Panasonic Service menu requests
plisken
the majority of most people's email. I'm sorry I'm just used to big
dedicated high bandwidth connection its not my fault really. Its really not
much cop anyway the service manual here have this instead:
Most people I've attempted to mail the zipped version of the service menu to
have had it bounce due to size constraints. As a result here is a help sheet
I stuck out on the NGs yonks ago. This helpsheet actually contains more
precise detail than the service manual itself which is really just a
components list.
The procedures outlined below apply to a wide range of panasonic models in
circulation (certainly as far back as the D2 models). The only difference
being that the older sets require "reveal" to held down instead of index.
The outlined calibration practice itself is valid for "any" TV set.
PK1 service menu access:
Bass to max
treble to min
hold down "index"
press "-" (minus) on the front of the set.
this will get you into the service menu.(it will default to 16:9 mode makes
things a bit tricky for 4:3 geometry but it is possible)
coloured fastext buttons on the remote navigate left to right they are:
back/forward/adjust up/adjust down : last two might be reversed but you get
the idea.
"STR" saves new value: if you modify a setting and don't press this then the
value will go back to its previous value when you move out of it.
"N" gets you out of the service menu.
settings are :
H-pos (horizontal position)
V-pos (vertical position)
H-amp (horizontal amplitude)
V-amp (vertical amplitude) *the one you want probably.*
EW-amp1(EW-amplitude coarse pincushion looks like)
EW-amp2(EW-amplitude finer/corners looks like)
Trapez1(Trapezium comp_ suck it and see!)
Trapez2(finer of the above suck it and see!)
V-lin (vertical linearity)
V-sym (vertical symmetry used with above to sort vertical linearity !)
You can mess about with the above settings with impunity. They are all
fairly intuitive and relate to centring , overscan , geometry , linearity
and are interactive with each other. However avoid going to extremes on any
settings (you won't need to anyway) as it might kick in some sort of
protection and collapse the picture (thin horizontal line) which will
probably burn the tube in about three seconds flat and you will no longer be
able to see the service menu to undo your error!
The others are:(*these ones should not be played with*)
DVCO (take a guess at deflection voltage cut-off/correction??) : leave it
alone you need a PAL colour bar for it to auto adjust to. (more info to
follow ) *UPDATED* service manual: Recieve a PAL colourbar pattern. FOR DVCO
alignment press blue button wait until the colours are changing slowly and
press "STR"
(in practice the" colour changing slowly bit means that the numbers have
stabilised it takes about 10 secs. The value it satbilises to can vary
depending on the input and the source material ie I get slightly different
values using the PAL colourbar on that free total dvd disc than I do with
the Video Essentials one. Personaly I trust the VE one as its full bandwidth
the total dvd disc looks like its come off a composite source. I use this to
cal the dvd player via RGB. For my digibox as I've yet to find a transmitted
colour bar the discovery kids and wings ident works well: all you need is
something that contains the full gammet of displayable colour values and
this comes close.
Panasonic advised me to do this to correct some (very minor)flickering in
peak white areas via RGB It didn't really correct this fully and I suspect
this procedure fixes a flickering black line problem instead. It is a fairly
harmless procedure if you stick to the recommendations though so give it a
go. I suspect it controls the deflection interval between two scanlines for
a given field hence the black line problem when its incorrect: could be
wrong though)
Cut-off (cut-off DC leave well alone)
Ug2 (avoid like the plague) instant TV death if you crank it about.
Hi-light & lowlight (RGB cut-off and drive adjustments for colour temp:
leave alone unless you have a colour analyser handy and know a thing or two
about CIE chromaticity aims) "warm" seems close to 6500K anyway : I intend
to check grayscale tracking properly at some point. UPDATE I've yet to do
this to be quite honest my eyes tell me its near enough on warm. However I
know a bit about this area so any queries mail pli...@my-deja.com.
I did a full 6500K calibration with colour analyser on my previous TX32D2
but the PK1 has some foibles which might make this trickier but I think I
know what its doing to about 75% anyway.
Sub-brightness (pedestal black level: sets lowest point on the brightness
control basically) Can be used to equalise the black point for all the
inputs IF they save seperately. I only really use RGB myself so I've not
tweaked this. It did equalise all the inputs on my TX32D2 though (saved
slightly differently)
I strongly suggest that you avoid adjusting any of the the ones above as
they are either very vague(technical) in their purpose or have the
possibility of damaging the set or both!
-------------------------------------
Some advice about adjustment.
Write down all the original values BEFORE you start adjusting things. this
is the only way to return to the original settings if you cock things up.
Don't go to extremes on ANY setting. The settings are all interactive to a
certain extent.Proper adjustment involves ping-ponging back and forth
between adjustments to ensure you are not over-compensating for something
another setting is doing. Balance remember.
Use relevant test material (Video essentials is good but remember it may not
be 100% for a 625/50 image: its actually pretty close on the PK1 so in
practice don't worry about it).
Make sure you are looking at the relevant input type before engaging the
service menu( on the PK it looks like one lot of settings applies to
everything: which is actually good in a way).
When adjusting geometry I initially center the image (H-pos V-pos) then take
off the overscan (V-amp H-amp) so I can see the edges of the image. Get
everything pucka geometry wise (make sure all edges are straight as poss and
the scan is linear (no bulgy distortion). Then put on the overscan (H-amp
V-amp equally) until things start to go out of kilter (and they will)
readjust for optimum and then more overscan etc until satisfied.
Big tip: Use a ruler and or set-square (nice big ones) do not trust your
eyes with geometry issues.
Take your time: the geometry alone might take some time.(the concave 4:3
takes a bit of time to fix). You may not be able to get everything perfect
trust me) but you should be able to improve the bowing problems until its
unobjectionable.
The more accurate the 16:9 adjustments are the more accurate the 4:3 is. But
you may still need to come out of the service mode to check those nasty
concave sides in 4:3 and pop back in to change a setting that fixes it
(without compromising the 16:9 mode at the same time!)
Properly set-up the PK1 kicks butt!