anyone here care about modern projection sets?
 

i have gotten to the point of junking everything i have related to them.just checking before the stuff hits the dump.have not noticed anyone collecting them.they take up way too much room and are a pain to deal with.

I suspect they were an intermediate "fad" and a cheaper way to make TVs with screens bigger than they could practically do with other available technologies at the time. This makes even more sense if you consider that the tube technology was already there for CRT-based projectors, and simply needed to be adapted to a TV-set.

Then came LCDs, which are all the rage now, and can essentially be manufactured in any size and scale, since they don't have the engineering problems (weight, size, sweep speeds necessary) you get with larger CRTs.

Biggest PITA with projection sets is changing coolant/tubes and the hassle to re-align everything afterwards... that, and replacement tubes aren't exactly cheap.

Of course, now we see DLP projection TVs, which have their own set of problems... but at least the one bulb is cheaper than 3 new projection CRTs. :D

Edit: If I recall, my Uni offered a projection-tv-based smartboard system up for grabs on FreeCycle... it was still there three months later. I suspect a part of the problem was just that it's size made it rather difficult to transport... but still, FREE, and nobody wanted it. (1-day U-haul rent if you don't have a truck - still a good deal!).

The only ones I'd save, would be the Sony KP-4000, and the earlier single-tube Sony 2-piece set (forget model #). Also the Advent VB1000 is collectible, I guess. But the city dump is probably the best place for the 1980s & 90s projection sets, which now I see lining the desert highways in California like blown tires.

Charles

Not my cup of tea. Everytime I run a "free pick-up of non-working TV's" ad in the paper, I am flooded with calls from people wanting to give me these things. If I ever run such an ad, there will be a line that says "no projection style big screen TV's".

About 2-3 years ago, an older lady asked me to come to her home to fix her old RCA PTK169 projection set. So, I pulled out the guts, brought them home, replaced the usual bad power supply/HOT components that fail in these sets, and took it back home. About six months later, it died again. The HOT was shorted, again; and, I could find no reason for it. A new HOT got the set back going and I told the lady that if it died again, she would be better off to junk it. Not long after that, the owner passed away and I think I saw her TV at the Salvation Army store.

Before that, I gave someone $10 for a monster RCA PTK179 projection TV. It needed a new HV splitter, a screen/focus control assembly, and the usual solder job on the tuner. I actually sold that set for good money; but, the splitter failed again, about a year later, and I had the set right back in my way. After fixing the set, it took the people longer than I would have liked for them to come get it. Then, about six months after that, they bought a regular CRT TV from me and told me that the big screen had died again. I told them that I no longer accepted those types of TV's for repair.

I did fix a more modern plastic cased projection set for a guy (replaced the convergence IC's); but, that one didn't weigh 900 lbs. and take 5 people to move.

As far as I'm concerned; they take up too much room, they are too hard to handle, and then there's the hassle of the thing possibly coming back to bite me in the butt. And, this is one area where I would favor a lightweight LCD TV over an older projection set. If I wanted a large screen, I'd take an LCD TV anyday over a monster projection set with a muddy picture. And, I've never seen a projection TV that produced a picture that I thought was great.

Have to agree here....

I guess it is from NOT having to work on almost ANY of these types of sets in over a year now--that has gotten me "spoiled" to where I simply have no desire anymore to work on the tube--based RPTV sets OR the older Mits LCD/DLP sets with all of the "shields". in them. Flat-panels are SO much ligfhter and easier to handle--even though they tend to be LESS reliable--especially plasma sets.

No--I really do not have any desire to work on them anymore--and certainly not to "save them". I could have had at least 3 of them this last Friday night--when Wyoming had their "spring clean up" along with at LEAST 20 "normal" sets--including at least 6 of the 36" sets!! NO THANKS!!

No--I need the room for the "vintage stuff", like the 2 RCA sets I got recently, the CTC-40 combo and the 1970 VMT-68 stereo with the RARE SS RS-246 amp.

I feel the same way. I need the room for vintage stuff. I too am getting to the point where even the large screen CRT sets don't excite me because they are big, hard to handle, take up space, and are harder to get rid of. Not long ago, I loved getting larger screen CRT sets because I could move them out the door in a hurry and make pretty good $ off of them. Now, I have two perfectly working 35" sets ('07 Sanyo and '97 RCA) that needed minor repair after bringing them home from the trash. I'm about ready to give them away just to get them out of here. Even though they don't bring much, I have better luck at selling 13" and 19" sets. And, these are small enough that my flea market friend can easily take them to his sale.

Actually, my "little brother" from church has an older projection set that he says the picture is bowed in from the sides and he'd like me to fix it. I told him that when I got some room, I'd let him bring it over. Besides him, I can't think of too many other people who I would let bring one of those sets over here.

I agree with Charles in that a few very special ones are definately worth saving. I would love to have an Advent system.
So, taking a lesson from history... how many of the early B&W projection sets are sought after and desired enough to pay a decent price for after 50 to 70 years of storage plus rebuild efforts?
I saw a very special one recently on epay that had a mahogany high level cabinet and an original perfect stainless steel mirror that the owner described in details of how to clean it, etc. It was working perfect and I think it had paperwork. I mentioned it here and no response.

I think all of us feel this way about the "special projo sets". I just gave away a VT-1000A to another AK'er a couple of months back. I did not want to bother moving it to the new garage. I would like to get a BW projo myself, and there are a number of newer sets I would like too.

But...we are all talking about the "normal" projo sets I suspect--from the mid-80's--to the early 2000's. Sets that are too "old to sell", but "too new to save" and too big, common, heavy and /or troublesome to mess with. For a good example-- I simply will NOT waste time either saving, or even fixing --ANY Mitsu DLP from the mid-2000's... they are a NIGHTMARE to fix--or KEEP fixed--(as others here know too well, I suspect!!)

Who remembers those monster GE projection sets from the mid-to-late '70's that used a 13" TV and some mirrors to produce the picture? I saw one of those at a TV repairman friend's house and the picture wasn't worth a crap. I'm sure the set being 20-25 years old didn't help; but, I've heard that these sets didn't look that great when new.

Or, what about one of those Zenith's from the early '80's that used a motorized drive system in order to lower the screen portion down inside the cabinet when not in use? I actually had one of those where the mechanism had failed and the screen was always in the "up" position. Also, the green CRT had a busted neck; but, the set otherwise worked. I ended up junking it.

Oh, and let's not forget those Sony LCD projection sets that had the optical block issues. A friend gave me one of those and Sony admitted to him that every one of those sets developed a faulty optical block and in order to keep him as a customer, they gave him a new LCD set. They told him to do as he pleased with the old set. I was going to try to fix it and resell it; but, after reading all the bad stuff about those models, I decided to give it to the junk man. I'd rather spend my efforts on stuff that will actually be reliable after I'm finished with it. I could have fixed that Sony set; but, it would not have been any more reliable than it was from the factory and it would have cost as much, or more, than I could have sold it for.

I saw one of those Sonys at the Salvation Army, it had a 2004 date on the back I think and had some obvious issues with blobs of color on the screen, still they were asking $200 or so for it.

It was junk, no reasonable way to fix it, no way it could be enjoyable to watch and they were still selling it for an outrageous price.

I bought a Sony LCD Projector one generation after that, they apparently had fixed the problem by then since it's still working fine, original bulb even and probably 10,000 hours on the clock.

Two of my friends who bought Mitsu DLP sets a year after I got the Sony already went through 2 or 3 bulbs each and in one case donated his to Goodwill after it quit altogether, I soldered the PS board and it was working when he got rid of it but he was fed up with it.

Those Mitsubisahis certainly are nightmares. I've recently dealt with 2 of them.One I recapped both the DM and Formatter boards. The main culprit was the caps on the formatter boards but most were bad on the DM. The DM didn't work afterward.Found one on ebay and even it had some bad caps.Had pink and purple lines in the picture unless heated with a heat gun.

After repairing that one another one came in with power supply issues.(caps and a blown surface mount fuse) After playing perfectly for 15-20 minutes it shut off and wouldn't stay on anymore. It wasn't in the chassis as I swapped it from the repaired one.It was the light engine. Luckily I found a cheap one on ebay and saved the repair. On that first one I don't think I will ever go through that again. Changing all the surface mount caps on those boards and having one not even work at all afterwards.:thumbsdn:

Oh I remember those GEs.Worked on one in the early 90s. Terrible picture. Those Zeniths had so many problems that the motors were were unplugged on all the ones I worked on. The pictures weren't great on them either.Neither was the next generation Zeniths that were the boxiest projections ever made. I think they were at least as deep as they were wide. Terrible space hogs.The pictures weren't great and they were known for failures burning lines on the crts. The crts were short lived also so if anyone still has one it must really look like crap by now.Zenith never made a decent reliable projection tv in my opinion.

...

i have a toshiba light engine with a cracked panel.
lines and black blobs in the image like a busted lcd.
i saved it in case the rest of the board is useful.maybe when i get a moment i will autopsy it and post pics.
the 80's-90's-2000's projection stuff went crash in the dumpster.only saved some low hours crt's.
i really dont want to see these sets anymore as my back issue prevents me from getting down in the floor to mess with them.a big pain to get them on a bench where i can work on them.add to that the fact most folks wont pay much to fix them and they become a dead issue.

i have a 64" hdtv pioneer rear crt projection set. best picture i have seen on a proj. set. i am going to keep it going as long as possible even have a spare chassis and a new set of crt,s for it. steve

Too bad Sony had such problems with the SXRD optical blocks because in my opinion they produced picture quality that was among the best ever. I have the KDS-R50XBR1 here at home, but it has the usual blue LCD panel failure, so it's a green and red only color set at this time. Wife says it's still a working set and I should be happy to have a working TV, so I can't get anything else. I'd like to spend the $300 to get the optical block repaired, but that won't happen soon. I noticed Tri State Module sells the blue polarizers and LCD panels separately for the 3LCD models however, so a dedicated DIYer could do their own repairs on one of those. These sets develop one or both problems: Blue discoloration from a degraded polarizer or blue dots/splotches from a failing LCD panel. The SXRD sets normally just lose blue altogether, but these use different parts in the optical block. They work by reflecting light off the LCD panel instead of blocking light through the panel like a traditional LCD. If I had a way of repairing the optical blocks myself these would probably be the only modern projection sets worth repairing due to the picture quality when working properly plus they're all 1080i so they're full HD sets.

I had a working Mitsubishi WD-62525 before that I resurrected by replacing nearly every electrolytic on the FMT and DM boards, but it quit a month later with a different problem, so it went on the curb. Won't touch any Mitsubishi DLP of that vintage again. They're only 720p, so not much by today's standards and they have too much of that annoying "rainbow" effect.
Not to mention too hard to work on with all those shields!

As far as the CRT projection sets, they're just too big and don't have that great of a picture quality, IMO, even the 1080i ones. Too many sets out there with too many hours and worn out CRTs.

...

I still have people offering me these things and I turn them down every time. Heck, I still have people asking me to fix them. Just a little while ago, someone on FB asked me to fix a 6-7 year old Hitachi with bad light engine symptoms. I declined the job and told her that she'd be better off investing in another TV.

A lot of people get PO'ed when you tell them their $2K-$3K TV that's less than ten years old is not worth fixing; but, the fact is that a newer TV's that's much lighter in weight and can produce a better picture can be bought for less than the repair cost of the old TV.

My friend at the flea market said that someone brought him a later RPTV and tried to sell it to him for $300. My friend pretty much told him that he didn't want it, even if it was free, because no one would buy it. The guy came back with the usual line, "I paid $3K for it". Some people don't get the fact that, no matter how much they paid for the TV when new, it is considered an obsolete dinosaur that no one wants.

My aunt called me last week, her best friend has one she wants gone. (she had actually asked me about it a couple years ago when the audio went out, wanting me to fix it-I'd forgotten about that) I posted it on freecycle for her but no responses. Hitachi, I think she said.

I run into that a lot. I tell them I would rather have them get angry with me because I didn't take their money than because I did, knowing they would not get their moneys worth out of the repair. I like to try to make them feel better about all that money they paid for the set going down the drain, explaining that it wasn't that they did something stupid, but the manufacturers cut corners everywhere they could and crossed their fingers that the thing would last through the warranty.

As for CRT projection, I don't see many anymore. They abruptly dropped off to a trickle just before Christmas 2010. I screen them pretty carefully now days before I work on them. Most of the Mitsubishi sets seem to be worth a try, as long as they are not too old and the CRT coolant hasn't leaked. Not many projection sets from before 1998 that I'll work on now. I don't consider the Philips sets worth messing with anymore. Late model RCA might be worth it, since most of them only seem to have bad soldering on the fly and those ribbon cable connectors. Older RCA sets aren't usually worth it anymore. Late Hitachi models are OK, but I think I have put new STK chips in almost every one of them around here already, so there aren't many of those left to do. Not seeing Toshiba projo anymore.

Still doing DLP sets, mostly fans and color wheels ( and lamps of course), and occasionally a DLP chip with stuck pixels.
Been about 1 1/2 years since I did a Sony optical block. See lots of them but people don't want to spend the money.
More than anything these days I'm swapping electrolytic caps. I have a shoebox full of dead ones.
Oh yeah..I won't do those first generation Mits DLP sets either. Even gave up on my own about a year ago....A guy gave me $20 bucks for it and I took the money and ran!

Those Phillips built PTV's from the early 90's on were horrible. No individual modules to replace, like the early versions... Had to repair them to component levels. I had some arguments with Magnavox warranty services over these sets. I finally stopped doing service on all PTV's, and lost my Zenith warranty service because of this. I sure dont miss the GS built Zenith sets...

owned a magnavox 60 incher back in the 90s.6 years and never a problem.sold it and actually broke even.next was a mitsubishi 70 inch set.very good!amazing picture for analog that most people thought was hd.owned that one 7 years and sold on ebay.have over 12000 hours on my infocus projector in the same room.its always 64 degrees year round.never have an overheating issue with any electronics

I have seen exactly one Zenith projection TV with the motorized screen; it was at a TV shop in my home town in the 1980s. I never saw the set working; I just remember seeing it on the sales floor and seeing an ad or two for the set online. That set was called the "Space Screen 45" and also had Space Phone, in addition to full remote control.

I'm not surprised that many if not most of these sets had the screen's drive motor disconnected after a year or two; the mechanism that raised and lowered the screen must have been complicated as all get out, so no wonder the drives went bad after such a short period of time. Many people who owned these probably figured it was better just to fix the screen in the up position and unplug the motor when it went bad (if the rest of the television still worked well enough to watch) than to have the drive mechanism repaired.

How good or bad was the picture on these sets, anyway? I just read a post in this thread that said these TVs didn't have the best pictures by any means, the fact that they were Zeniths notwithstanding. Were these sets really that terrible as far as picture quality was concerned? I would think, for the amount of money these sets sold for when they were new, they would have a fairly decent picture out of the box and for some years afterward.

The Space Screen 45 was a novel idea, but from what I just read about it, the picture quality, along with the troublesome mechanism to raise and lower the screen, made these sets an embarrassment to Zenith and an insult to the company's 70+-year reputation for quality as well. I wonder just how much money Zenith lost on warranty repairs on these sets. :scratch2:

I never owned a projection TV in my life, and wouldn't want one today. They are probably much more reliable than they were 30 years ago (the heyday of the Space Screen 45), but they are huge, and I'm sure I would not have the room for one in my small apartment anyway. I don't care for plasma TVs either, due to their problems with burn-in, et al. In my opinion, the best kind of flat-screen TVs are the LCD-LED sets, which use arrays of light-emitting diodes rather than a cold-cathode fluorescent lamp to illuminate the screen. They are light in weight, consume less energy, and I am sure they make much better pictures than many plasma sets today.

Didn't Magnavox build a RPTV for Sears?
I remember seeing one in the early 90's. They were selling them in their outlet stores, to get rid of them, as they were such dogs.
The smart buyers bought the maintenance agreement. If their hot-shot techs couldn't repair it, they would refund the entire purchase price. :D

My In-laws had a 1989 Mitsubishi 60" CRT rptv that they kept going for nearly 20 years.
It was one with a huge Oak cabinet with bi-fold doors over the screen.

The red CRT got really tired but they kept watching it for several years in that condition.

I think they finally gutted it and used the cabinet for something else.

Yes they did. Sold under the LXI name. Replaced modules galore on them.

The MA's were sold by us, the techs. I told customers with the RP sets that even a single picture tube would cost them $300 and up just for the tube.

If I DIDN'T sell a MA in a week, I would get comments on my work ethic from our district hub. I hated that.

IIRC, you mensioned that you worked for Sears.
In the earlier days, they had techs that were pretty sharp.
Later, they had people that would work in several areas. They had one guy that would repair lawn and garden equipment, working on VCR's. He would do head cleaning and other minor repairs.
The future doesn't look too promising for Sears. :sigh:

When I started there, it was for TV/VCR/and stereo equipment.

When I left, I'd added appliances, garage door openers , and exercise equipment to the list.

Sears had a great core crew there at the hub (our store was big enough to be a service hub location). Some had been there 25 years. It was the new people that ran the place that did it in for me.

Some CRT RPTV's of the High Definition type have really good pictures, also lets not forget the ultra-delux 3-tube front projectors that were/are ceiling mounted and project on a flat screen on the wall. Some of those were outstanding.

Always hated the "big box" projos. Heavy, awkward and not very good pictures. Mitsu, well, get a big box of capacitors and pour it on the ground and you would swear you could see the TV eating them!
I still use a VPH-1031 Sony ceiling projo. It's a workhorse and will do 540P.
I see dead projos on the side of the highway also. Luckily have not worked on a Zenith "Zurtle" in many years.
And don't forget the Zenith coolant issue killing off the sweep boards!
Convergence IC's in Mitsu's, CRT burns on many sets that had small children with games or a stock market watcher with the info crawler, scratched/broken screens, especially the ones with the fresnel lens part on the outside.
Give me a good 27" BPC and a Heinekin! Please!
Nightmare memories........