[mikecazzx]

What should I be looking for on the unit and the picture? What basic tests should I try if I am looking at used CRT in person?


Should I display an all black screen, all red, all green, all blue or all white?


Is there a standard test pattern I can down and bring on a floppy?


How do I check for text wear or burn in?


Can the CRT faces be viewed with a flashlight if the cover is on? Are the covers designed to be quickly removed and put back on?


Would bringing a dvd player and an Svideo cable help? (Assuming its not hooked up for home theatre use)


Would this basic DVD output look good enough to tell anything?


Anyone know the basic procedure to display the hours on a Barco, NEC, Sony and Electrohome?


Does a CRT need to warm up?

If so, how long?

 

[nO0b]

tube condition is the most important thing to check. bad tube burn should be readily visible shining a flashlight into the lens. slight burn might be harder to spot w/ the lenses on, and the seller might not want you to start wrenching his pj to take off the lenses.


for barcos (maybe others?) there should be serial #'s all over the place. the service menu will tell you what serial # it thinks should be on the pj. write that down, and check the inside of the pj...there are serial # stickers on the case, the chassis (in a couple places), and the tubes. if they are all the same, there's a really good chance that the run-time hours (also in the service menu) is truly an indication of what you're buying.


if the #'s don't line up, it doesn't mean it's not a good unit, but it's probably been re-tubed/re-conditioned/repaired, etc.. so it's harder to get a feel for how "used" the thing really is.


check the chassis for missing screws. to me, if there's a bunch of screw holes w/o screws in them, it's an indication that it's been apart many times, and carelessly re-assembled. again, not necessarily a bad thing, but another indicator of potential problems.


there's lots of other things to try if you can turn it on and play some dvd's thru it. bring an avia disc and player and see if u can do a basic setup and convergence using the avia grids. bring up the grey field patterns and see if it looks like it tracks greys properly, etc..


other tips here -> http://www.crtprojectors.co.uk/crt_faq.htm


there's a lot to be said for just buying from one of the reliable resellers like curt, since he will stand behind whatever you buy, and will check out a lot more than i would know to do.


good luck.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Make sure it powers up and all the tubes fire well. The tube condition is the most important too, while *some* wear is not necessarily bad, uneven wear or text wear is definitely unwanted.


Some projectors, such as the marquees require the service pw to get to the hour meter (which is 0901, btw, it's in the service/training manuals). Others have no hour meters at all.


If you can, get the unit set up, and look at some text patterns. Most projectors will have some patterns or all white screens. Make sure you can't see text burn in, and if there is wear, try to ascertain how even it is over your viewing area.


Projectors will drift ever so slightly during warm up (depending on the situation), so while I wouldn't sit around doing nothing waiting for it to warm up, it certainly couldn't hurt.


You can view wear through the lenses, though it is much easier to see if you pull the lenses. You should compare to the condition list at c r t cinema as a decent guide.


You should really try to bring a computer with RGB, as many projectors have weird ways of accepting (or not) composite/s-video. Most don't take component. For instance marquees take composite and s-video on the RGB BNC inputs, so you'll need adapters/funky cables, not the standard s-video RCA video cables. You'll also need VGA-BNC RGB to run to the projector if you use a computer.

 

[mikecazzx]

Thanks guys. Excellent tips. I will be looking at a few locally soon. I am assuming some seller wont want anything taken apart, especially if they are not CRT familiar. I dont see that CRT wear chart anymore on thier site?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

go to one of their lists of projectors, and they list the tube condition, it's a link, click, and it gets you to the list. It's a helpful reference anyway.

 

[mikecazzx]

Found it. Excellent photos! Thanks.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

BTW: where are you located?

 

[mikecazzx]

Quote:

Originally posted by ChrisWiggles BTW: where are you located?

50 minutes southeast of Chicago, Nw Indiana, work in and around Chicago and west burbs.