Just spent the last few days with Terry Ferentinos who is on a Texas (& eastward as he heads home for Atlanta) calibration tour.

We did not have the easy set-up that we both had hoped for but with quite a bit of perserverance, & some parts luck I think Terry acheived an awesome image.

These 2 Ultras had run for 100+ hours on Terry's test bench so there was every expectation that they would do the same here in Dallas. A glycol leak & perhaps some other unforseen glitches conspired to make it a chore to get both up & running stable.

Luck was with us in some respects when we were able to source a Vertical Board locally in around 2 1/2 hours , then against us in that a damn Gekko climbed on the circuit board of the HVAC unit & forced us into 2 days of less than ideal conditions.

While I love the look of the Pininfarina covers I would be remiss not to admit that they were a pain in the ass for Terry to deal with.

All in all I think 4 1/2 days got the system to perform at a level that is exceedingly rare in HT video. Terry's patience played a large part in what I now see on the screen. He is very much the perfectionist & came back by today in a surprise appearance because he felt he could perhaps tweak in a bit more performance.

Don't let his forum persona let you think that he is comfortable only in conversing on all things video because we covered the gammut from Aviation (at one point the vast majority of onlookers were all pilots) to race cars & Poker. Terry has interesting experiences in all of these hobbies as well.


I promised some good screen shots so I will see what I can do!

thanks Terry!!!

Job well done!
nomad

Say Mark

And some pix of the entire room as well!


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Yes! Lots of pics!

Congrats! :D

Cliff

Say Mark

And some pix of the entire room as well!


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Yea Mark, pix of the awsome room and audio system please.......LOL. Also get a shot of the mount (perfect for a blend)
Picture looked pretty impressive in the end.......mostly because Mark did a good job of assembling all the right parts. And it's BIG, I mean REALLY BIG!!
It was fun......after day 2 that is.

Terry

then against us in that a damn Gekko climbed on the circuit board of the HVAC unit & forced us into 2 days of less than ideal conditions.

That sounds like an interesting story in itself. :D

Time for an HT meet Texass style? My wife and I plan on going back to Plano next year. It would be too cool to combine a HT meet with that visit. :cool:

wallace

...then against us in that a damn Gekko climbed on the circuit board of the HVAC unit & forced us into 2 days of less than ideal conditions...

http://internasjonalen.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/geico-gecko-1.jpg

Little bastard.

But did you buy his insurance? :D

Can you insure against Geckos, or even against little bastards?

congratulations Mark on completion of an extremely challenging set-up.:)

Terrys effort has certainly energized this process.
4 Electricians spent the day out back yesterday & there is now a new load center & proper wiring for 30 & 20 amp outlets for all things audio & video.

There is a specific circuit over the 2 Ultras with a wall switch installed.

I ordered a Cutler Hammer in panel surge suppressor for equipment protection.
Electric should wrap this morning & the sheetrocker will be in right after this am.

Still no ceiling solution to cover the blown in white insulation over the barrel-vaulted ceiling as of yet.

Mark, glad it all went well. For those who don't know I was the "warm up" stop for Terry in Dallas before he tackled Texzilla. Terry replaced 2 tubes and did a full calibration on my 1209/2. Even though he was getting a litttle frustrated with the lack of some advanced convergence set up options he achieved a great picture. When he was finished we went through each source and made sure all worked perfectly. Terry is very detailed and easy to work with. I am very happy with his work. I watched Tinkerbell (Blu-ray) last night with my 6 year old and was blown away.

Still no ceiling solution to cover the blown in white insulation over the barrel-vaulted ceiling as of yet. sounds ugly but I bet that "design" delivers excellent acoustics. Any kind of flat deiling you put in will degrade this drastically. Any chance you could simply Black it out?

Dragnm,

There seems to be quite a bit of different thoughts on the affects of such a ceiling on audio performance.

From the CRT's forward to the screen is currently covered with a Draper Black Velour Material to darken the room. It is certainly not an elegant solution. We just wanted Terry to have the best room possible at the time.

we just wanted terry to have the best room possible at the time.




lolololololol