[john-louis]

Hello,

I have been browsing over here for a while - some excellent information and knowledgeable people but finally need to ask a few questions.
My situation is that I have 4 SVP 350's of which 2 are working and one I have broken for spares. I have a box of bits for a 310 (which interstingly had SONY 07MS tubes) and a 420.

My goal is the soup up the 420 as much as possible and use that for some home theater fun, however I was wondering what bits I can cross over from the 350s to the 420? Are the tubes compatabile if I take the tube sockets over aswell? Is it worth it - is the 420 a "better" machine?
What remote is needed for setting up the 420 - it has digital convergance and I only bought remotes for the 350 (RC3500?) do I need some fancy remote for the 420?

The 420 has a RS232 socket - can this be used to setup the machine from a PC / does anyone have any info on using this port? Likewise how can one communicate with the internal 232 / serial header on these units?

Finally - does anyone live near Wiltshire / Salisbury in the UK and want a cheap 350 or 310 / parts / whatever!

Thank you for any information,
- Alex

[Mad Mr H]

Hi,

WELCOME to the CRT section of this forum .

please check the FAQ sticky at the top of the page.

There should be a link in there to SELECO details.

I have listed board numbers in many machines.

Also please add your details into the CRT owners thread as well. (also linked in the FAQ)

Andy.

[john-louis]

Hi Mad Mr H!
I have spent the last hour scouring around and have a few quick questions:

Firstly my tube models do not match up with your seleco specs pages. I had a 310 that had MS07 tubes, the 350s seem to all have toshiba tubes and I have yet to delve into the 420 to see what it has... maybe seleco used whatever was on hand and if so are they interchangable, will any 7" tube work in any seleco machine?

What is the differance between TACT2 and TACT4 lenses and the 310 had TACT2 and the rest all have TACT4?

How does one converge the 420, I know it digital and via remote but I only have remotes for the 350s which do operate the 420 but I am wondering if they are capable?

Many Thanks,
- Alex

[Tom.W]

Never used a Seleco but this might help.....

Seleco Tips and Manuals

[Chris Frost]

John,
310 & 350 were designed to use the Toshiba tubes. They have clear glycol in the red and green so push out a little more light compared to the Sony tubes. For a short while there was a shortage of Tosh tubes so the factory shipped out some 3xx series with Sony tubes as a stopgap measure. The 07MS tubes are sharper.

Putting Tosh tubes in a 4xx series chassis is a downgrade!! Don't do it.

TAC 4 is the standard lens for 3xx and 4xx series projectors.

In model hierachy, 310 & 350 are on a par. The major difference is the TV tuner and audio amp in the 350.

420 is substantially better. It is designed to run at 32kHz (line doubling) if you use an external line doubler or scaler. When new a popular choice from the time was the iScan Pro. A 420 can accept 32kHz via RGBHV (the best choice) or YPrPb. The samne sockets are used. The selection is made via the input menu (Press AV/0).

The idea of souping up a 420 with bits from a 310/350 is backwards. Unless the tubes are knackered in the 420 then leave it "as is". Any board swapping you do will downgrade the performance. For example, the tube bases (the little cards that connect to the thin end of the tubes) on a 420 are rated at 20MHz. This is much higher (hence better detail) than you get with a 350 tube base.

If you want to tinker then start with buying a decent scaler - something where you can dial in the resolution line-by-line - I like Lumagen's for this; the old Vision series are good. You could also look at Anchor Bay / DVDO VP20 or VP30 with the ABT card. Whatever scaler you choose it must have an analogue output. The projector doesn't have a digital input, so any scaler with DVI or HDMI only outputs will need additional bits of hardware to get back to an analogue signal.

Once you have something that will give you a decent signal in to the projector then you can start to tweak the projector itself. The most common mistakes are taking short cuts with the physical/mechanical set-ups: Projector position, lens toe-in, optical focus, scheimpflug (shims). Get these right and the rest becomes so much easier and the projector stays in convergence for longer.

After that then you're looking at electronic focus and dot shape. Be careful of going too far here. You want the scan lines to be just touching with the raster compressed in 16:9 mode running at 576p-600p. Overcook it and you'll have visiblle scan lines from the seating position consequently a loss in brightness.

The rest is convergence and colour balance.

The setup remote is the RC3000. This is the black remote with colour buttons for red, green and blue tubes on/off. It is possible to do a full set up with the day-to-day remote (RC3500), but you'll need the lens caps and some patience.

RS232 is covered in the back of the Seleco manuals. The 420/450/500 manual is (or was) available to download from the Sim2 web site.

Regards

[john-louis]

Chris,
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.
As it happens the 310 that I stripped for spairs had 07MS tubes, and the 420 I have seems to have the same tubes, and 12000 hours on the clock with moderate but even wear, I am hoping to swap a few of those tubes over (though the coolent is dangerously high in the 310s tubes, I have been reading up on Curts site about bleeding them...)

Good to hear that it is all possible with the 3500 remote as I have a spare here =D

If you need any bits from 350s drop me a buzz, I have atleast one festering here that will more than likely be stripped down in the next few days, they take up less space in pieces and the case is badly damaged anyway...

Thanks Again,
Alex

[Chris Frost]

Hey Alex, There should be an air bubble about 2.5 inch long for coolant expansion. The only coolant leaks I've ever had have been where the rubber washers perished. I've never seen a factory tube over filled.