Sorry I am in so many threads. I'm active right now and the CRT forum is a lot slower than it used to be.

I am talking to a seller about a G70. He claims it has 3000 hours.
I asked him if he took a look at the tubes. He said he hadn't. That
it was his first CRT and didn't know how to help me. I gave him instructions
on how to remove at least the blue lens but would prefer if he could do all or the blue and the green. I am guessing he'll be too scared or something.

I have been looking at G70s for a long time and nobody shows the tubes. I won't buy a projector if I can't see the tubes or at least describe the wear accurately. Is that being overly anal?

I should mention that I run an 8'x6' 4:3 image regularly enough so I pretty much need full even wear on the whole raster.

No your not being overly anal. Tube condition is everything in today's CRT market.

Mike

3k hours on a hard driven G70 can certainly toast tubes.

Unless you have a set of tubes in your possession already it makes no sense to retube anything less than a 9" set at this point. I got two Runco 1100s (Barco 1209s) cheap and had to put a green in the one I was using. Replacing just that green was only worth it to me because I got the sets for next to nothing.

And I agree with others I believe that the G70 because its default setting is somewhat more like to have burned tubes than it Marquee/Barco counterparts at the same hours.

AT

I would go with the assumption that just because it is a second hand CRT that the tubes probably have some type of a wear.
(...but as long as it is usable and not text wear then you should try and get it for the so called going rate!)

After all you are buying a second/third hand hardware and should not expect perfection! ...that also does not mean that you should not be able to get your moneys worth!


If the seller does not want to play "game" then ask him/her to get back to you when he/she decides to rejoin the human race! (LOL that is what I usually do/say! ...harsh perhaps but it gets them thinking! :) )


Good luck

Martin

Unless you have a set of tubes in your possession already it makes no sense to retube anything less than a 9" set at this point. I got two Runco 1100s (Barco 1209s) cheap and had to put a green in the one I was using. Replacing just that green was only worth it to me because I got the sets for next to nothing.

And I agree with others I believe that the G70 because its default setting is somewhat more like to have burned tubes than it Marquee/Barco counterparts at the same hours.

I have heard that the G70 will burn tubes faster.

I am talking to another seller who says his tubes have only 100 hours on them. Here are pictures.
They look clean to me, but could use some reassurance. He is a novice and I had to walk him through the process of getting the lenses off. There are a lot of what I interpret as just shadows and glare on the tubes. I don't see any burn do you? This is the guy from the above post who accidentally loosed the glycol in the blue so the blue might look funny.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/atomiccow1/Blue-12.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/atomiccow1/greena.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/atomiccow1/Redw.jpg

Having purchased 100's of crt projectors, I'm a bit cynical when it comes to dealing with sellers. Personally, I would ALWAYS assume the seller is lying to you and trying to rip you off, because virtually every time, that is exactly the case.
Those pictures almost couldn't be any worse, and are so bad, they don't really convey any useful information. Ask for better pictures and provide instructions about how to get better pictures.
I would also suggest that you set a hard cap for a purchase price and not exceed it as the value of these things is falling faster than the caps are drying out...

Get a marquee and be done with it !!!

Athanasios

Get a marquee and be done with it !!!

Athanasios

Of course, because there are no problems with Marquees and there are no sellers out there with Marquees trying to rip people off. :rolleyes: Everyone who has a Marquee is blessed to have such a wonderful machine that never breaks down and is a saint when it comes to selling it... Please... :rolleyes:

OP, get whatever PJ has the best set of tubes....

I've been talking to people about projectors a lot lately and the more you talk you find out. I wouldn't say the ones I've talked to are trying to rip me off, just a little optimistic about how good their picture is and how good their tubes are sometimes.. I can only tell you by virtue of how our online exchanges went this guy isn't trying to rip me off. He didn't boast about having a hundred hours on the tubes. He doesn't know CRT projectors and practically ruined this one by spilling the glycol in a clumsy attempt to show me what the tubes look like when I insisted I couldn't bid on a projector where I haven't seen the tubes. He got out his screwdriver and took off the lens and then started looking for something that looked like a radio tube and tried to take more of the projector apart to get at it. He didn't even know what a crt tube was. It was given to him by his boss. He works at a home theater center where they sell DLPs. When he spilled the glycol he called me for help because he didn't know what to do. You could hear the sadness in his voice. He said he couldn't in good conscience keep it on the auction. He took these pictures because I told him it was probably why he wasn't getting any bids on his projector. I didn't believe him when he said he didn't think his tubes were burned. And I told him if his tubes were as clean as he thought he could get literally hundreds more than his 600 dollar reserve price. I even told him if his tubes were really clean that I couldn't afford his projector. Someone seeing a G70 with clean tubes would buy it out from under me. I told him I was actually hoping it was a little worn. I just needed to know how worn and where the wear was. When I finally explained to him that his blue tube would be white with a faint or dark brown rectangle in the middle of it, he looked and told me pure white was all he could see. So we kind of went over it three times to be sure. The fact that the pictures are so horrible kind of tells me this guy isn't faking about how little he knows about CRTs. I don't see any raster burns in these tubes as bad as the photos are. I do see glycol is out of the blue which is clearly not a selling point to tell me he just spilled it into the projector. Because of the spill he pulled it off the auction. You can never know a hundred percent but I'm pretty sure he is telling the truth.

Of course, because there are no problems with Marquees and there are no sellers out there with Marquees trying to rip people off. :rolleyes: Everyone who has a Marquee is blessed to have such a wonderful machine that never breaks down and is a saint when it comes to selling it... Please... :rolleyes:

OP, get whatever PJ has the best set of tubes....

All Projectors have Problems, but only the Marquee is still being made. This means parts now and in the future will be around much longer than other PJ's.
Sony? forget them as they have many proprietary parts that you cant find for the G90. Barco no longer being made but still many parts around so its much better than a sony. Also trouble shooting a marquee is not that difficult and it is one of the easiest to set up.

Sure I have always had a Marquee but that is why I have them, the ease of fixing and upgrading. And I have not had a problem with any working Marquee I got that wasn't caused by me messing with the electronics at the board level while I was learning about electronics.

I have not sold a Marquee so I dont know what your saying about trying to "rip off". You pay what you want, if its too high dont buy it!!!

Athanasios

Having purchased 100's of crt projectors, I'm a bit cynical when it comes to dealing with sellers. Personally, I would ALWAYS assume the seller is lying to you and trying to rip you off, because virtually every time, that is exactly the case. I would also suggest that you set a hard cap for a purchase price and not exceed it as the value of these things is falling faster than the caps are drying out... man oh man, still posting the same old hateful poison after 6 years. In the past 6 years I've delt with literally hundreds of people. Not a single one ripped me off. Sure some items were not quite as good as described but others were better than expected. I never found any of these people who are trying to constantly rip everyone off.
Maybe with all your hate and negativity you attract them to yourself?:confused:

Oh man, you want to talk about being ripped off.....

I bought what was advertised as the full Babylon5 series. Origin dvd's, original boxes, etc.... What I was sent was a set of 4.7gig copies of the original set, so the bit rate of the video had been reduced to fit it on the disc. $110 later and I am stuck with a pirated set of discs. The dude who sold them it turns out is in China so no hope of recourse.


At least with a crt projector you can do things to fix it unless the part is completely unavailable. Just depends on how much you are willing to spend to get a used machine to a pristine state.

hmmm, note to self. Do not buy DVD's from China :D
I recently bought a Rega Exact Phono cartridge from China. $500. cart for $250. delivered. Arrived in perfect condition from a guy with a good reputation in audio circles.

Blue tube has a glycol leak :eek:

man oh man, still posting the same old hateful poison after 6 years. In the past 6 years I've delt with literally hundreds of people. Not a single one ripped me off. Sure some items were not quite as good as described but others were better than expected. I never found any of these people who are trying to constantly rip everyone off.
Maybe with all your hate and negativity you attract them to yourself?:confused:

I have to agree with you I have bought 100s of items through the Internet including Ebay over the last 7 years or more. In most cases I have gotten what I wanted or better. A few times something has been not as described but I would say that I have only had one outright fraud issue in all those years. It was on a $70 item where a seller with excellent feedback just disappeared. PayPal made me whole on that one. On the subject of projectors most of mine have been GL specials and have turned out ok.

My latest aquistion were two Runco 1100s off of CL the owner was very upfront. He told me they both had issues (he was right) and that one had deflection burn (he didn't call it that) on the tubes. However he was wrong about that (the lines were casued by a bad board). So the projectors were actually a bit better than the seller said. Overall I am way ahead on my internet purchase. Basically use some common sense, be careful and if it is too good to be true then only pay cash when you pickup in person :-).

Folks....what difference does it make what type of a CRT atomic is gonna end up getting!!!

...I understand that we all have our favorites...(Mine being the M9500LC, and yes I have had two G90s in the past!!!)...

As long as it is an entry level 8 inch AC machine with decent tubes who cares?

Although I may have to agree with Nashou about Sony (...and NEC!) going out of their way to make things as proprietary as possible. (...actually they have turned it into an art!)

AC...get the best pj your budget allows and then enjoy it!

Martin

Folks....what difference does it make what type of a CRT atomic is gonna end up getting!!!

...I understand that we all have our favorites...(Mine being the M9500LC, and yes I have had two G90s in the past!!!)...

As long as it is an entry level 8 inch AC machine with decent tubes who cares?

Although I may have to agree with Nashou about Sony (...and NEC!) going out of their way to make things as proprietary as possible. (...actually they have turned it into an art!)

AC...get the best pj your budget allows and then enjoy it!

Martin

All I know is my VPH1270 and later 1271 has been my favorite possesion for 7 years. I was predisposed to Sony and the G70 is up as high as you can get on Curt's list without being a 9 inch. Just became open to other brands this week and would go with Electrohome or another brand. But an opportunity arose to bid on a G70 for six hundred. And you know the rest.

Everything is going great. I got an amazingly cheap shipping price of $119.
The guy is sending me more images he took last night with it briefly fired up.
So its working. And I plugged him again tonight while he was looking at it to make sure he wasn't mistaken. He says there isn't even a hint of brown. That they are pure white. And he saw the tube rating and wear pattern charts so he knows the difference now.

I have to believe this will be my last CRT. I am almost positive we will all be owning Lasers four years from now. They are tiny, cheap, last forever, shoot the purest light possible without a screen door effect and a deader than CRT dead black. Plus are bright enough to not necessarily need as dark a room. Its quite possible they could make an affordable 8 or ten foot diagonal laser set that doesn't project. The two introductory sets coming in November selling for I'm guessing 2500 and 3500 bucks are 65 inch and 72" and kick the butt of every DLP and LCD out there except the Pioneer. How long before they make a set 2 foot bigger? I could live with an 8 foot direct view set. I would scrap my ten foot projected image for that.

yeah lasers would be cool!

...but seriously how many times have we been "pumped up" and "hearing" about the "latest/greatest" technologies coming out this fall??? Usually the second it makes its debut it falls flat on its face!!! (...never mind never making it to the market!)

For the time being I am only seeing Marquees in my future! :)

They are a "proven and reliable" technology that can "hold it/and sometimes surpass" with the "best of them" out there!

Martin

Unless they can get rid of the sparkle, lasers are a non-starter for me... and I'm not sure that's possible. I've seen laser projectors for military stuff... a five foot wide screen running at 6000x5000. Insanely detailed - like print... great for status screens and some sim stuff... but the sparkle would make it useless for ht.

Unless they can get rid of the sparkle, lasers are a non-starter for me... and I'm not sure that's possible. I've seen laser projectors for military stuff... a five foot wide screen running at 6000x5000. Insanely detailed - like print... great for status screens and some sim stuff... but the sparkle would make it useless for ht.

Sparkle would be something to watch for but none of the reviews I have seen for the flat screen direct view have mentioned it. By all accounts so far the best picture you can buy anywhere. If I have heard a criticism of it was one reviewer felt that such vibrant colors might be exciting at first blush but maybe too unnatural. I think those military projectors are huge five hundred pound things aren't they? The new lasers are quite different I think. Based on what they look like it seems they would easily adapt into some sort of projector.

yeah lasers would be cool!

...but seriously how many times have we been "pumped up" and "hearing" about the "latest/greatest" technologies coming out this fall??? Usually the second it makes its debut it falls flat on its face!!! (...never mind never making it to the market!)

For the time being I am only seeing Marquees in my future! :)

They are a "proven and reliable" technology that can "hold it/and sometimes surpass" with the "best of them" out there!

Martin

The difference with LASER I guess is that its here. Fry's in San Diego has a first generation one from a year ago. Its a little pricey, but its 65 inch, about ten inches deep and going for about 6000 bucks. The new ones are expected to be much flatter and competitive in price with the LCDs and plasma. I really don't think this one will fall on its face. Projectors might. I do wonder why someone would pick a projector if they could get an eight foot direct view.

Admittedly I am in love with the promise of LASER and the reviews having never seen it. I can't wait though. I have been recommending people wait until the end of the year to buy a flat screen if they wanted a large one.

Ac

I have been a memebr in this forum since 2004 and have been frequenting it since 2000.

Trust me when I tell you that these "technological marvels" come and go like they are scheduled!

A couple of years ago it was the Ruby or the pearl..whatever...then after that it was a the RS2 or 3 can't recall...(then for a few years has been this elusive laser that doesn't seem to wanna come into post production, let alone a real production run! I guess we will see!)

Forgive me if I am a little more seasoned to them as someone that just reads and sees them in Kmart!

...not to mention that I am an engineer by trade, and deal with these marketing types everyday. (...some of them are so good that they buy their own BS. so forgive me if the latest press does not impress me!)

On the other hand I do hope that we can finally move to something more "elevated" than little mirrors and a bid bulb...not to mention a how a CRT gets in done...(...old as hell, but so far the longest running...and there should be a reason for that!)

I do want something "better", by that I mean more economical, less costly, smaller and longer running. (...a better PQ would be nice too!)

So until we see it and feel it with our own eeys and hands...lets assume it is a marketing hype!

Martin

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.
I've been hyping LASER for a year almost sight unseen.
I have some good reason to think this is the year. Fry's Electonics
is expecting them but they don't have a date. I have seen images
from reviewers sent models to test out and they are all very positive.
Projectors are highly unlikely but I do think everyone here will see a
laser flat screen before Christmas day.