Making transition from CRT to LCOS - A little starter help needed

I have three TV's in my home, all Pioneer Elites. They are eight years old now. All have burn in and uneven phosphor wear on them. If I could just replace the CRT guns themselves, I would, but that would cost more than getting new sets. I'm pretty scared about the current DLP situation, which looks like they will all be dropped like CRT's were years ago, so I've decided that now is the time to be replacing them.

I've already located a Sony KDS-R70XBR2 to replace my Pioneer Pro 710 to start.

I calibrate all my sets myself. I am an engineer by trade and learned and honed by calibration abilities over the years. I have my own equipment (I recently got a Sencore OTC1000... it rocks . I do a screen, lens (all nine surfaces), and mirror clean every year, as well as convergence, focus (manual & electrostatic), greyscale, color, etc.

Of course I'm very well familiar with the service menus on these sets.

Can anyone advise me on the service menu on the KDS-R70XBR2? How "ISF" friendly is it? I will be getting the service manual for this set, but it would be nice if someone could point me to a site that details the SM functions we are most interested in for calibrating.

The other thing I'm worried about is dust. Dust cleaning the mirrors and lenses on the CRT's was pretty straightforward. Can any ISF calibrators advise me on how and what gets cleaned on the KDS-R70XBR2? I've heard some people say that the light engine can't be cleaned and the only thing you can do to fix dust in the light engine is to replace it. I'd like to know what you normally do.

I'm not an idiot DIYer trying to save money, I can afford to pay to have it done, but I have a genuine love for doing it myself and I enjoy learning all I can. I think I have a good aptitude for this and I did excellent work with my CRT's. If I could be a professional ISF calibrator, I would, but I don't really enjoy traveling, plus from what I've heard it's not really a steady income.

What is "green blob?"

I've seen it mentioned here and there, but I've yet to read an explanation of what it is, what causes it, how likely it is to occur, and how to fix it.

Can someone please elaborate?

Wow, to me, that is horrible news. Offset files? For The Hubble? That's a MAJOR foul-up. I feel like I've been ripped off.

I'll be calling Sencore on Monday about this.

I talked with Sencore earlier this week.

They said that they are aware of the situation of what Michael has reported from his work with the THX people. They say that before it was released, the OTC1000 was tested extensively by them, X-Rite, and various beta testers, and no one had reported any problems with measurements on DLP/LCOS displays, and in fact the unit was calibrated for use with such displays before any of them were shipped. At this point, the only information they have that there is a problem is coming from Michael. So they are first going to try to determine if this is indeed a widespread problem, and IF they find that it is, then they will probably look at taking units back from customers for recalibration. However, that step is something that they are NOT planning on doing until they determine 1) if there IS a problem and 2) how widespread the problem is.

Today in the mail I received version 1.02 of the OTC1000 software from Sencore. (They sent it to me automatically for no charge.) It would appear that these measuring issues as reported by Michael to THX were the result of one or more software bugs, and those bugs should be fixed in this new software version.

I have not had time to install and try it out yet.