CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[sonota]

I was wanting to know how far I would have to stick my Sony 1271Q away from the wall to get optimal sharpness/focus....When setting up the convergence the test screens always seem blurry... even with the blue tube off (worn blurrry tube).... Is there a certain length I should stick this thing? I'd like to keep the screen size at around 103" diag.. right now it's about 125" away from the wall..

[ecrabb]

Have you read the CRT Primer/FAQ, yet? If not, make sure you do.

The typical procedure to find your throw is to take the green lens off, use the SIZE control to get the raster mostly maximized (leave some space), then put the lens back on and slide the projector around until you get the throw/pic size right for your screen. You'll have to play with focus a bit as you move it around. You can also use the install manual and subtract about 10% to get you in the ballpark. That's the size issue.

Focus...

Have you done the spring mod? Unless you're using about a 110" diag screen (96x54), you'll need to do the spring mod to achieve raster centering and best focus on the red and blue.

Also, the 12xx have spacer rings between the lens and lens mounts that have a built-in offset... Depending on the rings you have in your machine, and the projection offset you have in your room, those rings may give you poor focus. You may need to use nylon washers or some other material (I recommend something non-metal in case you drop it) to shim the lenses. The way you can tell if this is a problem is if you can get the focus good in the center of the screen, but not at the top or bottom. That's the mechanical stuff.

Electronic focus can also be out of whack, which will make optical focus difficult. You may need to go back and forth between the two (i.e. get optical focus as good as you can get it, then get electronic focus as best as you can get it, and go back to optical. If you do that a few times, you can get it more and more dialed in each time.

Have you cleaned the lenses? There's a gap between the lenses and tube faces on the 12xx, and the backside of the lenses and the tube faces can get filthy on 12xx's - especially the blue lens, as its right next to the HV distribution block.

If there are a ton of hours on your machine, it won't be as sharp as you'll like, either.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. The forum is a veritable treasure trove of information. If you do some searching, you'll find you're about the tenth person in the last year to endure the challenge of setting up a 12xx the first time. Search for things like "1271 focus" or "1272 focus", with "all terms" ticked.

If you spend a few long evenings reading, then play with the projector some more, then read a little more, you'll probably find a lot of your questions will get answered.

Where in the world are you? There also may be somebody local to you that would be happy to walk you through the process.

Welcome to the forum!

Cheers,
SC

[sonota]

I live in Indiana (Lafayette), US

[garyfritz]

Also, the 1271 is an ES focused machine. Those are inherently not as sharp as EM-focused projectors. If you've seen somebody's EM set (like a G90 or Marquee 8500 or NEC or something like that), you may have expectations that your projector is technically not capable of meeting.

[sonota]

Well, I saw some screenshots of some ES machines, and the focusing looked better on those too.. I know that I have seen way more focused lines before when I was moving (I'm going to move the projector more tonite/tomorrow) than what I have now... So I'll play with it tonight, and fix some of the issues (like maxing the raster size) while I'm at it..

But, I'm tired of scrolling through the manual trying to figure out all that needs to be done, so if anyone knows what I need to tweak (chronologically) just make a list...

[sonota]

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