Don't dump your CRT RPTV! - Page 383

I believe 949 is San Diego, right?

If not you might want to post where you are. Transporting these babies takes a truck. They are on wheels, but still...


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The thing that usually goes out on these sets is that the convergence ICs wear out. Fuses can blow or not blow, you never know. Those ICs are like a thermostat on a car - you don't replace the car, you replace the thermostat. Many DIYers on this thread have done just that, for merely the cost of the parts. It's worth a try even if that's not the problem. Most you lose is the parts cost and a little labor/time.

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Hard to say. Your Screen controls may need realignment. Optics cleaning would be a great start tho, and won't break the bank if that's not it. Contact me and arrange an appointment if you want straight from the shoulder guidance on that.

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Edited by Mr Bob - 12/25/12 at 8:35am

This was posted on the Pioneer Elite PRO 510 Problem thread from djones 18, and I thought I'd share it with you here.


I love this thread.

I've been reading since it started. Mr Bob helped keep my Elite 510HD alive several years beyond what I believed possible. Since early 1999, my Elite black monolith has been center stage in my man-cave. The power board was resoldered five years ago due to the dreaded blue flash and I thought it was goners then. It has performed perfectly since and required no other professional maintenance in almost 14 years. Yes, 14 years! Can the same be said of any other complex heavily used electrical appliance? These Pioneers, along with their sibling Kuro Plasmas, set the absolute standard for their time. Yes, my Elite does require tweaking, it weighs almost as much as a Mini, now requires cooling fans to dissipate heat, and requires a small nuc reactor to power. But it still produces a quality picture using Blu-ray discs in 1080i I'd happily stick next to any display today.

However, there's a new kid on the block and it may replace my beloved Elite. It's OLED, a technology with the potential to overcome all the issues Plasma and LCD/LED panel owners gripe about. LG has today announced they will start selling consumer ready panels this year, first in Korea, then likely here in the United States. Yes, it will expensive and it is an untested technology in large panel sizes. But Pioneer Elites in 1999, were new technology and were wallet busting expensive compared to big screen TVs of their day. They were almost twice as expensive as their nearest rear projection HD rival...and there were few rivals. OLED is likely to be similar.

So finally a technology emerges which may unseat my Elite. We'll see. Until then, I'll keep reading this great thread, tweak my Elite, and hope Mr Bob keeps helping us oldtimers.

Happy New Year!



Here was my response -

Great to hear from you, Dave!

All you say is absolutely true, including that Pioneer Elite and non-Elite CRT technology continues to keep the bar super high in comparisons with other displays, even today. If you still own one, owners out there, you're sitting on a gold mine. Get it cleaned and calibrated and it will look better than new. Keep it cleaned and calibrated, as it is only halfway thru its 20 year service life. I remain available, domestically and internationally, for such services and will continue to do so.

OLED had been on the scene already for a couple of years last time I went to CES, 3 years ago. At that time you could snag an 11" Sony OLED for only $2500! And they had a 27"er there, largest made at that time, but it was proprietary only and not in production. Yes that million:1 contrast ratio was amazing to see in person. And you can wrap OLED around curves if you want, it's a flexible medium.

Since I am finally going to CES again in a week, I can't wait to see the new advancements in OLED for myself. There's also AMOLED and a few other variations now.

But CRT still continues to lead the pack in contrast ratio among the other technologies. Cliff in Indiana added a third G90 to his already classic G90 double stack, and the passive, non-dynamic, measured contrast ratio was above 525,000:1. He sent in screenshots from it which were absolutely dazzling, every bit as good as the million:1 CR I saw from the Sony OLED at CES.

So hang in there with your Elite. It is still the cat's meow on many levels, esp. the one where dollars come into it.

Display owners: I will be in Vegas in a week! Let's get a beer!



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Edited by Mr Bob - 1/2/13 at 10:55am

Such advice was good when grayscale was a secondary aspect of calibration and relatively unknown, when owners were not all that savvy about such things. Since then ISF has come into existence and turned excellence in video displays into an art form, and has been achieving excellent grayscales for decades, head and shoulders above the simple directives you have stated here. What you have stated did apply at one time, but is very old school now, and rarely used these days. It would never pass inspection for an ISF grade calibration.

If you want to do it the way I do and achieve the results I achieve, contact me again and let's get it done right, for today's much more modern displays. A Pioneer Elite deserves that.

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And to you! Hope the new year is treating you well.



CRT is infinitely variable as to colors, so there is no limit to the number on that. Digital has finite values and as such needs such numbers, CRT does not. So you can theoretically take it to infinity as to the number of colors CRT can produce.

CRT doesn't use bit rate either. If you're a computer person you might be interested in pursuing that and finding out about it, but I am not - am not an HTPC user - and as such am delightfully clueless. It's need to know and I don't. Ignorance indeed can be bliss!

Scanrate is all we really need to know for CRT. For the bigger ceiling projectors framerate gets involved, and some can do 24fps and some cannot. But CRT RPTV definitely cannot, any more than it can do 1080p.

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