Product Note
Date - October 5, 2000
From - Ken Freed
Subject - GY-DV500U Pixel Blemish Correction


CCD cameras can develop CCD blemishes where a pixel or two can appear white in the image. These may be caused by atmospheric radiation and also by manufacturing impurities that begin to show after years of use.

This is so common on CCD cameras by all manufacturers that they all build into their cameras the ability to detect and correct these blemishes.

On the GY-DV500U camera this process is provided in a Service Menu accessed by holding the white balance switch up while powering the camera on. The camera should have been warmed up for at least two hours, if not more, before this proceedure is performed.

The service menu will say that correction is ON and the second menu selection will perform the blemish detection and concealment process. Turn the shutter wheel to move the menu cursor to the second line and press the shutter wheel in. The menu says executing for several seconds and then stops. Hopefully the blemish is gone.

However there are a fews things for you to note about this process:
1. V resolution must be set to normal. V-max cannot be set.
2. The process only conceals blemishes that show at 0db of gain. Blemishes that show at 6db, 9db or 18db will not be corrected. Over time those blemishes may become greater and then show at 0db and then will conceal.
3. Because of a good reason that would take too long to explain, the process can "miss" a blemish. It is absolutely likely that you might have to run the procedure a few times to find the blemish and conceal it. You could even have to power the camera off and back on (again with the WB switch held up) each time for the process to catch a particular blemish.
4. There have been two cameras where blemishes that should correct, didn't correct. We are looking into those.

__________________
Lou Bruno
MODERATOR

I'm hoping you can help me out with a dead pixel i have.

My camera is the GR-DV500U. I cannot find a white balance switch on it so I am unable to correct this dead pixel. The manual doesn't say anything about blemish correction.

Can you help me?

fyreme

How do you white balance your camera?
If you use the WB switch in the front, that is the right switch to use with the above.


The information is a service bulletin-not found in the manual.

__________________
Lou Bruno
MODERATOR

Thanks for your post.

The white balance is set by a menu, not by a separate switch. Am i dead in the water?

fyreme

You commit the WB in memory via the menu then you use your WB switch in the front ot register the white balance......except in FAS and FAW...............time to read your manual me thinks.

__________________
Lou Bruno
MODERATOR

Hi Lou,

I posted on WEVA, but you may read this first here.

I tried the "Power on with the white balance kept on" procedure and nothing is happening. I do not see a menu showing up or anything else. Is there another trick?

Thank you,

Luby

Hi Lou,

Just to let you know that a guy from WEVA posted a procedure written by you from "another site" and it worked. It could have been from this site, but I did not find it.

So, thank you very much for knowing so much and sharing it with the rest of us!!!

Best of luck,

Luby