Colors a little off

[Jon A.]

In regards to my 1982 RCA ColorTrak model FGR478WR: the DVD status indicator should be blue, but when I adjust for proper flesh tones that indicator takes on a slight purplish hue. IIRC, my 1987 Trinitron (not hooked up) does the same thing. I just wonder if it's normal for a set this age or if something needs to be adjusted. Also, I pulled the service switch out of curiosity and got a white horizontal line at first, but doing it subsequent times caused a totally blank screen. Jiggling it causes a green line to briefly appear. pushing it back in always restores normal operation.

[old_tv_nut]

Ummm... what "DVD Status indicator" are you talking about? Is this a menu item on your DVD player? If so, how do you know what color it "should" be?

[Jon A.]

No need to lynch me for not being an expert in technical terminology. You didn't have to post to begin with.

I'm talking about the text box on the screen that comes up when I pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. My mother has the same player hooked to a Sanyo TV from 2001, and I had mine hooked to a 2006 Toshiba recently, as well as a 1989 Panasonic TV until I took it out of service. Blue on all.

[wa2ise]

RCA sets back then had a feature that would make the chroma demodulator be less sensitive to tint errors on flesh tones. The same may be true of blue colors, as blue is the complementary color of yellow, yellow isn't that far from flesh color (at least for the face color of white trash Americans) If so, that could explain the off color blue on your DVD player.

[zeno]

Turn the color all the way down on the TV. You
should get a perfect B&W picture from dark to light
& at any brightness or contrast setting. If you dont
it needs grey scale adjustment & odds are the CRT
is showing its age. If CRT weak you have to compromise on
things for best pix. Somewhere there is a thread I put up
on doing grey scale on a similar aged RCA. I will see if I
can find it later.
The Sony may have AKB "automatic kine bias" if so there
are no adjustments. Nothing easy you can do, but if
its the CRT the pix will start flashing on & off especially
when cold.

73 Zeno

[Jon A.]

Tom: I just checked that out, the grey scale tracking is dead on, and the pic has excellent sharpness even though that control is set at half, so I guess the CRT is fine. The Sony pic doesn't flash and the colors look good, but the focus is poor with the sharpness set at max, so I don't know what's going on there.

Bob: Lots of white trash here too.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

In regards to my 1982 RCA ColorTrak model FGR478WR: the DVD status indicator should be blue, but when I adjust for proper flesh tones that indicator takes on a slight purplish hue. IIRC, my 1987 Trinitron (not hooked up) does the same thing. I just wonder if it's normal for a set this age or if something needs to be adjusted. Also, I pulled the service switch out of curiosity and got a white horizontal line at first, but doing it subsequent times caused a totally blank screen. Jiggling it causes a green line to briefly appear. pushing it back in always restores normal operation.

One of the first things I would do (in regard to the white line/blank screen problem) is clean the service switch. From the way yours is acting, I'd suspect it is probably dirty or perhaps worn. If you can get a good picture by pushing the switch back in, the contacts may well be tarnished. The symptom of a green line when the switch is jiggled will probably disappear as well once the switch is cleaned. If that switch hasn't been cleaned or moved since 1982, this is very likely.

BTW: The LED you refer to as a "DVD status indicator" may well be an indicator that shows when the tint (hue) control is set for proper flesh tones; it is possible the purplish color indicates the correct setting. However, since you said the correct color of this LED for proper flesh tones is blue, I would suspect a drifting resistor somewhere in the circuitry associated with the ColorTrak system. You might notice your set's tint control is somewhat off the center (normal) position when the LED shows purple; if this is the case, then there is definitely something haywire in the ColorTrak system or even in the 3.58-MHz chroma oscillator circuits themselves, since this control should be centered when the flesh tones are correct on the screen.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

BTW: The LED you refer to as a "DVD status indicator"...

I think you misread - it is not an LED, it's an on-screen menu.
---
KV1926R:
If your set's gray scale tracking is good, you are just seeing differences in color demodulators - normal differences between the designs of different sets.

Older sets with an "auto color" feature did it mostly by restricting the strength of green or purple axis colors, so if the flesh tone was in error either way, it would be pulled back toward orange. But purplish blues would also be pulled toward cyan blue.

RCA had a much more sophisticated hue correction (actually invented at Motorola) that only affected the colors around flesh hue and not the colors around blue or cyan. So, your RCA may actually be the only correct one you have.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by KV-1926R

Tom: I just checked that out, the grey scale tracking is dead on, and the pic has excellent sharpness even though that control is set at half, so I guess the CRT is fine. The Sony pic doesn't flash and the colors look good, but the focus is poor with the sharpness set at max, so I don't know what's going on there.

Bob: Lots of white trash here too.

OK , I believe blue is the norm for the DVD OSD since its all I have
seen. So I have to assume both the RCA & Sony are a little "off"
in the same way if the pix is normal otherwise.
The Sony focus is usually on the FBT or sometimes CRT socket.
Adj. for the sharpest most distinct scan lines ( times have changed !).
Dont confuse it with the H-stat or G-2 controls.
The sharpness works on the video stage. Most imperfections
are "noise" which are high freq. Turning it down stops the noise
from getting to the final pix but you lose detail. . Average setting is 1/2 - 2/3.If you have a perfect OFF AIR NTSC signal you can run it full &
get maximum detail.

Yes white trash in NH too ! But I would rather rub elbows with them
than the "beautiful people" in the 4000 sq ft houses.

73 Zeno

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by zeno

Yes white trash in NH too ! But I would rather rub elbows with them
than the "beautiful people" in the 4000 sq ft houses.

73 Zeno

Haha, me too. The former is the kind I grew up with and don't see much of in my current area. One thing I miss is their cars that weren't much quieter than Ace Ventura's Monte Carlo.

Long day today, too wiped to mess with my sets, will get into that Sony issue soon.

[Jon A.]

Finally had the back off my Sony; focus control is in a very hard-to-reach place, back of the CRT neck board with no through-hole for access, same with the screen control which I didn't touch. There are through-holes for color controls, but they're fine so that's a moot point now, didn't touch those either. I was wrong about the DVD OSD on the Sony, it' the proper color. Darn thing was sitting so long I forgot that. Could've been my '78 RCA I remembered that from. The focus control didn't make a great deal of difference; it was almost fully CCW and turning it fully CW with the sharpness control still jacked didn't make for a satisfactory picture IMO. I did try tweaking it somewhat and eventually just jacked it. I did hear a snap and the picture jumped a bit after I finished with the focus control, not sure what that would have been.

Finally, the area around the anode cap is dirty, same thing on my Zenith, the latter not being noticed until I closely looked at the inside pic full-size. What would cause that, and would it have an effect on the picture?