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Monitor black point too high


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I have a Sony 19" Trinitron display that is a couple of years old. I'm trying to calibrate

it but I seem to be bumping into the same problem over and over - its too bright. I

have the brightness set to zero and the contrast set to 100 and if i move them any

closer to each other it just starts to grey out. I think I may need to set my brightness

lower yet.

 

(Evil thought, perhaps I could fix it from the inside of the monitor....)

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What are you doing to calibrate it? Are you doing it just by eye or are you using a device such as a ColorVision Spyder?

<p>I've calibrated my Sony Multiscan E400 (19 inch) monitor with a Spyder and PhotoCAL software. The software explains step by step how to set the contrast and brightness. It isn't necessary to set the contrast to 100 if the monitor is too bright.

<p>With my monitor I've noticed that when it's cold, the screen is noticeably brighter than after it has been on for some time. Before calibrating I leave the monitor on for at least 30 minutes to let it warm up.

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This may conflict with your calibration method, but you can most probably adjust your brightness of your video card from your OS - in Windows, right click on desktop, choose Properties, then Settings, then Advanced - somewhere in there you should find the controls for your graphics card..

 

If not that.. yes, if you are willing to risk electrocution and void your warranty, there will probably be a brightness control inside the monitor box, but this is definitely not something you should do unless you are fully aware of the potential consequences of opening a VERY high-voltage device. There are many places inside a monitor where a careless hand/arm/whatever will very likely throw you across the room if you are lucky, or kill you if not..

 

A quick afterthought - before you do all this, check your monitor's settings - somewhere in the menus you may find a thing for changing the INPUT VOLTAGE or maybe SIGNAL LEVEL or similar - that could be your problem... By the way I definitely DON'T mean the 110v vs 240V thing! - it's the signal voltage level, which is only a couple of volts I think..

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I guess I should restart a few things...

 

I guess its not that the monitor is too bright, but that the black point is too high.

(Basically, the brightness level is the black point)

 

I'm using a mac and there are no direct controls that I know of for the video card. I

can run the Apple calibration thing but there's no place to just go to brightness and

lower it.

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Could well be the monitor is worn out - it may need adjusting internaly to bring it back into spec ( don't fool with it yourself there are lethal voltages way above mains level inside)or it may be beyond repair. I've seen it happen on Trinitrons occasionaly that were getting on a bit in age.
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I've solved it.

 

For whatever reason, when I have my monitor set to the sRGB setting rather than a

color temp the display just looks really really shitty.

 

So why did I think it was the right thing to do? www.normankoren.com/

makingfineprints1A.html - "Set your monitor's color temperature (white point) to

6500K, D65, or sRGB, which is equivalent to 6500K"

 

My monitor offers 5000k, 9300k, sRGB and "set it yourself". sRGB looks like crap no

matter what I do. (And when I say "looks like crap", i mean that you could see the scan

lines where the gun wasn't supposed to be firing, on the sides of the image.) I've

chosen to go with "set it yourself" and selected something close

to 6500k.

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  • 3 years later...

I have similar problem with SONY Multiscan G400. I just got a used one and it looks like is way too bright. I have brightness set up to zero and b;ack is still not black. I tried settings on my graphic adapter driver but no luck :( It looks like theonly option I have is to get inside and try to locate brightness adjustment inside.

Anyone knows where to look for it? Thanks in advance.

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It's just a confusion over what Norman Koren wrote.

 

If you own a colorimeter then for a CRT monitor you just need to set a white point target that you like (D65, 6500K , or whatever - depending on your preferences) and use the onscreen RGB controls to achieve that target. Really simple. Life was easy before LCDs.

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If digging around the back of the CRT, there is a transformer on

the left back corner-the left when facing the front of the display. It

usually has two screws one is a focus adjuster, usually not

required and the other is the picture adjust. It acts like a

gamma/black point adjuster much like the brightness button.

When you turn it, it will either make neutrality turn green or red.

It's different with each brand.

 

On some models like mine there is separate tiny plastic screw

somewhere on the circuit board that controls black point gain.

On my 9 year old Princeton Graphics EO90 it's on the right side

near the front close to the plastic bevel surround. Not all brands

have it. The Dell trinitrons among others I've picked up from thrift

stores and tried to adjust didn't have it.

 

Stay away from the big red wire attached with a suction cup to the

front top of the tube. It has the potential of delivering as much as

25,000 volts that has knocked some across the room but didn't

kill them. Where tennis shoes and know where both your hands

are at all times and take all jewerly off including any watches and

rings. Where a tee shirt. No long sleeved shirts or anything that

dangles like long hair.

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  • 5 months later...

I have the same problem with my G400. When I bought it brigetness & contrast was set it around 50 to 60% when I can feel confortable with the picture. After some years of using (around 5 to 6 years), it becomes very bright. You can see the white scan line even in a complete dark picture -- when Brightness was set to zero.

 

I call in the Sony service gay. They said that it must be ship back to their service centre (I am in Hong Kong) They have only one digital equipment in Hong Kong that can calibrate it again and that is too heavy to bring to my home. It was shpped back and after some ten days there was no answer. I called them and complain. After several transfer, I was in contact with the technician who handle the matter. He did started the repair and promise to call back. And you know how long he called back? ..... It will surprise you.

 

 

In less than 20 minutes he call back and the matter was fixed. It just took then to open the call, connect a plug the equipment and calibrate it again. In 3 more day, it was shipped back to me. The confortable place for the brightness was now around 30% ...

 

Come on, a 10 minute work and it cost me HK$900 = USD115

 

That is not the end of the story. In around no more than 6 month time, the G400 was too bright again. The digital control of brightness simple arbitrarily misalign again.

 

My point is, they have a very bad design that I have confirm that by a simple search on the net many people have Sony monitor having the same problem. The worst thing is that a simple 10 minute work that can fix the problem and they design it in a way that you have to pay them to ship the unit back to them for a 10 days work and get your money $$$$$

 

I have a nVidia graphic card. Some people suggest to turn down the bright with the control centre of the graphic card. But I tell you that this is not the right way. The picture look darker but many low level grey with give a signal voltage to the monitor so low that they will show up all black -- i.e. you will lost all low level grey color. And ... many high intensity white color will be equally white -- e.g. a white cloud should still have some detail -- now it will be all bright white without details.

 

Too much on it ...

 

But My conclusion it .. a damp fool design from Sony -- just for more money from you.

 

 

Horara

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Sorry, some mistake in typing. The technician had not yet start the repair when I called. He started working on it after my call. It take him 20 minute to fixed it and call me back again. Just open the case, plug a cable to connect to the equipment, fixed it and call me back in around 20 minutes.
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One missed point.

 

The serviceman who visited my home said that the interior of the G400 is all digital -- i.e. all controls are digital, there is no knot or something like a variable resistor that can turn the brightness down. So the only way is to pay them to ship the units back to do the adjustment that can be completed in 10 minutes. But the shipment/ delay taken me over 10 days and US$115

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One missed point.

 

The serviceman who visited my home said that the interior of the G400 is all digital -- i.e. all controls are digital, there is no knot or something like a variable resistor that can turn the brightness down. So the only way is to pay them to ship the units back to do the adjustment that can be completed in 10 minutes. But the shipment/ delay taken me over 10 days and US$115

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