During my second ToastyBarco setup (see 'evening's work' thread) I noticed that my main problem seemed to be getting acceptable optical focus. Or at least, so it appears.

The issue is that I can't get scanlines, even at 1440x960i48 (yes, interlaced at 48hz. I figured since the tubes are borderline that might help (?), and I didn't notice a visual difference on the PJ.).

The weird thing is that when I'm checking the rasters, if I turn down contrast and turn up brightness so I can look right at the tubes, the tube surfaces are all *TACK SHARP*. I can see scanlines standing out no problem, even on the toasted blue tube. But on the screen, blur city, relatively speaking.

After spending a few cycles going back and forth between optical focus, scheimpflug, and magnetic focus in the 808s setup menus, I can get it to resolve lines reasonably well, but still no scanlines and still even bigger issues with sharpness on the edges.

I've gotta be missing something. Are the CRT faces defocusing as soon as I turn up the contrast (and if so can I do anything about it - even the unworn red isn't showing scanlines on-screen), or is something messed up about my optical setup?

(For reference, the PJ is on a table, dead square to the wall.)

Yes, it's inherent for CRTs to defocus when driven harder. YOu need to set all focusing for best performances at contrast higher than normal (90-100). Once you dial that in, it will be razor sharp when you turn it down.

AH HAH! Best free tech support in the business, Curt. You're doing this on purpose so I feel morally obligated to buy my next PJ from you, right? :D

Edit: Another quick question, actually: Is it better to focus with a light-on-dark pattern, or a dark-on-light pattern, or dark/light on gray? Or does it not matter?

optical focus - do each color individually with the brightness at 50 and contrast at normal. Go through each grid with a numbers or letters pattern along the screen and take your time (6-8 hours) to get the scan lines perfect everywhere. Corners are the hardest.

electical focus - turn the contrast to max. this is what curt is talking about it will help you see the bloom easier.

dont worry about blue except that the grid lines will be much larger if they are not within 10-20% of the red and green accuracy. But the experts can chime in, blue defocus is necessary to get the greyscale to track anyway.

good luck.

steve

optical focus - do each color individually with the brightness at 50 and contrast at normal. Go through each grid with a numbers or letters pattern along the screen and take your time (6-8 hours) to get the scan lines perfect everywhere. Corners are the hardest.

electical focus - turn the contrast to max. this is what curt is talking about it will help you see the bloom easier.

dont worry about blue except that the grid lines will be much larger if they are not within 10-20% of the red and green accuracy. But the experts can chime in, blue defocus is necessary to get the greyscale to track anyway.

good luck.

steve

If you'd seen a picture of my blue tube, you'd know that accurate grayscale tracking is just NOT in the cards, defocus or not.. ;)

As far as I'm aware, the only tools I have to work with to adjust optical focus are center focus, edge focus, and scheimpflug, correct? It seems tough to get the center / edge focus even generally correct, at the moment, let alone adjusting different parts of the screen. Is it just something that needs to be done iteratively to find the right combination of settings? Presumably if you start out with flapping at some crazy setting and then focus center/edge and then try changing flapping again, it'll be all messed up.

But if that's so, how do I set it to a 'neutral' position? Easy enough with center/edge focus, but flapping seems to not have 'edges' of adjustment range.

AH HAH! Best free tech support in the business, Curt. You're doing this on purpose so I feel morally obligated to buy my next PJ from you, right? :D



Damn straight! And if the other 16,299 people that I've assisted with my other posts understood that, I'd be long retired and wouldn't be here...:eek::D

(oh, I'm kidding, you know I'd still be here while typing on a wireless laptop while tanning in Fiji. "Your blue tube looks fine, it's about the color of my skin"..:p)

Oh, wow. Just... ohhh, wow. I grabbed some 1080p and 720p WMV files from MS's site, and while the narration was IMAX-cheese at its best (They never suspected... HUMAN ERROR! [dun dun dunnn]) the visuals were fantastic.

It looks absolutely stunning and it's still nowhere near close even to its toasty best. Bloody fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Unbelievable. Fanbelievable. Untastic. Abfanbloodable leivastic.

I am a doomed man.

By the way, I'd like to mention at this time that my awesome wife actually *bought* this PJ for me, and was the one who encouraged me, when I decided to look for an old and busted CRT PJ just to have something less expensive to run than digital, to get something good so I'd be happy with it. Who's the lucky guy??! :D

OK, gloating over. I'm just happy. See, this is a lot better than having some G90... this way all I have to do to be this happy *again* is get a new blue tube; you poor bastards with G90s have to do a blend! :)

Oh, wow. Just... ohhh, wow. ... HUMAN ERROR! [dun dun dunnn]). It looks absolutely stunning and it's still nowhere near close even to its toasty best.Does this mean that you got the focus right? If so, why not share with us what was wrong, and how you fixed it.

Or, did you mean, that it just looks good enough to be exciting even with bad focus?:confused:

OK, gloating over. I'm just happy. See, this is a lot better than having some G90... this way all I have to do to be this happy *again* is get a new blue tube; you poor bastards with G90s have to do a blend!

That is so funny and so true! Just look at Cliff he had to get 4 G90's, all you'll need is a little less toasty blue tube for a c note.

( just kiddin Cliff, you already know how I feel. You LUCKY sob!:) )

I got the focus an awful lot better using the technique that Curt posted. The magnetic focus was way off, and that was obviously making it tough to get correct optical focus. I managed to get center optical quite good (saw the phosphor grain pattern through my binoculars - thanks to Guy Kuo for that invaluable advice!) but the edge focus and scheimpflug are still off. I think the guy who had the PJ before me and just set it up on a whim borked things up a bit.

I'm still not getting scanlines at 50b/50contrast even with focus improved to the point where *pixels* are sharp. But part of the problem might be I'm not sure what to look for. Some reference pictures from close up, from guys with properly set up PJs, would be invaluable for somebody like me.

Anybody care to do some closeups of their 8" EM PJ so I can see what I ought to be aiming for? :)

Oh, wow. Just... ohhh, wow. It looks absolutely stunning and it's still nowhere near close even to its toasty best. Bloody fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Unbelievable. Fanbelievable. Untastic. Abfanbloodable leivastic.
I am a doomed man.See! We TOLD you you'd never be satisfied with the picture from that roasted blue. :D :) :p