CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Axel87 · Joined: 26 Jun 2010 Posts: 22

Hello again!

This will probably be a long rant, as I am majorly lost, not to the lack of trying tho! Hope you guys can help.
I am trying to set-up my projector temporarily in my garage so that I can learn the adjustments and procedures before I move the beast inside. So try not to mind the jerry-rig setup to much. Its only temporary.

So this is what I have going on. I have my Barco projecting onto a sheet hung from a wall about 10 ft away. I have not done the calculations yet to determine if this is the right throw distance, because I figure I have enough room on this sheet for error.
I have followed Curts setup guide, word for word, to the best of my ability. I also have referenced the Barco owners manual and installation manual, but have not have any luck with solving my problems. My picture, after all the setups, is still blurry/unreadable. I am not sure what resolution is possible at this distance/with this projector, but I thought I could at least get a good enough image to know I am on the right path.

I guess I will start from step one and explain my problems.
1: When I start with the focus adjustment, my blue is fairly dull. I have to crank the contrast to see the lines to make adjustments.
2: This is believe is the heart of my issues. When I compare my raster setup to Curts, it looks nothing like his images. When I look at my raster on my tube face, not through the lens, my setup is not square, its more curved in on the middle. Both horizontal and vertical middles are shrunk in. So I do not know how to properly adjust this. Any ideas as to whats causing this??
3: The crosshatch alignment of the red/green is no problem. But the blue/green, I can not get enough adjustment of of the blue to correctly match. They are very close though. Could this be a major issue or does convergence make up for this error?
How much error on the installation adjustments is allowed?

I do have images of everything I mentioned here. I do not know how to attach them though to this thread.
Thank you for stinking through my ramble! [/img]

km987654 · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:23 pm Post subject:

You need all of the basic to be spot on first. So you may have a blue tube problem if you have to crank up the contrast above the other tubes to see any image and blue is the tube that wears most and fastest on ES style projectors. Before concluding blue is bad though make certain you have correctly adjusted G2 and electrical focus for blue and the other tubes. If the cross hatch does not align in a vertical sense so one cross is above or below the others then there are electrical adjustments to be made using a screw driver and trim pots on the vertical deflection board. You need at least to get this right before moving on. The information you need for all this is on the site.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:46 pm Post subject:

1) How many hours are on the set? You might have a weak video amp, or the G2(screen) setting on the focus block might be set low. Or.. the tube itself could have a weak output (unlikely).

http://www.curtpalme.com/Barco500_Layout11.shtm

2) That's normal when all convergence settings are at 50%. Correct the bowing in with the 'pincushion' control.

3) You're probably missing these R and B V shift adjustments on the V board:

http://www.curtpalme.com/Barco500_Layout4.shtm

Set the center raster shift/convergence shift adjustments back to 50%, and use the trimpots so that the horizontal line of the '+' sign are on top of each other.

That should do it.

Axel87 · Joined: 26 Jun 2010 Posts: 22

I am sorry, I have looked through the user and install manual and cannot find anything on the "pincushion" adjustment.
Were can I find this?
On the G2 adjustment, I understand that the top three are for focus, which I believed helped with my blue issue. But the bottom three, how does one know if it is set correctly?
Thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:27 am Post subject:

The pincushion adjustment is in the geometry menu.

To set the G2 settings, you'll need what's called a 'stepped gray scale' test pattern. THe AVIA test disc has that.

Axel87 · Joined: 26 Jun 2010 Posts: 22

Alright, hey guys.

So, Ive spent like 4 hours today trying again and again to get this thing working.
I start with the red/green hash and line them up as I was told, then the blue/green. I follow by going through the convergence process, and it looks like everything is lined up. Then when I return to my input (DVD) it looks exactly the same as when I started 4 hours ago!!! Very frustrating. I dont have any idea what is going on.
Is it possible that I am loosing my convergence settings or something?
I have been using the Barco internal patterns. I programed the PR4 setting, I do not know what the differences is. Any Ideas as to which one I should be using?
Any help would be great, I am about to walk away from this beast. ha
Thanks

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:43 am Post subject:

You need to select external sync when you first start the guided setup.

Axel87 · Joined: 26 Jun 2010 Posts: 22

Hey, thanks for your reply.

Under the guided setup I have the following options.
Selected Source
Genlocked Pattern
Internal # Pattern

I do not see an External sync, unless you mean selected source? Are you suggesting I use a program like AVIA to get the crosshatchs and converge off of that?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:58 am Post subject:

"Genlocked Pattern"

Genlock Pattern is the one you want. Sorry I couldn't remember off the top of my head what Barco called it.

Make sure your DVD player is playing a disk (any disk ), go into the guided setup and select "Genlocked Pattern" and follow everything step by step.

Make sure you do the lens tow in first.

tommo2 · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Ireland

Ok,
you need to go into the setup menu and delete all memory blocks first. The projector needs to be set up for each different resolution 720p/1080i etc. When it is installed and setup for a couple of different resoolution the projector can then "guess" the setup for most other resolutions. Obviously if it has been set up before and the memory is still active then this will affect your initial setup.

So:
1. Go into service menu and look for "delete all blocks", i think this is what it is called. Then reset all convergence and geometry settings, this is somewhere in the service menu.

2. Now the projector is back at square one, which is good because the less electronic adjustment (geometry/convergence) etc the better.

3. Input a source from your dvd player and be sure you can see an image. It will be all over the place before geometry is done.

4. Move the projector back/forth until the image almost fills the screen. The sides will probably be skewed and bowed, just do a rough adjustment for now.

5. Bring up the crosshair on green and do a quick optical focus on green by rotating the lenses. Your electrical focus should be ok if you already adjusted it before.

6. Ensure the green tube is perfectly centered on the screen. Bring up the crosshair for raster setup on green but physically move the projector until the crosshair is in the screen centre and the projector is perpendicular to the screen. Do NOT use electronic adjustment to move the raster crosshair. As I said earlier, the less electronic adjustment for geometry the better.

7. Now follw the guided adjustment steps and you're sorted.

8. When you do move the projector you should delete all memory blocks again and start afresh.

Note that using the guided setup you will not be using as much of the phosphor on the tubes as possible. When you are more familiar with how to do the setup I can tell you how to increase image size on the tube face to maximise phosphor usage. This will give a clearer and brighter image. But seen as you will be moving the projector shortly it is better to do it this way for now. Note that if the image is too big and lands outside the phosphor on the tube face you can crack the tube.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:14 am Post subject:

Sweet a Barco guy to help a Barco guy.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:14 am Post subject:

Sweet a Barco guy to help a Barco guy.