CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[A Rogers]

Hello, I've been a long lurker of these and the AV Science forms and have finally decided to register. After my first experience with a CRT machine (a 701 Curt kindly fixed for me several years ago) I've remained interested in the gracefully aging technology. That said, I've recently acquired two different machines; a ECP 4100 which I repaired a intermittent g2 on, and a near mint 1999 Runco DTV-863 (1500hrs).

I've been having a few minor issues with the Runco which I was hoping someone would be kind enough to assist me with. Firstly I assume that the machine is effectively a cine7 based on the manufacturing date and the p16 tubes which leads me believe that it should be able to resolve 1280x1024 and beyond (the ecp does without issue), however the highest resolution I'm able to sync to so far is 1280x720 60hz (via rgbhv comp). Are there specific timings required for higher resolutions? I'd like to run the machine at 4:3 as that is the the aspect ratio of my screen and I do still watch 4:3 content. The second issue I have is horizontal noise in the red spectrum that resembles scan lines. The machine sat for at least 2 years prior to my acquisition so I imagine failing capacitors might be at the root of this issue?


Regards,
Andrew

[Curt Palme]

Runco in their infinite wisdom limited the scan rate of the DTV 9457 and 963, I guess to match their processors, that's the only difference between the 947 and 863 and any other Runco that looks like it (RUnco 940 falls in there somewhere as well).

So if all you're getting is 720p, then the processor is capped at that. Not really to worry, the tubes in that set will never display 1080p properly anyways, so 1080i and 720p will be fine.

Video noise- swap input leads between the red and blue to make sure it's not in the incoming signal. If not, then try swapping the video amps/CRT sockets between tubes. Beware that the white connectors on the PC boards very easily will bend the pin closest to the underside of the tubes when pulling the connector out, and that will result in a dead tube when you connect the socket back up. (it doesn't damage the tube, but you're left wondering where the signal went.)

Let me know how that works out for you.

Cheers!

[Curt Palme]

Runco in their infinite wisdom limited the scan rate of the DTV 9457 and 963, I guess to match their processors, that's the only difference between the 947 and 863 and any other Runco that looks like it (RUnco 940 falls in there somewhere as well).

So if all you're getting is 720p, then the processor is capped at that. Not really to worry, the tubes in that set will never display 1080p properly anyways, so 1080i and 720p will be fine.

Video noise- swap input leads between the red and blue to make sure it's not in the incoming signal. If not, then try swapping the video amps/CRT sockets between tubes. Beware that the white connectors on the PC boards very easily will bend the pin closest to the underside of the tubes when pulling the connector out, and that will result in a dead tube when you connect the socket back up. (it doesn't damage the tube, but you're left wondering where the signal went.)

Let me know how that works out for you.

Cheers!

[A Rogers]

Thanks Curt, I was mostly just after 4:3 (1280x1024) never expected the machine to reach 1080p, I'll try swapping around inputs and sockets later on to see if that resolves the noise. The community wouldn't be nearly as vibrant if it wasn't for your generous wisdom, thanks again.

[joatmon]

[A Rogers]