FantasticMrSocks wrote:
The TV itself has some geometry issues that the service menu doesn't seem able to fix, specifically with some uneven line lengths down the height of the screen, as well as stretching toward the left and right edges of the screen (which I understand is partially, if not fully, due to the fact that it's a flat-screen CRT.) I'm considering recapping the whole mainboard, since I've read that it can help with geometry issues like that, but it's definitely uncharted territory for me, so I'm keeping my expectations pretty low.
I'm not sure about the auto-detect on Scart input. I guess if you have it working by switching it on the remote, then it's probably fine, right?
The geometry issues sound like it might be vertical linearity. If you can't access that in the service menu, it would be worth looking around on the motherboard. In fact, if you can find any physical geometry controls at all, it's probably best to set the service menu at mid-way and adjust the physical pots until it generally looks good.
IAC, to adjust linearity, you'll need the grid pattern, and you can measure the height of the boxes in the grid, adjusting to make them all as equal as possible from top to bottom.
You can narrow down caps that you might want to replace by sections on the board. The flat screen CRTs are more difficult, and I don't think caps are always the problem there. Sometimes the LOPT gets weak, or some other part of the system starts to wear. However, you can probably improve the geometry at least a little by checking and replacing any out of value (20% or more) caps in the Horizontal and Vertical sections, and anything electrolytic that's directly coupled to the LOPT (if there is any).
You don't need to mess with anything in the control electronics or the tuner section as that stuff is probably fine and doesn't see much heat or wear. the most suspect things are small caps that are near hot component, as those tend to dry out. That's mostly around the HV, and the power section near any big transistors/heat sinks or any banks of power resistors, and especially anything near a spot on the PCB that looks burn in any way.