CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[digitalayon]

I have a Runco DTV-933 from around late 1999. The cross-over model is the NEC 6PG Xtra 620. My uncle just got the NEC version from the college for free. Lucky bum…I paid ten bones for mine….LOL….anyway I checked and it is the extra, but I did the exact same thing to his as I did to my Runco. Both are using the same PC….both are using the same screen(sold him my old one) and his has 2000 hours less than mine. He has HD-145 lens’s just as mine as well. But….his picture doesn’t look as good. Did Runco do something different with their units. I know Runco intentionally handicapped my unit on the horizontal. But could something else have been done that makes it better. I mean….it’s no where near the quality of picture as mine….Maybe higher end tubes on the Runco?!?! The definition just isn’t there.

[Curt Palme]

One of the high end mucky-mucks (Dennis Erskine?) over at avs made a comment on one of my Runco bashing posts once a few years ago that I had no idea what I was talking about regarding Runco mods. He claims the software changed, and I know on SOME of the Xtras, one of the wave boards in the card cage did have an extra connector on it that ran somewhere in the set.

To me, the biggest thing that Runco did was add a small memory board on top of the LVPS along with one between the lenses. That had to do with aspect control ratio and memory control, but did nothing (IMHO) to the image.

I personally have never seen a difference between an NEC and a Runco, and I know the video chain from input to CRT socket had no mods on it, which to me would give improvements the way MP mods do.

Now, Dennis did work for/at Runco for a long time, so I don't know if he was maintaining the Runco image or whether he had a serious point, so it's all speculation.

In your case, unless you had the two sets side by side, with identical sources and signal and screen size with the same person tweaking the set with the same amount of tube wear, etc etc, only then could you make a fair comparison.
\
I do know though that some NECs dial in perfectly as to focus and convergence, etc, and some you have to fight with to get corner focus, etc perfectly dialed in.

So to answer your question the long way around, no, I don't think Runco did anything to significantly improve the image quality the way you describe.

[Curt Palme]

One of the high end mucky-mucks (Dennis Erskine?) over at avs made a comment on one of my Runco bashing posts once a few years ago that I had no idea what I was talking about regarding Runco mods. He claims the software changed, and I know on SOME of the Xtras, one of the wave boards in the card cage did have an extra connector on it that ran somewhere in the set.

To me, the biggest thing that Runco did was add a small memory board on top of the LVPS along with one between the lenses. That had to do with aspect control ratio and memory control, but did nothing (IMHO) to the image.

I personally have never seen a difference between an NEC and a Runco, and I know the video chain from input to CRT socket had no mods on it, which to me would give improvements the way MP mods do.

Now, Dennis did work for/at Runco for a long time, so I don't know if he was maintaining the Runco image or whether he had a serious point, so it's all speculation.

In your case, unless you had the two sets side by side, with identical sources and signal and screen size with the same person tweaking the set with the same amount of tube wear, etc etc, only then could you make a fair comparison.
\
I do know though that some NECs dial in perfectly as to focus and convergence, etc, and some you have to fight with to get corner focus, etc perfectly dialed in.

So to answer your question the long way around, no, I don't think Runco did anything to significantly improve the image quality the way you describe.

[draganm]

[digitalayon]

"Somone probably got into the PGX and screwed something up. Electronic focus, color temperature, G2 levels etc. Can all degrade a picture."

Fixed it....the white level on the blue was so high that the focus wasn't going well. You know....I seem to always run into this with the blue. I can never get the blue to tighten up like the green or red. I always seems a bit soft and can never figure that out. Is that normal with the blue on NEC's?

[benareeno]

blue is defocused for a reason...and in fact, I would encourage you to defocus it even more!!! If you want the best looking picture on an NEC, you will need maximum blue defocus, which will make the middle of your greyscale a lot closer to D65.

[draganm]

[Blockbullie]

yep I had to rob a green lens from my 751 to get my 852 to focus correctly after hour of trying to dialing It in. but when you get it oh boy ..................