Component Video way too Green (1 Viewer)

[Johnny C]

Well, the subject line just about says it all. I have a Wega 32FS16 hooked up to a Panasonic RV30, and when component video cables are used the picture is incredibly green, especially noticeable in the blacks (which are no longer black but swampy green). The problem only exists with the component video, as neither the vcr, nor cable, nor the dvd used with s-video cause this. Proper calibration with Avia reduced the green, but not enough to make it tolerable. Now if I go into the service menu and start adjusting the green settings, will it not ruin the colour balance on other video sources?
As well, I get dark bands across the screen when a scene is dark and there is a light source on the movie. ie. If there's a night scene and a street lamp, there will be a dark bark stretching horizontally across the screen, emanating from the lamp.
Thanks in advance,
John Carta
...and happy Canada Day to any Canucks out there.....

 

[ThomasL]

Johnny, my first guess based on what you said would be the cable. If you can, try another component cable or if you can, take your dvd player and hook it up to another tv with component inputs and use the identical cable. Make comparisons before and after on the second tv to see if indeed green is going "nuts" as well. This should tell you if it is the dvd player and/or the cable or your tv's component inputs. Once you've narrowed the problem down to either of those two categories, then you can go from there (e.g. try another dvd player on your Sony with the same component cable to determine if it is the dvd player or the cables, etc.). Debugging problems like this can be hard since sometimes problems are simply caused by weird interactions between devices/components. The important thing I think is for you to figure out if your component inputs on your new Sony are not working properly.
hope this helps,
--tom

 

[Johnny C]

Thanks for the rapid reply Tom,
I just tried a second set of component cables (really should have done that before posting), and the problem persists. As for the TV itself being the problem, it's probably unlikely as I just exchanged it (due to other problems), and the excessive green was present on both sets.
I'll see if I can't get a friend to bring their DVD player over to see if my unit is the culprit...with the promise of free beer of course...
cheers
John

 

[ThomasL]

Johnny, it sounds like perhaps your dvd player may be the cause. Have you used its component outputs before? The only other data point I have is when I switched from composite to component out on my Toshiba SD-1600, according to Avia's color decoder test pattern, the component outs were about 10 percent more saturated overall. But as I recall, it was a uniform increase and I don't recall any one color being pushed more. Does your player do parallel video out like the Toshibas do? One thing I do recall doing was hooking up the Svideo out to Video 1 and then the component out to Video 2 on my 27A40 tv and then switching back and forth between them to see the differences.
good luck,
--tom

 

[Allan Jayne]

Is this TV one of those models that also accepts RGB, using the same set of component video jacks? If so, you need to make a manual selection, usually in the on screen menu, for component Y,Pb,Pr video.
If you connect just the Y jack of the DVD player to the Y jack of the TV, leaving the red and blue jacks empty, if you get nothing but green this might be the reason.
Other video hints:http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[JasonRH]

Johnny C,
The problem may, in fact, lie within your tv. I vaguely remember posts I've seen a while back stating the same problem of colors being tinted green or other colors when using the component video jacks. There may even be a fix in the service menu for it.
The other problem you described is undoubtably the "uneven brightness" problem which I, myself, have experienced with 2 previous Wegas. There is a way to lesson that effect in the service menu.
Thomas L,
Fancy meeting you here!

 

[Johnny C]

Well, as recommended I set up the component video and the s-video in parallel from the DVD, and the difference is pretty staggering. While the colours on the s-video are perfect, the greenness of the component video is blinding. Unfortunately, I just really prefer the picture with the component video. If I adjust the gcut in the service menu, the color on the component video is perfect, but then the colour balance on every other source is completely ruined.
To answer Allan's question, no the TV doesn't accept RGB inputs, so that's not the problem.
And unfortunately the dark horizontal banding from light sources in dark scenes exists on both s-video and component, so that's become a bit of a pain. I'd really hate to exchange this damn thing once again. What is the "fix" for this in the service menu?
cheers
John

 

[ThomasL]

Johnny, before giving up on this tv, I'd try a second dvd player to make sure it isn't something with the JVC player. I can't recall if you said or not, but do you have Avia or VE? I have Avia and find its essential for debugging problems with one's set. What I'd recommend is keeping the parallel Svideo and component Input set up and go to the Avia Color Decoder test pattern. See if there is a big difference in the green level as well as either blue or red. This should help you quantify what the difference is, if there is any difference.
Lowering GCUT is affecting the low end (as well as the high end since there is some interaction) of your grayscale. It is not having any direct affect on the overall color saturation except to the point that it is changing the underlying color/intensity of the grayscale from white to black. This may "solve" your problem but it is probably also giving a bad tint to things that should be gray or black and white. Lowering GCUT in the grayscale will probably show up as a red/purple tint in the grayscale. You can check this by going to the grayscale patterns tests in Avia. There are horizontal/vertical ramps that show the entire scale from 100 IRE to 10 IRE.
If the color decoder looks ok, then it could possibly be something else such as a grayscale issue. I also saw "green" on the low end of the grayscale on my 27A40 but I saw it to varying degrees on all sources with component inputs being the most noticeable (for me, that may simply have been that component inputs with a dvd are the best possible input source for me, so any problems are bound to be seen most clearly). The best way to see if your grayscale is changing is to look at the horizontal/vertical grayscale ramp patterns in Avia in parallel.
good luck,
--tom

 

[Johnny C]

Thomas, I see you've done this before.
Checking out the greyscale ramp patterns on the component video, my greys are very green, a lovely swamp green indeed. They're fine on the s-video. If I drop the gcut to 0 the component video looks superb, but then the s-video greys are, as you said, purple, and the picture on my cable becomes purplish as well. When using Avia to calibrate the component video hookup, I get color decoder results of red: +10%, green:-5/-10%, blue: -5/-10%. When I swith it to s-video, I get red: 0%, green: -20%, blue: -20%.
I'm still trying to get a hold of a second dvd player, but apart from that, is there anything I can do to fix this green monster?
cheers
John

 

[ThomasL]

Johnny, that is odd. It sounds like with Svideo that you're experiencing the usual red push with blue and green being undersaturated in order to reign in the red. With the component inputs, it seems that somehow the red push is being compensated for. With both, do you have the Sony in any special modes such as Movie mode? Anyhow, none of that seems to adequately explain the problem with the swampy green grayscale. It sounds to me like there has to be either something wrong with the component inputs (I would suspect the Y cable/connection of the signal since it is the one that is carrying the luminance) on the set or the component outputs on the DVD player. Once you determine which it is, you'll be able to make a decision on what you want to do. Like you probably , I never knew the world of tvs could be this exasperating until recently. Let us know how it turns out.
cheers,
--tom

 

[JasonRH]

Johnny,
Actually the problem I experienced was a dark bar on the left side of the screen running vertically, not horizontally. To help reduce that, SBRT in the service menu was lowered a few numbers but that may not help with your problem. You may have to try another set. It took me 3 different ones in order to find a good one. On the last I brought my dvd player with Avia into the store and made them set it up for me so I could check it before bringing it home. I had to get an XBR because all the FS model sets I tried were plagued with problems. good luck.

 

[Matthew Todd]

I have a Sharp 32" TV that I bought just over 2 years ago now, and in the beginning I also noticed a problem with the component inputs being too green on SOME DVDs. It only seemed to occur on some, not all DVDs. Titanic I remember was particulary troublesome in the dark scenes. It was very pronounced when comparing the S-video to the Component.
I calibrated with both Video Essentials and Avia, and still had the problem. I found that if I reduced the brightness below the calibration point it looked quite a bit better, but I decided rather to just have both S-video and component hooked up and when I was watching something where the greens showed up black, I'd just use the S-video instead.
I think if I could get into the settings to calibrate gray scale I may be able to fix/improve it, but have never tried.
It hasn't bothered me like it has in about the last year, so I really haven't bothered more with it.
I do remember about a year or so ago there were several people with different makes of TVs having similar problems, so it doesn't seem to be an isolated incident.
Matt
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"Do not use to unclog a disposal drain." - On a box of Dynamite (from Joseph Howard)

 

[FredHD]

Did anyone suggest making sure you that you without a doubt have the cable connected correctly? I know this sounds like a no brainer, but I believe someone had a similar problem before and that was the solution.
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Have good mosh-pitting!!

 

[Jorossy]

I have a JVC tv and Panny dvd player and had the same problem. This was my fix:
Make sure that the ONLY video cables you have connected to your dvd player is the component ones. I had both them and s-video connected. I happened to disconnect the s-video cable because I needed it for my DirecTV, and BAMM!! No more 'tv made by swamp thing inc.'
Hope this works.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

The wrong connections is my dummy answer too. I remodeled yesterday and had that. Get at one end of the cables and start swapping. There are not that many possibilities.
Glenn