Long story short, I came upon this old (I assume) 49" Hitachi tube TV.. It was going to the trash anyway, so I figured I might be able to fix it, it's a pretty nicely sized screen after all. The whole unit is physically fine, and the screen is straight. However, the display itself is a bit messed up, as it seems to be concave (middle of the screen is farther in than the outside). The colors, however, are entirely fine. I will pull off the back of the unit tomorrow to see if there's anything out of the ordinary that I can see.

You can see in this picture that everything has sort of a shadow.



And here, you can see that weird display error at the top.



Now I'm not inclined to make judgment of this, but what I see leads me to think that the lamp itself is fine, but the projection surface might be the problem. Any input on this would be appreciated. I can get better pics tomorrow if need be.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 21, 2009 - 10:23 PM

Wait is this a rear projection TV or a Cathode Ray Tube Television? I know a little about TV repair but please be careful when you have the back open CRTs have very high voltages in some areas if you touch the wrong spot you could be in trouble.

It's just a regular tube TV, I'm not entirely sure...I'm tempted to say it's rear projection, BUT...it's not very long compared to the width, and I thought that was a trait of projection units. Thanks for the warning though.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 21, 2009 - 11:01 PM

http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tvfaq.htm

maybe you can find your answer in there?

I just googled it and it seemed like it had a HOLY hell of a lot of information, some of which might actually be practical for your needs.

That appears to be a projection tv. Man that brings back memories of my best friend and I rolling one for over a mile. Then we found out why it was free!

^ I just wikipedia'd CRT and rear projection and CRT monitors seem to be limited to 40", and this one is 49"...so I think rear projection it is.

Thanks for the link HaysoosKreesto. You're a savior.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 22, 2009 - 2:12 PM

Alright, so I took off the back, and it seems like a pretty simple setup. The back cover contains the mirror where the image reflects from, which then goes through the plastic screen. The mirror is perfect and the plastic seems to be straight as well, but I'm not sure if that could be the problem. The projectors look fine as well, aren't loose, and don't seem like they've shifted.



The left projector is mounted differently, I thought it was loose at first.



And that's what the whole thing looks like inside. That projector housing (I assume all the wiring and everything is down there, nothing that would cause the problem I'm seeing) says Do Not Open, so I'll heed that warning. Unless anyone else has any input, I don't know what to do from here.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 22, 2009 - 6:26 PM

Mount those projectors on your car! Do them as fog lights or something unique.

Maybe in a ghetto last minute attempt you can bend the plastic screen outwards so when the projection hits it, it will look straiter... does that make sense?

edit: ^ haha awesome idea.

This post has been edited by HaysoosKreesto: Dec 22, 2009 - 5:19 PM

Makes sense for sure. But there's also an apparent shadow of the displayed picture, which makes me think it's not just the screen. Might be something inside the projectors, or maybe they're somehow misaimed.

That would be SO ghetto to do a projector retrofit with these...they're huge though, probably just as big as the headlight housing. Most likely wouldn't fit.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 22, 2009 - 5:42 PM

You could always just toy with it and see if that works. I would suggest wearing heavy rubber gloves and non steel-toe'd boots.

Yeah I know almost nothing about rear projection TV's but the problem seems to me to be in the electronics rather then the projectors. If a projector had problems only one color would be affected. With high voltages its very important to let the capacitors inside discharge so you don't get shocked. If you don't know what you're doing it's best to leave it alone. Did you try googling the model number maybe someone already knows the solution?