Hello all. A buddy of mine was cleaning out his garage last week, and gave me an old CRT projector. It is a Runco Cinemabeam II. It's a monster of a projector. Got it all hooked-up and fine tuned, and the thing works beautifully. I'm pretty sure you guys hate questions like this, but here goes...Does anyone know what this thing is worth, or is it basically just a big boat anchor? It throws a great picture, but would take a lot of work to get up and going in my basement, and I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. Thanks so much for any help you guys can give.

Well I couldn't find specs for your exact model but I know the cinemabeam 1 is just a 480i projector. And yours is a cinemabeam 2 so it could be a bit better.

Judge by the inputs it has.
Composite - 480i
s video - 480p
rgb- probably 720p maybe higher.

If you think it looks good, set it up. It's more fun than you think and can be done relatively cheaply.

I have a 1985 Zenith that didn't even work when I got it and still has a weak blue tube and I think it's good enough for TV viewing.(its rated for 480i...maybe...)

Some one else might tell you what it's worth.

But I say. If you have the room. Set it up. Big screens are fun :P
Cheers,
Rudy

No, the Cinemabeam II is also a 480i projector. Runco didn't 'make' this set, I believe it's a Mitsubishi. You need the Runco wired remote to control the set, if you don't have that, the set is useless.

It isn't a bad set for the day, it was about $8000 or so back in 1985 or so, but won't do HD, and is probably on it's last legs at this point.

Well I couldn't find specs for your exact model but I know the cinemabeam 1 is just a 480i projector. And yours is a cinemabeam 2 so it could be a bit better.

Judge by the inputs it has.
Composite - 480i
s video - 480p
rgb- probably 720p maybe higher.

If you think it looks good, set it up. It's more fun than you think and can be done relatively cheaply.

I have a 1985 Zenith that didn't even work when I got it and still has a weak blue tube and I think it's good enough for TV viewing.(its rated for 480i...maybe...)

Some one else might tell you what it's worth.

But I say. If you have the room. Set it up. Big screens are fun :P
Cheers,
Rudy
Your figures are a bit off.
Composite has a theoretical resolution of 480i (6MHz), but since chroma and luma signals are combined your actual resolution is around 360 lines. The luma signal is usually low pass filtered @ 4.2 MHz to prevent cross contamination.
S-Video is 480i not 480p, and has separate unfiltered choma and luma signals. The actual luma bandwidth is 6 MHz or true 480i.