1986 RCA Console TV Model G25343WK
 

I recently purchased this TV. It came from a 90 Year Old Couple who just upgraded to a Flat Screen TV. The TV comes on real good and clear and no colors are funky when it first powers on. The issue I am having with the TV is that Dark Images like Black or Bright Color like white have a Blue Shadow or Blue Outline on them. It's not too noticeable when setting far from TV. However, if you get up real close to the TV you can see alot of blue highlighting on the edges of objects such as blue coloring on a person's hair or blue coloring on a white jersey of a football player. Also, I have noticed, I seem to have a solid blue vertical line on both sides of the screen that is visible when TV is blank from switching to screen shot to screen shot. There is no red or green color bleed. In a Black and White Screen Shot there is quite a bit of blue color visible in the picture. I have tried adjusting the Color, Picture and Bright Level and none of those adjustments seem to help. Can someone tell me if this is a sign of the picture tube getting weak or another issue that needs an adjustment. Thanks. 1996 NOT 1986...
I posted two pictures of issue under my user name...

pic would help

Pictures are posted if you click on my UserName in my Album. I do not know how to get the pictures in the actual Thread Post. I posted two of them.

Could be a sign of picture tube getting weak, but a setup adjustment of G2 voltages might fix it. If you turn down the contrast, the blue smear should shrink and disappear at low enough setting. This is a sign that the set up either is wrong or is compensating for a weak blue gun. Usually, you would expect the red gun to be the weakest as it is normally driven the hardest.

Are you saying try turning up the G2 Setting a little, or do you mean another adjustment on the G2 setting?
Thanks.

I assume this chassis has separate red, green and blue video output transistors driving the cathodes. Then, that kind of smear indicates the video output transistor for the blue cathode is saturated (drawing max current and producing minimum voltage). A possible fix is to adjust the G2 voltage (making the picture darker) and then turn up the brightness (making the video output transistor collector voltages higher and avoiding saturation).

[Hope I didn't get that backwards - having the service info / setup procedure would help.]

Oops - I think I did get that backwards. You want the cathode voltages to go higher, which would darken the picture, so you brighten it with the G2 setting.

Why would anyone sit close (read inches (!)) to a TV, especially a modern flat screen? (Remember when parents told their children not to sit too close to a color TV due to the X-ray scare of the 1960s-'70s?) If the distortion is not noticeable at normal viewing distance, why bother with it at all? I sit 10 feet away from my 32" flat screen and see the picture just fine. I do not notice any difference between standard definition and high definition pictures anyway, except the picture is much sharper than it was at the old 4:3 aspect ratio. As long as I can see a clear picture on my TV at ten feet (I can), it is plenty good enough for me.

Did you know that 10 feet is known in the industry as the "Lechner distance?"
It is the most common viewing distance of TV in the American home, as determined by research done by Bernie Lechner of Sarnoff Labs.

Anyway, I think that wide blue smear shown in Console User's photos would be visible at ten feet. It is not only wide, but like all such smears is at maximum brightness.

Well, I turned down the G2 as you stated first a little and made it darker. Then brightened the picture up with the Bright Setting until I had a nice picture. It seems to me it pretty much did away with the Blue Smearing. Yes, the Smear was noticeable from a distance away from the TV just not up close. However, not always visible from a distance.

Great.

Try it with contrast set to maximum to see if you were able to go far enough. If the tube is going bad, you may not be able to get enough adjustment for both a good picture and no smearing at max contrast, but you should try it.

I worked with my TV a little more today. I turned Color, Bright, Tint, and Sharpness all to the halfway point on the Adjustments. I left Picture at about 3/4 the way. I also adjusted the focus a little to take out some of the smearing in the picture. I also adjusted the G2 to where I just have a slight background visible on the blank screen. It seems to be not too bad on blue coloring smear from this distance now. I think I may have noticed another issue with the set today. When I first power on the TV and pull up my guide on my Dish Receiver the yellow box on channel numbers is partially discolored for a few minutes on the far left hand side. If you cancel out of the guide and go back to it later then the issue of discoloring disappears. Also, I am thinking that after first turned on the picture may be doing a slight flash on the screen.

What would cause the TV to show what should be yellow on the screen look half lime green half yellow when TV is first turned on? Also, what would cause a noticeable flash of brighter picture momentarily after turned on and then after this the yellow is shown in it's normal tone of color? It does this color switch on the left hand side of TV only I believe.

hey you have a gassy CRT, its worn out, but if it can produce a decent picture. run the hell out of it until its dead. look for another RCA and grab the tube.

Would it do any good to turn up the G2? I backed down on Picture, & sharpness & then adjusted focus. I turned up bright to make picture not so dark since I lowered picture..It seems better now..

hey i suggest of doing a setup and if it makes a nice picture that you could live with just do it and keep an eye out for a good tube, but if i remember right there's a service menu you pull up and you can set your r g b bias controls and drives to get a good bright grayscale picture. i always liked a brighter picture with the contrast turn to just about middle. try that first.

I went in and turned down my Picture to about Midway Point. I then bumped up the bright to just a little past the half way point. I had turned up G2 Previously so since I bumped up the brightness I gradually backed down on the G2 Setting. It doesn't seem to show much blooming of the blue set this way. I had to turn up the Sharpness some too. The picture is a little dark, but not bad for the way I had to adjust settings to keep the blue smearing down to minimum or not at all. I'm not sure how you get into the Service Menu on these 1996 Sets either? I thought someone said one time you hold down on the menu button or have to enter a code? Thanks for your advice.

What I used to do on those RCAs was turn down the contrast preset pot on the main board because customers would often push the picture reset button in the menu. It's a trimmer with (IIRC) and orange plastic cap. A small screwdriver or hexaligner will work. You can also use your fingers. Towards the middle/left of the main board.

The picture tube is a bit weak and default contrast can cause a bit of halo smear on one or more colors, yet still be strong enough to provide an accurate and clean picture when the contrast is set to a more usable level.

John

Thank You for your information. I'll look into that. I should have grabbed my phone and took a picture this morning when I turned the TV on. It really went wacko for awhile. I had a picture that was totally messed up like it was rolling, etc. I switched the TV over to the RCA AV Inputs and it was fine on that source. It was in the coax cable hookup in the back of the TV. I wiggled the cable and that input source was okay too. It had even lost it's color on the Coax Input versus a nice colored picture at the same time when I switched over to the RCA Input.

I wonder if the tuner grounds been done on the board tuner. now if the grounds have not been addressed, it would cause the e prom voltage would go out of spec. it would cause it to go bad and it would make it do strange things.

I would probably think it hasn't been worked on by the previous owners. Their Grandson talked like nothing had been done to it. That wouldn't cause any of the blooming/smearing issue would it in the blue color? I minimized that by turning down my picture and upping the Bright to compensate for the dim picture. I turned up the sharpness also.

Pretty Good Picture Now
 

I hooked my TV Video Source up with the S Video and the RCA Cable Red & White for the Audio. I seem to have a pretty good clear, & not too dark of a picture running it this way. The Blue blooming/smearing doesn't seem to be noticeable from a reasonable viewing distance. I switch my Input over to Antenna/Cable Coax Cable and the picture isn't nearly as nice and vibrant as through the S Video. I turned down the Picture a little from the way the TV was Preset to help my issue of the blue blooming. I think I can live with the picture that I am getting now.

hey if you can live with it that's all that matters.

Not on the 140 (or 168/169), which this should be for 1986 model year. The early '90s CTC 17X/18X/195/197 series had the tuner on board setup, and as you said, the tuner grounds (and heatsink grounds) would cause performance issues and eeprom corruption.

John

But that leaves the possability its cold joints on the tuner pkg
or other sub board.

BTW what is the chassis ## ? And hows about a few nudies of the chassis.

Lastly abt 2 months ago there was another RCA about the same vintage with the same looking problem. At first glance it looked like a weak jug or messy 200V. But it just didnt fit the bill. He was going to change the jungle
but got intimidate by the SMD's

I always liked those set, mostly made a lot money off them and zeniths with the (maybe) 9-169 modules. its been a long time ago.

It's my mistake. I typed in 1986 Model. I have a 1996 Model.

Chasis # CTC177AM2. 1996 RCA Console TV Set.

Yes. My Tuner for the Coax/Cable is on the Main Board on the left side.

Service Menu Instructions
 

Does anyone know how to enter into the Service Menu for the 1996 RCA Model G25343WK? I would like to be able to get to the Bias and Drive Adjustments for the Red, Blue, & Green. I would like to be able to turn down the Blue a little and then tweak the others to see, if that helps with the Blue Blooming. The Blue Blooming is really noticeable around lettering, around the shoulder and collar areas of images that are in black. If you try to turn up the picture really high the blue just smears out. Issue with black lettering on certain white backgrounds. The Blue is the only color blooming out.

Picture Level Setting and Picture Quality
 

I have still been tweaking TV Adjustments. I turn down the Picture Level to try to keep the blue smearing to the least visible level as possible but still have a picture that looks appealing enough to still watch. I've noticed that even if I turn the Picture Level way down close to dim I can still see the blue smearing near the TV. Does that indicate if I turn the Picture Level way down and the Blue is still Blooming on the Picture that it is a weak picture tube or does this signal there is another issue in TV Set other than a faulty picture tube? I've had other RCA Sets before that if I experienced Color Bleed in one of the colors I could turn down the Picture Level and it would usually take care of the issue. However, in this particular set this doesn't seem to help me much at all.

can you post some pics

Pictures of Issue
 

Pictures have been posted in my Album. If you click on my name. I added three pictures. I didn’t get picture of TV Flashing & Fluttering when turned on in morning when a Set is Cold. I turn it off & wait a few minutes then comes on & works fine. I presume that may be an issue in tuner soldering since it doesn’t do that on S Video?

well the tuner issues is popping off station, TV turn off and back on just strange things. when RCA built the sets they used solder that was not the best quality and poorly soldered the grounds in the tuner. the solder will break apart and cause the voltage to go crazy and the microcomputer to change data in the e prom where the data is stored and the e prom would go bad.

from what i can tell it needs a setup, but 99% of the adjustments are the serve menu, but i suggest turn the picture control or contrast control down until it stops smearing or use s-video. let it play and see what happens.

i looked the model no up and the chassis no is ctc177, maybe zeno or john can chime in.

I was able to get into the Service Menu to where you can adjust your bias and Drive settings. I turned the Blue down on both of them. Also, made slight adjustments to the green. I do not seem to have the Blue bleeding out. I still do have a slight outline of some objects in blue if looking real close to set. However, when setting in my easy chair the picture to me looks better. This was done with the Picture Level turned down and the brightness increased. I guess, I talked to a Local TV Repairman and he told me not to run the set too much until I get the connections at my tuner fixed. He said it may make the e prom go out totally.

http://www.walshcomptech.com/repairf...une.htm#rcasuc

Write down all numbers before you make a change.
Dont touch tuner settings BUT do record them just in case.

Yep. I recorded all the numbers in the Bias and Drive Settings before changing them. I didn't go to the Tuner Settings. I just went to the Number V76. Here is the numbers what it was set at, followed by what I have them at now.

BIAS: Red-56; Green-46; Blue-45 Now set at In Order as listed before 56;40;35
Drive: Red-49; Green-39; Blue-36 Now set at In Order as listed before 49;35;28

To me the picture looks better. It even looks clearer and sharper. I do not seem to have the Blue Flaring . I do still have a little noticeable Blue Outline etching but not really noticeable anymore from a reasonable viewing distance. Just when up close to set when making adjustments.

I'm open to any suggestions that you may have if you think an adjustment in any of the colors would still improve my picture.

The set is 25 years old and i believe the tuner has been done. When new they went a couple of years before they grounds had to be redone. make sure your color is off and you have a good grayscale when setting drives and bias and enjoy it. The blue out line is convergence and it was never perfect. Those were one of my favorite sets. in Atlanta they were everywhere. those sets and the zenith system 3 sets has a place in my heart.

OK, big difference. The advice Jbattles gave you then is correct on the 1996 years regarding the tuner grounds and eeprom corruption if allowed to go uncorrected. Also, the two solder tabs on the horiz output and LV regulator IC heatsinks must also be soldered or the eeprom will corrupt.

John