CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Curt Palme]

So it's been a loooong time (2 years approx) since I've looked at by Retrographics 808s. It's been upstairs in the family room, on for long long hours every day. Last time I looked at it, it had 42,000 hours on the clock. Now it's got 45,300 and counting.

Last I looked, the blue tube had a bit of fungus on it, now it's got LOTS! Everything is bleeding everywhere, blacks have a blue sheen to them. Color temperature ended up at about 2000K or so (I'm not kidding!), but came back to about 5000 once I tweaked the G2 controls. (I expect a lot closer to 6500 once I defungus the blue tube tonight. (I do have a new blue tube, but it doesn't look like this one has wear, so I'll keep using it.)

For the first time in a long time I watched HD on it last night, and even with the blue fungus, I realized how much better this 350lb set looks over flat screens!

[Curt Palme]

So it's been a loooong time (2 years approx) since I've looked at by Retrographics 808s. It's been upstairs in the family room, on for long long hours every day. Last time I looked at it, it had 42,000 hours on the clock. Now it's got 45,300 and counting.

Last I looked, the blue tube had a bit of fungus on it, now it's got LOTS! Everything is bleeding everywhere, blacks have a blue sheen to them. Color temperature ended up at about 2000K or so (I'm not kidding!), but came back to about 5000 once I tweaked the G2 controls. (I expect a lot closer to 6500 once I defungus the blue tube tonight. (I do have a new blue tube, but it doesn't look like this one has wear, so I'll keep using it.)

For the first time in a long time I watched HD on it last night, and even with the blue fungus, I realized how much better this 350lb set looks over flat screens!

[Kiev Savoie]

45,000 hours! How's the sharpness? Can you see a pixel edge at 1080i?

[Curt Palme]

Razor sharp. Not sure if the tubes are original, I'll guess not, but I know the set was at about 35K hours (guessing) when I got it about 4 years ago. Two exes ran the set like crazy, I'd say 12 hours a day for 2-3 years. So these tubes have maybe 8000 hours on them, assuming it was retubed right before I got it?

Once I change or flush the blue tube, I'll do a full setup incl astig, etc. All I had to do was tweak the focus, but as I said, I hadn't touched the set in at least 3-4000 hours or so.

[Curt Palme]

Razor sharp. Not sure if the tubes are original, I'll guess not, but I know the set was at about 35K hours (guessing) when I got it about 4 years ago. Two exes ran the set like crazy, I'd say 12 hours a day for 2-3 years. So these tubes have maybe 8000 hours on them, assuming it was retubed right before I got it?

Once I change or flush the blue tube, I'll do a full setup incl astig, etc. All I had to do was tweak the focus, but as I said, I hadn't touched the set in at least 3-4000 hours or so.

[Mark_A_W]

I've got the guts of one in my shed. Graham "gave" it to me...gee thanks Graham...

Glycol in the red tube has gone brown (and leaking). Green tube is a bit worn.


Will ebay with an 808 one day.



How much of the 808s is interchangeable with my 808?



And my A$1700 46" Panasonic Plasma (with Bluray player included at that price) is just amazing. I'm really quite impressed. So...I think I'll stick with the "crappy" flat screen.

[secstate]

[Curt Palme]

Depending on the age, the HV stuff may or may not swap over. THe video boards are different. Power supply will swap, so will H, V and focus boards. Ditto to what secstate said about the convergence boards. The driver board may have some different options on it, and may cause some I2R errors, but should mostly work.

[Curt Palme]

Depending on the age, the HV stuff may or may not swap over. THe video boards are different. Power supply will swap, so will H, V and focus boards. Ditto to what secstate said about the convergence boards. The driver board may have some different options on it, and may cause some I2R errors, but should mostly work.

[Mark_A_W]

The neckboards are the same, the 75mhz bandwidth ones.


I found a couple of burnt pins on the Convergence tray main connections, and it does have STKs....but something has shorted from the looks of it.


And yes, it has P16s - which is why I have it, the tubes are donors for the 808. Pity the green is too worn for me to be motivated to do it.

It has P16LNP and P16LXV tubes.