SIGNS THAT YOUR TELEVISION COLOURS NEED RECALIBRATION

1 black colours display as green or purple 2 neutral colours (greys) have a red, green or blue tint 3 hair colours have an unnatural hue 4 black & white programs aren't shades of grey 5 whites are not white

It is very rare that a television out of the box will be white balanced to the ntsc standard of D6500K and even if it is set  close, over time it will need to be recalibrated

On this page I will explain how to recalibrate your tv RGB BIOS and GAIN  without any special equipment

The only thing you really need is a tweaker. and optional is a D6500K light. it also would be helpful if you own a dvd or laserdisk player

A colour television has three colour guns (red green blue) what has to be done is equalize the three guns so they shoot the proper level of current. It's really the same basic as equalizing your house stereo. In the back of the television set you will find  red, green and blue bios controls. also you will find  red/blue and green drive controls. (some sets have red, green and blue drive controls ) On some sets the controls are actually on the back of the tube. The drive controls are for the whites and the bios controls are for the blacks. these controls are very sensitive and can break off easy so be careful.

Before you start make a videotape with black only, colour bars and finally a greyscale. You can record this at late night off the air.

First of all warm up your set for at least an hour. You may familiarize yourself with the controls but don't touch them until the set warms up After the set is warmed up have your tapes ready and turn off all the lights but a dim one preferable a D6500K behind the tv with you.

Put in the tape with the colour bars and make sure your brightness and contrast are not over driven. To adjust this look for two black or grey stripes on the bottom of the bars on the right hand side on the black square bar.

Now adjust the brightness and contrast until the first stripe disappears and you can barely see the second stripe. This might seem dark to you but that is what these stripes are for.

Now look at the white bar and start adjusting the r/b g drive controls very gently just a hair at a time and do not touch the bios controls. If you have a D6500K light try to match the white bar to it, if you just have a normal light don't look at it at all, just try to get the white bar as white as possible. Remember just a hair at a time these controls are very sensitive. if you have to shift toward one colour a bit let it be blue D6500K is a bit blue, but try to get it as white as possible. Your set might start doming (tinting) a bit this is because of the current change. When you get as close to white as possible stop the tape and relax let the set settle.

Now put in the tape with black, turn up the brightness just till the tube lights up enough so you can see that the set is turned on, what colour does the black seem to you? If it is a bit green then slightly slack of the green bios control if it seems a bit purple the slack off a bit of the red first then the blue Repeat this process going up and down with the three bios controls while trying to maintain an even brightness only using the bios controls. When you reach a nice deep black, take the tape out and relax.

Now put in the colour bars tape back in and adjust the contrast and brightness to the black bars again and repeat the white balance  again using the white bar as a guide adjusting the r/b g drive controls, remember the set might be domed a bit, after you are done, take the tape out and relax.

Now put the tape with the grey scale in and look for off grey colour. This will usually show in the dark shades as green or purple, If it does you will have to repeat the black balance again but remember no set will show a perfect grey all the way through the grey scale. and your set might still be doming but if you did it right I am sure it looks a lot better than before. You should always look for perfection in the whites, blacks and greys not red, green and blue, if your neutral colours show neutral then the rest of the colours will fall in place.

Soon I will tell you how to adjust the alignment and get into more detail of how tv colours work