My 53” Sony XBR RPTV probably needs some kind of service but I am not exactly sure what. I bought this around 1998 and had it calibrated by an ISF tech. Picture quality use to be very good.

My parents have it now. I came to visit them and was just shocked by how awful the picture quality is. Part of the reason might be I am used to my Panasonic plasma screen now, but still I think it was much better before.

The picture is not sharp. It feels as if I am wearing a dirty eyeglass. During the day it is very hard to watch, at night it improves slightly but still is not an enjoyable experience for me. I thought it might be the focus, but when I bring up the menu, it looks reasonably sharp. I checked the convergence (the cross, not auto-set like later models), it looks fine. There seems to be some sort of internal reflections and pictures have a sort of smeared out (or flare) look to it.

I took some picture of it, so hopefully it shows the symptom well:

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/3686382

Do I need to clean the lens? Is the mirror dirty? Is it out of focus? I do have the factory service manual.

Thanks!

Cleaning the lens surfaces and mirror should improve things tremendously.

Opened the front panel and adjusted the electronic focus, wasn't it. The service manual also mentioned adjusting the lens focus, so I opened the back to access the lens. Couldn't believe the amount of dust accumulated on the lens! (10 years!) So I cleaned the lens. The mirror looks fine so I didn't touch it.

Picture quality improved dramatically. No more internal flares. Colors are substaintially better and more saturated. The dust must've been difusing the light. The picture is much more enjoyable now.

The picture still seems just a bit soft, I wanted to adjust the lens focus as stated in the service manual, but when I bring up the convergence pattern and look for flares, there were none. So I left the focus setting alone. Didn't want to mess with some analog setting that I couldn't restore easily unless I see a problem.

What else could be causing the picture being slightly soft? Maybe it's inherient to the TV and the s-video input. Maybe some setting has drifted slightly over the years. It feels like a focus issue, but again the menus looks very sharp.

Something's still not quite right. I've uploaded 4 samples of the "after cleaning lens" picture. Is this the lens focus? convergence?

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/3686382

I see some subtle convergence errors, especially at the edges in the menu picture. I am not sure if it's the main cause of this softness.... If it's the lens focus, how come the TV's menu appears fine?

Thanks!

I doubt if this is your problem but looking at your menus, you have the picture (contrast) setting all the way down to minimum. That cannot be helping.

I doubt if this is your problem but looking at your menus, you have the picture (contrast) setting all the way down to minimum. That cannot be helping.

The ISF calibrator turned it all the way down when I have it calibrated it 10 years ago. ;) I will bring my video essential DVD over and calibrate it again this weekend. Thanks.

For one the set is very old, maybe time for a upgrade or at least start thinking of upgrade. I guess you may try to clean the lens, there may also be some aliginment issue which is why it appears hazy & blurred