are generally covered. It's up to Sonys
discretion. On the plus side, however, bad pixels are becoming
increasingly rare. Mostpeople are reporting no bad pixels at all!
CALIBRATINGWhat needs to be calibrated on a plasma?
You needto calibrate most of the same things that need to be calibrated
onother displays. About the only things that don't need to be done
areconvergence and geometry. You can usually tinker with picture size
andposition, but there's no need to deal with keystone or
pincushionadjustments, etc.What is white level? What is black level?
How are they adjusted?
Theadjustment for white level is usually
labeled "Picture" (as onPanasonics) or "Contrast". "Brightness", on the
other hand, refers tothe black level. Yes, this is apallingly
counter intuitive. This FAQuses the terms "white level" and "black
level", since they betterdescribe what you're actually adjusting, and
they're the terms used byAvia and Video Essentials.
How do I adjust hue and saturation?
In another mysterious choice of terms, hue is controlled by the "Tint"
setting,and saturation is controlled by the "Color" setting. This FAQ
uses theterms "hue" and "saturation", since they're the terms used by
Avia andVideo Essentials.
How do I set the white level on a plasma?
Youset the white level by adjusting the "Picture" setting. You will
needto use a different test pattern than you would for a CRT. For
both plasma displays and LCD displays, you should use the 10 IRE
grayscalestep pattern. There are two criteria you want to match on your
plasma.
First,you need to make sure the white level is low enough
that your displayisn't thresholding (or clamping) bright levels. You
should set thewhite level low enough that you can see each of the 10
IRE stepsdistinctly. The Sony seem not to exhibit clamping (in my
limitedexperience), even at factory defaults, so this criterion may not
beterribly useful.
Second, for the health of your display (e.g.to avoid burn-in), you should turn down the white level. Just becauseyour display
can display blindingly bright pictures doesn't mean that it
should.
Plasma displays should be set between 21 fl and 25 fl light output; the Sony comeout of the factory at about 30 fl. On one ISF-calibrated Sony, 23fl was roughly equivalent to a Picture setting of -20 (in
the usermenu, not the service menu). To set this precisely you'll need
to bringin a calibration specialist, but you can do a lot of good by
justdialing down the white level a lot. After seeing the display at 30
fl,23 fl will see very dim. But after a while, you'll find that 23 fl
isplenty bright.
How do I set the black level on a plasma?
Youset the black level by adjusting the "Brightness" setting. You can
usethe same test pattern you would use for any other display.
How do I calibrate grayscale (calibrate the color temperature)?
Unfortunately,this is one you can't do yourself. You need special
equipment tomeasure the color. In fact, most ISF technicians lack the
equipmentspecific to plasma calibration (a $15K gadget known as
aspectroradiometer). But even the standard color measurement
equipment(which calibrationists do have) will do a great job.
Thatsaid, one person who had his Sony display calibrated by an
ISF specialist said that the Cinema / Warm setting was reasonably close
to6500K out of the box. Using that setting is probably the best you'll
doon your own.
If you're really determined to screw up yourdisplay,
the RGB drive and cutoff settings in the service menu are used to adjust
the color temperature.
How do I adjust the color decoder?
There
are several issues here. Generally speaking, the Panasonic decoder seems
topush blue a bit. The R-Y Axis Angle and B-Y Axis Gain in the
servicemenu are used to correct this behavior.
There used to be
aproblem on some Panasonics with the Y/C delay on the S-video input.
Seethe Quality Control section for more information.
How do I adjust the gamma?
On the industrial model, there is a set of Advanced picture settings. Go
to the Picture menu, turn Advanced on, and then hit the down-arrow. In
the subsequentmenu you can adjust quite a few parameters, including
select from a fewgamma settings.
This advanced menu appears to be missing from the consumer model.
How do I calibrate my consumer model given these missing menus?
Thereis apparently a way to activate these menus. Perhaps you can find
acalibrationist or Panasonic technician would can turn them on
longenough to do the calibration.
What's the overall calibration procedure?
In general, the order Avia sets out is the correct one. A more complete list is:
- White level (picture)
- Black level (brightness)
- Repeat (1) and (2) until you have a good balance.
- Grayscale (requires special hardware and mucking about in the service menu)
- Sharpness
- Hue and Saturation (tint and color)
- Color decoder (requires use of the service menu)
- Repeat (6) and (7) for red and green until you have a good balance.
SERVICE MENUHow do I access the service menu?
In a word, don't. See
the service menu warningabove.
If you're bound and determined to make use of the service menu,buy the
service manual. It contains more than enough information foryou to ruin
your display and/or kill yourself.
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