Black level on monitor too bright

[wysard]

Hi, I grabbed a new monitor last night, a refurbed 21" Sony Multiscan E500. It's great to look at for the most part, but it's very washed out. I have the brightness cranked all the way down (there's no software gamma tools running anywhere), and blacks are still very whitewashed. I was searching around a little, saw a few posts regarding a service mode that some monitors provide.

I guess my question is, is this something that could be adjusted by someone with the right access to the monitor's service-level calibration? It does have a 3-year warranty available to it, from a 3rd-party refurbishing company, but I'd hate to lug the monster if I could get it done myself. Thanks for any insight.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Doesn't sound like much of a refurb.

Take it in. RMA it, Exchange it.....

 

[corkyg]

You seem to be missing a control that Sony says is there - in addition to Brightness, there is Contrast. That needs to be used along with brightness.

E500

 

[wysard]

Yeah, that's actually there (contrast controls).... been looking for quite some time, and came across a useful thread. Seems that this is a bigger problem than I suspected, but people seem pretty happy with the results of this fix. If I can't get a swap for a different monitor, I'm going to try it. (It's a big thread, but there's mention of several brands of monitors in there, the E500 included.)

link