[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by rca2000
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.

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!