Lets see if somebody can help me out. I think I know the answer but I have searched google all over and am having a heck of a time. I bought this projector and it works but the red and the blue are off. When I say off its as if you are watching a 3D movie without the glasses I assume this is an alignment of the lcd's OR could this be done within the projector controls. How can I get the colors lined up. Anybody wanna help or point me in the right direction. I beleive this projector is also a Viewsonic PJ501.

I'm not an expert on this, but.....

In those smaller form factor LCD projectors they dont create the image like DIYers do. "We" make our projectors using a LCD that has all 3 colors in one panel. That (like most newer projectors) use 3 Black and White LCDs. They split the light using filters into 3 colored beams of light (Red, Blue, Green) and run each color through a B/W LCD, and then re combine (overlap) each colored image on the way out.

Here's what might be happening:
-The LCDs might have shifted, causing them to be off after re-combining
-Some lenses might have sifted, causing the same thing as above
-There might be an issue with the single being offset

Now those may not be the cause of the problem, there might be a setting somewhere to change this. There might be adjustment pots or screws inside that could be used for alignment.

Go HERE for information on how they work.

Oh I understand how they work. This is why my thinking is that something is misaligned. I just dont know if there is a way to manually do it or if it has do be done by a professional or if it can be done in the projectors menu or maybe "secret menu"

well I'd pull the cover off, and check inside. You might see something that doesnt look right. Maybe there is alignment screws or alignment pots in there that you can fiddle with. one would think that the manufacturing tolerances on those things cant be that tight, and there will be post assembly adjustments that they would have to do.



And like always, be cautious when working inside a "live" device.

I have taken it apart and it all looks good to me. But of course I dont know exactly what I am looking for. All the lenses, mirror and lcd all slide into slots. I dont see how anything can be "adjusted" I try to do as much as my "common knowledge" tweaking as I can before I start asking questions. This is starting to go like my DIY build getting ready to toss it out the window.

Well I can't help you out too much w/o having worked on one before, or having the thing right in front of me. But I'll tell you what. If you get too frustrated with it, send me a PM, I'd be willing to purchase it off of you as is.

Well it doesn't have a lamp so do you still want it?? I just bypassed the lamp and stuck a 50 watt halogen in there and it looks GREAT for a 60" or so image. I was just trying to have a "small" kids projector and this thing is nice and small and a cheap light source but the off colors are screwing me up. Name your price

Stop right there. The same thing happens with my 3lcd projector especially when im running it anything but its native resolution. there's really not much you can tweak from the inside. my guess is it looks like mine with a cube- like prism in the middle. as long as the panels are all 90 deg. to each other. then calibration is not the issue. the real way to tell is by looking at a solid colored object with your projector. if there is color where it is supposed to be AND colors where they shouldnt, it's a timing issue. If there are colors missing from a solid fill, then id be more inclined to try and calibrate it yourself. My projector still is not perfect, but as long as I run evrything through my native res and then scale it. so plug a vga cord into it and make sure the desktop is set to your native (im guessing 1024x768) and if you can choose the frequency, which my video card allows me to. then change it to 60Hz in stead of its typical 75. Hope this helps. 3lcds can be frustrating

hoagtech but why would the startup image do this. It does it with anything I throw at it. I just dont know why the firmware image (I guess thats what you call the startup image) is doing this.

I should also mention that it has a red bar running down the left side and a blue bar running down the right side. Not huge but not small

If I am looking at the startup image it has a 3M logo in the corner its looks red the background looks white so these look good. but if you look at the little graph bar which I think is suppose to be black (I guess have all the colors) you can clearly see the red and blue off to the side. I will take a pic of it tonight.

I found the "hidden" menu. I played with it for a while last night and got it to look A LOT better. It still needs to be tweaked. There are a lot of things you can do in the hidden menu. Of course I dont understand any of it but hey at least I can adjust some things.

how did you find the "hidden menu?" I didnt even know there was such a thing.
as for your problem, have you tried running somethign at your projectors native res?

Well I sold this to MyYz400 so hopefully he will get it going (its on its way). I ran out of patience plus I have to many projectors and to many projects so it was for the best. The model of this projector was the same as a Hitachi brand I found the service manual on the net and it told me how to get into the service menu. If you dont know what you are doing in there you can really screw it up. I think thats why its a secret menu I think its just for TECH's oh well and GOOD LUCK MyYz400.