I seem to be getting the impression that although the 710hd has two component inputs, that it can only accept HD from an HD tv receiver via VGA?
Is that right, or can it do HD over component?

I seem to be getting the impression that although the 710hd has two component inputs, that it can only accept HD from an HD tv receiver via VGA?
Is that right, or can it do HD over component?

I haven't had my 510HD for over four years, but as I recall, I used to feed it 1080i over component from my Dish 6000 HD satellite receiver.

What woul be your thoughts on how the 710 stack up against the current DLP's?
This was sold to a repair shop due to a gun going out and the owner buying a new plasma instead of fixing.
They fixed the gun and are selling it for four and a half bills. Freaking huge though. :eek:

I can't imagine still watching a rear-projection CRT today. Yeah, you might get really black blacks, but in just about every other way, the newer display technologies absolutely crush even the best CRT RPTV (which IMHO was the Pioneer Elite, at least back in 2000). I've had a Pioneer Elite, two DLPs, two LCoS, and I'm on my third or fourth LCD flat panel display now, so it's not like I haven't been exposed to and lived with the different technologies.

It's probably blasphemy for me to say this in this forum, but overall I prefer my Samsung 750 series LCD to any of the RPTVs I've owned.

BTW, retail price on a 710HD was $8300 back in 2000.

That's what I figured....this is an extra tv, not the main viewing display.
It's either ~$880 for a 42" Panny plasma or this for $450??(which would you do?)

I have to agree with jhue. I've had the PRO-710 since 2001 timeframe (the DVDO I-Scan folks used my set to debug their very first scalar product), and have loved it. However, I just bought a Sharp LC-65SE94U 65" LCD and the PRO-710 can't even come close to the detail and color imaging.

As the Elite cabinet is a beautiful black gloss finish, I have just gutted it from all the electronics and optics, and am in the process of making some minor cuts and building a stud wall inside the cabinet to mount the new Sharp LCD with a flat panel mount. So at least the cabinet will live on. And yes, I also paid $8300 for it back then but I won't have to buy a $400 to $500 base to stand it on as I needed something with casters to roll it out from the middle of my entertainment center to get at the other AV gear.

If anyone needs spare parts for their PRO-710..........

Ray

Do you still have the screen for the 710hd

AAAAUUUGGGHHH!!!!!!

I can't believe what you guys are saying! You obviously haven't been reading up on the fact that with proper calibration and cleanings, the Elites are STILL the best picture out there! They are just now into cruising speeds and will last several more years if properly kept. Which is a whole lot cheaper than buying a new fixed pixel set. Especially in this economy.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=695922

I am a proud 710 owner....

Just got home tonite from the weeklong Baltimore tour. Which included cleaning and calibration of 2 Elite 710s and 1 Hitachi, plus repair work on a 73" Mit with the owner's firm and deliberate hope that it can be saved and completely restored with calibration and shimming for the overscan IF the repair can be completed, all CRT RPTV format just like this one mentioned here. More than $300 has been spent so far on the Mit repair, a very hard to find module is currently off being rebuilt in this quest. There were 4 big screens to work on and only 7 days to do them in, so tonite is the first time I have had a chance to breathe a bit and contemplate which pix to send up.

These are the Before shots of Steve Mock's Pioneer Elite 710. I will get others up here soon, including the shimming op and Afters. They show why so many have given up hope on these sets so far. The Afters will show why there are so many people who are joining in with Pam's feelings on the matter.

The most noticeable deficiencies in his display were the optics needing cleaning, the pic was dim and overscanned, and of course the horrendous grayscale. He was nearing the edge on putting up with that pesky overscan, and the shimming op finally gave him the relief he's been looking for.

The purple pix were taken the first night, which was when the grayscale had to be done because of little light isolation in the daytime. The optics cleaning had to be done before the grayscale could be done.

The structure shots were taken the next day, after the grayscale had already been dealt with and restored. You can do the structure with little light iso, but not the grayscale.

Optics dirty

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7364/22209stevemock710baltimi.jpg[/URL]

Grayscale horrendous

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6295/22209stevemock710baltims.jpg[/URL]

Pic after cleaning and grayscale but before restoring of the original light levels, along with other user settings needing to be way off center to deliver decent fleshtones, but before the rest of the work, where those got recentered

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]


huge overscan - observe the upper left corner, where the graphics are cut off at the knees. That's just the top, the bottom was the same -

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

OOB overscan and uncentered positioning

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/2644/22209stevemock710baltimd.jpg[/URL]

still grossly overscanned OOB, but at least re-centered before taking it in via the shimming op

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/7374/22209stevemock710baltimv.jpg[/URL]

Dim pic at Black Level zero, requiring increasing it way out of spec

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1153/22209stevemock710baltimq.jpg[/URL]

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]


More soon -

b

From another thead -


I've been pondering getting a new plasma to replace my 7-year-old Toshiba 56H80. It still works OK, but the images have degraded over time and have become quite cloudy.

Just before I made the plasma plunge, I decided to give the old set one last try. Removed the screen (really easy -- just two retaining leg screws) and voila!

The lenses were caked with a thick film of dirt, which I wiped clean. The mirror, surprisingly, was fine. Here is a pic of the clean vs. dirty lenses:

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu85/metlc/Toshiba005.jpg

Total time, around an hour and a half. The result? Like brand new. Didn't tell my wife, and when she clicked it on.... "WOW! Don't think we need a new TV now!"

Excellent pic! Looks just like what I find every time I open up a CRT RPTV, after cleaning the first lens.

Be sure you have cleaned your deeper optics - under your lenses, 6 more surfaces - and that you are NOT using any sort of dry method, including just wiping them off with a dry cloth. Those plastic surfaces are DEATHLY sensitive to being scratched/scuffed, and that's permanent damage if your cleaning techniques are wrong. Do NOT use any sort of dry method, and I don't advise using microfibre cloth either, because of its very lame absorbtion quotient.

If your deeper optics on a Tosh have not been cleaned, you're only halfway there. They are just as dirty as the lenses shown here. Your mirror is also dirty, tho it takes special procedures to see it. Shine a strong flashlight - like one of those super bright multi-LEDs - onto it from the side at a steep angle and you'll see what I mean.

Wait till you get your ENTIRE light path crystal clear again!

On a Tosh and many other brands including Pioneers and Hitachis, 10 surfaces need to be cleaned to restore the light path to crystal clear status again. On others, like Mits HDready's, whose coolant covers are sealed correctly, you only need to do 4 of them. In either case, intense care needs to be taken to not do permanent damage to them, once the years - and the static caused by the 30KV of HV inherent in CRT use - have locked that dust, dirt and grit onto those surfaces. ALL lenses in CRT RPTV tech are PLASTIC, not glass. The only glass in there is usually the mirror, and it's a front suface mirror, with the glass on the other side. As such extreme care needs to be taken to not strip it with any cleaning agent that might do so. No ammonia if you intend to do it over and over again over the years - I suggest once a year is minimum - and no solvents of any kind.

But unless it's a mylar mirror - in which case never touch it except to replace it with a glass front/first surface mirror, which will deliver better colors, better blacks and 25% more light level than a mylar - the mirror will need cleaning EVERY time.


b

Same display as from the pix above, sent in earlier. More about the cal itself later -

b

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/3613/22209stevemock710baltimn.jpg

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7150/22209stevemock710baltiml.jpg[/URL]

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8270/22209stevemock710baltimp.jpg[/URL]

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6200/22209stevemock710baltimo.jpg[/URL]

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/2014/22209stevemock710baltime.jpg[/URL]

Sorry about the slight focussing blurriness on this one and on the Lilu pic above; it was camera error, not display error, display stayed the same in all the After shots. The colorations were very delicate, so I decided to keep it

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8411/22209stevemock710baltimh.jpg[/URL]

2 different exposure settings on cam, display remains the same. Cam's up/downloaded dynamic range nowhere near as good as display's, as evidenced best on the fur hitting white crush in the second pic while the guy's backside is still challenged for shadow detail. The display had no problem with getting all of that right, as the settings on the display never changed yet showed it all when the best parts of both pix are observed.

The camera/computer upload/imageshack hosting/download to this thread - not so much

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/7374/22209stevemock710baltimv.jpg[/URL]

Dirty/clean Optics and grayscale




http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimuz7.jpg)
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7551/22209stevemock710baltimuz7.jpg



http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7364/22209stevemock710baltimi.jpg[/URL]
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]



http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6295/22209stevemock710baltims.jpg[/URL]
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]



http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8144/22209stevemock710baltimc.jpg[/URL]
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7374/22209stevemock710baltimv.jpg[/URL]



http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5737/22209stevemock710baltimwv0.jpg[/URL]

This last shot was in the daytime with a skylight way up there and only able to be partially blocked, so the blacks won't be quite as inky as in the previous shots, with the daylight allowing you to see the nice wood cabinetry on this one, which Steve created from scratch BTW. VERY nice woodwork by the owner.

Cam's exposure setting lower than in shot above, at cam, display's settings remained the same. Would have reduced the exposure on the Before shot above to get a match with this one on the exposure, but it was too late by then

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2879/22209stevemock710baltimat4.jpg[/URL]


b

4 layers of half-inch thick wood, for exactly 2" thickness

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8501/22209stevemock710baltimsm3.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimsm3.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimsm3.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimsm3.jpg/1/)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7650/22209stevemock710baltimwv4.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimwv4.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimwv4.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimwv4.jpg/1/)


You can see 2 blocks on this shot, because the entire array tray is raised so much

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4782/22209stevemock710baltimpg4.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimpg4.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimpg4.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimpg4.jpg/1/)

Steve's rather unique way of doing the bolts. As Kirk said in Wrath of Khan, about his solution to the unwinnable Kobiashi Maru (?) test at the Academy, "It had the unique virtue of never having been tried..." Observe the MULTIPLE washers at the head of the bolt, since we could not get the bolt to penetrate the set's metal tray beyond just a little bite, even with the hole already there for a smaller bolt thickness that we simply could not lay our hands on in an elongated length. Worked like a charm...


http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7264/22209stevemock710baltimls9.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimls9.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimls9.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimls9.jpg/1/)

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/7605/22209stevemock710baltimuy1.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimuy1.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimuy1.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimuy1.jpg/1/)

The results


Before

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8612/22209stevemock710baltimeu7.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimeu7.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimeu7.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimeu7.jpg/1/)

After

Had to push the image up a bit from center because of a pesky red and blue dot that were visible in the blacks at fully centered vertically.

Top could have been a bit straighter and more parallel to the frame, but the shimming op had taken so long by then I was kind of in a rush and missed it. That wood wall that had to be removed was incredibly hard to get out when thru the front was the only way. He really didn't want to have to take the set out to get to the back of it, and with his considerations on what was back there to have to deal with, I didn't blame him...

Redoing the o'scan this way takes a lot of pressure off the coarse and fine geo/conv circuit, which can happen when reducing it via sm only

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1112/22209stevemock710baltimps0.jpg (http://img23.imageshack.us/my.php?image=22209stevemock710baltimps0.jpg)
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimps0.jpg/1/w800.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img23/22209stevemock710baltimps0.jpg/1/)

Factory instilled OOB overscan. BD graphics lettering - or anything else up there at top of screen that you might want to see - cut off at the knees. Same on bottom, cutting off much of her chin

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

After

Overscan redux in action. Not only fully restored lettering, but of several inches of the gray above it as well. Same applies at bottom of screen, restoring the contour of her chin. And all around.

Apply this to sports scores and other graphics your CRT RPTV display is currenty missing and your eyes are starving for, if you've never had it done.

ALL CRT RPTV tech came with overscan as standard equipment, but the original pic can always be restored by someone in the know, again revealing those formerly lost areas of video real estate and at the same time heightening the available to be viewed visible pixel count. And thus heightened, more intense image resolution, both horizontally and vertically

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

Before

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9716/22209stevemock710baltim.jpg[/URL]

After

Just imagine...

Unfortunately, I didn't get an After on this one! The only After on o'scan redux other than Lilu's closeup is the grid, shown before. Maybe next time...

:o


b

Excellent work Bob, what that set should have looked like in the first place (which it probably didn't). I'd say no one who puts down CRT-RPTV has ever seen a set that looks like this one or even close, which most calibrated ones do. I just extended the warranty on mine for another 3 years. Maybe there will be something better by then but I doubt it.

Excellent work Bob, what that set should have looked like in the first place (which it probably didn't). I'd say no one who puts down CRT-RPTV has ever seen a set that looks like this one or even close, which most calibrated ones do. I just extended the warranty on mine for another 3 years. Maybe there will be something better by then but I doubt it.

:cool:


b

These were sent to me by Joe Barnhart by email, from shots he personally took of his PRO 510HD Elite -

Calibrated by yours truly, of course...

:p



http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4858/lylelovettfacejoebarnha.jpg[/URL]




http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5844/imgp5369.jpg[/URL]

I just added some pix to my Don't Dump your CRT RPTV! thread - not your specific brand, but definitely shows what CRT is capable of. Is a Mit, so keep that in mind and enjoy, even if you'd just like to see what YOUR set can look like with the appropriate care and attention -

;)

b

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17508339#post17508339