Sony WEGA CRT - HD or SD preferable for classic gaming?

[benevicious]

I'm hoping its not out of line to semi-hijack this.

But what do you guys use to calibrate colors/brightness etc for the wegas? I thought I had mine setup pretty well but then I was playing Megaman X and the first stage was way to o bright when the light level changes (it does this every 5-10 steps on the highway level). I thought I had it setup good but now other consoles look too dark.

It looks the same (brightness wise) hooked up via svideo or scart-rgb/component transcoder (which I thought might have been the issue thus I tried it with svideo).

[Anapan]

What would probably work fine for you is the THX optimizer (built into lots of DVDs)
http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entert ... -overview/
http://www.thx.com/consumer/home-entert ... -releases/
I've put just the THX Optimizer part of a DVD extracted to an ISO to be burnt and played on your DVD player on my FTP - THX Optimizer

Here's an older post:
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=15077

I've since found a lot more stuff which I needed to help me calibrate my dad's 3-tube CRT type rear-projection TV. It's color and geometry were horrible, but all recent Sony TV's have a huge service-mode menu built in. I mostly used the pictures displayed on my laptop, through a VGA-Component scaler box (640x480VGA - 480i). With the help of the service manual and those pictures I managed to get the picture nearly perfect (240P games have crisp scanlines, and the colors are beautiful)

I've put all the calibration DVD ISOs, test pattern generators, and calibration images I've collected here:
ftp://sw:sw@atomu.ath.cx:6872/screencalib/

Edit:
Don't forget to leave your TV running for about 10 minutes before you attempt to calibrate it.

[Anapan]

An update: Both owners of the TVs I'm interested in got back to me. One's a KV-36FS100 , the other is KV-36FV1 - both SD - max 480i through component. The higher end one (the FV) has an additional S-video input and a 3D digital comb filter for composite input VS the FS which does 3-line comb filtering. I don't know if that would cause lag in games hooked up through composite (though I suspect it probably does). I'm going to go with the FV since the owner's moving this weekend so I can probably get it cheaper by complaining that it doesn't do HD. I'll probably hook my NES up to it's extra S-video input using a Composite-to-SVideo adapter to bypass the comb filter.

The only drawback I've been reading about on these TVs is the geometry of the bottom corner(s?) is usually bad. I think I can fix this through the service menu tho like I did to my Dad's rear projection TV.

Here's some tips & tweaks I found for Sony TVs while looking this stuff up:
http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/brandspe ... _tips.html

[CRTGAMER]

Found this. 1080i if "High Scan" model?
Seems like that component hookup should be at least 480p.

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/KV32FS100spec.pdf

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/KV32FV1.pdf

[Anapan]

I already committed to buy the KV-36FV1 (I pick it up tomorrow). Even in it's service manual, there's no mention of 480P (it's from 1998, so I don't know if progressive scan even existed then in consumer televisions). I know my Dad's KP-48S70 is from 1999, and it can't do above 480i. I'll certainly be putting the TV through a gauntlet of tests while I'm calibrating the screen for optimum picture. I expect it'll just show a rapidly rolling squashed picture like my dad's tv.

[Anapan]

For a $100 36" TV, it is nice and I shouldn't be complaining...
but...
Kinda disappointed in the screen. While it is a good, large screen, it has some geometry anomalies and color convergence problems in all 4 corners that I cannot correct from the service menu. The service manual says I can open it up and adjust magnet switches around the tube to alleviate the problems after manually realigning the beam but that doesn't seem like a very safe idea since I don't know what not to touch in there. The clarity isn't quite what I was hoping for either. I should have waited another day. A HD 32" WEGA just showed up for the same price. I'll just have to sit further away and adjust the H/V sizes to cut a bit of the edges of the picture off so the problems aren't so distracting. That or sell this and a few other TVs I've been gathering and wait till a 36" HD WEGA shows up for sale.

Thanks again for the help, guys!

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

For a $100 36" TV, it is nice and I shouldn't be complaining...
but...
Kinda disappointed in the screen. While it is a good, large screen, it has some geometry anomalies and color convergence problems in all 4 corners that I cannot correct from the service menu. The service manual says I can open it up and adjust magnet switches around the tube to alleviate the problems after manually realigning the beam but that doesn't seem like a very safe idea since I don't know what not to touch in there. The clarity isn't quite what I was hoping for either. I should have waited another day. A HD 32" WEGA just showed up for the same price. I'll just have to sit further away and adjust the H/V sizes to cut a bit of the edges of the picture off so the problems aren't so distracting. That or sell this and a few other TVs I've been gathering and wait till a 36" HD WEGA shows up for sale.

Thanks again for the help, guys!

Any good TV shop worth their salt can knock all of those issues out in a day and for a pretty cheap fee usually. Most I've ever see an alignment go for was like $45 in my area.

Beware that some shops will try to overcharge by doing other "repairs" to the set at the same time. Be careful and make sure not to get taken for a ride if you decide to go get the tiny bit of convergence issues you have fixed.

[DrCirno]

Also I hear a new XRGB will be released eventually - "XRGB-mini FLAME MEISTER" at a more affordable price than previous models.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Googled and just shit my pants.......


Thank you so much for mentioning this.

And now i know where you got the info to tell me the other day.

On the subject of trinitrons (And Mod_Man_Extreme should be able to help me on this one) I recall there being a model of the HD FD series that was capable of changing its native resolution to that of the signal. As a result it made all SD content look perfect along with all HD content. Also i think it was the highest resolution consumer television released, if not now then at the time. Me and Mod_Man saw one on craigslist a while back when I was searching for a TV, but sadly we never jumped on it.

[gtmtnbiker]

I was just fussing around with my old Sony KV36FV15 TV trying to figure out why component video from the cable box didn't work. The gamecube works fine. To make a long story short, I figured out that it supported only 480i, not 480p. That blows.

This link has a good list of Sony TVs that shows which has 480p support: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost ... ostcount=1

I guess s-video was the big thing back in 1999 and component was starting to catch on. It's amazing how quickly the technology evolves.

The manual had information on how to connect VHF/UHF. I haven't used those technologies since the early 80s since we've had cable for awhile.

[Anapan]

I guess s-video was the big thing back in 1999 and component was starting to catch on. It's amazing how quickly the technology evolves.

The manual had information on how to connect VHF/UHF. I haven't used those technologies since the early 80s since we've had cable for awhile.

I have to say that the S-Video picture is the best I've ever seen on a TV. Perhaps a bit too sharp with the sharpness settings I like for the component input, but obviously S-Video is what this TV was made for.

The TV actually has BETA as a possible video label for Input 3!

I'm starting to like the picture on the TV now that I messed around with it

When I first recalibrated the TV I used my VGA scaler to send an overscan picture of my test patterns. That was a mistake. The tube cannot handle overscan, or even full picture on most video outputs. After setting the horizontal and vertical to cut out all the black edges on all my consoles (The PS2 through component sent the smallest picture) everything looks a lot better. There's still some convergence problems in the corners but most of it is now cut off, and the text is cut off the sides of a few games.