CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

Hi, I had my projector (Sony VPH-1000Q) set up and everything was fine, but when I mounted it upside down the bottom became extremely blurry. I then changed the vertical deflection and polarity to flip the image the proper way, and re-did the focus, but I'm now only able to get the very center in focus (using both the center and corner focus adjustments, plus the focus stack knobs) while every other part is completely blurry.

Everything appears to be in focus when looking into the lenses.

Am I missing something simple? Can anyone tell me what I may have done wrong?

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:35 am Post subject:

Are you low on cooling fluid? Do you have fungus in the tubes?

http://www.curtpalme.com/Fungus_Removal1.shtm

Both are VERY common in the Sony 1000 series.

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

Hi Curt, I bought this projector from you a few years ago.

There's no fungus, and the tubes are at a proper cooling level. When I held up a piece of paper at the bottom of the screen, I was able to make the image appear sharp if I moved the paper closer to the projector, and when I did the same for the top portion of the screen, the image became even more blurry when I moved the paper closer to the projector. My lenses are at a very mild angle to the screen, not quite parallel, but barely angled.

The focus was fine right before I inverted the projector.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:01 am Post subject:

OK, try this then: If this is a physical focus issue, which is what it's sounding like, then you should be able to get any area of the screen/tube in focus by adjusting the main focus controls on the lens (closest to the tubes). Ignore what the rest of the areas are doing, I want to know if all areas of the screen will focus at some adjustment of the coarse focus on each tube.

Also, put on sunglasses, and look at each area of the tube at full contrast and brightness to make sure there's no gunk within the cooling fluid that's dropped down and settled somewhere in the middle or edge of the tube(s).

Do all tubes defocus equally in the same areas, or can you narrow it down to one or two of them? (the tube cutoff switches are on the convergence board).

Also, post a pix of the test grid of all three tubes and then one at a time here please.

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

I'm able to get each area perfectly focused using the coarse adjustment, just not all at once, and all tubes defocus in the same areas equally. When the top is sharp, the bottom is blurry, and vice versa, and the corners are as sharp or as blurry as the rest of the picture at the same height.

My camera doesn't pick up the focusing issue that well, but I can try again with a different camera.

I don't know if this is important, but I'm projecting at only 70" diagonal.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:14 am Post subject:

That may be a bit small for those lenses. Can you temporarily move the projector back a bit to see if focus is good at 100"?

you may need to shim the lenses with thin washers. barco did something similar on some of their sets to get the corner focus better. Maybe a trip to home Depot is in order, to experiment? The lenses come off with a 8mm hex driver.

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

Yeah, I'll test it out at 100". I just tilted it so that the lenses were exactly parallel to the screen, and was still not able to get it any closer to being focused at the top and bottom simultaneously.

It does converge perfectly at 70", just unfocused. And it also was focused at the same distance, same screen size when it wasn't inverted.

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

I just tilted the projector even more, so that the tops of the lenses (closest to the ceiling) are further away from the screen than the bottoms of the lenses, and that seems to give me a better, uniform focus, after adjustment.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:32 am Post subject:

Ok, so it sounds like lens shimming will work. The whole lens assembly comes off, not sure if you've done that, but it may be easier to shim each lens..

themaid · Joined: 18 May 2013 Posts: 6

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:30 am Post subject:

I'm out of town for 10 days, but will check in daily here.