My Trusty old Pioneer RPTV has to last me for another year or so. The problem I am having is that 480p displays properly, however 1080i is over scanning quite a bit. I called the local TV shop and they want $275 to send someone out to look at it for an hour, and $225 if it takes longer then that. That seems a bit high to me. I can't seem to find the service menu. Do I have any other options?

My Trusty old Pioneer RPTV has to last me for another year or so. The problem I am having is that 480p displays properly, however 1080i is over scanning quite a bit. I called the local TV shop and they want $275 to send someone out to look at it for an hour, and $225 if it takes longer then that. That seems a bit high to me. I can't seem to find the service menu. Do I have any other options?First the good news: The x30 series Pioneer RPTVs are a lot easier to deal with when it comes to HD overscan than the x20 and x10 models.

However, I would counsel against trying to fix this yourself, due to the potential consequences -- if you get it wrong, you're looking at hours and hours of remedial work, with no guarantee that you'll get things looking completely correct. For the same reason, I'd be wary of a local TV shop being able to address this issue correctly, unless they can demonstrate that they have done this sort of work on a regular basis.

But if you are going to do this, you should -- at the very least -- buy the service manual and not venture into the service menus relating to picture geometry until you truly understand how things work.

A better bet is to try to find a local calibrator who would be willing to fix this for you. I'd actually recommend a full calibration on this set -- there's really no reason, performance-wise, to toss this TV overboard in a year. You might be surprised how great your Elite could look if it was properly calibrated.

My Trusty old Pioneer RPTV has to last me for another year or so. The problem I am having is that 480p displays properly, however 1080i is over scanning quite a bit. I called the local TV shop and they want $275 to send someone out to look at it for an hour, and $225 if it takes longer then that. That seems a bit high to me. I can't seem to find the service menu. Do I have any other options?

Where are you located?

The Pioneer Elite RP HDTVs are some of my favorites to work on. I own a 730HD, and I've done complete calibrations, optical cleaning, geometry corrections, convergence work, etc. on x10, x20 and x30 series TVs.

And DroptheRemote is right, you want to make sure whoever you have work on your TV knows how to work on these. The service menus are not intuitive, and without the service manual, pretty much impossible to navigate without screwing something up, possibly bad.

But with the service manual, some patience and care, you can probably take care of it yourself. Adjusting the overscan will probably lead to other issues, like the need to fine tune convergence. See my reply in a similar post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14011005#post14011005

I wish I could find every x10, x20 and x30 owner around here and make all their TVs look perfect!

Anyone around Austin have one and want it to look amazing? :)

My Trusty old Pioneer RPTV has to last me for another year or so. The problem I am having is that 480p displays properly, however 1080i is over scanning quite a bit. I called the local TV shop and they want $275 to send someone out to look at it for an hour, and $225 if it takes longer then that. That seems a bit high to me. I can't seem to find the service menu. Do I have any other options?

Zenak, yes be patient as it is true if you can find a qualified tech to do the overscan adjustment on this set you will be amazed. I have the same unit you have and am seeking for finding someone to adjust the overscan and then have them do the optical lens cleaning, with calibration. I have talked to couple sources that say this unit will look better than the Pioneer Kuros when they are done...

I own a 620 and have done over 500 various Pioneer RPTVs since 1994. While the Pio RPs are really nice sets of a classic, now past its time design, it is quite an exaggeration to suggest that they will outclass a Kuro.
In some parameters, depending on the quality of your sources, the fact that it Interlaces provides a time quotient and opportunity for some errors to be hidden in that process whereas they would not on a Progressive display.

I wouldn't displace it until a failure too costly to repair rendered it deceased. However, side by side (which is the case in my lab) there really isn't a contest.
(Both, though, are easily clobbered by a Runco DTV-1101 / StudioTek 130 / Lumagen HD Pro).

From time to time I will visit the various AV stores around Austin to take a look at the newest flat panels, and I still think my 730 looks better than any flat panel, especially when there is motion. Even on the Kuros I can see motion issues and digital artifacting, even when watching really good Blu-ray sources. I've calibrated a lot of different new flat panels over the past year, and none look as nice as my 730. Maybe I'm just biased towards CRTs, or maybe my eyes are just that much more discerning, but I can definitely tell a difference. However, when people come to my house, they do remark at how amazing the picture is on my 730, even when just watching DirecTV or OTA HD shows.

I agree that the Runco DTV-1101 would outperform both, but I think even my lowly Marquee 8500 does as well. :)

Thanks for the feedback. So how much should I expect to pay for a professional calibration? The electronics store I mentioned before has done work for me in the past, when my TV was still covered by the extended warranty. The tech I got that time seemed knowledgeable, and it took him almost 2 hours to become satisfied. I'm pretty sure I din't have an HD source connected to it at that time, but I may have had HD Direct TV on the Dsub. Now my HD is all through component, which was only calibrated for 480p.

Also, if I were to attempt a calibration myself and failed, would that increase the recovery time greatly? I was hoping overscan would be a relatively simple fix like on the old school CRT monitors, if there are a lot of X,Y coordinates I'd be lost.

Thanks for the feedback. So how much should I expect to pay for a professional calibration? The electronics store I mentioned before has done work for me in the past, when my TV was still covered by the extended warranty. The tech I got that time seemed knowledgeable, and it took him almost 2 hours to become satisfied. I'm pretty sure I din't have an HD source connected to it at that time, but I may have had HD Direct TV on the Dsub. Now my HD is all through component, which was only calibrated for 480p.

Also, if I were to attempt a calibration myself and failed, would that increase the recovery time greatly? I was hoping overscan would be a relatively simple fix like on the old school CRT monitors, if there are a lot of X,Y coordinates I'd be lost.

The cost is going to vary a bit overall between techs, but also depending on exactly what you need/want done. Optics cleaning would be extra. Doing serious geometry work would add more. Performing calibration work (grayscale, contrast, brightness, etc.) would be another cost.

I'll send you a PM with some more details.

As far as attempting it yourself goes, as long as you have the service manual and are very careful not to press any keys other than what you should press at any given time, you should be ok. It'll just be very time consuming and possibly a bit frustrating from time to time if you've never done anything like this before. Just don't ever assume or guess a key will do anything that isn't specified. If you mess something up or aren't able to finish, expect to pay a similar amount to have someone come out and finish than if you hadn't done anything anyway.

If ALL you do is dabble with Geometry (WRITE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS, ALL SETTINGS, PRIOR TO STARTING - ANYTHING YOU CHANGE = CHANGED) you may find an improvement can be made.
Resist the temptation to change any Grayscale settings as these are offset from the NTSC STD memory bank. Please don't think that reducing a little Red Drive, for example, will eliminate the Red Push you see in program material.

If ALL you do is dabble with Geometry (WRITE DOWN YOUR SETTINGS, ALL SETTINGS, PRIOR TO STARTING - ANYTHING YOU CHANGE = CHANGED) you may find an improvement can be made.
Resist the temptation to change any Grayscale settings as these are offset from the NTSC STD memory bank. Please don't think that reducing a little Red Drive, for example, will eliminate the Red Push you see in program material.

I second Coyotes's message. Always write down everything before you make any changes. Avoid temptation to play around with items you don't understand. Stick with V SIZE and H SIZE type parameters.

If your convergence is noticeably off in places, you could do some fine tuning as well, but only after reading through that section in the manual at least several times so you understand exactly how you get there, how you make adjustments, how you save them, etc.

Thanks for the feedback. So how much should I expect to pay for a professional calibration? The electronics store I mentioned before has done work for me in the past, when my TV was still covered by the extended warranty. The tech I got that time seemed knowledgeable, and it took him almost 2 hours to become satisfied. I'm pretty sure I din't have an HD source connected to it at that time, but I may have had HD Direct TV on the Dsub. Now my HD is all through component, which was only calibrated for 480p.

Also, if I were to attempt a calibration myself and failed, would that increase the recovery time greatly? I was hoping overscan would be a relatively simple fix like on the old school CRT monitors, if there are a lot of X,Y coordinates I'd be lost.Zenak,

Your best bet is to speak with some potential calibrators to get an idea of cost and exactly what would be covered. Here's a directory of working calibrators to get you started on that process:

http://www.isfforum.com/sobi2/ISF-Forum-Calibrators/Americas/United-States.html

I may be wrong, but in my experience it is unusual for calibrators to provide services on an "a la carte" basis -- for example, for Elite rear-projection CRTs, I quote one price that covers cleaning, focusing, geometry work, convergence work, setting contrast ratio and grayscale, normalizing color balance and elimination of edging artifacts for one viewing mode (think Full Mode for HD) and one signal type (say, 1080i component). An additional viewing mode (say Full for SD) and one signal type (480p component) would be an incremental additional cost.

I believe it's counterproductive to skip any of the tasks listed above, because each one is important in and of itself. Skip any of these, and you devalue the end-result significantly.

I still advise you against attempting this yourself. You want it to be easy, and I get that. But it is not easy. The Pioneer service menus are among the most complicated and interactive ever devised. This is a great thing from the standpoint of flexibility, but the scope for unintended (and regrettable) consequences is significant.

Good luck.