Contrast set too high on vintage sets.

[oldtvman]

The one thing I notice from the pictures on the blog is a lot of guys show sets where the contrast is ran up way too high. Keep in mind these sets were never meant to contend with today's flat panel displays. Besides if you were around when color came out you know it wasn't unusal to have to close the drapes or blinds in order the really view a good picture.

Besides when you drive the set that hard you lose some of the delicate coloring these set were known for.

[miniman82]

Half the time, it's the camera overcompensating for the light in the frame not an issue of too much contrast.

[Chip Chester]

Also, if your displayed content has gone thru any digital generations -- current broadcast, DVD authoring, etc. -- it's likely that black level is now zero, rather than 7.5... I don't know if DTV --> analog off-air conversion boxes do this or not, but most pro signal chains do, now that we're "done with transition". Folks might be more aggressive with legal color levels, too... but this shouldn't influence Joe Friday and the Twilight Zone. (the old Twilight, that is...)

Chip

[bgadow]

Until fairly recently I would ALWAYS crank the contrast all the way up, and wondered why there was even an option. Threads like this on VK taught me the error of my ways!

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Until fairly recently I would ALWAYS crank the contrast all the way up, and wondered why there was even an option. Threads like this on VK taught me the error of my ways!

Keep in mind that the early color sets that used the 21apx22 or the 21cpy22 had an orangey red color when the crt was driven hard and the brightness cranked up. If the set was adjusted with the proper black level and the contrast set in a normal range these sets can show an exceptional picture.

[lnx64]

I still tend to drive the contrast too high, but lately I'm starting to back them off..

On both the Hitachi or the Samsungs, in my sig, if the contrast is set to the same level of my Samsung LCD from a couple years ago, I get effects like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...lorblowout.jpg

On the Samsung, if I increase the G2 on the flyback, I can get very good contrast without ANY of that blowing out of the color, but then I get this nasty effect on black screens: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/IMG_0510.jpg

So yea, tired CRT.. But the contrast I have right now is pretty decent enough anyway, it's still as bright as my Apple 27" LED Cinema display, which is pretty bright as it is, so I'm ok with it.

It just takes some getting used to, when I grew up with these TV's that had all these contrast settings cranked.. Now I know why my grandfather hated it when I cranked the contrast on his TV's.

[marty59]

Always my rule of thumb..."the less you drive the CRT the longer you will prolong its life".

We've talked abouit optimizing the controls for the best picture, gray scale etc. but from a black and white perspective I will turn both brightness and contrast down to minimum and bring up the brightness enough to show a uniform, low light raster and then bring in the contrast without overdriving while providing detail. A little touching up at this point is okay after observing. If this can't be achieved then verify AGC adjustments and repeat, providing we're working on a normally functioning set.

On some sets, the AGC may be more sensitive than on others and affecting both brightness and contrast.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by miniman82

Half the time, it's the camera overcompensating for the light in the frame not an issue of too much contrast.

Yep. I posted pictures from my CT-100 that look bright, but I had the contrast set low.

Since the 1970s, I have always started the contrast control at minimum and increased it to the lowest level that I thought made a decent picture. Seldom is this more than halfway up, often lower. At high contrast settings, many CRT-based displays are non-linear, and that drives me crazy.