Is it possible to turn a 6020FD into an ELITE? - Page 19

finally got the guts to order the replacement board to evolve my 6020 into an elite... hopefully it all goes well

My board arrived today. Naturally I had to examine it as soon as I got it to see just how really small everything really is. It's smaller than the photos led me to believe. Challenging but still quite doable for a non-expert.

Going back over the posts and photos I was still somewhat perplexed regarding the mechanisim(s) for the ribbon connecters as described, so as I was looking at it I noticed some fuzz on the end of the white ribbon connector that's located on the left edge of the board. I picked it off, for the most part, with my fingers and got the remainder using a toothpick with the aid of a 4X glass and then turned my attention to the attachment of the delicate ribbon cables themselves .

Finally I got the latch mechanisim figured out and opened the latches, re-wrapped the board and returned it to the box for safe keeping 'till I do the swap. But the fuzz and the fact that the cable end connecter that it was stuck to was somewhat bent or distorted, from what one would think a factory direct product would look like, made me re-open my package and take a closer look.

Looking at the mounting positions I thought I could make out marking from previous fasteners but wasn't sure but I could see that things weren't exactly pristine. Some similar looking ( to the untrained eye) fibers could be seen in various places on my NEW? board.

piece that was caught in the connecter.

Upon further examination I think I may have uncovered DNA or at least some evidence of my boards past. It's quite black and has split ends.


look in the white bedding compound to the right, you can see the fibers covering the stuff as well if you look closely.

PS: At least this should give some indication to the status of the supply. If Pioneer is shipping recycled parts for what seems to be full price I suspect the boards are getting scarce. If anyone is on the fence it might be time to get on board. ... no pun intended

well with some help from wrinklefree, my son and i swapped out the board
on saturday. many, many thanks to wrinklefree for returning my phone call
when we got stuck at one point in the process.

while the tutorial is very helpful. those ribbon cables were definitely the hardest
part. took us about 3 hours. than one ribbon cable that you need to release
by pulling straight up was the most difficult part. we tried and tried and it wouldn't budge. we were afraid too apply to much force, but finally after giving
it a little more oomph, it popped open.

everything else was downhill from there. checked to be sure everything was
working before we put the back panel on.

i have not yet changed the settings, but just using the settings i have from d-nice for a 5020, the colors and images are noticeably sharper.

funny how a
$125.00 part can make a display worth an extra $2000.00. haven't searched yet d-nice's recommended settings. do you use the same settings from the 111 thread, or are there settings specific to this d-elite panel swap conversion thread?

well, i don't think it's as simple as that. very often, manufacturers may use the same core product (cpu die, plasma panel, etc..) and then grade the panels in terms of quality. So Pioneer may have hand selected the absolute best panels for their Elite line, but in practice since they had fairly high QC to begin with there wasn't that much difference in the panels themselves.

I think it's a really good thing that they decided to design that way (good for the enthusiast at least). A lot of manufacturers might actually design the displays differently so that you can't simply swap out a control board to get better functionality. The i/o from the panel itself may be set up differently... so all in all even though they somewhat arbitrarily hacked up their prices on the elites (to compensate their costs of production), it seems like instead of designing completely different panels from the ground up in terms of electronics etc.., they put that money into making the best panels possible.

Same way my KRP could be software unlocked to enable ISF modes. Most companies force you to buy a higher end model if you want to get a better product. I give props to Pioneer for having focused so much on pushing out the best displays possible instead of worrying about how to 100% ensure that their lower end sets were gimped like so many where nothing you can swap out will get you a better display due to design.

The X020 series should have never come out with so few adjustments available though. That was a dumb move on Pioneers part and may have lost them some badly needed sales. The X020 models were blasted in reviews for this, and the Elites were priced too high for most people to consider. I am very glad that I hacked my 6020 into an E-lite...it looks sooo much better now. If not for the dirty screen effect, and a very slight reddish tinge on black when seen in a dark room, this set would be perfect. Even with those issues it is still very close. I just hope it lasts a few more years until affordable OLED comes out, or Panny gets their plasmas to Kuro level.

Finally did the swap.... one advice, I did it without putting the tv flat, it's a lot of extra work, you're better off getting someone to help you put it flat .

Cheers,

Well my point was mostly that I much prefer to have the difference between a standard and premium set be a $100 or $200 part or some easily swappable setting that most people just don't know about as opposed to them designing separate sets from the ground up so that you can't "upgrade" your set to a higher quality one. Obv. Pioneer didn't do this with all their sets, but at least for 9/9.5G they seemed to shift focus away from locking down their sets.

I mean, I basically turned my 500m into a 101FD just by telling it that it was European (via KuroControl). It's only really detrimental for people who don't bother researching and buy the higher end model when there's a lower end one that can be made comparable fairly easily or at least inexpensively.

In terms of the 5020 and 6020, I didn't think that they were exactly "blasted" in reviews as I recall a cnet article suggesting people buy kuros while they could get them if they were video purists. I do agree that it'd have been nice for them to be given a few more setting OOB, but we're getting back into territory of them trying to recoup production costs due to an inefficient production line which was partly responsible for them getting out of the plasma business in the first place, which allowed us all to buy kuros on clearance significantly cheaper than we otherwise would have been able to.

what settings are people using after swapping out the board. should i just
use d-nice's setting from the 111 thread or are their setting better suited
to panel swapped set?

Just want to thank TG_ONE, Wrinklefree and all the other contributors for helping me towards a successfull transplant for my 6020.

My son in-law was here and helped with the moving and I completed it last night after he left. In total I spent around two hours to complete and had no problems at all.

David Abrams was kind enough to squeeze me into his next NW visit and will be here at 10 AM tomorrow to do the calibration.

Needless to say I'm really looking forward to this.

Will be putting my board in this weekend...just one question I'm confused about....if I previously had my 6020 calibrated by D-Nice...do I need to do anything extra after putting in the board? I read somewhere (not sure where) about putting in the old values back into controlcal...but I'm not sure what they were prior to calibration. If needed, I'll be getting it calibrated again after putting the board in...but that most likely won't be right away. Thanks in advance.

I just installed the board and everything turned out OK. Mine was calibrated in Movie mode originally and I believe everything remained the same after the board swap. Shortly after though, I had David Abrams calibrate my E-Lite for ISF day/night, Pure and then Movie mode was calibrated for B&W. Excellent! I couldn't ask for more.

Good luck with the swap.

Are these available ANYWHERE anymore? I would really like to purchase one for my 6020. If someone knows where to buy one or has one for sale, please PM me. Thanks!

Pioneer has none available? I would google the part number and see what comes up...surely somebody still has them. Maybe all the Elite Hackers have used up the supply though? Your next best option is get your 6020 calibrated..I think they can improve it a lot vs factory settings, but the Elite board really makes it a lot more tweakable.

You could also install a resistor as stated in a previous post. That is what I did.

Found one. Thanks everyone!

Where did you find it?

Everyone seems to be showing it on backorder.

I'd like to know as well. I am in need of one.

Let me see if what they send me is correct first, then I will let you all know. It ran me $113.00

Another successful E-Lite (6020) conversion. Process was painless and straight-forward. Took me ~2 hours. Thanks for the write ups, they made it very easy to complete this task!

I am glad it worked out for you. Can you tell us where you found the AWW1353 board? Thanks.

http://shop.tvreplacementparts.com

Thanks for the info!

I just ordered one.

Thinking back at the installation, I was wondering if I could get some advice. I cut off the top of the IR Sensor port with a knife, leaving the metal prong in the port partially exposed. I am afraid that the metal may touch the back metal casing and short the TV. Is this a legitimate worry or am I just being stupid? Could I cover it with electrical tape or is it not necessasry?

i'd would put electrical tape over it just to be safe.

unfortunately that requires you to remove a lot of screws and them put them all back in.

Thanks for the reply. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Also, does anyone have any tips on how to get all of the screw holes to line up properly?

Found a place that has new boards in stock, pricey though.

http://www.partstore.com/Part/Pionee...W1353/New.aspx

I ordered mine even though i know i'm over paying some i'd rather have a new one.

I am looking for advice on the best method to remove the IR sensor port without damaging the board. Is there a way to remove it completely without cutting just the top part off? I do not want to have to drill a hole in the panel.

Could someone explain what causes the "dirty screen effect" and the "slightly reddish tinge" that AlanBuck mentioned? I know someone said that the 151 and the 6020 have different color filters, but I don't have the understanding to know what qualitative difference it could make.

I'd appreciate any information for a non-expert as to just how close and different the 151 and the modified 6020 are.

This is for those on the fence about the board swap....got my board from Pioneer for about $115. Against the recommendations about having to lay the TV flat...I did my swap while it was still on the stand and with the instructions provided on this board, the swap couldn't have been easier...just keep track of which screws go where. The hardest part of the swap was getting up my nerve to actually do it.

Just had D-Nice over to calibrate the TV with the new board...all I can say is if you're still contemplating doing the swap...stop thinking about it and order the board. The difference is well worth the cost of the board and calibration. I always thought Movie mode looked great as far as colors, depth and details....but also thought at times (if it wasn't really dark in the room) it was a little dull...almost like there was a fuzzy film covering the screen. In addition, sometimes the whites just weren't bright enough for me. Now though...ISF day/night...wow...the film look is gone, whites are really white and that LCD pop I was kinda envious of on my friend's tv, I now have but with the more accurate colors and black level details. I'm watching a baseball game right now where I couldn't care less about the teams playing but can't turn it off b/c I've never seen a televised game look so good. Again...well worth the cost of the upgrade and calibration.


R.I.P. Big Man

Where did you get your board from? I'm having trouble with the vendor I'm using.