[trinescope]

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.