Viera overscan adjustment - cracked!!

B

blindlemon

Guest
OK - I've cracked it :clap:

Here's how to get into Service Menu 2 in AV mode and adjust the overscan etc.:-

You may want to select 16:9 aspect manually first as Service Menu 2 adjustments seem to be aspect-specific.

- Go to analogue TV and select CH 99
- Press the DVB/Analogue button to go to DVB TV
- Press TV/AV to go to AV
- Enter Service Menu 1 as normal and navigate to the last item (JPEG Viewer)
- Press Hold

:clap: :D :smashin:

Now you can adjust the screen position and overscan etc.... :thumbsup:

I've just done this on my 42" Viera and the result with my TiVo is excellent. I can now see about an inch of blue screen to the left of the black selection bar!!
 
Will have to try this on mine .
Have got used to it now thats the problem!
If i start messing around with it again and it does not work then I am gonna be p****d off and all stressed out again. I hope it is not just 42" specific and will work with a 37" model :D
 
Blindlemon, I see you have the Viera. Did you give up on your PD30? I have with mine.
I am in the process of getting the 37in Viera and would appreciate any pointers, observations (see my earlier plea today New TH-37PE30 Viera ordered. Tips needed.)
 
Right. Managed to do it!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup:
Entering the service menu using the method described by blindlemon above allowed me to use the test patterens on my dvd player.
Using the overscan paterren on the d.v.e. disc I discoverd that the v-amp and h-amp settings do not act like the v-postion and h-postion like i first thought . On the CRT televisions that i have had , when I have adjusted the overscan , the h-amp and v-amp have moved the sides and top and bottom in together. On the Vierra plasma the H-amp and V-amp setting just brings one side and the bottom of the picture in to view. You could not tell this with out using the test patterns. The secret to adjusting the overscan is to bring the bottom and the side of the picture right in and then use the V and H postion settings to centralise the picture. I have now manged to do this and the overscan is now spot on.It has not distorted the picture that I thought it might have either :)
Many thanks to blindlemon for posting his findings, without which I would not have been able to view the test patterns and make the adjustments. :smashin: :smashin:
 
robtodd said:
.
I am in the process of getting the 37in Viera and would appreciate any pointers, observations (see my earlier plea today New TH-37PE30 Viera ordered. Tips needed.)



What do you want to know?
 
David-Sheekey said:
What do you want to know?

I need to know about things like annoying buzzes from transformers, splodges of colour on the screen or dirty marks. I have the 36in PD30 at the moment and it is being upgraded to the Viera due to issues around what I have mentioned. On 100hz scan it buzzes like an angry gnat, as did the previous 32in set.
All of my research and observation tells me that the Viera is a fairly easy ride for a fella like me who wants to plug it in and watch movies, a smattering of TV and sport. I have a Sky Digital Pace receiver, a Panasonic Freeview box and a Pioneer DVD player hooked up via component to view NTSC in prog scan which is sometimes amazing, until the dirty screen effect distracts me.
Any simple suggestions from your experience will be greatly appreciated. :lesson:
 
You star! I never thought of changing modes between selecting Ch99 and entering the service mode.

Do you know if it has separate memory for DVB and AV as it does for analogue?


Andy.
 
Don't know I'm afraid - as I don't watch it, I don't really care about overscan on analogue or DVB TV :)
 
robtodd said:
I need to know about things like annoying buzzes from transformers, splodges of colour on the screen or dirty marks.
None so far.... :smashin:

The reason I ditched my 36PD30 was because of the dirty marks - and, of course, the Viera doesn't have these. Got the overscan sorted, working towards the correct colour balance and contrast settings etc... So far so good :)
 
Interesting... it appears to have it's own memory for either each aspect setting or each AV input. I adjusted the overscan on AV4C using 16:9 and a test card on DVE, yet if I change to Panasonic Auto, the values are all still at 0. It's the same when I switch to AV1, all the screen adjustments are at 0. Go back to AV4C and the adjusted overscan is back.


Andy.
 
robtodd said:
I need to know about things like annoying buzzes from transformers, splodges of colour on the screen or dirty marks. I have the 36in PD30 at the moment and it is being upgraded to the Viera due to issues around what I have mentioned. On 100hz scan it buzzes like an angry gnat, as did the previous 32in set.
All of my research and observation tells me that the Viera is a fairly easy ride for a fella like me who wants to plug it in and watch movies, a smattering of TV and sport. I have a Sky Digital Pace receiver, a Panasonic Freeview box and a Pioneer DVD player hooked up via component to view NTSC in prog scan which is sometimes amazing, until the dirty screen effect distracts me.
Any simple suggestions from your experience will be greatly appreciated. :lesson:


OK. pretty much all plasmas buzz, just take a look at all the treads about it on these very forums. Mine makes a very slight buzzing sound wich becomes a bit louder if very bright pictures are displayed. The buzzing is hardly noticable unless you are about a foot away from the screen and the volume is turned down!
No dirty screen effect and no geometric issues now that I have corrected the overscan.
The Vierra Plasma has a built in deinterlaser you may find that the picture in progresive mode from your player is no differnt from letting the plasma do it.
Hope this has helped.
Dave.
 
David-Sheekey said:
OK. pretty much all plasmas buzz, just take a look at all the treads about it on these very forums. Mine makes a very slight buzzing sound wich becomes a bit louder if very bright pictures are displayed. The buzzing is hardly noticable unless you are about a foot away from the screen and the volume is turned down!
No dirty screen effect and no geometric issues now that I have corrected the overscan.
The Vierra Plasma has a built in deinterlaser you may find that the picture in progresive mode from your player is no differnt from letting the plasma do it.
Hope this has helped.
Dave.

Well if once you are away from it there ain't no buzzing that's pretty much like any regular CRT. Now the wait begins.

Cheers.

Rob. :clap:
 
There appears to be a side effect from reducing the left/right overscan... it introduces black space between the picture and the grey bars when in 14:9 or 4:3 modes. Abit of a shame, but luckily I don't use those modes much.


Andy.
 
If you set the Aspect to 14:9 or 4:3 before going into the service menus the h-pos and h-amp adjustments affect the picture in-between the grey bars only.

I did mine this morning :smashin:
 
Aye, got it sorted now. If you want to adjust 'WIDE' mode as set by Panny Auto then do this one first by pausing a widescreen broadcast or DVD as it upsets the other aspects. Once that is done alter the others, 16:9, 14:9 and 4:3 individually afterwards. It's actually quite nice that each aspect has it's own memory. :)


Andy.
 
On my one, 16:9 and wide mode seem the same :confused: I adjusted one and the other matched it. I thought wide only came on screen to let you know that you were watching an anamorphic picture. I only had to adjust one mode for the overscan. The test pateren on the dve disc was in anamorphic. The wide mode icon appeared on screen. I adjusted the overscan and then tested the 16:9 mode and it was the same.
If you watch a lot of NTSC discs you will have to adjust the overscan for this as well. NTSC and PAL settings have different values.
 
I got into the service mode the other night and used DVE to adjust overscan. I don't know if its because mine is an Australian model??? but I didn't have to go to ch99 first..(infact I forgot all about it). I set bass to max, treb to min pressed the -V button on front panel and the index button on remote and service menu 1 came up. From memory there was an option to adjust panel...so I highlighted it and pressed ok on the remote. This then brought up the little menu in the top right hand corner (IIC mode, SD mode, ??? can't remember the others). I went into IIC mode and using the cursor button on the remote navigated my way through the menu until I saw parameters such as H-size V-size H-pos V-pos etc. I used the overscan test pattern to set the overscan to 2.5%. It then occured to me that I didn't check what aspect ratio I was altering. The menu showed "Full"...I can only assume this is 16:9. I then pressed the aspect ratio button on the remote, and the menu changed to another ratio 4:3 etc. So I could alter the H and V settings for each ratio.
To alter the values I had to use the volume up/down button on the remote. The cursor button allows you to navigate through the menu.

Does this sound at all like the service menus you guys are talking about? I did not notice any "service menu 2" option though???
 
Oh and by the way....has anyone investigated to see if it is possible to "turn on advanced options" in the menu??? Rather than having to go into service mode all the time???
 
Ok....so what's IIC mode??? I tried getting into service mode last night...(I don't quite understand what selecting ch99 has an effect on, but it didn't work unless I went to AV mode anyway...and it didn't really matter what channel was selected ... I don't think so anyway). I got a little worried when I pressed one of the color buttons while at the initial service menu screen, and an option came up for screen type (42HD)...I then pressed another color button on teh remote which changed it to (50HD)...then started to sweat. I didn't understand what the color buttons where actually for...I asume the two left are to select the option, and the two right color buttons are to change the value...is that correct? Luck for me this setting wasn't saved...which brings me to my next question...how do you save the settings you have chosen? The other night when I set teh overscan in the IIC mode, simply exiting the menu seemed to have saved the settings.

ANyway....while navigating with the two left color buttons I saw the options for sub-contrast...sub-brightness...R-gain...B-gain...etc... These options where also found in the IIC menu....whats the difference. I asumed that these where general settings that affected the dispay overall...whereas the settings in IIC mode where specific to a particular AV input. Am I right???

PLEASE help me to understand the service menu a little more...You guys are gurus at this stuff....surely one of you can help.

Thanks heaps...
 
I suspect that the IIC menu is at the panel level, while the Service Menus are at the chassis (ie. Viera TV) level.

If you change a value in the service menu that has an equivalent in the IIC menu, then both will be updated. However, there are some items in the IIC menu that aren't in the Service menus.
 
It seems that the IIC menu is much easier to get to...as once you're in service menu 1 you just press the ok button on the remote when the "Panel Adjustment" is highlighted (which I thik it is by default once you enter service menu anyway).

When you're in the IIC mode and you have navigated using the cursor button to the size settings...pressing teh apsect ratio button on the remote will allow you to adjust each ratio...so it seems...although so far I have only adjust the 16:9 or "Full" as it says in the IIC menu.

But as you say...there are a whole buch of other options such as R, B and G -gain...cut....curve angles etc....

A service menu manual would be GREAT!!!!!!!
 
To adjust over scan you only need to touch V-AMP, H-AMP, V-pos, H-pos.

Dont touch anything else!!!! :lesson: :lesson:

Unless you know what you are doing you can serioulsy $%**%~# your picture up :rolleyes:

If you still want a service menu for the Viera, contact panasonic via there customer service website. They will advice against it but will tell you where you can get one from :)
 
The little box in IIC mode tells you info about the memory you are adjusting. You'll see it says something like R625, (RGB 576P MODE) or Y525 (Component 48P MODE). Those adjusmtents affect only that signal type.

As has been said you don;t want to adjust any of the sub things or the cuts/gains. You need specialist measuring devices to adjust some of this stuff and you can really mess up the picture. Stick with fixing your geometric issues.

Gordon
 
I have not yet played with the overscan settings but if I did and cocked it up would a reset back to factory settings (I am sure I have seen that option somewhere whilst playing with the set up) literally reset everything I had done or would certain changes be kept?

I would like to get the best picture and I know for sure that my screen is 'suffering' from overscan. You know when an advert is about come on you get the black and white bar in the top right hand of the screen, well on the plasma I can only see a small bit of it whilst on the crt telly in the kitchen I can see alot more of it.

What should I change the settings to - can someone tell me their amended settings so I have a guideline to follow.

thanks.
 
Hornet: There are no "return to factory" settings for the service level menu. If you are going to make any changes write down EVERYTHING that is on screen so you can go back.

You need to use a gemetric test pattern ideally.

Gordon
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom