Hitachi 51/57/65F59A CRT RPTV Tweaks Thread - Page 152

There are plenty of CRT FP installations with the projector actually on the ground with a table top as a cover... that seems to work well with these type of projectors.

Keep in mind that these projectors are commercial grade projectors designed to be on 24/7 and they were 20K and up when new. They are still used for military and simulators applications.

Thanks Leo. Can you look at that pic though and tell me if that is Burn In that I'm seeing?

There's no screenburn showing on either the pic or the video. Nor can whether it's there or not be ascertained from anything in your post. You don't have that info yet, from what I see in your post.

Typical contrast ratio of CRT ceiling pjs is more than 100,000:1. 15,000:1 has gotta be a misprint on the owner's part. That would be a semi-good static rating for fixed pixel/bulb driven, low for dynamic.

For CRT it's just not even in the ballpark of what CRT is really capable of, and does not begin to do justice to the owner's unit, there, and how it can really perform, just by being a CRT.

b

If you have 2 completely good sets save for 1 of the screens needing replaced, why not just buy the replacement screen and have 2 usable sets? One of which could be sold, possibly to one of the readers of this thread.

Or find a non-working set for free that has some exotic problem they didn't want to spend $ fixing but whose screen is still good. Then off the non-working, unscreened hulk to a recycler, where they get paid by the pound.

b

Good to see you! The owners here have a lot to thank you for, on that pesky HDMI issue! So glad you were tenacious enough to bring that elephant down!



b

Might want to try the new patched version of TsMuxeR for the mac:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1ZDZHPJU

Just cleaned the lenses and it looks great. What beautiful colors and depth. I know it will die one day and I will be looking at a new set and new tech but for right now I'm happy.

Now if only you could get it calibrated.

Yea that sucks. I mean its calibarated to the best of my ability but I know I could get it just a little closer with that EyeOne. I wonder what happended there. I really never received it or a notice or anything.

I read somewhere of someone that mailed a package to a relative with the wrong address, the address did not even exist, but the Post Office was trying to figure if the address was just incorrect, so it went to over 50 similar addresses until it was sent back to the sender. It took several years to get the package back... BUT it made it back.

Forgive me for not holding my breath.

Now I'm working on the audio!

Have you gotten all the image structure work done?

b

Most. Still tweaking it. Such a beautiful picture as is though so I can live with some imperfection.

Well the decision has been made. The color issues have returned with the red phasing in an out. I am looking for a replacement technology. So far Plasma is leading the pack due to the blacks being closer to the blacks of CRT. I hate to do it but the size of the set in a small room has been fine with me until which time it gave out. Then I always knew I would look for a projector or a flat panel. Hate to do it because the set is so beautiful.

Haven't completely made up my mind yet because I love this set so much. I'm just not going to spend the money to fix it when I can spend the exact amount of money to buy a 1080p Plasma FP or even a small projector. My wife has been patient with the amount of room this set takes up but now with the color fading in and out its time to start looking.

I have had the same problem with my set for about the last two years. Not only does the red phase in and out, but once it stops it has either a red or green tint to the picture.Then sometimes its ok for a while and the picture looks awesome! It is a shame because these sets can look almost better than any tv I have seen, but like Mustang68, a plasma might be the way to go for me also.

Sounds like nothing more than a hinky connection somewhere, affecting only the red.

There are ways we techs handle stuff like this, which have to be done while the set is live, so I cannot in good conscience recommend owners do this on their own, and as such am not doing so. I recommend you leave such servicing to qualified repair service personnel.

We tap on the board with a non-conductive tool of some kind, to see if any part of the board makes this red disappearance thing react.

We spray different parts of the board, and sometimes the individual parts themselves, with super freeze to see if abrupt temp changes cause expansion and contraction, thus making and breaking connections in there. If there's a bad connection it's usually on the soldering of the board, rather than inside any of the board-mounted components themselves.

We also use heat guns to do the same thing. In both cases it is sometimes essential that we "narrow the beam" of our temp-affecting techniques, to fine tune what gets heated or cooled. A simple straw can be a very effective tool for narrowing that focus.

Once we have isolated a section of the board which makes the problem react - in this case makes the red come and go upon provocation - we resolder that entire area, being very careful to not cause any inadvertent solder bridges. Which are shorts that connect things that are not supposed to be connected.


Any responsible repair tech you get on the case is going to be versed in such repair techniques, and with no parts to buy the repair could wind up being quite affordable, esp. compared to getting a new set.

And new sets, with today's new fixed pixel tech, are not lasting nearly as long as our CRT based sets are, where our CRT sets have a 20 year service life. Yours is only halfway thru that service life, Mustang.

It is not inconceivable that you'll plunk out several thousand for the new replacement set, then when something goes bad on it and it's too expensive to fix, you'll be plunking out another several thousand on THAT set's replacement.

They are not building them to last anymore, that went out with CRT tech. Buy new at your peril. You have been warned.


b

Hello everyone,

First of all I want to thank all of you for posting so much great information. I have been lurking on this forum for a few days now and reading as much as I can. I too have obtained a 51F710A and until the other day it "worked" for the most part. When I got it the person told me they had moved from FL to PA via moving truck and when they got to PA the tv had a very bad blue tint to it. I got it home and started reading here. The blue was so strong that there were no blacks in any image. I finally tore the tv down, cleaned it and started trying to get it close to normal so I could then start following the guides here on how to calibrate it. I went into the tv and it seemed that during moving the gain pot for the blue gut somehow vibrated to a high level. I knocked it back down and began working on getting the color close with the RGB gain pots. I have always been afraid of HV. Well, I was adjusting the red gain pot when my cat touched her cold nose to my back scaring the crap out of me and momentarily cranked the red gain up and the TV shut down. Let me tell you I was freaked out for a second. I turned the TV on and now there is no video at all. The next day I tore open the back and checked the three fuses that I saw all of which were good. I left the TV unplugged for 24 hours hoping that maybe it needed to "reset". None of this worked. Would any of you have an idea where I can start looking to fix the TV. Knowing that the TV shut down once the Red Gain was cranked for 1/4 of a second. There is a little burn in like someone had been watching 4x3 but I am sure I can get that knocked out if I can get the TV operational again...

Thanks so much for all your help..

Ernie
Pittsburgh PA.

Have you taken the red gain down again?

Is it the red gain or the red Screen trimpot?

If the red trimpot is still way up there, that could be your problem. Usually when a screen trimpot is overmodulated, retrace lines show up and then it shuts off. But it usually doesn't blow anything, and when that trimpot is turned back down everything goes back to normal.

b

Yea, its the red screen trimpot. I saw the retrace lines and it shut down. I turned it back immediately and have no picture. It has been unplugged for a few days. I may try to power it up again.




Ernie

Do your graphics come up when you hit Menu on the remote?

Do you have high voltage and are your CRT filaments lit?

b

No Graphics when hitting menu and as far as I can see there is nothing from the CRTs. After I hit power the LED lights up and about 1.2 seconds later I can hear the HV drop in pitch and the speakers make a low pop.. Weird.


Ernie

Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but that's what happened to me with my dog. Ended up replacing the blue gun. Hope your solution is easier.
Michael

Yeah, I felt kinda dumb posting that but I too thought it was funny...


Ernie

Does anyone have access to the original tweak document (posted on the first page of this thread). Megaupload doesn't have it anymore.


Wish I discovered this years ago... I was looking for other info on my 51f59a today (due to a slit in my screen... minor on the far right side... was looking for info on what to do or if I'm in danger of further damage thanks to it) and discovered other fixes. Mine has been doing the blinking to green screen then off for years - I've applied the service fix today and I'll be so happy if it never happens again.

I'm even debating calling Hitachi to see if they still offer help for the old screen shifting trick through HDMI - but it only happens occasionally on my side, so I'm not too concerned on that.

However, if I could get a link to the other document with all the other service manual tweaks, I'd love to further improve my picture. It doesn't look bad now... but if it could be even better it would be awesome.

I'm even almost tempted to follow Mr. Bob's instructions at taking it apart and cleaning the bulbs (for the first time in 5 years)... but I don't know if I'm that brave

I love this TV... it's been great... but if I can give it new life now, it would be awesome. If my kids only hadn't pushed on the screen and caused the 3 inch slit, I'd be a happy man... At least it's so far to the right it's not the end of the world. Although if I can find a place to sell the TV (on Craigslist... for a decent price... in the Nashville area... Anyone?) I may and finally upgrade to something thinner...

When your Hitachi is fully cleaned and finely tuned, moving to a flat panel is usually not an upgrade. On many levels it's a downgrade. No modality yet available to the consumer has better blacks - and thus depth - than CRT. And when finely tuned and calibrated, you can sit there and study the grain of the film they used to shoot the movie you're watching.

I recommend you save your set and keep it fully tricked out, like Superleo and LastButNotLeast have. It takes seriously overblown new set money to match that kind of performance, and nothing out there exceeds it. I am being flown all over the country keeping these incredible sets going, and performing masterfully. They are only halfway thru their 20 year service life, they have many happy years ahead of them.

All it takes is getting your optics fully clean and your light path totally sparkling, to be able to fully realize the gold mine you're sitting on as we speak. If you have your doubts as to whether you'll keep your optics safe, contact me and sign up for my private optics cleaning coaching session. Nobody has ever damaged their optics while on the phone with me at their side, sticking strictly to my guidance.

b

I know I'm repeating myself just a bit with this post, but this was just posted on another thread, thought I'd share it with you here -



Just noticed this post in another thread, from way back in '05.

Just so you know, those "elderly" CRT RPTVs are not old, they have a 20 year service life - or more, I've seen it, recently heard about a 29 year old Panny CRT 50" that's still cranking away just fine - and at today's stage are only halfway thru it. I know of an "old" curved screen bounce-off-the-screen Sears CRT whose guns fire at the hinged mirror that you pull out and let fall into place to start it up, that's still cranking away just fine too. We've been looking for someone to take it home and keep it going, or hopefully get it to some sort of video museum, tho I have never actually heard of one...

Well treated by their owners re. usage, light levels and avoidance of screenburn, they are capable of WAY better than new performance, even at 11 years old.

I am being flown all over the country cleaning and calibrating these "elderly" beasts, which are capable of incredible HD, head and shoulders better than a lot of the "affordable" fixed pixel offerings out there in today's marketplace. And better looking in some ways than all fixed pixel offerings.

The main thing that not everybody knows about them is that their optics need to be cleaned yearly, and on some brands - like the Pioneers, be they Elite or non-Elite - the "deeper optics" need it every few years as well. That's because of the air gap between the lens barrels and the CRT coolant covers, where 6 additional surfaces get invaded by dust, soot, smoke and all manner of other airborn contaminants, and thus compromised because of the high voltage turning them into powerful, continuous dust magnets every moment they are powered on. There's 28 optical surfaces in there that need to stay crystal clear, 10 of which get heavily compromised because of the HV. When all 28 surfaces are clean and polished and you have a crystal clear light path again, the results are truly astonishing. Like getting a brand new TV for a simple hour's work.

Just doing this one thing gives your "elderly" set a brand new looking picture - in my area my calibrations are called "The Sparkle Process" - and calibration after that is just incredible icing on the cake.

I started the "Don't Dump Your CRT RPTV!" thread here on AVS more than 5 years ago, and it is still going strong, with over 300 complete pages so far and over 9000 posts. If you have a CRT RPTV at all, HD or non-HD, I invite you to go over there and check it out.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...95922&page=327

If you have a CRT RPTV or know someone who does and want info about how to do your optics cleaning with no damage - those soft plastic surfaces in there are incredibly delicate, vulnerable and easily scratched, and any damage to them is permanent - contact me directly, by email or phone. No pm's please!

Thx -

Mr Bob

It had been a couple of years since blacking out the interior and cleaning the lenses and such. And probably as long since a service menu focus adjustment. As I was going in with the remote only something happened and the Red went heavy and at 30 ire the green and blue was 0 and the red was 150%. 80 ire was not as bad but still terrable. Couldnt stand to watch it like this and was eyeing one of the 70" lcs's. Any ideas for fat fingering the remote or what else happened??
Anyway reset defaults and set the gray scale and all is well. On top of that super tight focus. It is looking better than ever at the moment but I hope the focus holds. I should have done this a year ago. Any more tricks to get the focus to hold longer?

Thanks,

Doyle

You don't do focus in the service menu. You do do convergence. Those ICS sometimes get weak before they wear out and die, causing drift and untrustability. Once they are in that stage they are best replaced, which requires a fine tuning afterwards and again at 100 hours, after the "drift period".

DK what happened to your red, if it was caused by your remote and fat fingers. Had you already written down your optimum grayscale values, so you could go back to them, or did you realign it from scratch?

If you have great grayscale and this ever happens to you when you've been playing with the focus block, I recommend not changing any service menu values until going back to the offending color and trying your best to recapture your grayscale using the Screen controls, hopefully ONLY the one you altered badly.

b