OK guys, give me a couple of days to organize my notes and sketches and I will post the details of the changes I made to these sets.

Steve, by using a satellite box or VCR and feeding the same program to the antenna terminals AND the video input, it was easy to compare the two modes by using the Tuner/Video switch. The video input looks better, though it's hard to quantify the difference.

Even though I aligned the RF section very carefully, I guess I'd describe signal through it as looking just slightly "blotchy" or having a tiny bit of herringbone (maybe caused by neighboring channels), compared to the composite video in.

Using the video in you can more easily count the horizontal lines on the screen and everything looks a bit more defined.

The other thing is that with the tuner, I always had to fiddle with the fine tuning control to get the best combination of sound and picture and it was sometimes hard to make both perfect. With the direct ins, that issue obviously goes away.

Another factor may be that DC level is correct using the video input, because it is *almost* direct coupled to the picture tube (after passing through a small video amp module.) This would make the grey scale more accurate wouldn't it? I'm not sure but I don't think the VT-71 has any kind of DC restoration.

Also the audio is generally better. It should be, since all that's being used in the audio section is 1 1/2 tubes!

David