Don't know for sure - I've heard the neighborhood of a couple hundred for a CRT set, but I would check it out, as I could be totally, completely, and utterly wrong.

Lena,

Technically any service level tweaks could void your warranty but....I think it is worth it although not cheap! Figure $450 for 1 input and about $150 more per input. The one person that I know of and was impressed with his work is Greg Lowwen(sp?). He does a lot of work compared to some. He is on HTF quite a bit you can look there or on his site . He does quite a few tours around the country and am sure he will be in your area soon, or could recommend someone. You could also look on ISF for more info.



Edit amn typo's
------------------
m-mmeyer
GO TWINS
My DVD's



[This message has been edited by m-mmeyer (edited January 11, 2003).]

How much do you think they would charge to calibrate my Sony "Watchman"

SH, I thought calibrating those involed buying another!

Lena, Here is a guy in Texas. He seem to be cheaper. Can't vouch for him though.




------------------
m-mmeyer
GO TWINS
My DVD's

Technically any service level tweaks could void your warranty.

M-mmeyer: That’s the part that gets my goat. You should be able to ‘hire’ certified service for this, which would not.
The last GW One, I owned ….my tweaks in Avia did all I needed to get it where I wanted it to be.
This GW Two, I tweaked one night about 2am wk after Christmas, and never even finished. I should go back and run through when not so tired. (the service ‘tech’ (so called) appt was set up because I’m getting lazy about acquiring new skills (due to lack of time). But I remember thinking Avia tweaks appeared not as effective on the II as it was with the GW I, and deciding that it prob. needed more in-depth work in Service. Over on AVS a tweak PDF was posted and listed by users as noticeable improvement. But if I’m going to go there, (Service M, -myself) it is going to take prep/study time.

Thought I’d take the fast track till I had time to play. Also had a idea that if I watched/questioned a ‘professional’, I could glean quite a bit useful for future reference.

Thanks for the links, - I had looked up the calabrationist schedules before, none seemed to rotate to this area in the last months.
SH: Greg's name I had noted in the past….(as highly regarded), but last I checked he was never working this area, will start watching….(or cave in and start learning TDIMS).

Re: Edit amm posts.
I need to slow down typing, learn to spell (spell ck can't even figure me out) and double-ck my train of thought shorthand speech patterns!. Surprised you can read me at times!


[This message has been edited by Smart Little Lena (edited January 12, 2003).]

SLL,

Just wanted to toss my two cents in for Mr Loewen. I'll be arranging a calibration session with him sometime in the next 2 months or so (read: after the Christmas bills are paid off ). I've met him and I've met several folks who've had him work on their systems. All comments and opinions have been very favorible.

As for self-tweaking, I did, what I think was, a fair job via the user menu and Avia on my new Mitsu 65" before Christmas. Will probably go back in and re-do it myself soon ... getting close to 50 hours.

------------------
pat----

email: pat@sklenar.info ---===--- home page: Grumpy's Lair

[This message has been edited by psklenar (edited January 13, 2003).]

Hi there Lena. I was just reading about all the problems that you've been running into and can understand your frustration in getting the help and information that you need to correct your TV's problems. I was lucky enough to have purchased a monitor that has it's own cult-like nitch on the web and has quite a bit of technical referencing and user-to-user support. The real reason for this was that the KL-W9000 is intended to be a Commercial presentation display not a Home Theater monitor therefore none of this displays settings were held to the standards of normal consumer video display devices and I was forced into the service mode fray without any prior instruction or manual to guide me, other than a few simple navigation rules to follow. I also feel that your particular problem hits unusually close to home due to the fact that my Sony KL-W9000 50-inch LCD display is in escense the direct predecessor to your Grand Wega set. I do understand that Sony has added many specific options and features to your model that were not available to mine, but their basic architectures for displaying images are essentially identical.

I have owned my monitor for about 4 1/2 years now and in that time I have learned quite a bit about not just my set, but also how vital service mode calibration can be. Seeing what you have written here and what I have learned about you in past discussions, I know that you aren't the type that likes to blindly dive in headfirst and navigate through your sets service mode without proper instructions. I waited 4 years to order my service manual, and attribute my success to both my hardheaded determination and blind luck. However if you are willing to experiment with this mode whether you have a service manual or not, you will need to make a record of every setting that currently exists and in doing this you will create a map of these settings to guide you through this mode. The benefit of having the Sony Service Manual for your TV is that it has basic definitions for the cryptic service mode codes that you will see and should give you enough information for you to make proper changes to your set.

Now if you are looking into ISF certified calibration, more power to you! I know of many fellow KL-W9000 owners who have benefited from having an ISF technician set up their monitors, and see no reason why you shouldn't take this route, as long as you are willing to pay for it. I am sure you will probably receive the most relief by having an experienced technician certify your set as well.

Now just out of curiosity, and if you don't mind Lena, would you mind explaining your problem to me in a bit more detail. I'd like to see if maybe your problem is anything that I may have run across in the past or could go through my service manual to see if there are any settings that might help you. I read that you feel that there is some type of alignment issue with your LCD panels? Are you getting separation in your colors i.e. red, green, or blue banding or "rainbowing" on the edges of images? Is your image blurry? Has the picture fidelity diminished recently, or did picture quality suddenly decrease? If you do decide to turn to an ISF technician for help, I would be very interested in his findings on this issue as well.

I hope that you don't find my statements here too nosey, I am just an avid tweaker and am interested in solving problems or at least seeing them get solved.

Thanks for your time.

-Jeremy

Hi Jeremy, just saw this…was a little distracted by computer antics today! (and I’ve behind on many things at the moment).

“how vital service mode calibration” yes I can see myself getting into this eventuly …curisioty killed the cat …so to speak…but I will be careful study hard, (buy a manual) and the cardnial rule..WRITE DOWN SETTINGS…I’m debating with myself do…I want to wait till the display is older (due to warrenty issues) before I ‘play’ and use a professional in the meantime. (and watch and learn more)…I do not even have the test pattrens down in the self help discs.

Regarding alignment…I don’t really think so..but wondered and wanted it verified correct. I’m seeing a ‘soft focus’ effect sometimes on a large med shot closeup of a face, …a few oddball moments like that, I’ve wondered if the decoder is inferior in the Sony II (or if all critical parts are the same…do I have a malfuntioning something?)

I tweaked (a little) again and by just setting the proper retrace on the set for the RCA RGB to component converter cleaned up the pic to a degree, right now its running closer to the GWI. (I am not as disatisifed as I was). However its intreasting to me that I never discovered the retrace should be reset on the Sony I and its pic was better without that adjustment being applied.

No banding or color sep. or rainbow, much more of a ‘fussy focas’ on occasion, (I do not recall with GWI) and my largest grip…not my imagination, is Sony touted “Contrast improved 25%” on the GWII. Which between that sales pitch and 1K drop in price caused a lot to jump on the bandwagon.. I’ve had the rare opportunity of a lot of hours on both units to compare and I lost some things with the two version.

Either Sony screwed something up in true contrast and detail in dark scences (net affect - a great loss of detail in dark portions), or somethings not up to par with this unit. The two units match capiblites on a bright DVD like “Ice Age”.
(of course the tech who came that day thought my pic was ‘great’)
I have to say…even with the II’s unfavorable preformance as compared to my I. I would buy it again over other choices currently on the market.

But it SHOULD be as good as the I in detail in dark scenes and it is not.

For example a scene where a man is hiding/coming out of the shadows in the corner of a room, I would have seen the hint of checkbone, the line of his jacket lapel even though one side is flimed in deep shadow, with the (II) what I see is just the outline of the face. The checkbone contour has faded into black. So it appears with I lost something in black level, even though Sony advertises the better contrast.

M-memeyer: Thanks for link to Texas! If I break down and order looks like it will have to be him. Greg L (who I’d like to use) does not appear to ever make it this far South into my metroplex. (I think he must be one of those (shudder)‘Yankee's’ )

(...forgive the typo's, It tells me 'spell ck completed'...don't think so! But I've argued with the comp. today to much..we are both tired)

[This message has been edited by Smart Little Lena (edited January 23, 2003).]

I really feel for you Lena. I know just how frustrating it is to get something and sit there looking at it, just knowing in the pit of my stomach that something wasn't quite right. I think that due to the newness of your current Grand Wega it probably would be best to go ahead and check with Sony to see if ISF certification on your TV would in any way jepordize your warranty. I personally don't think they should have a problem with it since you are only trying to get the best from their product, but then again big companies can get big ego's. If I lived anywhere near Dallas I would gladly come over and peruse through your TV's service mode to see if there are any setting that I am farmillar with on your set.

Here is a list of trained ISF dealers with calibration equiptment in Texas, on the ISF site.

http://www.imagingscience.com/isf_search.cfm

I know that technicians of this sort can be quite pricey and again wish that there was any other way that I could help you out, but I am sure that if anyone can get to the source of your dilema, it would be one of these people. I don't know where in Dallas it is that you live but one place on that ISF list stood out to me and after researching a bit more feel that he seems to be a pretty straight forward guy with a desire to do his best to get the best from your TV. His company is called Custom HDTV Calibration, and his name is Larry Proud based in Mesquite (a suburb of Dallas?). Larry also has a web site:
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/lproud/1mywork.html

If you go to his site, he has price list's, his background and the reason he started his business in the first place listed, which was what caught my attention. I would normally not recommend someone I wasn't farmillar with, and you may want someone else, but at least it's a start. I have also emailed him concerning your problem and hope to hear back from him in the next day or two.

I truely hope that you are able to get your GW up and running to your satisfaction soon, and hope you have a great day, Lena!

-Jeremy

Jeremy,

You might appreicate these:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthrea...89&pagenumber=1
If the link works, these are pics of the internals of the GWII, someone posted who had a tech in with the top off. Haven't had time to look at them all, but they appear informative.