Video Alignment?

[Jidis]

Smash,

If you or anyone else has got a few minutes:

I've got a projection TV here which has gotten really nasty looking over the past few years. I've considered popping the back and seeing if there are any trim pots to fine-tweak the alignment, that you can't do from the menu. It's one of those types where they give you that onscreen white crosshair thing, and you move the blue and red crosshairs until the whole thing is white. It's gotten to where you can adjust the sides, top and bottom perfectly with that, but each of them don't seem very well calibrated to each other, so you can't get them all. I usually try to get the cleanest picture I can around the middle, but it's still more clear on one side. A repairman made a house call a while back, when it went black, and it looked like it was pretty easy for him to get to the adjustment panel without ripping the whole TV apart. Before he left, I mentioned that the bottom of the screen was sort of "fuzzy" and he quickly tweaked something while asking me if it had cleared up. I'm thinking if he had more time, he probably could've gotten the whole thing perfect. I'll thoroughly read up on the procedure and ALL precautions beforehand, and if it seems too difficult or dangerous, I won't touch it. If you've ever had to do something like that, let me know if it sounds like something an "electro-doofus" might actually be able to tackle. I remember how, with the cassette decks and open-reels I've aligned here, you have to start at the way back  and work toward the later procedures, because they all depend on one another for reference. If it comes to that, I probably won't touch it, as I'm sure it would involve video test gear.

FWIW, the tech did not  appear to be equipped with any significant amount of gear, and I don't recall a service manual. I'm figuring the test points and pots are well labeled, and the board(s) seemed modular (IIRC, he pulled one out). He did know a heck of a lot about them and was fairly familiar with that type. The "black screen" failure was supposedly from some rotten caps which died and, I think, took an op-amp or something with them on their way out. I'm guessing there may be more of them drying out or leaking, since they're all about the same "vintage". I've got an ESR meter here, but if they're all hard to get at, I may not check any.

I may post this to the sci.elec.repair newsgroup or something, to see if I can find someone who's serviced a bunch first, but none of those guys will usually encourage anyone "unnameized" to mess with that stuff. I guess they can't really know how careful any particular person will be, or whether they'll really follow the safety precautions.

A few years back, I also found a local tech who opened a computer shop. He knows the hell out of CRT's, LCD's, power supplies, and wireless communications, and tipped me on the shielding of my isolation cabinets when I met him. I think he was an Army or Airforce tech. I may hit him on the TV thing as well, but I try to only bug him for important stuff, so he doesn't get fed up with me. I also try to buy parts from him when I can, but he'll very rarely accept any money. Funny thing is, he's sort of "new" to the whole OS/software/drivers thing. He usually deals with new parts and throws away lots of "older" stuff (older being PII/P3 gen.).

I'll print your part about the Donkey Kong monitor and put it in my wallet, in case I end up going out there. He knows some "weird" stuff.

Thanks!

George