Brightness levels on New Sets?
 

Is it just me, or have any of you noticed that new sets just don't have alot of variation in the brightness setting? I thought I read somewhere that new picture tubes aren't as good as the old ones when they were new. I broke down and decided to get a NEW set for my bedroom and got one of those Sony 24" Wega's. The picture seems pretty good, but I noticed that when a "scene" in a program is at night or in dim lighting that it is hard to see the picture. (anything black is REALLY black) I noticed this on different brands in the store and with people who have gotten new sets. Maxing out the brightness doesn't seem to help. I don't remember the Zeniths "back in the day" looking like that out of the box. I also noticed that the build quality seemed a tad shoddy on this new set as well. What the hell? Is Sony even going the route of "It will last till the warranty expires then go to hell"? Anyway, would like your comments on this! Thanks!

Re: Brightness levels on New Sets?
 

I have a friend with the sony set, 27 inch vega tv and the vhs/dvd combo. the DVD is not what i'd consider happy, it won't play home brewed CDs nor VCDs at all, and CDs skip something horrid. He told a friend of mine he didn't see a problem, but I know for a fact he told me he rents VHS tapes from blockbuster cause the DVDs won't play on his set, thinking there is something wrong with the blockbuster DVDs.

To make things worse, the warrenty on this unit is only 3 months for parts/labor, then it's just 1 year on parts, no labor. I never worked right out of the box.

An Apex at walmart, one of those sub $50 players outpeforms this Sony DVD player. If I'm not mistaken, the Apex uses a standard PC transport, so even if it buggers up after the warrenty expires, it's only a $20.00 for a PC DVD drive, 8 screws and two cables if my facts are correct. If it's not the Apex, i'd have to do some hunting around to see who makes a home dvd player with a PC transport.

I've not been happy with Sony quality control as of late. It's my belief they are cutting costs in order to keep China from totally taking over the home electronics market.

OH NO! I bought a Sony VCR/DVD combo at the same time I got the set.

No idea if it the one I bought, when I was looking around I found that the Sony combo I was looking at was a rebadged Samsung so I bought the Samsung at about $50 cheaper. Have no problems reading DVD, CD, CD-R.

Rob

I've had NO issues with Magnavox DVD players playing CDs, DVDs, and CD-r / CD-rws. I made sure to bring CD-rs with CD and VCD / SVCD to see if it will read what I toss at it.

I'm willing to believe that my friend just has a bum unit.... which happens.... it's just the lame warrenty has expired already and damned if I can reccomend to anyone paying labor on something who's replacement value is sub $50.00 for something with a full warrenty.

I'm not really sure i should tell you this...
 

But, there is a way to get more brightenss from your sony wega. You have to go into the service manu, and access the sub. brightness control.

(WARNING-WARNING!!) What I am about to tell you, should be done ONLY if you are famaiiar with tv's and menu-driven ones in particular. if not, then, leave the set alone, or get someone to do the adjustment, that will do it without messing up some critical areas, on the service menu. I take NO responsibility, for the use, or misuse, of the information i will post here.

With the set "off", push the following buttons on the remote, in rapid succession: display, 5, volume up, and then power. the set will come on, and the service menu will be displayed ,in green, on the crt.

you are looking for a function labbled "sub brt", or "s brt" (it is labelled differently, on different sets) use the "2" button to navigate through the various menus on the screen, ( DO NOT touch ANY of the deflection or greyscale settings!) the one you are looking for will probably be in with others in the drive level controls for the crt. when you find this group of controls,( the group of drive controls,),use buttons "1" and"4", to toggle up and down, through the groups, until you find this one, you are looking for.use the "3" button to raise the level( on the right side of the screen, there will be a number, like "12", or something, raise this a few notches , until the screen is visibly brighter). if you go too high, use the "6" button to lower it. (DO NOT change any other settings, unless you know what you are setting, or the set needs it).

once you raise this level, you need to store it to the eeprom. when you are satisfied, that you have the brightness level you desire(don't go too high, or you will not be able to turn down the brightness on the normal menu enough, and things will look washed out), then, push "mute", on the remote. you will see a word "write" appear on the screen. then push "enter", and the word"write", will change color. now, turn off the set, and the new setting will be in effect.

If you do make a mistake, and are not sure what you have done, when in the service menu, don't make things worse, by randonly changing things. just push "power,", DO NOT PUSH MUTE, and the set will revert back to its original settings, this is nice, about this kind of system. if you do mess up(and I have MANY times), you can get out of it, easy.

Good luck, and BE CAREFUL.

Here on the ship, the captain just bought a new Sony Wega flatscreen to go in the crew's lounge. We've got satellite hooked up to it, and quite frankly, we're disappointed with the picture quality too. The old Panasonic we had seemed a lot better. Doesn't seem very impressive for a Sony.

Re: I'm not really sure i should tell you this...
 

I agree with your warning. I have a hidden service menu on my CTC185A7 RCA XL-100 (saw a technician bring it up once), but don't know how to bring it up--and I don't *want* to know. (I don't know if my set's menus have an escape function, either.) I knew pretty much what I was doing when I adjusted my old sets (all of which had the old potentiometer controls for height, linearity, etc.) thirty-some years ago, but these new ones with all adjustments accessible only in software as menu controls...well, I wouldn't touch those service menus with a 10-foot pole, unless and only unless I knew exactly what each control did (and I don't on my CTC185, as its service "menu" only shows a row of numbers on-screen when it is invoked--one needs the set's service notes to find out the different menu functions). One can do incredible damage to today's sets by random fiddling with those hidden service menus. If you don't know what you're doing, for Pete's sake stay away from them!

and another thing I want to bitch about on this set. The convergency seems a tad "off" You can see it while looking at any printing on the screen. What the hell is up with that? I thought one did not need to worry about that with a Trinitron. It's got a single gun, so how can it be off?? I am NOT happy with this set at all. I think I'll make the store take it back for another brand. Anybody else have any new Sony "gripes"????

It may not be a Trinitron. I bought a 27" Sony from Crutchfield two years ago and it had a Gold Star tube in it! :mad:

Are you sure about that? I've never seen a Sony color TV without Sony's easy to spot cylindrical CRT (at least until the wegas came out). I have seen TV/VCR combos that used a Sony CRT, but goldstar electronics. I've also seen some low end Trinitron CRTs that used a standard in-line electron gun.

Yep, there was no doubt as it had a Gold Star label pasted on the tube. I was appalled to say the least. I didn't keep the set much longer after that as it developed audio problems that I couldn''t get resolved. BTW, it was made (or assembled) in Mexico. I have since purchased two Panasonic sets, one of them a Tau and am fairly happy with them.

EVERY UK Trinitron Sony I've ever seen has had misconvergence problems - either in the top left or top right of the screen. Mine is top left; it also needed a whole new motherboard 2 weeks after I bought it, due to duff control software. I've had the TV seven years now and other than that it's been fine, but that convergence problem is still there.

All Sony 14inch portables I've seen (in the UK at least) seem to have problems with degaussing - they always seem to have a random "splodge" of colour distortion somewhere on the screen.

Oh yeah - SOny VHS videos in my experience are unmittigated horseplops, and I've not got on too well with their portable MD units either. Let's not even mention their early DVD players (£450 for a player with lipsync problems at random since day 1) or their CD players - my first CD player was a Sony and it spent 5 months out of the first 12 in the repair shop - due to a design fault transport they were offloading from the previous year's range...

My next TV won't be a Sony I don't think - that's for sure.

BTW - does that service mode key sequence work on UK spec Sony TVs??

I'm curious, was it a Trinitron CRT that had the goldstar logo?

I'd like to know as well. If Sony is attached to GoldStar somehow, that would be bad. As for the convergency issues, a true Trinitron tube should never have that problem. They only have 1 gun so there is nothing to allign. Also...... Apex isn't tied in with Sony are they? Heard a rumor and thought it was odd that Apex offers a 24" set. My Wega is a 24" set, and why would both companies offer such an ODD size?? I'm just po'd that the only sets I ever bought turned out to be such "dogs". I bought an RCA CTC-185 in 2000. The picture is great but it is developing sound "issues". The Sony I just got has a CRAPPY picture and the sound is "odd". I've had OLD Sony's in the past that were great. That's what I get for buying a new set........