Should Black and White movies be watched with color set to min? (1 Viewer)

[RickardL]

How should black and white movies look?
On my Sony VPL-VW10HT, I use a video mode which
has both color and hue turned to 0. I feel that
it makes old black and white pictures look best.
If not, it looks slightly green.
Changing the color temperature also changes the look
of things but is that correct?
Isn't that an indication that my set isn't calibrated correctly?
I have not done any SMART calibration so that may be the case...

 

[Allan Jayne]

The purpose of turning the 'color' control to zero when watching black and white shows is to suppress colored artifacts such as rainbow swirls from comb filters, or in noise in the form of snow.

The color temperature is up to your preference. While the color temperature standard for TV is about 6500K, the lamp in projectors back when black and white movies were the norm, has a much lower color temperature.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Rickard,

if your seeing a green tinge while watching B&W programs, your tv's greyscale has a green push that needs to be corrected in the service menu, that's what it sounds like to me anyway.

I used to have a Sony VVEGA that had a red push that caused B&W material to appear pink, I accessed the service menu and reduced the red output and that completely eliminated the problem.

Generally though, you shouldn't need to adjust anything when you switch to B&W material. B&W material is the ultimate test of the greyscale in your monitor, if your greyscale is off, a B&W movie will expose it.

Access the service menu at your own risk however, if you screw up you could mess your tv up pretty good.

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Hi guys

John is correct in stating that if your set has a color tint will watching black and white it most likely has a gray scale problem. However, the gray scale is the luminance part of the signal, and this is different than red push (grey push or whatever) as this is a color decoding issue. Please remember that adjusting the cuts and drives will not fix color decoder issues.

Regards

Gregg