Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - How to move picture down on Trinitron TV

My neighbor is offering me a 10 year old Sony KV27TS29 which is in good shape, except that the picture needs to be moved down on the screen about 3 inches. The picture quality is fine, good color, no distortion, but there is a 3 inch black stripe at the bottom. Comparing this picture to another TV, I realized that I am missing the top of the picture. So all I need to do is move the picture down a few inches. Is this a hardware failure, or simply an adjustment ? I don't see any external adjustments on the back of the set. Any suggestions ? He wants $50 for the set and stand, but I would want to get the picture fixed. Is it worth it?

$50 for a 10 yr old broken set is not that great. Its hard telling if its just an adjustment, or a bad part without testing it. I wouldn't do it.

These days I don't consider fixing an option for a TV unless it's rather new and expensive.

If you neighbor could not correct the picture though a setup menu or simple front panel adjustment I would pass on it even if it were free. It's just too much work to carry it to the curb...

its a possibility that there is a tuning knob inside the TV, or that it may be a capacitor or something easy. Buts its definately hard knowing if it will be worth it.

Does anyone have a service manual for this TV ? Also, what's the technical term for the top portion of the screen being gone, and seeing a black stripe on the bottom or the screen. In other words, the picture needs to move down on the screen about 3 inches. Is this horizontal adjustment, or some other term? Thanks

The adjustments that you are enquiring about are done thru the service adjustment mode. You can adjust the vertical size, vertical position, vertical linearity. You can get into the service adjustment mode as follows
1 tune in a picture and turn the set off
2 Press the display button, the 5 button, the volume + and the power button in sequence within a second.
3 The crt will display the item being adjusted
4 Turn the set of and back on the exit the service mode
Having said that, I would strongly advise against investing any money in this set because the vertical position does not just "shift" up without cause. I suspect a component failure which the menu adjust may not be sufficient to compensate for. More importantly, if the set has had any use at all, 10 years is just about the service life of a Sony CRT and with the Trnitron tube, one day it will look fine and the next day will be gone.

can you really adjust it 3" in the service menu? I wouldn't have figured you could move it that much.

Probably not. I elaborated on this in an Email to him.