Don't dump your CRT RPTV! - Page 284

If you need me to get you one, let me know -

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This was just posted by me over at the master repair thread for the Pioneers with the intermittent problems, the CRT HDready sets from 1999-2000. This would be the Elite and non-Elite models: Pioneer Elite Pro 510HD, 610HD, 710HD, and non-Elite SD532HD, 582HD, and 642HD. This would also include the Elite and non-Elites for the first half of the following year, where they were still using the same PS board. Later that year they totally redesigned that PS board and no further intermittent problems happened. That would be the Pioneer Pro 520HD, 620HD, 720HD, SD533HD, 583HD, and 643HD.

You know if it was the model with the affected PS board if you find your PS board is vertically mounted to the bulkhead of your set. In the later part of that following year with the newly designed PS board, those boards are floor mounted and don't have cold solder joint problems.

I thought I would share it here as well -

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Forgive me, we've been very busy here so I just looked it over and the last few pages really don't cover what you need to know. You'll probably have to go back as many as 10 pages, maybe more. Just don't follow the advice in the early pages where various individual specific points are mentioned as needing attention. If they are part of the active, directly connected circuitry and have not been resoldered yet by now, they all do. Each and every affected solder joint in there needs to be resoldered, regardless of how many and how small they are. It is a long and tedious process, but what else is new?

The entire Power Supply board was compromised at the factory with solder that was too thin and those joints are giving up the ghost all over the boards now. As such with very few exceptions the entire PS board needs to be resoldered. Doing so will completely restore it and it will last indefinitely, just like the 100% performance all the other boards in there have been delivering all along. There are lots of boards in there, all of which have been performing at 100% all along and will continue to do so indefinitely.

I guarantee it for the PS board, as long as I am the one on the case for you. If anything like that happens again on your PS board, no matter how many years later, I will correct that condition again on your PS board for you, no charge. I can offer that lifetime guaranty because I know that doing so will leave me next to no work at all to do in the future on this issue, as long as I was the one who resoldered your PS board in the first place. Yes, I have resoldered that many PS boards in the last few years, whose owners are even as we speak enjoying their sets every day now, effortlessly. As I have said many times over the years, these are hardy, permanent sets. CRT - not just Pioneer, but all brands - was designed and produced in an era where things were built to last, unlike the fragile and highly disposable sets being sold new today.


BTW, I was just sent something printed on Just Answer.

Contrary to the advice of another very seasoned and experienced repair tech on Just Answer, no the PS board cannot be trusted if all you resolder are the currently affected joints, in fact doing so actually puts your set in more danger than it was in before, because it exposes your set to the much more damaging joints that go bad later. If it's in its early stages, those intermittents you are experiencing are valid warning signs because they don't usually damage your set, they just let you know something's wrong and that something definitely needs to be done before you keep using your set and exposing it to unspecified but still very real dangers. The ones that start to go bad later, since you didn't heed the warning signs or only resolder what's bad now, are the damaging ones and can take your set down hard.

So heed the warning signs! If your set is currently exhibiting the symptoms of cold solder joints on the power supply board - blue flashes, fluctuating brightness, lack of picture or sound while running or even actual shut down - STOP USING IT! Unplug it and don't allow it back up to normal operating temperature - EVEN ONCE - unless and until repaired PROPERLY. Cold solder joints start to let go and do their damage ONLY ONCE YOUR SET HAS HEATED UP thru normal operations. So don't keep your set on for more than 40 seconds from dead cold - for testing only - during the duration of this very dangerous set of circumstances, which has the power to become a potentially catastrophic event and even total your set if your finances cannot withstand the onslaught of the more serious of repair bills. Nipping it in the bud keeps your repair bills low and entirely affordable, bordering on negigible compared to what you originally paid for your set. In fact the decision to do what's necessary when in the early stages is an incredible no-brainer, all things considered.

And no, the deflection board does not need attention unless damaged by the PS board's cold solder joints. It does not develop cold solder joints on its own in the course of normal operation like the PS board does. Neither does the convergence board. None of those boards in there do, except the PS board. If your set is experiencing those dangerous intermittents, leave all the other boards alone! Concentrate ONLY on the Power Supply board, the one at the end of your set's wall power cord, the one that plugs into your wall outlet. The less messed with in there the better, esp. if you are not a trained and experienced service technician.

This is a cardinal rule for service repair technicians who do this kind of work every day, and should be heeded by everyone: always leave alone whatever can be left alone! Any time you dive into circuitry you risk opening a can of worms and suddenly having a lot more on your plate than originally intended.

So focus ONLY on the PS board in this case.



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OF COURSE it's a good set! Every set past the first year's offerings is a good set, and that first year's offerings were not bad either. If well treated, ANY Mit CRT RPTV is a good set.

DK about the gun size -

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This is Scan Velocity Modulation in all its glory. Something that's diminished quite a bit in HD; it's much more prevalent in SD. It's for the purpose of seeing vertical lines more clearly from a distance. Only with HD, we're capable of much finer rendition at far closer distances.

The register you're looking for is VM, in the primary service menu grouping. Its factory default is 2, which is obviously too much. I usually set it to 1, because having NONE of it going makes things too soft. I find 1 works best. Your User Sharpness should stay at midpoint, where it messes with your signal the least.

There is an advanced mod I can discuss with you that can tighten that picture up even more for you as long as your set has the correct design, where we can do it. This is for later model sets, it's not for the earlier sets. Yours is qualified for it, I am pretty sure.

Contact me directly and we can talk about it.

But for now, if the pix you sent up here are HD, then change that register - crank it down 1 peg - and I am sure that will help.

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Once you've been exposed to the crispness of true HD, you're spoiled forever. I don't think you'll improve on this without altering the signal with a DVDO or Faroudja scaler meant to correct the deficiencies of 480i/p.

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If this is a Mit and you've disco'd the SVM circuit, there is no need to alter the sm settings. They go to zero just by those coils being disco'd.

Which is not what I would do, personally. Even with HD you need some level of ee to keep from everything looking too soft. This was part of Runco's way of setting up their pj's back when CRT was king, and I agree. Get some lettering in white or black and work on it till it's crispest, optimize it. Then put up someone's face on an HD closeup where you can see their pores. Optimize that.

Don't always just turn ee all the way off, or always just turn Sharpness all the way down. Often midpoint of Sharpness is best for not having any extraneous altering of your signal going on. Up can be too altered by ee, down can be too soft by video filtering/dulling.


The focusing should always be optimized whether you're dealing with ee or not, and really has nothing to do with ee. I always use the scanlines themselves to focus upon, not lettering or anything else - I use scanlines on the 480i/p AVIA Circlehatch grid, in 480i/p so I can see the individual scanlines better, HD doesn't work anywhere nearly as well - and do my VM/ee altering in the sm later on, long after the focusing ops.

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Dan Cerio Just pm'd me this message:




Contact myself or Dan if you want to hop on this fantastic deal! Buy the cabinets for far less than he paid for them and he will be kicking in the TV for free! Will need optics cleaning by now and probably a trim-up calibration, but where else you gonna get a superb set like this that has been worked on by both Craig Miller and myself?!






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Once totally dialed in, a 9" gun sys will deliver a palpable improvement in depth to your picture over a 7" gun, whether it's on a 73" screen or a 65" screen. This allows you to sit closer to your set and still maintain the crispness, delivering a bigger size picture to get immersed in.


I would not worry about 1080p vs. i. Translation of 1080i material to 1080p carries its own potential can of worms. Watching 1080i material - which is still virtually all that is sent out by the broadcast media whether it's satellite, cable or OTA - is virtually always better on a native 1080i machine than upconverted to a 1080p machine. For that upconversion you have to trust the algorithms in your 1080p display, and some do well, and some - well "not so much" would be being generous... It's a crap shoot, with the "up"conversion usually becoming a downconversion when all is said and done.

With a native 1080i machine like a CRT RPTV, that is not a worry. No conversions necessary, either up or down. Any time you deal with conversions, the potential abounds for cans of worms being opened.

Unless you have expensive sophisticated scaling equipment, leaving it alone - straight line - is usually best.


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I would not trust a "baby sitter model", no way. On 12-16 hours a day??? No thanks. The CRT sets in the ceiling projector community are guaged by the number of hours recorded on their sets conforming to the age of their CRTs, as CRTs age naturally as part of their phosphor-based design. Low hours means fresh and vibrant. High hours means darkened phosphors and an UNdynamic picture. Plus "trails" on your weakest color when you try to turn the contrast or color levels up.

When you use the best you gotta respect their limitations as well. Would you allow a Lamborghini to sub as a soccer mom's vehicle, 7 days a week?

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