[TelstraClear] T-Box - Picture adjustment on dark background

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kiwimordor

21 posts

Geek

Topic # 91676 18-Oct-2011 22:23

Hi guys, Telstra victim - have had a few (actually 5 now) and am looking at a series of additional faults. Latest is the t-box seems to be adjusting the picture signal on HDMI output. Have tried RCA output and no probs (accept that this is SD), have purchased blueray player and played via HDMI - no picture adjust problems. Have tried Freeview terrestrial box with HDMI output - no probs. Anyone else having similar issues??Seems that problem is only on HDMI signal when dark setting is showing (ie night scene or credits)

Would appreciate some feedback from other victims

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83 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

Reply # 535189 19-Oct-2011 15:43

Can you explain a bit more please? In what way is the T-Box adjusting the picture? What changes are you seeing?

kiwimordor

21 posts

Geek

Reply # 535357 19-Oct-2011 21:56

Hi, when the picture is playing dark scene (ie credits, night shot with low lighting) the screen dims so that picture is very faded. Introduce some more lighting in the scene and the picture returns to normal. Almost like auto adjust contrast and brightness. TV has ambient light sensor, but turned off>

Have tried multiple HDMI devices (other than T-Box) to eliminate television fault (yes - good ol' TV has been through a quake or two - actually 8500). Other HDMI sources do not show fault, only when connected to T-Box on HDMI output.

Shadbolt

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Master Geek
+1 received by user: 20

Reply # 535415 20-Oct-2011 07:34

Sounds annoying! I have heard that different TV's HDMI interfaces can "negotiate" variable behaviour from different HDMI sources. That is, your T-Box plugged into my TV might not do this, whereas any T-Box plugged into yours will.

What is the make and model number of your TV. It'd be interesting to see if anyone else on here has the same model, and what sort of behaviour a T-Box makes with it.

kiwimordor

21 posts

Geek

Reply # 535421 20-Oct-2011 07:53

Been a bit like chasing the tail here. Telstra deny that the box would cause anything like this (well at least until yesterday when a tec said that they are having problems with HDMI ports).

TV is SONY Bravia W (KDL 40W4500). Have tried all 3 HDMI ports on TV with same results.

Cheers

ZollyMonsta

2647 posts

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Reply # 535468 20-Oct-2011 10:01

Do a google search for 'sony autodimming'.

You will find it is an (annoying) feature of Sony Bravia television sets.

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Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 535477 20-Oct-2011 10:17

Hi all,

Zolly is correct. This is a ‘feature’ of the TV and nothing to do with the T-Box. There’s a thread here that talks about the behaviour: http://www.whathifi.com/forum/tvs-and-projectors/40w4500-help-with-picture-settings

Google shows some threads suggesting to turn off ‘Advanced Contrast Enhancer’ or turn off ‘Game/Text’ mode… Or you can try the suggestion in the thread referenced above (and posted below):

"Auto dimming: this feature was put in by Sony to reduce clouds by dimming the backlight in black scenes or mostly black scenes. the annoying thing about it is that it can't be turned off, so the backlight fluctuations do occur in movies with particularly dark scenes where most of the screen is black such as the credits at the end of the movie. it does get really annoying at times, for instance, when the credits were rolling with only a few names at the beginning, the backlight dims because it detects a mostly black screen. but then when more white texts and words rolled in, the backlight brightens up again because the screen wasn't mostly black anymore.

So you can imagine that it is even more annoying when this happens in the middle of the movie because when the backlight dims, it dims everything else on the screen such as colours and shadow detail. it is pretty subtle though and it doesn't dim all the time (only in very dark and mostly black movie scenes), but when it does, it is annoying as hell. I found a way to disable it, two ways actually. One is by turning ON the light sensor, but this only works in a completely dark room. so if the sensor only sees the dark, it keeps the backlight at the lowest level and never brightens. The other way is to just turn the ACE setting to HIGH which lowers the backlight somewhat(I just upped the backlight 1 notch and it evens out) but it stopped the auto dimming."
Another thread offers specific settings (for an earlier model) but the same problem: http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-led-lcd-tvs/641677-sony-kdl-w3000-calibration-settings-thread-8.html#post6668919

Gary

DonGould

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Uber Geek
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Reply # 535530 20-Oct-2011 11:39

Thanks Gary, that's interesting stuff to know as I have one of these TVs as well. I had noticed it doing some odd things and now I see why.

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Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 535533 20-Oct-2011 11:42

DonGould: Thanks Gary, that's interesting stuff to know as I have one of these TVs as well. I had noticed it doing some odd things and now I see why.

You're welcome Don. As it happens, I have one too and thanks to the techs who looked into this I've learnt something too and will be tweaking the settings.

Cheers, Gary

kiwimordor

21 posts

Geek

Reply # 535660 20-Oct-2011 16:08

Thanks for all the great tips guys. Appreciated.

However, the problem only occurs when connected to T-Box (HDMI) - not any other HDMI device, nor on HD freeview.

If, as suggested the TV is autodimming due to back light levels and darkness, then I would have thought that this would also be evident in other sources of signal (ie all devices / inputs)

Am I missing something?

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Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 535689 20-Oct-2011 17:05

kiwimordor: Thanks for all the great tips guys. Appreciated.

However, the problem only occurs when connected to T-Box (HDMI) - not any other HDMI device, nor on HD freeview.

If, as suggested the TV is autodimming due to back light levels and darkness, then I would have thought that this would also be evident in other sources of signal (ie all devices / inputs)

Am I missing something?

Hi kiwimordor. The techs advise checking the settings as they can be set differently between inputs.

kiwimordor

21 posts

Geek

Reply # 535745 20-Oct-2011 18:36

Thanks TC
Have tried HDMI over all 3 HDMI ports, 3 different devices. That means 9 different combinations. Only fault is on T-Box input, 3 different HDMI ports.

T-Box does not allow adjustment of settings under normal user profiles, nothing there for autoadjust etc.

Blue ray device set to factory standards, freeview box same.

By my calculations this defines the problem as being the T-Box. I understand that TC have now admitted that there is a fault in the T-Box with HDMI outputs (as stated by one of your techs when contacted) and that it will take a firmware update (yet to be deployed, date unknown) to fix the problem. Have the TC network team currently investigating, they advise similar issue with other TV models / brands, but not with Sony.

Now awaiting tech to come and possibly swap out this for the 6th unit that I have had - not bad eh! They will be in contact with network engineers during site work.

Will keep everyone informed on outcome

ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 535762 20-Oct-2011 18:53

Did you check your tv settings? No PVR has picture brightness/contrast or colour adjustments. Those are all controlled by the display device (ie: your tv) not the PVR device.

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kiwimordor

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Geek

Reply # 535766 20-Oct-2011 19:01

Thanks - yes.

Autoadjust off (Sony call it ambient light) Sont teck has checked all settings and there is nothing that will adjust / dim (other than comments noted earlier in blog from others.)

As stated, fault is only on T-Box over all HDMI ports. No other device will cause the same fault.

Q.E.D - T-Box is probable cause of fault. Please correct me if this is not the case

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Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 535986 21-Oct-2011 09:33

Hi all,

This problem is caused by the Sony TV and affacts many models of Sony TV (including my KDL-40W4500 at home). Sony apparently released firmware updates to fix it in some later models, but not yours kiwimordor or mine as far as I can find .

It has been reported in many Internet forums (Google "Sony TV autodimming fix" for some suggestions). It's been reported to occur with video from many devices and across inputs that include HDMI, PC and in-built tuner. Playing with the settings last night I was able to get my set to show the behaviour on HMDI and built-in Freeview, and even when no video input was there - it did it when it went back to the blank screen from the menu.

This from one thread (at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1090725&page=4) may help although it's a slightly different model. Many of these settings are the same and worked for me:

Always Use 'Cinema' Mode (Ensures no auto backlight control, optimized for TV viewing)

Power Saver 'Off' (Ensures no auto backlight control) Light Control 'Off' (Increases screen brightness, no auto backlight control)

Backlight: 3 (suit to taste)

Picture: Max (maximizes contrast)

Brightness: 40 (minimizes grays in backlight)

Color: 60 (maximizes color content)

Hue: 0

Color Temperature: Cool (most accurate color reproduction)

Sharpness: 15 (centered)

Noise Reduction: Off (for Blu-Ray and Wii) / High (for TV viewing) MPEG Noise Reduction: Off (for Blu-Ray and TV) / High (for Wii)

Black Corrector: Off (maintains contrast/brightness fluctuations) Advanced Contrast Enhancer (C.E.): Low (ensures there is NO backlight control, MUST!)

Gamma: High (ensures most vivid, high contrast display with minimal backlight setting)

Clear White: High (ensures white is pure white) Live Color: High (ensures the most vivid color) White Balance: All Settings '0'

With these settings, you should have no automatic backlight adjustments and/or dimming at all. EXCEPT when you have a COMPLETELY BLACK screen. If there is ANY image on the screen (credits, very dark scenes, etc.) the backlight will NOT change.

Hope this helps!! Works on ALL inputs.

Again, the most important thing to keep in mind:

- You MUST use Cinema Mode

- You MUST have the Light Sensor OFF.

- You MUST have the Power Saver feature OFF.

- You MUST have the Advanced Contrast Enhancer feature turned ON (low minimizes contrast changes).

Other than that, you're free to make other adjustments as you see fit. These are only my preferred settings.

Gary

(fixed a spelling mistake!)

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Ultimate Geek
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Reply # 536041 21-Oct-2011 11:07

Hi kiwimordor,

I notice that you say you're expecting a tech visit. You might want to cancel this as it will be a waste of your time as the problem is not the T-Box. If you mail me your customer number I can do this for you.

You'll note that a lot of gamers notice the issue (including from Sony's own PS3) on this TV but it's also reported from many sources. I've found that Sony appear to have fixed the problem in the later 5-series models:

"First things first, THEY FIXED THE AUTO-CONTRAST! I have nothing but good things to say about this TV."

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BRAVIA-KDL-40V5100-40-Inch-1080p/dp/B001T9N0DU

The last post in the comments on this test (http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/sony-kdl40w4500-20081116135.htm) also notes the problem on the bigger 46 inch and offers a solution (you could try these settings):

I couldn’t find any option to disable auto-dimming on my SONY KDL46W4500. A solution for me for disable auto-dimming for PS3 gaming I have setup the following settings on my HDMI 1 interface:

Settings -> Picture :
Picture Mode: Standard
Backlight: 4
Contrast: 72
Brightness: 52
Colour: 57
Colour Temperature: Neutral
Sharpness: Max
Noise Reduction: Off
MPEG Noise Reduction: Off

Advanced Settings ->
Adv. Contrast Enhancer: Off
Colour Space: Standard

That works for my, specially with playing GTA or Read Dead Redemption I had lots of issue with it. now this is solved! good luck!

Hope this helps, Gary

(bad day for spelling mistakes!)

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