Author Topic: Best Buy 27" Insignia is on sale for $190 (down from $235) (Read 30651 times)

Neilyboy · « **Reply #40 on:** December 20, 2006, 11:27:30 pm »

not the service menu stuff.. of course the brightness and contrast is in the menu but thats just the standard osd for the general user to tinker with to get bob barker to look a normal skintone... the service menu adjustments tweak the hardware more or less.. adjusting the 'software' talking to the hardware..

Neil

acevedor2 · « **Reply #41 on:** December 21, 2006, 07:21:41 am »

One more question about this monitor is does the Happ 27" Bezel fit it?

jWin · « **Reply #42 on:** December 21, 2006, 01:05:59 pm »

once my 27" happ bezel arrives ill let you know, will be awhile with the holidays though I imagine.

acevedor2 · « **Reply #43 on:** December 21, 2006, 01:46:31 pm »

Thanks! I am interested to know. Cheers!

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #44 on:** December 22, 2006, 12:44:03 am »

I've got mine looking great too. Thanks again for finding out the service menu entry code. Where did you find it?

The Happ Bezel sort of fits. It's very close to covering everything up. I put a strip of gaffers tape on the very bottom of the TV's bezel and now you can't tell at all that it's a TV. I also installed graylite 14 smoked glass, and now it looks killer. Smoked glass really adds to the look, and makes the monitor seem even better.

The only issue I have is that on some screens I get a little bit of what looks like interference. I'm not sure what's causing it. I get dancing patterns sometimes. I wish I had written down all of the original service menu values so I could compare, and try one more time. Does anyone know how to reset those?

RubberP

jWin · « **Reply #45 on:** December 22, 2006, 07:22:05 pm »

I found the code on avsforum somewhere, its also on this forum under a toshiba tv post.

any chance you could post some pics of your bezel in action with the greylite glass? the glass shop here offers 2 smokey grey's, one is about 25% dark and the other is about 50% dark, any idea what the greylite 14 compares to?

describe the interference, theres 3 different types that I know of..
1) interlace lines flickering
2) wavey motion during black or dark scenes
3) distortion of picture on the left/middle of the screen

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #46 on:** December 27, 2006, 08:09:35 pm »

This would describe what I'm seeing:

2) wavey motion during black or dark scenes

It seems to happen with dark blue. Black seems fine. It just doesn't like dark blue.

I've never attached a photo before, so I hope they make it, but these are some shots with and without the glass. It's hard to convey that with digital photos. The without looks much worse than it does in person.

Neilyboy · « **Reply #47 on:** December 27, 2006, 10:52:09 pm »

ok so you just sold me on teh greylite14 glass im gonna have to find some..

Neil

jWin · « **Reply #48 on:** December 27, 2006, 11:20:57 pm »

Dont ask me where but I have read several times that its a common problem with SDTV's and component connections (maybe PC connections only) to have those wavey lines on dark scenes, it might be possible if you use high quality over priced component cables it could help but im doubtful. Picking up a Geforce 7300GT tomorrow and going to see if the quality is improved or changed at all over nvidia type component connection. The only thing that really bothers me with component is how bright my "reds" are, like Ken in street fighter is blinding and lacking detail, of course the greylite would improve it a lot.

and wow that glass looks great, as does the bezel... still waiting on my bezel to arrive, does the greylite glass hide or make the component flicker less noticeable?

the glass shop here offers 2 different shades of grey, one is really dark, say 50% dark and the other is say 25% dark... wish I knew which greylite 14 compared to

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #49 on:** December 28, 2006, 12:26:45 am »

Quote from: jWin on December 27, 2006, 11:20:57 pm

Dont ask me where but I have read several times that its a common problem with SDTV's and component connections (maybe PC connections only) to have those wavey lines on dark scenes, it might be possible if you use high quality over priced component cables it could help but im doubtful. Picking up a Geforce 7300GT tomorrow and going to see if the quality is improved or changed at all over nvidia type component connection. The only thing that really bothers me with component is how bright my "reds" are, like Ken in street fighter is blinding and lacking detail, of course the greylite would improve it a lot.

and wow that glass looks great, as does the bezel... still waiting on my bezel to arrive, does the greylite glass hide or make the component flicker less noticeable?

the glass shop here offers 2 different shades of grey, one is really dark, say 50% dark and the other is say 25% dark... wish I knew which greylite 14 compared to

my reds were bleeding bad too, but I fixed that in the service menu. I turned down the red bias [correction I turned dow the red DRV]. I don't have it with me, but I thought I might post the service menu settings just for reference. I know evey tv would be different, but I thought it might be useful for someone.

The greylite does help hide the wavy lines some. They're still there, just not as noticable. I only see them on rare occasions when dark blue comes up. Black doesn't set it off thankfully.

RubberP

Chunce DeLeone · « **Reply #50 on:** December 28, 2006, 11:36:38 am »

Rubber.....can you please post your service menu setting!!!!!!

I have the same TV and I have gotten the Vertical height of the screen to where I want it but the horizontal is still an inch short on each side, every time I fool with the Service menu I get weird curves and distortion along the sides

Also Great tip on the red bleed, I have seen this especially with Robotron where the robots look like road flares, I will try the red bias decrease,,,,

I also know that your service menu setting will be different from mine but Atleast I could be in the ballpark and maybe find out what I am missing .....Thank You

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #51 on:** December 28, 2006, 01:35:57 pm »

At first I had the resolution set to 640x480, and I never could fill the screen right. When I changed it to 640x432 that solved my problems (after retweaking the service menu). 640x480 looked blurry, 640x432 looked crisp. So if you can, switch to that resolution.

Also I was wrong about changing the red bias. I actually changed the Red DRV.

Here are my service menu settings:
OSD H 1
OSDC 6
H.POSI 17
H. BLK L 1
H. BLK R 1
V. SIZE 73
V. POSI 1
V. LIN 12
V. CORR 10
V. COMP 2
R. BIAS 130
G. BIAS 133
B. BIAS 130
R. DRV 3
G. DRV 0
B. DRV 25
BRI. CENT 60
BRI. MAX 75
BRI. MIN 72
CONT. CENT 127
CONT. MAX 127
CONT. MIN 127
COL. CENT 126
COL. MAX 127
COL. MIN 18
TINT CENT 66
SHARP. CENT 60
SHARP MAX 39
SHARP MIN 25
SUB BIAS 0
H. SIZE 41
PARABOLA 17
TRAPEZIUM 37
COR TOP 5
COR BTM 6
TEST STEREO 0
TEST AUDIO 0
FREQ 1

Hope this helps someone!

RubberP

acevedor2 · « **Reply #52 on:** December 28, 2006, 02:45:39 pm »

So based off of this I think I am going to go and get the 27 inch flat tube tv they have at Best Buy on sale now. It is the same INSIGNIA brand SDTV, but it is a flat tube. I am hoping the HAPP 27inch flat tube bezel will fit. It is on sale now for 229. That and the fact that I have 150 bucks in Best Buy Gift Cards from Christmas make it a very attractive option! I really like the look of that smoked glass. How thick is it?

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #53 on:** December 28, 2006, 04:24:56 pm »

The glass is 1/4" thick.

acevedor2 · « **Reply #54 on:** December 28, 2006, 07:19:12 pm »

Great, only problem I have is that I just looked at the width of the flat tube tv and it is too wide for the cab. Back to the drawing board. I want a billabs tri mode 27 flat monitor but it is 600 bucks!

Chunce DeLeone · « **Reply #55 on:** December 29, 2006, 08:33:31 am »

First and foremost I want to thank RubberPultry and Jwin for all their help with this TV, they have answered every question I have given them very quickly and completely......

Unfortunately I have not been able (Due to my own incompetence with Service Menu's) get the screen to a full size and now have tweaked the colors beyond repair......

Please just understand that these TV's may not do what you want right out of the box

And be careful with service menu.....

jWin · « **Reply #56 on:** December 29, 2006, 08:51:21 am »

Chunce: im not really sure why you cant get the screen to full size, does windows itself look chopped off? H. Size will make the screen bigger from left to right , I believe that is #31 on the remote, and V.Size will make it bigger up and down which is around 05 or 06 on the remote I believe. Just using those 2 alone should make the screen full size. Ill write down my color settings and post them and you can compare them with RubberPultry's color settings he posted above, but my screen settings are in a limbo at the moment from video card swapping.

I myself had 640x480 running perfectly but the screen flicker caused by the ATI to component dongle for 9x00 type cards was causing interlace flicker so now im trying to get a video card that does component without the dongle (nvidia 6/7 series, ATI x1k series) which has no flicker at all with component. I tried out a Geforce 7300GT yesterday with component and the screen was great looking however it would only come in as black and white, no matter what I tried I could not get a color picture on a SDTV, worked fine on a HDTV though, going to try out a ATI x1k next.

acevedor2: there is a lot of great TV's around but most have speakers on the side, which will instantly tell you it wont work in your cabinet, I know I would love to find a 27" HDTV without speakers on the side and in full-screen, or better yet a 27" fullscreen LCD.

Which video card are you guys using for output?

Chunce DeLeone · « **Reply #57 on:** December 29, 2006, 09:55:29 am »

JWIN......the vsize works perfect, I can get the vertical size to the edges of the bezel...when I then increase the H-size the screen starts to curve on the sides and I get two horizontal choppys lines in two places

Maybee its a problem with my vid card ATI x550 PCIE
Maybee its the TV itself
I can't figure out why the H-size curves like it does
I have my resolution set to 640 432 30hz interlaced in Catalyst Control center,
When I look at the resolution in the windows display settings it still says 640 480 60hz
The window itself is not cut off, all of the screen is shown, it's been so frustrating to buy a 27inch TV and wind up with less screen, also with the colors being off now classic games such as Robotron have a little blurryness, and the Reds on all games flare way to bright, I don't know....I'm at a loss....my wife is going to kill me

Chunce DeLeone · « **Reply #58 on:** December 29, 2006, 09:59:54 am »

Jwin I just noticed you are using 640 480?

? Do you get the whole screen with that resolution or is some cut off?

May bee I can get that resolution working because when I do uuse 640 480 I get a bigger screen right of the bat it just seems that vertically some is cut off

Also just to not I have been able to get 1024 768 to show on the TV but the results aren't as crisp as 640 432.
What are your feeling about 1024 768 resolution on this TV?

Does a higher resolution result in less picture quality?

Chunce DeLeone · « **Reply #59 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:49:20 pm »

don't ask me how but its working full screen perfect,
I installed powerstrip and did some trial and error and got some wacky results
All of a sudden it worked with a weird resolution I have since forgot
Then I got stupid and tried to change something else and got scrued
I had wavy junk on the screen while I tried lots of different combos of catalyst control center and windows display props and powerstrip
I was about to lose it
then I unistalled powersrtip and did some things and its is back to full screen perfect
the res says 800 600 100hz but i don't think that it what it is
I think powerstrip fooled with it and it is now some combo of PS and catatlyst
I wish I had an answer
some advice....be persistent and a little lucky

jWin · « **Reply #60 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:51:27 pm »

Yeah I did have 640x480 working fine on mine with an old ATI 9500 + component dongle, there was about 2 lines chopped off at the bottom which I had to use PowerStrip to fix, it was windows that was chopped not the TV, .. im trying to pickup a newer card that doesnt use a dongle like you are using, maybe ill run into those issues then but I wont know til next week.

I know if I adjust it too far left ill get some distortion, like wavey jittery distortion around the middle/left of the screen.. as for the bowing you can fix that with PARABOLA, TRAPEZIUM options in the service menu, I just messed with that til it was straight mostly all around and then had to go adjsut the H and V size again to fit it.

Chunce: Are you using the same TV in the topic? It sounds like your TV might not be as forgiving, you could still return it or exchange it if you purchased it recently, they wont know you touched the service menu unless you tell them you did.

Here are some of my settings... the sizes arent proper as im in a video card limbo at the moment but its close.

H. POS. - 16
H BLK L - 6
H BLK R - 2
V. SIZE - 69
V. POS - 2
V. LIN - 11
VS. CORR - 11
V. COMP - 3
R. BIAS - 127
G. BIAS - 156
B. BIAS - 188
R. DRV - 80
G. DRV - 10
B. DRV - 66
BRI CENT - 70
BRI MAX - 96
H. SIZE - 41
PARABOLA - 16
TRAPEZIUM - 45
COR. TOP - 6
COR. BTM - 8

jWin · « **Reply #61 on:** December 29, 2006, 06:55:45 pm »

I am glad you have it working better for you, now to hope that MAME fits the screen properly as well... thats another battle. As far as I know the ATI Dongle wont allow anything above 640x480 on a SDTV but the new cards seem to do it.

Recieved my happ 27" bezel today (from ebay, twistedquarter) and cut it to fit, looks great and fits great, will post pics soon

comparing my R. DRV to rubberpoultry, his is set to 3 and mine is still on the default 80, no wonder theres so much bleeding red

Johnbz · « **Reply #62 on:** January 02, 2007, 03:23:23 pm »

I also have a 27" Insignia I am trying to use. But the image on the screen seems to stretch on the top and bottom and there is bowing on the tv. Any way to fix these problems on the service menu?

jWin · « **Reply #63 on:** January 02, 2007, 06:08:17 pm »

Yes by adjust V.Size and PARABOLA + TRAPEZIUM you should be able to fix those issues, H.Size if youre image is stretched left and right.

Be sure to write down your previous values before altering them because once altered you will not be able to reverse the effects unless you record the values.

rockin_rick · « **Reply #64 on:** January 07, 2007, 01:39:13 pm »

Quote from: jWin on December 29, 2006, 06:55:45 pm

Recieved my happ 27" bezel today (from ebay, twistedquarter) and cut it to fit, looks great and fits great, will post pics soon

Please post some pics of this. I am most interested in how close the curvature of the tube matches the curvature of the bezel - does the bezel sit flat on the screen in all places? Or are there gaps under the bezel?

Also, how close does the opening in the bezel match the size of the screen? How much larger or smaller is the bezel compared to the screen in both the vertical and horizontal?

Thanks,
Rick

jWin · « **Reply #65 on:** January 08, 2007, 12:51:26 pm »

Heres some photos I just took, and to answer your questions, it does not sit against the screen for me, but I also use smokey grey glass which helps. The glass I have is probably equal to greylite 31.

Neilyboy · « **Reply #66 on:** January 18, 2007, 04:24:21 pm »

its back at 190 again for those of us interested.. i may have to swing by there tonight

Neil

vputz · « **Reply #67 on:** January 24, 2007, 02:56:02 pm »

Bah, you people complaining about S-VHS vs Composite. I have a 1992 Sanyo 27" clunker on a RCA composite video cable!

"I think I might have a high score, but it's so fuzzy I can't tell..."

(hey, at least the Atari games running on Stella look about right...)

needlesmcgirk · « **Reply #68 on:** January 24, 2007, 04:23:21 pm »

You guys are saying that you can make s-video look great with the right settings in mame. Can you do the same thing with RVA composite? I got a Sharp 27" from Goodwill real cheap, so I want tosee if I can make it look as good as it can. Thanks!

ahofle · « **Reply #69 on:** January 24, 2007, 04:56:45 pm »

What version of MAME are you running? Assuming it's one of the latest (after the video rewrites) I'll try to help you out. There are about 4 different MAME video settings combinations I use -- depending on the game, one of them usually looks good on a TV.

I've actually considered writing a tutorial on picking video settings for people using MAME on a TV, because if you leave everything on 'auto' it looks bad IMO.

needlesmcgirk · « **Reply #70 on:** January 25, 2007, 09:54:13 am »

Thanks Ahofle. I'll send you a PM so we don't clutter up this topic.

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #71 on:** January 25, 2007, 10:19:51 am »

If you do write a tutorial about how to make MAME look better on a TV. I want to know about it. Post a link here!

Mine looks really good right now, but if I can make it look better, I'd like to.

jWin · « **Reply #72 on:** January 25, 2007, 04:47:56 pm »

still running component connection rubberpoultry?

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #73 on:** January 25, 2007, 04:59:47 pm »

Yepper. I think it looks great, but if there's room for improvement, I want to know about it.

vputz · « **Reply #74 on:** January 26, 2007, 01:30:50 pm »

Actually, ahofle, that would be great (a mame-on-TV tutorial). I'm not sure ANYTHING could be done to make MAME look good via RCA composite, but hey, I'm willing to try just about anything.

(stubby fingers... first time I typed ahofle's name I missed the 'f'; wouldn't THAT have been embarassing!)

blueboy · « **Reply #75 on:** January 26, 2007, 04:36:45 pm »

Ohhh, a TV/Mame settings would be very nice...
PLease share you're tweaks...I agree auto looks a little off..

Thanks
-Blue

ahofle · « **Reply #76 on:** January 26, 2007, 04:49:15 pm »

I sent some game-specific tweaks to rubberpoultry and needlesmcgirk to try out. If they get some improvement I will consider spending some time on a more detailed document of some sort (it takes quite a bit of time documenting everything and taking pictures). For now, you can see some of the differences I am getting on a TV here (the d3d pics are the mame defaults, and ddraw are my settings):

http://hofle.com/mame

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #77 on:** January 27, 2007, 02:05:02 pm »

Unfortunalely I fried up my onboard sound card yesterday, while applying thermal paste. Darn thing was barely touching the chassie when I fired it up the first time. POP...then wispy smoke rising. So I can't run MAME or anything else that requires audio at this point. So far my experience with the PC side (I'm a Mac Guy) hasn't gone well. I'm going to pick up a PCI sound card this afternoon, then I'll try your settings and will report back. Probably will be a few days.

rockin_rick · « **Reply #78 on:** February 24, 2007, 06:21:36 pm »

How's everyone liking this TV after using it a while?

Just to be sure, it is model # NS-27RTV, correct?

Thanks,
Rick

rubberpoultry · « **Reply #79 on:** February 25, 2007, 02:11:48 pm »

Mine is still great. I have no problems except that I may need to tweak my color some. The blocks on Klax are hard to distinguish sometimes. That's the only game I've noticed it on.


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