anyone here care about modern projection sets?

[rcaman]

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

[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.

[andy]

...

[radiotvnut]

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.

[bgadow]

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.

[Geoff Bourquin]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

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

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!

[holmesuser01]

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...

[sampson159]

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

[Jeffhs]

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.

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.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

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...

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.

[Eric H]

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.

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

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.

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.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by holmesuser01

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.

[holmesuser01]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

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.

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.

[Phototone]

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.