Bechman 2000

ok... I need some major assistence. I just moved into a new place and upon setting up my small home theater (tv, DVD, receiver, two speakers), I noticed that my movies are crooked on the tv!! I've never seen/heard of this before, but I'm telling you it's happening. You can really tell with the widescreen movies with the bars on the top/bottom of the screen. There's a slight slant that starts on the left side and moves up at around a 10 degree angle to the right side of the screen. I've tried switching out all my cables and that didn't do anything. I can't tell if it does it to the regular tv since I don't have any cable what-so-ever.

Any suggestions? Has anyone ever heard of this?

crankyman

power your tv off for a few hours. it'll probably correct itself.

Mopower

Sounds like the new place is haunted. Call a priest and sprinkle holy water around.

BigPete

I think you need to fire your friends who helped you move. They probably dropped the set.

Otto

It's possible that it could correct itself, but it's unlikely.

On my TV, if you press the remote control buttons in a certain sequence, you can get into the service mode, where you can adjust all kinds of things. That tilt effect is one of them. Might want to do a google search for your brand and model of TV, along with "service mode".

Bronkster

Stick a few matchbooks under the right side to raise it up?

milo bloom

My old Sharp 25" had this and it bugged the carp out of me. It wasn't an even slant either, becaus it was like only one corner of the movie did it. I just learned to live with it until I got my new WS set.


As for the reason it occurs, I'm not sure where I read this, but I think it actually makes sense: Where your TV is built has a certain magnetic field, and it's constructed and calibrated in that area. When the TV is taken to a new place, the magnetic field is different, and can affect the picture geometry.

I recently found the service code for my Samsung WS because the overscan is horrendous. I haven't fixed it yet because I'm not sure what numbers to change.
The code is (with TV off) mute, 1, 8, 2, power.

Icculus

That's exactly what it is, some TVs even have a menu option to correct the problem.

You could always try moving it to another spot in the room and see if that fixes anything...

Otto

milo: Mine is also a Samsung. Not widescreen though. However, that service menu is easy to figure out, most of the options cause the screen to move around and so forth. Get your calibration DVD out and get the overscan display up, then just adjust options until it's right. If the option you change doesn't seem to do anything, just set it back to the number it started with. Simple. You really can't break it badly as long as you put the numbers back where you found them when it ain't working.

scroll2b

Otto, I have a Samtron, which is of the same Samsung company as you, and I was wondering if you could tell me how you accessed your service mode menu. I would love to get rid of the over scan if possible! Thanks.

Otto

scroll2b: Same as milo's method, actually. Turn off the TV, then using the remote hit mute, 1, 8, 2, power. You can tell that it's working by the light on the TV or not. When you press the correct next button in the sequence, the green light on my tv flashes on for a longer time than if you press the wrong button (and thus have to start over). I actually used this method to find the sequence myself before I looked it up and found out what it meant.

scroll2b

I don't have a calibrartion dvd, though I have plenty of THX optimizers. But I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND THE OVERSCAN OPTION. Any ideas? Thanks Otto, and anyone else in fact.

Johnny Zhivago

Bechman 2000 - You have a tube set, aye? As the others have said, this geometry distortion is caused by the Earth's magnetic fields... They're obviously different in your current location than they were in your previous location. Here's all you can do...

1) If your set has tilt adjustments in your setup menu (Sony sets, among others, have this option in the setup menu) then fix it that way.

2) If not, as suggested above, there might be a tilt adjustment in your service menu which you could access if you know how to get to your service menu. Just be careful, you can seriously screw your set up in the service menu.

3) Other than that, you can try placing the set in a different part of the room along an opposite wall. Your geometry distortion will change with location... Place your set at another angle and you will see this.

scroll2b - You can not, reasonably, adjust your overscan without a proper overscan pattern from a calibration disc such as Avia. Sorry. Overscan is adjusted by changing horizontal and vertical settings in the service menu, you need the test pattern to see what you are doing when you make these changes.

Icculus

It's usually labelled something like vsize or vsiz or something that looks like that (there's also hsize for the horizontal). Otto is right though, you'll need a calibration disc to fix it.

scroll2b

I hear ya both. I'm looking at an AVIA disc right now. However, I as of yet haven't found the horizontal size yet. Vertical, yes.

The whole reason I want to play with the overscan is because I have a kewl dvd player that allows me to zoom out. With it, I noticed great detail in older films like Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia. Now I want to be able to zoom out to jus the outer edges of the screen, but without having to pay for a malata.... Know what I mean?

scroll2b

Anyone have the motel option on their Samsung? I kid you not, I have it. I don't know what it does though. Thanks.

Bechman 2000

OK.... here's what the problem was. I had my bookshelf speakers too close to the tv. I actually them so close that they were touching. I figured this out when I was removing the back of the set to look inside. I put everthing back together and it looked normal, and then I put the speakers back and it was tilted again. I should have known better, but it was one of those things that just didn't connect in my mind.

I thought that all those that gave suggestions might have wanted to here what the solution was. Thanks for your help guys.

Johnny Zhivago

Your speakers aren't shielded? Huh, go figure...

Jason1973

Somebody get a rope...

Bechman 2000

They're actually car speakers that I'm using for bookshelf speakers. I was using a pair of tower speakers at the old place, but they were my housemates. I only have the bookshelf speakers now. I knew that they weren't sheilded, but it never crossed my mind.

Boy, that's harsh.