CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

First of all, Hello my name is Jon and I will be your resident n00b for a while.

Well, I have been looking for a projector I could afford for a long time, I was actually going to build one. But yesterday I happened to find a Sony VPH-1031Q for $60. Now, I am going to skip all the set up questions for now because I am still reading how to set it up (although I already have a reasonably nice picture coming out of it). From the looks of it someone ran the projector with it set to use only about 75-80% of the tubes in the bottom left hand corner (would be top right on the tubes themselves). Now, the red and green don't show any signs of this (or if they do it is really hard to see) but it is very noticeable on the blue one. So it looks like I am going to be looking for an SD-187 blue tube at some point. Is there any other places besides the bay for these?

Also, I am going to be doing a lot of gaming on these, mostly RPGs and Racing games but also a lot of old school games for the NES and such, how long does burn in take before it becomes a problem and is there a way to mitigate it?

Thank you for your time. I will post some pictures and such later.

x_25.

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

Hello, the following site has tons of information on the 1031q.

http://www.eboyztoyz.net/article.php?ncat=00132

Also, if you post pics of the tube wear, we can better understand what you are explaining. If you cannot fit the raster in the wear area, then you will probably have to replace the blue. Also, look for fungus problems on each tube. Both 1031q's I've owned have had issues with that. You should also be able to use an 07MS tube if you can't find an SD187. However don't invest too much into the projector, as it is an older machine that has already dropped significantly in price.

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

Actually, I have already found that link and am working through the setup on it. I will need to find something that will display a white screen so I can take a picture of what it is doing, but I probably could fit the raster in it (if it can adjust, that far, not sure if it can) but it would be wasting a lot of the screen. Also, I would not have a problem putting a little bit of money into it. I really don't have room for a big projector and this one is a reasonable size. Also, I got it for $60, so I havn't put much in it yet.

Here is an approximation of what it looks like. (thanks to MS paint)

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

Yea, it looks like they were running the raster way off to the side. Also, remember the raster cannot be touching or overlapping the edge of the CRT. You may be better off setting a proper raster, and just deal with the wear until you get a new CRT. Or just try and fit it in the area, and remember you will be wearing the other CRTs faster.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:50 am Post subject:

At this point I would simply shrink/shift the raster so that you're within the wear area. THe set dates from 1989, so I wouldn't drop another tube into it. I do have one decent blue here, but it's about $75, not really worth putting into that set. I do sell used tubes on ebay once in a while, but they are in about the same shape as what you have there.

Shrink the raster, fit the new image within that wear area, keep your eyes peeled for another blue, but run the heck out of it, don't worry about burnin, it's not really an issue since the screens on video games keep changing, and chances are you'll get 2-3 years out of it. At that point... upgrade!

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

Well, I want to run a big screen so I think I will just deal with the blue edge on the left and top. Even with the picture as it is it still beats the heck out of my last projector which was a DIY job useing a 5" 320x240LCD with CFLS lights. I survived with this for a year. (see picture below for an idea.) Now, I have it set up (still need to focus the electron gun on the blue tube but I don't feel like opening it right now so I will just live with it) and it seems to have horizontal lines. I am guessing these are scan lines, I am running it from a composite source. Would useing an RGB source help with these or are they just going to there no matter what?

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Definitly run RGB as you can go higer rez and the scan lines will be smaller or less noticable, I think you might do 480p out of that set maybe 720p not sure, I'm not a sony guy.

Athanasios

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

You can do 480p or 1080i. Anything higher than 1080i(ie 720p) will blow up the projector... the 1031q has no overscan protection. BTW, by horizontal lines you don't mean like less than 10 lines across the picture? Those are different than scan lines, and are usually a result of the screen setting being too high. Don't mess with this unless you know what you are doing.

jkruger · Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 2435 Location: Carlsbad, CA

The 1031 is supposed to be capable of 540p or 1080i. Definitely use the rgb input.

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

Ok, so consensus is get 540p into it, I am going to have to make a wire and set my computer up to do that. I just need to make sure I don;t over scan. Here are some pictures, the first is showing what I mean by scan lines, the whole picture is like that. So getting 540p into should fix that? The second picture is of the blue tube problem.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

yep scan lines and very bad burn in on blue !! Wink

Athanasios

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

You can fit the picture in that raster area. Just back up the projector if you still want the larger image. If you can get your 1031q to sync to 1080i, that would be your best bet for watching movies and such.

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:11 am Post subject:

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

No offense, but almost any CRT pj would be a step up from a DIY pj. Smile

Watch craigslist and ebay and you should be able to find some better CRTs for relative bargains. If you can live with tube wear, then better pjs are a dime a dozen.

Dave Lister · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the best CRT forum in cyberspace (or anywhere else for that matter).

I can tell you from experience with a VPH1000QM (close enough to what you have and has the same tubes) that burn in from video games and movies will only occur if you leave it on pause for a long time (the manual states 1 hour but I never leave it for more than 5 minutes and even then rarely), I have put over 60,000 hours on the same set of tubes and most of that has been video games and I have no burn in whatsoever.

To avoid burn in I run my Xbox original (not 360) through my video's AUX input so I can switch over to a TV station whenever I pause the game or movie.

The heads up displays in video games (health bars etc) do not burn in as they change from game to game and whenever you have a cut-to scene, loading screen or go into a map they are not displayed for a time, I play a lot of FPS and RPG games so if they were going to burn in it would have done so by now.

Although you don't have the best projector there it is still good and will last for years (I have had mine for 14 years).

The tubes for them are very hard to get unless you want to go to Sony and pay their stupid prices, they still had some in stock in Asia last time I checked about 12 months ago and they wanted about AU$1200 each.

You can also use SD-130 tubes (info somewhere on this site) but they are rated to half the brightness.

I ran a C64 on mine when I had a screen size of 3.2m wide x 2.4m high :8 but I have moved since and now only get a 2.8m wide x 2.1m high screen due to a shorter projection distance.

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

x_25 · Joined: 14 Jul 2008 Posts: 22 Location: Northern NJ

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

It is more likely a board with go before the tubes are too worn. That 1031q at 480i is barely giving you an idea of what a CRT projector is capable of. Watch for a deal on an EM focus projector in your area while you continue to use the 1031q.