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General discussion

Help with Samsung PS50a456 service menu

Feb 20, 2009 2:12AM PST

Last week, I performed a full calibration of a Samsung PS50a456 (European version of PN50a450); I noticed that controls in user menu were a little coarse, preventing a perfect calibration, especially in low lights. So decided to give a look to service menu.
But I made a mistake (maybe a big one): entered WB calibration, than submenu "Calibration" that showed each possible source of the display followed by the term "success" (AV "success", component "success" and so on..). I had to exit this, for me, mysterious submenu but my finger was faster than my mind and I hit "enter", instead of "return".
So the TV entered a sort of auto calibration of AV source (I had my set top box on and connected via Scart to the display), going from low output to high output and vice versa; I waited for about 10 minutes, while the TV continued this sort of auto calibration, then stopped it and was displayed: AV "failure", instead of AV "success". Exited service menu, re entered my former calibration settings and, while other sources were OK, the AV source (set-top box) was completely out, in terms of colors, white balance, black level and white level (lot of solarization).
Is there any way to fix this problem (the set top box is a "Sky box" and only has a scart output)? Maybe I need to feed a particular signal during auto calibration, but what signal? Is it possible to recalibrate the input even with AV "failure" in service menu?

Thanks for your answers

Discussion is locked

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AV "failure"
Feb 20, 2009 6:48PM PST

"Is it possible to recalibrate the input even with AV "failure" in service menu?"

I'm able to answer by myself to the last question: no, it's not possible, as the displays crushes whites from IRE 70 up.

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Ughh ohh!
Feb 20, 2009 10:31PM PST

Wow,
Now that why i never enter the service menu. Impending doom often lurkes at every touch of the remote button.

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Long Shot...
Feb 21, 2009 10:44AM PST

This might be a long shot:

You might try reinstalling the firmware from the regular menu if one is available for your model

If there were changes in the service menu, it may reset all of the values and give you the lost features back.

Keep me posted. It couldn't hurt to try.

--HDTech

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service menu problems
Feb 23, 2009 11:19PM PST

As reported, I have the European version of PN50a450, namely PS450a456; it's a little different set from US version: it lacks of USB port, so you can't simply reinstalling firmware for there; indeed, I don't know exactly in which way is possible to install firmware upgrade, but I speculate the TV goes in a sort of periodic auto-upgrade, spreading from DTV tuner (could you confirm this idea?).
Anyway, I made some more researches, discovering that: the TV set has 2 scart inputs, named ext1 and ext2; ext2 only carries composite signals, and ext1 carries both composite and RGB signal. Luckily, only composite signal is screwed up, while RGB signal is correct. So I was able to connect my set-top-box to ext1 input and have a nice, calibrated picture. Of course I had other options, the simplest one being the substitution of the set-top-box with another with HDMI output, but I am interested in understanding what happened and the right way to fix the problem.

Many thanks for your answer (and I apologize if my English is long way from perfect one!)

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Firmware
Feb 25, 2009 2:48PM PST

karmat63,

A USB port, as far as I know, is the only way to install firmware.

Unfortunately, I can't help with service menu issues, for the very reason you described above - there are things that can go terribly wrong. I'm not able to assist in fixing that, but you might want to have a technician take a look to see if you can get past that lost port. I just don't have the ability to help with service menu issues.

--HDTech