I'm in the process of setting up a 1292Q I recently bought. I have yet to print out the setup guide, though having a 1271Q, I noticed that the convergence controls are pretty much identical. I did a rough convergence and got a decent registration.

However, I see that I'm getting dark red instead of black. I tried turning the bias, contrast, and brightness to 0 and I still get dark red instead of black. Pic muting also makes no difference. I can mute all 3 tubes and I get dark red instead of black. When I look at the red phosphor with the pic muted it's illuminated many many times more than the green and blue tube. If this were my 1031Q I'd adjust the G2, but I see that with the 1292Q there is no manual G2 adjustment -- it's controlled by the neckboards. I do notice that when I crank up the brightness to 100 the dark red when displaying black turns gray. While gray for black is better than dark red for black, it still kills the contrast ratio and looks like crap.

I also notice that if there's something bright on an otherwise black image, the black will appear black. However, if the image goes dark again, the dark red as black re-appears. Blanking does cut off the dark red to black. It does this on test patterns and with my HTPC as a source.

I played some HD content I had saved on my HTPC and because it filled most of the active raster (as least what's visable on my screen) the black as dark red was not an issue. However, when I popped in Fight Club (anamorphic widescreen with dark scenes) the black bars above and below the picture were dark red and the whole picture had a red tinge.

Perhaps I have a bad red tube neckboard? Any 1292Q gurus out there have any ideas?

The G2 is done automatically on the 1292.You may need to PM Graham Johnson on this one.Iwouldn't turn up the contrast that high as it will burn your tubes.What happens when you go from a dvd through S video to the pj?It might help rule out your sourse as the problem

I'm positive it's not my source because I ran the same HTPC on my D50 a couple of nights ago and it didn't exhibit this issue. I also have this problem with the HTPC powered off and displaying internal test patterns on the 1292Q. I sent a PM to Graham. Hopefully he'll have some ideas on what it might be. I'd hate to have to scrap this projector! I'm picking up a VisionHDP for it today! I'm dying to see HD DVDs at 1080p!!! Hopefully if I have to scrap this projector it there will be some interest in it as a parts set. It has around 6k hours, though the tubes are in good shape (must have been in standby mode a lot) and it otherwise operates fine.

Shoot a PM to JohnHWman and see if he still has the 1292q service manual, it was linked to in one of the other foums, but the link doesnt work now. His name is in the link, though.

Curt suggested swapping the CRT socket (aka neckboard?) of the red tube with another tube. I take it they are all interchangable? How much disassembly is required to swap sockets?

I got my VisionHDP setup with the 1292Q. I had to use a DVI to RGB adapter and then I fed that into an Extron RGB-109, running it at 800p @ 47.95Hz and WOW!!! Aside from the dark scenes that look dark red and the fact that the image is squeezed horizontally. I'm guessing that's the result of going through the fossil of an Extron computer interface box. I'll be sending it back to Lumagen to get the BNC analog outputs added for $100. Even if the 1292Q falls through, I bet 720p @ 48Hz won't be half bad on my 1271Q -- or maybe I should give 1080i at 72Hz a try (at least I think the HDP can do that).

I started disassembling my 1292Q to try and swap in a known good CRT socket. From the service manual it appears that the CRT socket is the CB block, which contains the CBB and CAB boards. Hopefully Drew Eckhardt still has that part from parting out his 1292Q -- or if anyone else has a working one that they could sell to me that would be great.

I got as far as removing the lens and removing the 4 screws that secure the red picture tube to the chassis, though I cannot seem to liberate the tube from the CB block. I loosened the band assembly that looks to secure the tube to the CB block. Perhaps the sockets are just normally really tight? I'll post some pics soon.

There is a vertical screw that runs through a metal ribbon that holds the neck board to the tube neck.

BUT: Before You disassemble anything more:
You have adjusted the BIAS setting for the R,G,B colors right? Black will have a tint towards any of these primary colors that is predominant. You need to adjust BIAS so that ~0-30% looks neutral grey and adjust GAIN so that all above that also looks neutral grey.
The BIAS adjustment actually is the same thing as G2 which in turn is the same thing as brightness per primary color. Too high brightness on one color will make that color stand out in dark scenes.
Just press TEST for five seconds and answer YES (arrow up) when the pj asks if You want to enter service mode. Then press BIAS on the remote and start adjusting.
If You want to adjust with a source visible, just keep TEST depressed for a few seconds when in BIAS mode.

Good luck! :)

Yeah, I saw that metal strap and screw. I thought I loosened it well enough, but perhaps not. How tightly do the tubes fit in the sockets? They probably don't just slide out effortlessly, but you probably don't have to yank them out either as a broken vacuum tube equals a very bad day.

I already tried messing with the BIAS controls, though thanks for the suggestion. I turned the BIAS on the red to 0 and black was still reddish. I also turned green and blue up to compensate but that just seems to give me gray which is no good. I just think it's strange that when something bright is on the screen with lots of black, say a white window on a black desktop, then black appears as black. However, on just a black image, black is dark red. This happens with pic muting too.

Drew Eckhardt suggested that this might be an issue with the EBRG board in addition to/instead of the red neck board. Graham Johnson is going to try and help me through this later this week.

Brightness and BIAS interacts, so IF You can turn up blue and green so that black is grey, then You might be able to lower brightness so that it goes black again.
But the fact that it's red even with PIC MUTE on sounds very weird indeed. In that mode all tubes should be completely shut off so I guess there really is a problem then... :(

I don't think the tubes are completely shutoff with pic muting as I see some light coming from the green and blue tubes if I look into the lenses. However, blanking DOES cut things completely to black, even on the red tube. Hopefully this is just a bad board and not a bad tube. I guess on the bright side, even if the tube is bad, if you're going to have a tube go bad, the red tube is the best one to have go!

I got the tube out from the socket. Does anyone know how to get the red cable (circled and pointed to in purple) out from the socket board? Does it just pull straight out?

http://www.myavc.com/red_cable.jpg

Okay, I got it out by pulling it straight out and the end is bare wire. I expected a connector or pin. According to plan or whoopsie?

Ouchie.. That wire was soldered, and will have to be resoldered to run again. So yes whoopsie......I really would PM JohnHWman for that service manual....

Didn't see this in time, sorry! The CRT socket comes apart so you can solder it on, but the focus lead that you indicate there actually unplugs at the other end of the wire...

My bad. A little too eager. Oh well. I could have done worse. Time to polish up on the soldering skills. I had the service manual when I started taking it apart. The manual isn't very explicit on how that connector comes off when it shows how to remove the CAB and CBB from the CB block.

I opened up the white plastic housing to check out the other side and found a tiny piece of tinned wire and a metal connector that appears to pinch the wire to hold it in place. It doesn't look like that wire was soldered in, nor does it look like the wire had a connector soldered to it. It just looks like it was a tinned piece of wire pushed into the connector. I have about 1/4 of an inch of exposed wire of the red wire and it appears that I could just push that wire back in and the metal pinching piece would pinch it and make a connection. Why that wire couldn't have disconnected from the other side of the CBR board is beyond me. That plastic housing was hard enough to get off with the CB block completely removed, much less with the block still sitting in the projector! Then again, maybe I'm just being reckless. :)

I have an excellent spare red tube. I'll PM You abou this. :)

I see. I needed to disconnect the focus lead at the other end. It looks like one would need to remove the blue tube from its socket to get access to the block that the focus leads plug into. That's kind of a pain. I must say I really did a number on the CAR and CBR boards! Hopefully those boards were at fault to begin with as I'll probably want to replace them now anyway! :)

Ouchie.. That wire was soldered, and will have to be resoldered to run again. So yes whoopsie......I really would PM JohnHWman for that service manual....

Hi Guys, That wire is a clench grip inside the tube connector. Sometimes it comes out and somtimes not. You got lucky. It isnt soldered to anything.

You are supposed to remove that cable at the other end leaving it connected to the neck board. But that isnt always convienient. I oftenpull the cover off the connector and have a small tool to unclench the wire for removal.

replacing the neck board is the right course of action.

I have a spare if you need it. One of the drive chips is probably stuffed. causing the g2 TO FLOAT.

There should be plenty of manuals around on CD. I gave a copy away with each of the setup DVD's.

about 50 floating around somewhere. or D.L. it from Freebrd.

I have an excellent spare red tube. I'll PM You abou this. :)

Me too but I dont think you will need it

Yeah, like I said, I have about 6mm of bare wire from the focus lead and I accounted for the tiny tinned bit of wire that didn't come out when I pulled the lead from the neckboard. Maybe I can just re-tin it and stick it in or even use some wire strippers and get a little more bare wire out of the lead, then re-tin it. Pulling that lead out at the other end would require taking the blue tube out of its socket.

I'll give replacing the CB block a try! Thanks for the advice Graham! I'm hopeful I'll get this beastie fixed so I can buy your DVD! :) HD DVD with my VisionHDP looks nice on my 19" CRT monitor, but it just lacks that something of a 1292Q on a 82" screen. :)

Maybe I can just re-tin it and stick it in or even use some wire strippers and get a little more bare wire out of the lead, then re-tin it.



Yep just strip back a bit more wire and retinn. It should be fine.

I would only be replacing the neck board. It is 90% the faulty item in probablility.

I can live with 90% odds so long as it's not Russian Roulette -- well 83% in that case. :)