I read this somewhere but I can no longer find it, what are the plastic adjusters for on the neck of the crt that are siliconed?

In my service manual is tells you do a "beam alignment" by pulling up the vibrating dot pattern in the SM convergence grid and de-focus the beams, then center the dots in the circle of the defocused area (dont know how else to explain it), is that what those adjusters do?

A few different "sets" of adjustment rings- The set at the top (on/nearest the yoke) are for simple centering. The ones below that are for beam alignment and maybe other stuff that should really never be messed with... Unless you've pulled the crt for re-build, or you are a professional calibrator who knows what the hell you're doing.

Ok, I have really been learning a lot so far from this forum, and my service manual, I checked my beam alignment with the dot pattern, and with the defocussing, I can tell the beam alignment needs some work, as the dot is not centered, I just couldnt find any procedures for doing this, I have the convergence aligned as best as possible and the image is still not the best as far as HD is concerned, so I am guessing its the beam alignment. does that need to be done after convergence or before? (Im going to re-do the entire convergence). Any tips? Thanks Hammer

Also, I did manage to fix blue crt board, Just a couple of resistors and it was going again.

I read this somewhere but I can no longer find it, what are the plastic adjusters for on the neck of the crt that are siliconed?

In my service manual is tells you do a "beam alignment" by pulling up the vibrating dot pattern in the SM convergence grid and de-focus the beams, then center the dots in the circle of the defocused area (dont know how else to explain it), is that what those adjusters do?
My Philips (64PH9905) service CDROM outlines beam alignment/astigmatism as a 3rd step following electrical focus (screen/focus block) and optical focus (2nd step).

It calls for a NTSC dot/crosshatch signal pattern with the user picture control at 75% (fairly bright). For each CRT the focus control should be adjusted for the smallest dots (center of screen from the back). Then adjust focus control CCW until there's a halo around the bright core of the dots. Next adjust the 2 pole magnets on the CRT neck to center the bright cores (screen center). Then adjust the focus control CW past best focus until the dot becomes a blob. Now adjust the 4-pole magnets on the CRT neck assembly to make the spot round. Readjust the focus control for the smallest spot.

Reads like there's some back and forth, as with convergence. Haven't tried beam adjustment here, but considered it last summer after cleaning and adjusting optics, finding I couldn't see the scan lines that appeared on my 64" screen during early years of its ~7-year use (1080 mode and coarser 480/60p mode). Test patterns and normal video Images are still sharp here, though. I've seen epoxied-on tabs on CRTs, too, but assume they're separate from the pole magnets mentioned by Philips above. Vaguely recall, while building three direct-view color TVs from kits long ago, adjusting tabs on the CRT necks to obtain the widest, 'smoothest' red color over the screen; but those were shadow-mask sets, not 3-CRT RPTV setups. -- John

Ok, Excellent, that will help a ton

When I pulled up the dot pattern, the dots in the center section of the screen were fairly close, the dots around the outside were elongated and not in the center of the halo, Can that be adjusted or will getting the outsides right throw off the center?

I know with RPTV's the outside will loose focus no matter what, but it seems more than it should be, HDTV should look better than it does Thanks

^^^Suspect, like back-and-forth tweaking sometimes needed for RGB convergence, that these magnet adjustments involve that, too. As indicated, my manual often refers to fine-tuning center of the screen dots, but suppose it requires a balance with the edges. A crosshatch pattern appears well converged over most of my screen at normal viewing distance (white + signs without colors showing), with a fair amount of image overlap (sides, top/bottom), but perhaps examining individual dots near the edges would show greater distortion. -- John

I managed to adjust the astigmatism for the red and green, (none for blue dangit) the red was close, and the green was off a bit. got them set, and the picture looks a lot better so far, I still have the problem with the edge focus, but I am wondering is this is unavoidable, its a 55" tv and the projectors seem a bit small, I think they are the same as the ones used in a 46" samsung, the dots got stretched the farther from center they are.

Is there any adjustment for this?

Thanks for the writeup John, it helped me 100%

^^^The missing blue might be the technique used in your set to deliberately 'fuzz' this color slightly. Many designs do this because of poor eye sensitivity to blue. Wider blues deliver more phosphor light, but the wider convergence/test-pattern lines shouldn't be noticed at normal viewing distances. As for center-to-edge beam distortion, if no additional adjustments are mentioned, perhaps someone like Mr. Bob (see the 'don't throw out your CRT' thread), who does a lot of tweaking, can suggest procedures. One member here from Australia (Owen) with a Hitachi CRT RPTV, as I recall, boosted the resolution capability of his set by moving the CRTs slightly closer to the screen, maybe achieving finer beam spots. Points to explore. -- John