[Muleman]

Originally Posted by hardeep

Curious - I have always had HDMI control on and never had a problem any problems whilst watching SkyHD or anything else

Thanks for the feedback hardeep.
I also use a splitter on the HUMAX Foxsat PVR and with or without it, all options and home menus are available.
With the new skyhd box no options ot home features work unless HDMI control is off. Maybe the new Amstrad SkyHD boxes have communication problems (bit like their former boss, Mr Sugar lol).
Switching off the HDMI control option has also solved another problem. I got the free Sony Blu Ray tv deal at Marks & Sparks but the Blu Ray player options kept over-riding the tv options so I could never set the Blu Ray player up with my personal viewing preferences. Hitting the OPTION button just gave me the choice of AV SYNC and a single PICTURE QUALITY mode. Every Blu Ray disk appeared dull and dark but now looks amazing following a few simple tweaks.

[duckson]

Yep the issue seemed to materalise after i got one of the new 1Tb Amstrad SkyHD boxes, the Thomson SkyHD i did have connected was ok.

And i might get round to reading the manual, i just have the scene on "auto" and the picture settings all the same for SkyHD / PS3 (inc blueray) / Wii......tbh it looks fine though, not sure if auto is doing anything and changing the scene depending on what input is feeding the TV?
Do you change the scene when playing a Bluray now? I guess when all my equipment is going via my HD amp there is only going to be a single HDMI input to the TV anyway so i think i'll keep mine as it is.

[Muleman]

Originally Posted by duckson

Do you change the scene when playing a Bluray now? I guess when all my equipment is going via my HD amp there is only going to be a single HDMI input to the TV anyway so i think i'll keep mine as it is.

To be honest I only use the 'Scene' option to flick between Auto/General and Music as the sound from the music setup is pretty good. I previously used the 'Scene' and 'Theatre' buttons because they were the only way to change the picture settings of a Blu Ray before you kindly helped to unleash the beast.

[farmoore]

I cant figure out the difference between 500 and 503? the model im intrested in is KDL46EX500AEP, aep ? is it something i should be worried about. Allso hows the lag on this thing, someone mentioned about banding / ghosting and flickering on 1080p since im mostly getting this tv for gaming that could be an issue.

[nix]

I suffered from banding on two sets. I got the panel replaced and it's as good as gold. (I had a 55EX503)

[farmoore]

I guess thats just bad luck ?

And about aep, going to answer myself here. Apprently it just means that it has diffrent kind of powersupply intended for european market, 240v ?. other than that it should be exactly the same. Still wondering about the diffrence between 500 and 503 tho.

[ChrisGgr]

AEP means All European Product,

the 503 has the uk new DVB-T2 tuner needed for freeview HD transmissions.The 500 has simple DVB-T tuner. You may as well see a 505 which has DVB-S tuner along with DVB-T tuner

[Stout Fellow]

Does anyone know if the AUO panel is used on the 37" version of this set?

I know it's not a Sony one.

Only reason I'm asking is that there seem to be numerous reports of backlight related buzzing with AUO panels on this forum.

[ChrisGgr]

yep its AUO

[wookie025]

Hi all. I bought a 40ex503 yesterday. Set it up all ok. hdmi to virgin hd works fine. hdmi to xbox works fine. hooked tv up to router via ethernet - fine. got a nas drive on the router and the tv picks it up fine. tv picks up pc via router - all fine.

everything is fine apart from the normal tv and freeview HD .

I carried out an analogue search and the tv has found the 5 stations but the reception is awful, all channels are bad- I assume this has something to do with the aerial on the roof? maybe it's broken.

I carried out a search for the freeview HD and it doesn't pick up anything, no channels at all- I assume it won't pick up any channels because the aerial seems to be broken.

Is there any thing i am doing wrong here? I have the aerial cable going from the tv into the aerial socket in the wall.

The funny thing is I have a basic freeview box in the bedroom and that works fine, picks up all channels, but the new bravia doesn't pick up the analogue channels very well and doesn't pick up HD freeview at all....

Also, should I be using the aerial socket in the wall, can hd freeview be picked up through the virgin boxs aerial?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[hardeep]

Originally Posted by wookie025

Hi all. I bought a 40ex503 yesterday. Set it up all ok. hdmi to virgin hd works fine. hdmi to xbox works fine. hooked tv up to router via ethernet - fine. got a nas drive on the router and the tv picks it up fine. tv picks up pc via router - all fine.

everything is fine apart from the normal tv and freeview HD .

I carried out an analogue search and the tv has found the 5 stations but the reception is awful, all channels are bad- I assume this has something to do with the aerial on the roof? maybe it's broken.

I carried out a search for the freeview HD and it doesn't pick up anything, no channels at all- I assume it won't pick up any channels because the aerial seems to be broken.

Is there any thing i am doing wrong here? I have the aerial cable going from the tv into the aerial socket in the wall.

The funny thing is I have a basic freeview box in the bedroom and that works fine, picks up all channels, but the new bravia doesn't pick up the analogue channels very well and doesn't pick up HD freeview at all....

Also, should I be using the aerial socket in the wall, can hd freeview be picked up through the virgin boxs aerial?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If the Freeview box upstairs works fine the first thing to do would be to move it and see if it still works downstairs using the wall socket that you have the 503 plugged into. Use the same cable that you had in the bedroom.

If it doesn't that would indicate that the wiring to the downstairs socket is the issue.

If it does you have several possibilities:
1) The downstairs cable from the wall socket to the TV - check by swapping cables.
2) The TV is for some reason trying to tune to the wrong frequency (unlikely) - use your freeview box to find which channel frequency is used for say BBC1 then manually tune the TV to see.
3) Worst case - the TV's tuner is faulty. (Strictly speaking worst case would be the TV at fault AND the downstairs wiring is faulty )

[nix]

Freeview HD isn't available nationally yet. See Freeview - Home HD to see if it's available where you live. Can you get normal SD Freeview from the set? If not, do as hardeep suggested. ( I presume the upstairs freeview box is connected to a wall socket leading to the same aerial). I might be wrong here, but the TV would have separate tuners for analogue and Freeview.
Presuming again that you've got a Virgin HD box, then yes, you can get the same channels. There's only BBC, ITV and Channel 4 available in HD on Freeview at the mo.

[wookie025]

i'm in an area that receives HD so I will check the cable and then check the freeview box I have on the same socket to see if that works. if that doens't work i will double check the tv on the socket in the bedroom, if that doesn't work i will send the tv back.

can you anyone tell me the best format to rip dvds to? i will be storing them on the NAS drive and then playing them through the TV.

best format and settings would help.
Thanks

[neonbible]

1. Is there anyway to power off the TV without doing it from the mains?

2. Does the TV contain normal SD Freeview? I apparently live in a Freeview HD area, but would like SD just as a fallback. Don't have an arial connector cable so can't test it yet.

[hardeep]

Originally Posted by neonbible

1. Is there anyway to power off the TV without doing it from the mains?

Nope but in standby regulations demand it consumes <1w so you're talking about 50-60p a year. Personally I just turn it off at the plug each night.

2. Does the TV contain normal SD Freeview? I apparently live in a Freeview HD area, but would like SD just as a fallback. Don't have an arial connector cable so can't test it yet.

The 503 - like all FreeviewHD boxes/TVs - receives and decodes both HD and SD. You will find that HD versions of channels will be present along with their SD counterparts.

[T91]

Had the TV for a couple of months now and really happy with it. Only issue is (I'm still running it on the default picture setting) the picture is too dark. Now I don't want anything too bright and unatural but something which doesn't make everything look gloomy and dark.

What are the best picture settings considering the TV is used just for watching TV. No gaming etc

Thanks in advance

[nix]

Originally Posted by nix

I thought I'd chip in with my picture settings

Backlight 4
Contrast 90
Brightness 50
Colour 48
Hue R6
Colour Temp Warm2
Sharpness 8
Noise Reduction off
Mpeg noice red off
Motionflow standard
Film mode Auto1

Black controller off
ACE off
Gamma 0
Auto light off
Clear white off
live colour off

R gain -1
G gain -1
B gain -2
R bias 0
G bias 1
B bias -3

This is in a bright living room. Mostly used for TV watching. The backlight gets dimmed in the evening if I get to watch a film.

These are my settings. Give them a whir and see if it helps.

[T91]

Cheers I'll give it a try tomorrow!

[rushy7]

hi,just got this tv and am very impressed,is there anyway of turning auto dimming on like the samsungs?
i konw most people dont like it but i do!!
thanks

[KelvinS1965]

If you mean the feature that adjusts the backlight according to how bright the ambient light is, then you need to put on the Ambient sensor to 'ON'. This is found in the 'Home' area/Settings/Display/Picture/Ambient sensor. I set mine on as it's in a conservatory and needs full backlight in daytime and minimum at night.

Be aware that Vivid mode and Theatre modes ignore the ambient sensor and the backlight remains at whatever setting you select in the menu. I use a tweaked version of Standard mode for daytime/early evening viewing and Theatre once it's fully dark outside.

(I now have a 32EX703, but my initial 32EX503 worked the same way and had the same menu choices).

[Andrew1472]

He/she could also mean "adv contrast enhancer" which turns the back light down when the picture is mostly/completely black.
It's in the picture > advanced settings menu.

[rushy7]

hi,tried advanced contrast enhancer and that did the trick!thanks
does anyone have a link or a pdf for the manual?its a real pain not having a paper copy

[hardeep]

Originally Posted by rushy7

hi,tried advanced contrast enhancer and that did the trick!thanks
does anyone have a link or a pdf for the manual?its a real pain not having a paper copy

Here you are - it's pretty basic. Out of the 24 pages just 2 describe how to do anything - which I can summarise as "press the i-manual button" to save you the download

The rest is instructions for the pedestal, wall mount & specs

[ChrisJJ]

Hi

I've just got a 55" EX500 yesterday. Everything is great, but one thing.

When I play DVDs or movies (both from my Mediacenter PC), the picture twitches just a bit. I don't have the problem when watching tv or using the mediacenter pc for surfing the net. It only when playing movies (DVDs og ripped movies from the harddrive) and home recordings.

My mediacenter PC is connected to the tv by the HMDI 1 port.

Is it a codec problem?

Thanks in advance.

best regards ChrisJJ (Denmark)

[nix]

Can you connect the media centre to another screen like a PC monitor? It could be a processing problem, it could also be that it's outputting at a slightly odd rate (some do that for a reason I fail to understand) and the twitching is the TV trying to keep in step.

[ChrisJJ]

Thanks. I can't connect another screen

I'll try to connect my xbox360 to see if it the same.

I have another issue. I can't get the image from my media center pc to fit the screen. There is a 5 cm border around the image. The resolution on the pc is 1920 by 1080. It's an ATI onboard graphic card (HD 3200) with the newest driver from 25. august.

Hope someone can help.

[NX3]

ChrisJJ, on your media centre look at the overscan options in the graphics display options and tweek until your happy.

The twitching, is this when your playing 24fps material ? have you set your tv to 24fps mode to match ?

[lisag]

Try changing the refresh rate of your htpc between 50hz and 60hz, this may get rid of the judder/stutter.

[ChrisJJ]

I've connected my xbox to the HDMI 1 port and everything is running fine, both games and DVD movies.

The problem must therefore have something to do with the media center pc.

I changed the Hz to 24 (resolution 1920 x 1080p) and the bluray playback from the pc is now running smooth, no twitching.

If I play DVD discs or ripped DVDs fro the hard drive I still have the problem, lots of twitching.

It must be a codec problem or my graphic card that can't handle the high resolution but why can i play high res bluray and not low res? I'm confused.

[lisag]

Maybe your DVD's are at a different refresh rate to 24p. You may have to manually override your graphics card settings to 50hz or 60hz for smooth DVD playback.