CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

kazmatic · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 4

Hi, I just bought this projector on craigslist. It's a vph-1030q1 and it seems to be in great condition. It has been out of use for a while, but it had been serviced by some professionals at a company called Bontronics in Boston (they even painted the top panel screws with glue).

Here's the problem: When using my DVD player (some cheap thing I bought at Target) and when using my Xbox (both with video out signals) I don't always get color. When I use the tuner I got with the projector (something probably as old as the PJ itself) I always get color. Aside from it being B/W the picture is great. I'd like to eventually build the VGA to D-sub 25 (RGB) cable, but all the talk of death and destruction at high scan rates has put me off of it for now, especially if I can get it to work with a simple RCA connection.

I thought I had figured out some bizarre, superstitious protocol for getting color to work (eg. turning things on and off in different orders; adjusting the output on my DVD player from NTSC to PAL and back; and swapping the input back and forth from the tuner to the DVD player and to the Xbox) but it changes every time, and it never seems to work until I've been futzing with it for over an hour.

"Maybe," I thought, "it just has to warm up for an hour before I can use it." But that seems a bit unreasonable both on principle and in practice.

I'd be willing to open up the top cover to play with stuff, but I'd like that to be a last resort since the last people to go in there were professionals. Sorry for the lengthy post, but I figure the more details I provide the better, no?

The serial number is 501xxxx, and I have all the manuals, but they don't seem to address this point.

Thanks in advance!

mike calcott · Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 307 Location: Australia

How have you connected your DVD to the projector, what connections did you use?

kazmatic · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 4

video out rca jack on the DVD player to an rca/bnc adapter on the PJ's video-in

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:08 am Post subject:

It's an old projector. Let it warm up for an hour from cold and see if you get color.

kazmatic · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 4

also, when it's acting all black and white, there is no difference between the output when I switch normal<-->secam

the test pattern is fine, though

kazmatic · Joined: 02 Oct 2008 Posts: 4

yeah, there it goes. it's been on for 1.5 hours now and I did another superstitious set of switch toggling, bingo. But really? An hour and a half to warm up? I've got it on a watt-meter and it's using 175 watts...

justtaint · Joined: 21 May 2007 Posts: 191 Location: Chicago

Don't be scared by all those posts regarding hi-rez and the total destruction of the set. A few seconds at 720P will not blow up the projector. Plus the 1031Q should be able to handle 1080i, and that will look quite a bit better than 480i that you're sending now.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject:

Chances are that you have some bad capacitors on the color boards. I've seen that on a few 1030s here, and as you can see if you pop the cover, they are not simple sets to repair. I've scrapped a couple of 1030s because of the no color problem, it would have taken hours to find the problem.

I'd keep flipping the switches to 'shock' the set into producing color. Once it dies completely, then upgrade. It's a 20+ year old set.

pfloydphanatic · Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 240

hey man, i had the same problem with my 2030q1.. only B/W with the line in video.. one day i played a tape, when i stopped the tape, boom, got color. so i had to switch to the vcr first to get color, it was annoying, apparently it get confused on the pal/ntsc maybe? had a great image with the 25 pin connector, i have one if you want it. i could use the money too :/ i would still be using it if the picture didn't get all screwy, the left side of the picture got all wavy, no clear border anymore. and it image seemed dark. its sitting on the porch now getting ready to be thrown out. i was going to take the boards out and then i tried to put everything back together, but apparently i didn't get it right because when i tried to fire it up again i got no image.

Tinman · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:08 pm Post subject:

The 3.58mhz oscillator tends to drift a bit on the sony's. I have the same problem with the pro monitors. A slight re-adjustment of the trimmer capacitor will usually fix it. Having said that, I don't recall where it is on the 10XX anymore.

I'll leave that up to you guys.

Marc

Tinman · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:11 pm Post subject:

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:52 pm Post subject:

Brooklyn · Joined: 17 Sep 2007 Posts: 494 Location: Morgan Hill, CA

For the record this is a 1030q, so the most you should be able to get out of it would be 480p. Still much nicer than 480i via composite.

Tinman · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:35 am Post subject:

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2008 4:52 am Post subject: