About a year ago I had my Sony KD-30XS955 calibrated by a well known ISF calibrator. The picture couldn't have been more perfect. Recently I've noticed a sharp decline in the color & quality on all inputs. The best way I can describe it is it seems to be overly brownish, sometimes metallic looking, sometimes, like cotton candy colors, by that I mean the colors just don't seem true. Can a set lose calibration that quickly? I emailed the ISF guy, and he suggested going back & hitting reset to bring his original settings back, but that didn't really work. I am stumped as to what may have caused this quick decline of what had been an outstanding picture. It seemed to happen almost overnight. I recently added a PS3 & the blu-ray was fantastic, but it to now looks lousy. Also would be helpful to see others video settings. I'm using Pro- picture- 45, brightness- 42, color- 22, hue- 0, sharpness- 26 color temp. neutral. Could this possibly be a degaussing issue? Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
[ This message was edited by: frankincensed on 2007-12-31 02:06 ]
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9160
From: Chicago,IL, USA
Posted: 2008-01-01 13:47
frankincensed,
Greetings and welcome.
Although it could be that something is going wrong with the video on your KD-30XS955 set have you eliminated the possibility of a bad video cable? Have you tried other video connections such as S-Video or HDMI to see if the picture quality improves? Does the poor picture happen with all sources: OTA channels, Satellite, Cable, VCR ?
Just trying to eliminate an outside source of the problem instead of the TV itself. Degaussing generally takes place each time you power up the TV so I would doubt that it is the cause. Do you have a magnetic source near the TV like unshielded speakers?
Hi Joe Thanks for the reply. Yes the problem is on all video input sources. I use component cables for cable box & regular dvd/vcr combo & hdmi for the blu-ray player. which is a ps3. All had excellent pq & color was perfect. Now I constantly have to readjust for each channel, and the blu-ray just looks like regular old dvd. This seemed to happen almost overnight. Thanks for any other advice or input you can offer me on this problem.
BTW I see you are from Chicago, my home away from home. My daughter has lived there for about a decade, & I love visiting. What a great city!
frankincensed
[ This message was edited by: frankincensed on 2008-01-01 14:44 ]
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9160
From: Chicago,IL, USA
Posted: 2008-01-01 23:38
frankincensed,
I was hoping that something simple like a defective cable might be the problem but it sounds like you have eliminated that possibility and the problem indeed does lie in the TV itself.
Hopefully, one of our TV techs that frequent this forum will be able to steer you in the right direction of what could be the sudden cause of your loss of picture quality.
Joe
ps: thanks for the compliment of "The Windy City". I have lived and worked here for over half a century and I still marvel at it's sites and beauty. Although after today I sure am tired of shoveling snow.
Joined: Mar 13, 2003
Posts: 13820
From: Sewell, NJ
Posted: 2008-01-02 18:45
It could be due to a dirty lens assembly (the portion that sticks into the mirror). It also could be contaminated LCD screens. If you are a smoker or there is a fireplace in use nearby, I would expect that to be a good possibility. The bottom line is that cleaning is probably what is required.
----------------- -John
Sony A/V System: KDL-55XBR8, BDP-S550, AVD-C700ES Super Audio CD/DVD Receiver, 4 SS-LA500ED surround speakers, 1 SS-LAC505ED center channel speaker and 1 SA-WD200 Active Subwoofer
Thanks for the suggestion. It is not a LCD unit, but a CRT HD, but I will try cleaning the screen. The set is under extended warrenty, so just waiting to hear from Sony if they are going to do anything
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9160
From: Chicago,IL, USA
Posted: 2008-01-03 23:20
frankincensed,
Please do post back with what Sony does if cleaning the screen doesn't clear up the problem. Glad to hear that you are still under an extended warranty policy and would be very interested to what has caused your sudden loss of PQ. Best of luck.
I did call about the extended warranty, and Sony had the place I bought it come out to evaluate the set. The place I bought it has their own service dept. but are not set up with the Sony extended warranty people. Their technician said it appears to be the picture tube going "soft" & "showing signs of weakning. Red flaring in high contrast picture modes. Haze over entire picture. Colors are deeper due to lack of contrast/brightness on picture. Blue drive seems to be weak." I hope thats not to generic to keep Sony from doing something about it. I do have a claim # & am hoping I will hear back from them soon. I have purchased many Sony products in the past couple years, so hope they come through for me on this. I will keep you <!--StartFragment -->apprised of what happens. Thanks again for the feedback. Sure wish it would have just been the dirty lens. I'm a little nervous as what they will offer to do since this set is no longer in production.
[ This message was edited by: frankincensed on 2008-01-04 15:27 ]
<!--StartFragment -->I just heard back from Sony regarding my warranty issue with this set. They are going to replace the picture tube. The repair shop will pick up the set & replace the tube. They assure me it will be a new tube, not a refurb. I sure hope so. Im surprised they are repairing it, as I've seen allot of posts saying they just refunded the money. I had been researching some LCD's but none of them looked as good as this set in its prime. This set had such a great picture before the problem, I just hope it will be just as good after they replace the tube. At least they didn't jerk me around and try to get over and not do anything. I must say the Sony warranty service has been excellent thus far.
Joined: Feb 28, 2003
Posts: 9160
From: Chicago,IL, USA
Posted: 2008-01-08 20:16
frankincensed,
Fantastic news! Thank you for posting the update. Sorry to hear that it is the picture tube but it is good to hear that Sony is going to cover under warranty.
Too often all we read about are people complaining about Sony service but it always nice when someone, like yourself, takes the time to tell us about how satisfied you are with the way Sony is handling the warranty situation.
Hopefully, the next post you make to this thread will be how you can't stop grinning ear to ear every time you look at that great picture quality.
Yea I was just thinking that about the ISF calibration. I cant afford to have it redone right now. In your experience, how long does it usually take Sony to ship the tube to the repair shop. Thanks
Well, on Friday I got the set back & its good as new (so far so good anyway). All in all I am very pleased with Sony's response. It took a span 10 days from the time the repair shop picked up the set, replaced the tube, and returned it yesterday. You really can't ask for more than that. I just hope I wont have to go through this again in another year and a half, which is how long I had the set before the pic tube went bad. Thanks again for all the advice & support I <!--StartFragment -->received here.
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Posted: 2008-01-04 15:26
