Yep Big Dog, it's coming out. No brace is even needed anywhere in the frame. The tension we are getting is AWESOME to say the least. My SVS PB12 Plus/2's are really gonna put this screen to the test and I'm looking foward to it.

The uniformity I'm seeing on the screen so far from the PJ's is OUTSTANDING and not only that but it has just ENOUGH punch to make it PERFECT.

I CANNOT WAIT to see flicks on this bad boy after the projectors are calibrated...... :)

Cliff

Coolio Inglesias, I aim to please :D

I would wrap those big silver air ducts above the screen with some black velvet or something. Light from the projector and screen may bounce off it and kill your image.

Ruben

Coolio Inglesias, I aim to please :D

I would wrap those big silver air ducts above the screen with some black velvet or something. Light from the projector and screen may bounce off it and kill your image.

Ruben

I purchased 160 YARDS of flat black cloth that will help big time for the whole theater, but I decided against the velvet cause right now, well, money is playing a factor, but they will be covered. ;)

Cliffy

"Coolio Inglesias"

Ruben

Me likes the words you just added to my dictionary big dog. :cool:

Cliffy

Still taking reservations for the meet ? :D

I'm in the US at the moment, had planned to be in NY but ended up visiting family in Milwaukee, WI first which means I'm here till Dec 13th. Would love to see the 'zilla and G90 blend. Haven't seen either devices in action before!

If I ever get to Gino's setup when I'm back in Australia, it would be interesting to see how the G90 vs 9500LC's compare both in a 'zilla blend. Not sure how I'd get there but doesn't look too far by the maps.google

that would be cool to see the comparison between a G90 vs modded Ultra blend... so wish I was there!

Cliff, Art, Ken - Please post your thoughts on G90 blend vs stack :)

Cliffy

How much headroom under the G90s, and how much room to the back wall?

What aspect ratio is your screen? What aspect are you setting up the blend?

Dam Son... now that's what I call progress :0, turned my back on the thead while working on my theater, and BAM you take it to another notch.

Dude I look forward to see you and everyone else this coming weekend.

Cliffy

How much headroom under the G90s, and how much room to the back wall?

Tim, I'm 6'2 and there is about maybe 2 inches above my head to the bottom of the G90's. There is 4ft from the back of the G90 to the wall.

Cliff

What aspect ratio is your screen? What aspect are you setting up the blend?

Gino,

It's standard 16:9. From what I understand, I need to set the zilla to 4:3 per projector. I'm running the zilla at 1200P.

Cliff

Dam Son... now that's what I call progress :0, turned my back on the thead while working on my theater, and BAM you take it to another notch.

Dude I look forward to see you and everyone else this coming weekend.

Look foward to having you Don and thanks for your help today.

Cliffy

Man Cliffy, I hope it's just the way it looks in the photo and not the way it is in real life. There doesn't seem to be much lumber holding the G90s up, and what little lumber is involved, doesn't appear to be attached to the ceiling joists very well.

http://www.stbh.org/cliff/blend/screen/34.jpg

Gino,

It's standard 16:9. From what I understand, I need to set the zilla to 4:3 per projector. I'm running the zilla at 1200P.

Cliff

That's going to be some overlap... 4:3 each projector going to 16:9? I think that's 1/3 overlap.

That's going to be some overlap... 4:3 each projector going to 16:9? I think that's 1/3 overlap.

Maybe that would explain why so much of the image is going off of the left side of the screen.

This has been a BAD BAD BAD BAD DAY........ :mad:

I hope that the throw is right because I will be pissed if I have to pull down the PJ's and move them....... :mad:

Cliff

Man Cliffy, I hope it's just the way it looks in the photo and not the way it is in real life. There doesn't seem to be much lumber holding the G90s up, and what little lumber is involved, doesn't appear to be attached to the ceiling joists very well.

It's the way it looks Phil trust me. Arli and I were swinging off of that thing like monkeys at the same time and it's not moving. I wouldn't risk it if I didn't think they would hold not only for myself, but to mention the peps that are coming.....

Cliff

Cliff,

You should be fine as long as the centers of your green tubes are equidistant from a line perpendicular to the horizontal (and vertical) center of your screen.

Edit: By the way, it's amazing to see the progress you've made on the theater. What is your seating configuration going to be?

As I said earlier Cliff, once you have projectors positioned in the right place, the rest is a breeze. (as opposed to setting up a blend where the projectors arent in the perfect position)

PM me if I can be of further help.

Cliff,
I sure love your choice of screen material it looks fantastic! Actually having your front speakers behind the picture, thats what I call first class. But there is one thing I was wondering about. Will the screen material move at all from sound pressure of the speakers behind it? From the looks of your speakers it looks like a lot of sound pressure and thats a good thing but I just wonder if the screen will move from it.

Man I tell you I stop to make a door jamb, drill some door knob holes, and when I come back there are a ton of posts :-)...

Cliff,

You should be fine as long as the centers of your green tubes are equidistant from a line perpendicular to the horizontal (and vertical) center of your screen.

Edit: By the way, it's amazing to see the progress you've made on the theater. What is your seating configuration going to be?

Hehe, didn't you mention something about wanting a pic of Arli and I swinging like monkeys on the PJ mounts????? ;)

There will be 2 rows of three seats in the theater with the first row exactly one screen width back from the final screen configuration which will be 10ft wide......

Cliff

Cliff,
I sure love your choice of screen material it looks fantastic! Actually having your front speakers behind the picture, thats what I call first class. But there is one thing I was wondering about. Will the screen material move at all from sound pressure of the speakers behind it? From the looks of your speakers it looks like a lot of sound pressure and thats a good thing but I just wonder if the screen will move from it.

This screen material rocks. I cant wait to get a full setup going so I can take pics.

I don't think I'll have issues even with this 12ft wide screen as it's tensioned pretty good and it's pretty thick. I'll know for sure soon....... :)

Cliff

This screen material rocks. I cant wait to get a full setup going so I can take pics.

I don't think I'll have issues even with this 12ft wide screen as it's tensioned pretty good and it's pretty thick. I'll know for sure soon....... :)

Cliff

If you put any sub that moves massive amounts of air behind any AT screen it is going to vibrate. Even a window screen will move with a sub behind it. The SmX screen won't be moved by your main speakers but if the sub is moving allot of air like mine does, than I wouldn't put it directly behind the screen unless you can put it a foot or more away from it. Anyway, give it a try, it may work fine.

Ruben

I have four of the Seaton Submersives behind my screen. Yes some air moves but after a while you realize that the times the screen moves a lot it is during scenes in films when tons of stuff is moving around in the picture , so is your chair , the floor your feet are on , your hair and clothing. I used to get worked up but no longer.

Art

If you put any sub that moves massive amounts of air behind any AT screen it is going to vibrate. Even a window screen will move with a sub behind it. The SmX screen won't be moved by your main speakers but if the sub is moving allot of air like mine does, than I wouldn't put it directly behind the screen unless you can put it a foot or more away from it. Anyway, give it a try, it may work fine.

Ruben

Gasket the equipment room door and get some 18" drivers... :D

I have my subs behind my screen and I don't notice it moving that much at all. Like Art stated, when everything else is moving... you don't really notice it that much at all... so this isn't a real issue at all.

Now the question is: will it move the projectors enough to make the blend zone visible during the shake-up?

Too bad I finally cannot attend... so pleaseee let me know!!

This is the configuration I will likely be running: Genelec HTS6 sub + other LCR Genelec spearkers + SMX screen.

Have fun!!!!

Andres

How does your room progress there?

In one word: slow... Sound isolation is there, floor is there, raiser for 2nd row is there; in the coming weeks I'll have the suspended ceiling and sound-proofing installed, everything is going to be absolutely black or very very dark.

I finally ordered the chairs from the US so they'll take a while to show up. The only equipment left to arrive is some of the Genelec audio stuff as well as the new tubes I got from Terry and the MP V2 modded boards.

I plan to move in the new house by end of January. I expect the HT room to be watchable then but some items (likely the HT chairs) will come in later I fear...

Other than that, the expectation is killing me... I really wanted to go to the HT meet there, I am sure it will be a blast... :D

Cliff... one question: do you plan to compare stacking to blending? or is this going to be a blending-only demo?

Cliff... one question: do you plan to compare stacking to blending? or is this going to be a blending-only demo?

Andres,

Are you trying to put Arli, Ken, Clarence, and I into an early grave? :eek:

She will be blending only for the meet. :)

That sucks that your not coming. I was really looking foward to meeting you. :(

Cliff

Got the walls up today that will be finished for the meet. Time to bust out the black paint I bought...............

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/41.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/42.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/43.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/44.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/45.jpg

Cliff

holly sh**. Looking good. I like the twin.

You slackers!!!

Man it looks good. See you went with an exterior door behind the screen (insulated). No riser, are they hanging that low, or to far back? If you guys need anything give me a buzz.

MIKE

Dam Son I thought I was busting ballz on my theater...

Cliff it looks really nice you should have the board around 10:30 am tomorrow lrt mr know who old girl preforms.

Wow! You guys are really making progress!

Keep working at that pace and there won't be anything left for me to do except drink beer and watch movies when I get there on Wednesday!

Black paint is a good idea. We could even paint the concrete slab if you want to.

Are you going to do a quick coat of mud and tape on the seams?

Cranked any tunes yet?

Guys!

I sent along a fairly complete setup guide, once the right throw is set the rest should go OK.

http://i12.tinypic.com/43hog3m.jpg

You slackers!!!

Man it looks good. See you went with an exterior door behind the screen (insulated). No riser, are they hanging that low, or to far back? If you guys need anything give me a buzz.

MIKE

Hi Mike. I dont think I'll be doing a riser for the meet due to the fact that the screen is so damn huge that I'll probably have to do a row of 4 theater seats and leave space behind for standing room if needed. Thanks for the offer of help. It might be needed on wednesday if we have to pull the projectors down........

Cliff

Dam Son I thought I was busting ballz on my theater...

Cliff it looks really nice you should have the board around 10:30 am tomorrow lrt mr know who old girl preforms.

You got it man. Thanks so much. I owe you one.

Like I told you before, I wont run it in the projector the original board failed in just in case.......

Cliffy

Wow! You guys are really making progress!

Keep working at that pace and there won't be anything left for me to do except drink beer and watch movies when I get there on Wednesday!

Black paint is a good idea. We could even paint the concrete slab if you want to.

Are you going to do a quick coat of mud and tape on the seams?

Cranked any tunes yet?

Tonight big dog, I'm painting the drywall in the theater and behind the screen black as well as the floor in both the screen room and the theater with the help of my HOTTIE WIFE. I'm trying to convince her to paint neked, but I don't think she is going for it. ;) :eek: :D

No mud or tape as I'm doing 2 layers of drywall in the entire theater including the screenwall room.

HOPEFULLY I'LL BE FINALLY HOOKING UP THE KLIPSCH's AND SUBS TOMORROW!!!! :D :D :D :D

Cant wait till you get here! Ken is coming wednesday as well hopefully!

It's been an extremely rough road big dog, but I think we are going to actually be able to pull this off! :)

Cliffy

Kill Me!!!

MUHWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA I AINT DONE WITH YOU YET!!!!! :D :D :D :D ;)

Still taking reservations for the meet ? :D

I'm in the US at the moment, had planned to be in NY but ended up visiting family in Milwaukee, WI first which means I'm here till Dec 13th. Would love to see the 'zilla and G90 blend. Haven't seen either devices in action before!

If I ever get to Gino's setup when I'm back in Australia, it would be interesting to see how the G90 vs 9500LC's compare both in a 'zilla blend. Not sure how I'd get there but doesn't look too far by the maps.google

Not sure how the hell I missed this but your more than welcome to come. I had a couple of drop outs so looks good. Milwaukee to my house is about 3 hours so it's not too bad if you want to come down!!!!!

Cliffy

Updated List:

Art Sonneborn and his wife Angela
Ken Whitcomb
Bomrat (Props to this dude for rocking by my side and being one of my best FREINDS)
Walt (aspec2)
Mike (skylooker1)
William Seaward
Don KELLOGG
yborstrip
mikecazz
Sandbagger (Kevin)
Clarence (WE ARE GONNA SO PARTY)
Casey Mershon
Ryan from the Little Guys Home Theater
John Gannon (Tentative)
Kipp Jones and Scott (Tentative)
voicecoils
and FO SHO, My Hottie Wife......

Guys and gals, I will be posting directions from all directions later this week so please keep watching the thread!!!!!! :D :D :D :D

Cliffy

I put the boy to work tonight.......... :)

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/46.jpg

I see black starting........ mmmmm........ nothing like black in a theater........ :D

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/47.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/48.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/49.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/50.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/51.jpg

Now I am starting to feel good....... It's all coming together........

Sources for the meet:

Toshiba HD DVD
Sony PS3 Blue Ray (HDMI to A)
JVC 5U (HDMI to A)
HTPC
XBOX 360 for .TS and HD DVD Playback
Yammi SDI Modded by Gary S2300MKII DVD/SACD/DVD-A
DVDO-VP30 w/SDI Mod/ABT DI Card
And of course, THE BLENDZILLA!!!!!

I have HD Material flowing out of my rear end right now SCREAMING to be played for the meet........

Oh BOY OH BOY!!!! HERE WE GO!!!!!!!! :D :eek: :D :cool: :cool: :cool:

isn't there child labor laws for this kind of thing? :) how about friend labor laws...

its goth...

see you in the morning, oh crap its morning already, must sleep damn pager keeps going off every 20 minutes, stupid hp servers, out of memory, out of cpu, out of disk. out of my mind. any body have a 12 gauge pump i can borrow, i have a SAP server i want to rectify some errors...

Bomrat I feel your pain I had a rash of HP Server BS on monday. And as for SAP... gah SAP is a pain in my butt were having issues with all the new systems, I should just start doing the dam development myself, grrr.

Man I knew all the stock I bought in Black paint would pay off someday :-) j/k

Cliff if you get one of those boards order let me know, I sent the information on to you in email. I think I'm going to buy a spare set of boards, for emergencies like this.

Updated List:

Art Sonneborn and his wife Angela
Ken Whitcomb
Bomrat (Props to this dude for rocking by my side and being one of my best FREINDS)
Walt (aspec2)
Mike (skylooker1)
William Seaward
Don KELLOGG
yborstrip
mikecazz
Sandbagger (Kevin)
Clarence (WE ARE GONNA SO PARTY)
Casey Mershon
Ryan from the Little Guys Home Theater
John Gannon (Tentative)
Kipp Jones and Scott (Tentative)
voicecoils
Mike Jacobs
and FO SHO, My Hottie Wife......

Can you say LIGHT CONTROL?????? :D :cool: :D :cool:

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/52.jpg

http://www.seriouspc.com/blend/53.jpg

Cliffy

get the board in light her up :) hehe

Well Cliff you gone and done it I'm ordering 4 yards of the SMX.

Cliffy

Looks like a bloody Coal Mine down there.......hehehe.......

Black Hole Sun theater???

Cliff

Looking forward to Saturday. Going to stay at the kid's Friday night and see you Saturday. I came past your place a week ago Sunday. I was coming from Dee Twa and avoiding the traffic around Chi so I took 41 south past St. John. Lots of new housing out there.

Walt

Cliff

Looking forward to Saturday. Going to stay at the kid's Friday night and see you Saturday. I came past your place a week ago Sunday. I was coming from Dee Twa and avoiding the traffic around Chi so I took 41 south past St. John. Lots of new housing out there.

Walt

Oh yeah, it's exploded big time. Looking foward to you coming over Walt!

I'm thinking that we'll be starting around 3PM.

Cliff

Oh yeah, it's exploded big time. Looking foward to you coming over Walt!

I'm thinking that we'll be starting around 3PM.

Cliff

So is the Blendzilla show December 6th or Saturday now? I got lost.

Ruben

So is the Blendzilla show December 6th or Saturday now? I got lost.

RubenThe main Blendzilla event is Saturday, Dec 9th.

But the pre-party starts on the 6th (tomorrow) when I arrive ;) :D

Should be fun ! Wish I could be there guy's !!! :cool:

Tom

CLARENCE!!!!! can't wait to meet you... need 1000 cc's beer stat.

CLARENCE!!!!! can't wait to meet you... need 1000 cc's beer stat.

:D :D :D :D

All I have to say is holy sccchhiitt...........

Ryan from the Little Guys is coming over Friday night to set up the Pearl. This night is EXACTLY what I thought it would be........ :D

Cliffy

Cliff;

I'm on the road today on my way to Chicago to fix another ID10T error. If I get out at a fair time would you mind if I sung by to check out the pregame on the theater :)

Clarence I can't wait to finally meet you. What is your favorite beer other than FREE :P

Cliff;

I'm on the road today on my way to Chicago to fix another ID10T error. If I get out at a fair time would you mind if I sung by to check out the pregame on the theater :)

Clarence I can't wait to finally meet you. What is your favorite beer other than FREE :P

Come on through big dog. Ken, Clarence, and Arli are coming as well.

Cliff

Cool, I'm half way there.. I can't believe they were going to have me drive to Chicago to fix this issue. A vp lost a wireless connection when he went home..... HE DOESN"T HAVE WIRELESS AT HOME..... This is the second time I have had to act on something like this. I once flew to to the east coast because someones wireless dropped, almost the same thing.

I fixed the the issue via phone, currently I'm at a rest stop in Michigan, I'll be there in about 2 hours, grabing lunch at the moment, have to stay fat. hehe

Cool, I'm half way there.. I can't believe they were going to have me drive to Chicago to fix this issue. A vp lost a wireless connection when he went home..... HE DOESN"T HAVE WIRELESS AT HOME..... This is the second time I have had to act on something like this. I once flew to to the east coast because someones wireless dropped, almost the same thing.

I fixed the the issue via phone, currently I'm at a rest stop in Michigan, I'll be there in about 2 hours, grabing lunch at the moment, have to stay fat. hehe

You going to the call first or to me? You realize if you come, I'm putting you to work right?????? :D

Cliff

Cliff

I was wondering if I could stop by a bit early(12-1ish you can put me and my buddy to work)? I am staying the night in Kalamazoo since I will be drinking all day at Bells brewery (annual eccentric day party)and then a buddy is picking me up and driving out in the morning( depends on how hung over I am). I also have another GTG ( more audio oriented) up almost to wisconson. When I said I would do both of these I thought both were in chicago.... at totaly oposite ends. It looks like a 2hr drive over from Kzoo and almost 2 up to the other GTG.

Also since I will be at the brewery anyone need any Bells beer ? www.bellsbeer.com they sell everything they make and in 6's cases and 1/4 1/2 barells

I know they just stoped brining it into Il

if you need beer just PM me before I leave friday morning to not polute the thread

Kevin get your butt over here the we could use your assistance... It only took me about 1 1/2 hours but then again I travel pretty fast.

Kevin get your butt over here the we could use your assistance... It only took me about 1 1/2 hours but then again I travel pretty fast.

Don
you have to remember its another 1:45 min for me to get to Kzoo from my place.....
And as far as you traveling at a good pace I just did detroit to GrandJunction Co in well ....... lets say I had an AVERAGE of 80mph(that included gas/food ect)

We are having SO much fun with this!

Ken, Arli, and Don left hours ago to get some sleep like sensible people, but Cliff and I kept playing and did a rough setup so we could watch some blended 12' wide HD:

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff01.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff02.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff03.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff04.jpg

Clarence what is this sleep you talk of...??? :-) No more than 20 minutes into my drive home I got called by the UK.

Cliff thank you for letting me stop by I had a blast. I only wish I could have cleared the rest of the week to help bring this to fruition. It was hard for me to leave. Your setup is really coming together nicely, can't wait.

Clarence it was nice to finally meet you, I should grab some insanity wings on the way down to the meet :)




Anyway Cliff If you get in a pinch and need assistance you have my numbers, emails, bat signal.... let me know.

Don
you have to remember its another 1:45 min for me to get to Kzoo from my place.....
And as far as you traveling at a good pace I just did detroit to GrandJunction Co in well ....... lets say I had an AVERAGE of 80mph(that included gas/food ect)


I'm just messing with you :) I'm more like a low fly jet 80 mph will get you run over the closer you get to IL. Man there were allot of police on highway today, wish the Accord had stealth mode haha...

Modded Sony G90 DF Board

Clarence here are some pics of the mod on my DF board Cliff has in one of his G90's

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/DSCF0286.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/DSCF0285.jpg

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o70/DonKellogg/DSCF0284.jpg

Man there were allot of police on highway todayYep, I counted probably 10 each in PA, OH, and IN today. One of them did a U-turn to follow me... I hate that sinking feeling as you watch the rerview mirror waiting for the lights. He just followed me for a few miles. I was on the phone with Cliff when I drove by a radar sign that said "Speed Limit is 55. Your speed is 88"... I wanted to loop back to see if I could get a higher score.

Here's Cliff with a Wonka squirrel (Cliff is on the left)... he's been without his projector for 3 months and now he has a blend... every 30 seconds he either says "WOW!" or "F@#% yeah" or "big dog, that's a screenshot right there"... :D

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff05.jpg

I woke up exactly 24 hours ago to drive here :D

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff06.jpg

Cliff's wife came down a few hours ago and yelled at us, so Cliff unplugged the subs

Those are some pretty nice shots... I take it the BlendZilla software was very easy to work out? It's great isnt it!

How much further have you got to go on the setup... and what are you running... 1200P?

I think I can only just notice the blendzone, looks slightly softer at screen centre, and the blue background in the last 2 shots has a slight haze on it.

When you guys are done, mind posting a pic of just a blank white screen?

What are your intial thoughts on the amount of light output compared to a stack, and also sharpness.. as one would assume it would be sharper where there isnt 6 tubes requiring to be perfectly converged.

Brilliant pictures! :cool:

Fun thread to read. :D

Congratulations on the Blendzilla set-up. :)

WOW this is f$ck##g big screen size. Especially when you see someone standing in front of the screen. The PQ is already very good.

Mm i wish i had room and money to blend my 2 Vidikron Vision One's :):):).

My set up will be in the living room so 2 Vidikrons will be not excepted by the wife :).

Also the living room wall is not big enough to also place my Infinity IRS Omega speakers.

have fun and please keep posting pics.

Paul

hehe that's a big squirrel good thing two of the biggest CRT NUTZZZZ are there. Watch out Cliff it's going for your head...

Man looks like you guys tweaked and tweaked all night, loooookinngggg Gooooodd....


Hmmm blend software easy to work with, no comment from me.

You guys make me sick! I can't even get my lowly projector set up and here you guys are splitting the CRT atom! Bahhhh! Yeah, I'm just jealous, very jealous! :D Keep the pictures coming, looks like great fun! Clarence, is it just the white background in that shot or have you gotten a bit "meatier" since last we met? I know I have! :o

Pics look great Cliff. But I'm sure they don't do it justice.
Wish I could be there. Have fun.

Terry

Guys! Those screenshots look amazing... and considering that both Clarence and Cliff look to be "big" (at least compared to me :p ), the screen surely is impressive!

Cliff... what are the chances of keeping the Blendzilla??? :D :D :D

Regards!

he he, life sized hale barry... it looks great. get some sleep man.

Nah the camera adds the pounds both Cliff and Clarence are strapping young bucks. Maybe it is the picture from the G90s, they so amazing it makes everything else pale in comparison?

I'll stand in front of the screen next time, my body structure these days is pretty close to 16:9, haha.

Nah the camera adds the pounds both Cliff and Clarence are strapping young bucks. Maybe it is the picture from the G90s, they so amazing it makes everything else pale in comparison?

I'll stand in front of the screen next time, my body structure these days is pretty close to 16:9, haha.

Ha ha! :D Yeah, I wouldn't want my glorious body shining in the light of those G90's but it's hard to miss Cliff and Clarence's sh!t eating grins in those shots! :D I would be doing the happy dance too!

I'm curious, with the size of the room and all of that equipment running is it noticeabley warmer in there? Besides all of the hot air coming from your visitors that is! Also, what is the power consumption and are you running any kind of power conditioning or UPS equipment?

I'm curious, with the size of the room and all of that equipment running is it noticeabley warmer in there? Besides all of the hot air coming from your visitors that is! Also, what is the power consumption and are you running any kind of power conditioning or UPS equipment?

Good question. Also, do you have a dedicated circuit for the PJs?

It's looking sweet Cliff! Congrats and YOU SUCK x 2 :D

Some where along the lines of 13 x 15 ' I beleive it was so dark in there with all the black paint. Dark Side of the moon was making me feel like I was tripp'in the life fanastic :D

On the topic of happy dance, we we're doing allot of that yesterday. Well it was more of the Rodney Dangerfield Caddy Shack dance... It started out as insanity dancing, but after Ken help iron some issues out, it turned into full blown Caddy Shack happy dance.

When it's all said and done I think it will evolve into the Pulp Fiction dance. YEAHHHH BABY...

Some where along the lines of 13 x 15 ' I beleive it was so dark in there with all the black paint. Dark Side of the moon was making me feel like I was tripp'in the life fanastic :D

On the topic of happy dance, we we're doing allot of that yesterday. Well it was more of the Rodney Dangerfield Caddy Shack dance... It started out as insanity dancing, but after Ken help iron some issues out, it turned into full blown Caddy Shack happy dance.

When it's all said and done I think it will evolve into the Pulp Fiction dance. YEAHHHH BABY...

Good times! Any chance those ladies are going to get up before noon-thirty? Ah, the good old days, party all night and sleep all day...

They wake when they wake and they do what they do.. you can't control free spirits like those two... I'm sure they will Cliff is hell bent on get this done.

How much further have you got to go on the setup... and what are you running... 1200P?

I think I can only just notice the blendzone, looks slightly softer at screen centre, and the blue background in the last 2 shots has a slight haze on it.I lost the wireless connection on my laptop so I'll just reply from Cliff's PC...

We're still running 1024 right now. Cliff ran into some retrace settings with 1200p yesterday before I arrived. It works fine on the Marquee, but the G90 is different. Sounds similar to the retrace issue I'm seeing from the X360's VGA 1080P.

Anyways, I want to give 1200P and 1024@72 another shot today.

We only did a quick blendzone setup on the projectors last night. We cheated and used some zone, including on Green, to get the grids aligned. Cliff didn't mess with any of the blendzilla settings. Arli showed me some of them yesterday... so I'll experiment later today... lots of controls available.

Gino has a good eye... the blend zone is still slightly visible, especially with something like a bright background. You can see a touch of it under Wonka's chin.
Clarence, is it just the white background in that shot or have you gotten a bit "meatier" since last we met? I know I have! :o

My untucked shirt does make me look a little jollier than usual. Admittedly, instead of 6-pack abs, I've got more a 12-pack on the waistline. I'm 6'1"... Cliff's probably 6'2"... I'll see if I can get Cliff's kids in a screenshot... that'll really make the screen look as huge as it is. We were looking pretty disheveled in the wee hours. :D

I'm gonna to build a velvet-covered frame for the screen today to cover the staples and get the geometry exactly to 1.85 - this SMX acoustically-transparent woven screen material is really nice stuff.

-Clarence

Dam it wish I was there fun things happening...

You know I was going to wait until the setup was complete, but I can't hold it in. That SMX screen material is amazing I've seen allot of screens, and allot of really expensive screens in my time. I don't get hyped by every little thing new thing on the market either. However that SMX material is amazing, the sound quaility is so clear coming through the screen, and the image is well stunning to say the least.

I know which way I'm going, Stewart is a dam good material and should be for the price but I reallly like this solution and I'm extremely impressed by it. Dollar for Dollar it's just amazing how much you get for such a small investment, and honestly I don't have calibration lenses for Eyes but it's equal to or greater than Stewart in my book.

Guys!

My best results setting the SE curve on the DVX is in 45% as shown, try that.

http://i12.tinypic.com/34j1ydh.jpg

Pics look great Cliff. But I'm sure they don't do it justice.
Wish I could be there. Have fun.

Terry

Wish you could hang to Terry. Thanks to you and Don, this meet is going to be possible.

Thanks so much Terry for helping me find my issue............ :D

Cliff

No Problem.. My company just called I'm on next flight to Clarence's stumping grounds. They want me there for the weekend but I'm going to do everything I can to make them fly me back for your meet :)

But if so some stupid reason I can't make it back, know that I'm there in spirit...

No Problem.. My company just called I'm on next flight to Clarence's stumping grounds. They want me there for the weekend but I'm going to do everything I can to make them fly me back for your meet :)

But if so some stupid reason I can't make it back, know that I'm there in spirit...

DUDE THAT BLOWS...........

I hope you can make it back........ :mad:

Cliff

Just awesome !!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait for Saturday. :cool: :cool:

Art

Cliff

I was wondering if I could stop by a bit early(12-1ish you can put me and my buddy to work)? I am staying the night in Kalamazoo since I will be drinking all day at Bells brewery (annual eccentric day party)and then a buddy is picking me up and driving out in the morning( depends on how hung over I am). I also have another GTG ( more audio oriented) up almost to wisconson. When I said I would do both of these I thought both were in chicago.... at totaly oposite ends. It looks like a 2hr drive over from Kzoo and almost 2 up to the other GTG.

Also since I will be at the brewery anyone need any Bells beer ? www.bellsbeer.com they sell everything they make and in 6's cases and 1/4 1/2 barells

I know they just stoped brining it into Il

if you need beer just PM me before I leave friday morning to not polute the thread

Thanks for the beer offer. We'd love a couple samples!

Your more than welcome to show up early if you like.

Cliff

Just awesome !!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait for Saturday. :cool: :cool:

Art

:D :D :D :D

Me hope you like Mr. Sonneborn..........

Cliffy

What's going on now guys?!? This is like watching internet porn or something. I have to live vicariously through you guys since I can't be there! More screen shots! :D

What's going on now guys?!? This is like watching internet porn or something. I have to live vicariously through you guys since I can't be there! More screen shots! :D

Kids are watching Ice Age 2 on Blue Ray right now so afterward hopefully Clarence and I will get some time to take some more shots later!!!

We watched the airplane scene from Superman Returns on HD DVD earlier and it blew us away............

Cliff

Guys!

The meet approaches and the excitement is building! I would like to thank Cliff and Arli for taking a very serious leap of faith and plowing ahead with this project, overcoming a number of hurdles in the process including not much sleep, congrats Big Dawg! We may still have John Gannon there, I phoned him an hour ago and he wants very much to be there.

We're still running 1024 right now.....

....Gino has a good eye... the blend zone is still slightly visible, especially with something like a bright background. You can see a touch of it under Wonka's chin.


It's interesting that you guys are so impressed with running 1024p for now, when before most of you who havent seen blendzilla were complaining about missing out on the extra 56 lines for 1080p. Are you seeing horrible scanlines at this resolution or is it acceptable?

I only have a good eye for those things because I know what problems I had to overcome while setting up!

As I've never seen a stack before, what are your initial thoughts on how blending compares to a stack?? light output? sharpness? etc...

We are having SO much fun with this!

Ken, Arli, and Don left hours ago to get some sleep like sensible people, but Cliff and I kept playing and did a rough setup so we could watch some blended 12' wide HD:

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff01.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff02.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff03.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff04.jpg

HOLY MOTHER OF BABY JESUS!
That picture is looking CRRAZZy!

DAMN!

Cant wait -

man what a day Cliff, I landed in Maryland within 1 hour I got called Get here ASAP flew me Milwaukee (first class :) ) so looks like I will be there. Man this year has really been something.

But hey I'll be there...

It's interesting that you guys are so impressed with running 1024p for now, when before most of you who havent seen blendzilla were complaining about missing out on the extra 56 lines for 1080p. Are you seeing horrible scanlines at this resolution or is it acceptable?

I only have a good eye for those things because I know what problems I had to overcome while setting up!


What is interesting and what I did not expect is that.......it seems that G90s do not feature Short Retrace, which may be needed to accomodate 1080p and 1200p without losing pixels in wrapping of pixels during the retrace time of each scan line in the raster. I am certain that the Sony people had never imagined the desireability of that feature in a home series product but.....here it becomes desired in this application.......

Holy mother of god! That' one HUGE screen! And the pic is sharp!

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff06.jpg
Clarence has had one too many of his homebrews methinks... he needs to be reconverged. (Green/blue fringing). :)

Kal

Cliffy

Awesome so far Big Dawg; has Ken Whitcomb worked his magic yet?

:-)

he he, life sized hale barry... it looks great. get some sleep man.
You are DA MAN. "Just take the F****** lenses off"

It's interesting that you guys are so impressed with running 1024p for now, when before most of you who havent seen blendzilla were complaining about missing out on the extra 56 lines for 1080p. Are you seeing horrible scanlines at this resolution or is it acceptable?This was a shocker for me, too.

It's not the 56 missing lines that bothered me, it's the slight scaling vs no scaling at all... I still think this could still be evident with test patterns. But after seeing the detail from the Ice Age 2 Blu-Ray at 1080P, the 1024 limitation is no longer a significant concern to me. I now only have 17,002 other concerns. One of which is only having only one G90. I'll let you gue$$ about the other 17K. ;)

I also thought 1024 would produce visible scanlines because my G90 resolves 1080P at 16:9, so I assumed fewer lines (1024) on a 4:3 would be too visible. For those who haven't played with blending, when you split the image among 2 projectors, each gets 60% of the image, so the height of the image gets maximized on each tube face, not the width of the image like we're used to.

But scanlines at 1024P aren't a problem. We think part of this might be due to the weave of the SMX screen. You can't see the weave until you stand a couple of feet away from the screen. With an all white screen, you can see them from a little further. But with HD content from 1x seating distance, neither the weave nor 1024P scanlines are an issue.

I'll hold a white sheet of paper in front of the screen tonight to see if the 1024P scanlines are visible on a non-woven surface.
what are your initial thoughts on how blending compares to a stack?? light output? sharpness? etc...Light output from this blended pair can be pleasantly blinding :D
But I'm getting a double whammy here from what I've grown accustomed to at home with my single G90...
My G90 has 8K hours and visible wear on the G.
But Cliff has minty P19LUG's in both.
The contrast is amazing... twice the light output while maintaining pure, deeeeeep black. Plus the black walls, black floor, black chairs, black curtain over the door, zero windows. Nice.

It'll be interesting to see Ken's ft-lambert measurements tomorrow.

At 16:9 or 1.85, blending and stacking seem comparable... keeping every pixel aligned in a stack doesn't seem significantly easier or more challenging than getting a nice alignment in the blend zone.

One potential consideration from blending is the fact that your center is now comprised of the far edges of 2 projectors. So what used to be the easiest part of the screen to focus now becomes the most difficult.

But each projector in a blend now breezes at half bandwidth... 72Hz is easy when each half of the stack only has to handle 60% of 1024P72 or 1200P72. But in a stack, 1080P72 is definitely driving both projectors hard.

I think the benefit of blending vs stack really kicks in with 2.35 AR. In a stack, you're wasting a lot of the phosphor on the top and bottom of 6 tubes. In a blend, the top and bottom are more efficiently used.

You guys ALL SUCK!!!

Have fun. Take lots of pics. Drink beers and look at purdy pictures. Wish I could have made it.

SC

This was a shocker for me, too.
......I also thought 1024 would produce visible scanlines because my G90 resolves 1080P at 16:9, so I assumed fewer lines (1024) on a 4:3 would be too visible.

Yes, I tried to tell you guys before that I tried comparing 1024p vs 1200p and couldnt really see a significant difference... me thinks it would be better to run 1024p72 than doing 1200p60


It'll be interesting to see Ken's ft-lambert measurements tomorrow.
Yes... very keen to see what he measures.

At 16:9 or 1.85, blending and stacking seem comparable... keeping every pixel aligned in a stack doesn't seem significantly easier or more challenging than getting a nice alignment in the blend zone.
But there is less to worry about! And in a >2.35 AR, you're only looking at 10% overlap

One potential consideration from blending is the fact that your center is now comprised of the far edges of 2 projectors. So what used to be the easiest part of the screen to focus now becomes the most difficult.
This is very true.. and is one of the reasons I've upgraded to HFQ900 lenses, in the hope that I get better edge focus, and hence screen centre

But each projector in a blend now breezes at half bandwidth... 72Hz is easy when each half of the stack only has to handle 60% of 1024P72 or 1200P72. But in a stack, 1080P72 is definitely driving both projectors hard.
Another one of the great advantages, and you may notice that extra bandwidth doesnt just mean resolving higher frame rates, but you'll notice more background details etc... with the extra headroom. This is some of the advantages that Mike Parker speaks of with his Marquee mods.

I think the benefit of blending vs stack really kicks in with 2.35 AR... In a blend, the top and bottom are more efficiently used.
Yes, and that's why I've gone for a 13ft wide 2.40 AR screen... now to set the bloody thing up!

What's happened to Cliff? :rolleyes:

What's happened to Cliff? :rolleyes:

Ok Gino, first of all I am f'ing really tired and my brain has basically shut down at this point but I will add a couple of things in regards to this setup:

If you plan 16:9 with a blend, forget about it. You MUST RUN 2:35/40 in order to really take advantage of CRT phosphor usage with the Zilla.

I REALLY LIKE what we have on the screen right now al though it is NOT PERFECT and the blendzone is noticable hence why I have pretty much kept my mouth shut so far.

Ken and John are coming tomorrow to get rolling and make this little beast what it should be for saturday. When they get done, I will be more than happy to comment but for right now, until this box and my G90's get along and we get a professional setup to make it the best it can be, I'm keeping my mouth shut. :rolleyes:

Cliffy

Since I get a free beer for every screenshot, here's tonight's buzz...

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff07.jpg

This is the screen weave vs. plain paper... 1024P. These lines are side-by-side (on-on)... not alternating on-off like the test patterns we usually shoot:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff08.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff09.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff10.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff11.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff12.jpg

We took this one as an example of the worst blend we could find...
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff13.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff14.jpg

Awesome stuff... would really like to see how well Ken can make the blend.... then that way if he comes here he'll have some experience with blending! :)

That blue blend is pretty noticeable. Is that intentional?

I'd say that's a combination of setting the SE curve right, and colorimetry. That's my biggest problem. Mine isn't as noticeable but obviously they haven't spent a lot of time working on that side of things. This is where Ken's expertise will come in very handy.

That blue blend is pretty noticeable. Is that intentional?

I doubt if that's the case, because blue would be the most obvious color to show up being off in a blend setup.

I think the images that are being shown are exeptional. Especially since this is not the final work of the setup artist, who'll be there sometime before Saturday. The images shows how easy it is the get a good image out of a blend system, and I think that was indicated from what Clarence had posted earlier in the thread.

Once a color meter gets on the scene that blue can be corrected, and the blend zone should be much better. It'll never be perfect, but it can be very seamless and almost not visable at all. But that could take some work.

At present I've been working on one of my customers blends systems. It has three (3) Barco 909's on a 20' wide curved screen. The blend system is integrated into SGI super computers. The system has three Extron DVS 150 scalers. And it also has a Key Digital Leeza. The video comes out of the SGI's and other input sources using Extron RGB 112XI SW13 interface boxes (about 12 of them).

The super computers are doing the blending, and can also accept external inputs from the scalers and for DVD and other non computer sources.

I'm upgrading the system and performing a radical PM. When all is said and done. I would have replaced and repaired many devices in the video chain, and then have to setup and calibrate about 12 different sources. So it's going to take a ton of setups and blending. So I have my work cut out for me, but three things will make this easy.

1, the 909's are very flexable for this.

2, the HFQ lens are flawless on edges, therefore perfect for blending.

3, a color meter. Without it, I would not be able to make the blend-zone seamless.

This system is also a stereoscoptic (3 D glaases required), so the blending has to be spot on. The good thing about the SGI computers is that they have a perfect built-in test pattern for geometry blend and color blending.


Gotta go!

Guys, those screenshots look really great! I can see the blue blend you refer to but in my opinion you are just splitting hairs at this point. Kudos to everyone for getting it this far! Anything you do from this point on will just be icing on the cake. Great great job! By the way Cliff, I saw your comment about keeping your mouth shut and I have a feeling that wont be the case for much longer! You guys should do some video of the final adjustments and tweaking and post it up somewhere. You could do the final 15 minutes or so of adjustments and then have an opening of your demo on the big screen in all it's glory!

I cannot wait to get more info from the event... I really wish I was there!!! :mad:

If at all possible, could you post a picture of a PS3 game in 1080p (assuming there are PS3 1080p games available and that you have one...)...

Simply incredible, guys.

All I know is that you guys are getting some exceptional sharpness ,color saturation, contrast and degenerative liver function . :D Thanks for the screen shots ! I missed it but is this 1200p ?

Art

All I know is that you guys are getting some exceptional sharpness ,color saturation, contrast and degenerative liver function . :D Thanks for the screen shots ! I missed it but is this 1200p ?

Art

Apparently it's 1024p but they plan to try 1200p again today to get some issues ironed out.

I'd like everyone to notice how even the simple grid of the screen perforations increases the APPARENT clarity on the comparison shot between the screen and sheet of paper.

I've been trying to find an effective way to reveal to everyone duped by fixed pixels that much of the 'sharpness' of the image is falsely made by the grid structure of the panels!


Any time anything in the picture aligns with the horizontal and verticle grid...it gets enhanced in about the same variance that any slight diagonal and radius are degraded. BOTH pop off the screen, and devotees of the 'new and improved' are SO quick to ignore those horrible angles and radii, but I argue that those appear WAY more frequent in nature than ANY pefectly aligned H & V edges and lines!!


Even though the screen perfs don't truncate the edges, and you can still see the Kell-fuzz, that pattern of holes certainly tricks the eye the same way! Thanks for that inspiration!


Great shots, I am terribly excited to get out to youse...even IF I'm on the tail end of an extended depressive/creative cycle. (funny how the anxiety peaks just THINKING about being tightly packed in that room with all you maniacs!)

Cheers and more, see you tonight, unless the Seer has other plans for me.

Heh.

Heya MP,

Why do you say that Blue should be the MOST noticeable while blended?!

ALL,

Please don't get all bunched on the anomalies until Ken does his thang. There are a ton of minor setup tricks that should minimize...and probably eliminate...all of it.


I'm still chewing on this infatuation with 1080p on a blended setup...there WILL be scaling involved any time the image is split and blended, no matter what you feed it. Sure, none in the verticle domain...but horizontally, at least.

Nah, the MOST important thing in any CRT setup is finding the sweet frequency and retrace that the particular chassis LIKES best...these things are ALL electromagnetic resonant devices and ring in weird ways when stressed. Disharmony is an ugly thing, no matter where it rears its punkin' head.

Hi all,

Those images are jaw-dropping. Really, I'm stunned.

One thing, though, that might help the blender do its work: looking at the picture of the MPAA warning, it appears that one projector is throwing a larger image than the other.

If you put up a real grid (pins and string?) on the screen, and nailed the geometry of the blended image, I bet that the blue variance would go down a notch, even before a serious color-calibration.

Mr. Gannon:

I don't see why scaling step is necessary in a blended image, horizontal or vertical. Could you please elaborate?

Slart...,

Please! Call me John, or anything other than Mr. (but thanks!)!


You take an image that is a digital feed of 1920 x 1080 pure pixels, then chop it OR fade off one edge...then reformat it with front and back porches and all that other fun stuff that each projector needs to see to determine the beginning and ending of each line of information (since we are scanning continuously, NOT simply firing a collection of dots)...certainly there is processing going on.

It may NOT be total image SIZE scaling, as many simply consider the term, but THAT obviously will be in effect as well for anything we're doing here since we need to be able to zoom smaller-area aspect ratios up into the screen area IF the black bars offend.


But, each image to each projector needs to go through a scaler at the very least to insure the image either exactly fits the fixed pixel grid of a new projector OR fills as much of the raster as possible with the much-better-but-older Cathode Ray Tube imagers.


While I don't think I've ever struck the vertical INPUT limits of any projector, since most I deal with are merely 1.78 within a 1.33 raster...I have hit those input limits horizontally. We tend to only think of the raster as the limit of size and centering, but that is the OUTPUT. All circuitry has limits to its start and end points of the scan, and while I don't know the exact circuitry mechanism or description for this I can certainly say I've witnessed when it is wrong, and when it is right. (I still think they run on smoke, 'cuz that's what comes out when they fail!!)

Sometimes the EM disharmonic resonance appears as wavy vertical lines on one edge of the image...usually the left...sometimes the horizontal lines have weird curves that cannot be tamed. These anomalies appear at certain scan and retrace rates on every chassis, although within the same brand and model and production run they are usually much more predictable.


If anything, when setting up a double stack, BOTH projectors should be modded, measured, and tweaked at all internal voltage points before attempting a critical viewing environment...by someone who is maniacally precise. (Mike? Terry? Tim? Doug? Curt? In your spare time, of course!)


For US, that'll probably never happen! Heh. We're too cheap to go to all that effort for the last 2%...at least I am. I'd encourage it, though, for anyone predisposed to extreme detail orientation...or to use the more vulgar term, anal retentivity! (it helps if they have deeper pockets to enable that, though!)


Cheers!

Good catch on that size thing, too.

You mean the too large a vertical with greater scan line spacing, right?!

(You might have JUST proven why these things need scalers!)


THAT we'll have fun matching tonight...I hope Ken doesn't have tired eyes, I know we won't be able to rely on all the fellows in the sleep deprivation study.

the MOST important thing in any CRT setup is finding the sweet frequency and retrace that the particular chassis LIKES best...these things are ALL electromagnetic resonant devices and ring in weird ways when stressed. Disharmony is an ugly thing, no matter where it rears its punkin' head. hmmm, sounds like Audiophile talk. Not surprising though, as advanced as the G90 is it's still an Analog device and anyone who's tried to fine-tune an analog system to perfection knows how difficult it can be to REALY achieve perfect harmony in a system.
Cliff I'm jealous that you have all these pro's at your door-step handling the nitty-gritty details. Make's me want to pull a second mortgage and blend a pair of 9500's at my house. :D

That blue blend is pretty noticeable. Is that intentional?Yes. It was chosen because that was the worse blend we could see... but there was a lot of negative factors involved.

First, it was PS3. The PS3 has been frustrating because we can't get the entire image when we have it set to output 1080P from the HDMI cable. You'll notice in that MPAA warning that the right 10-20% of the image is missing.

When we try to change the settings to 1080i, we only get 480p. Cliff has tried this a dozen times and everytime, the PS3 comes close to getting thrown across the room. I guess it's a common complaint from other PS3 owners/gamers... it seems to really want to run at 720p or 480p, not at 1080p or 1080i.

Cliff's going to look for a local PS3 component cable today so we can try 1080i from component.

We also tried 1080P from the XBox 360's VGA cable... same issues that I'm having at home with my single G90... no matter how much we use SIZE and SHIFT, we can't get the left side of the image and the right side of the image on the screen at the same time.

All of the other sources look 100x better in the blend zone. Even the FBI warning from HDDVD has an 99.44% undetectable blend. For some reason, PS3 is the worst.

We've been playing a game called "Can you see the slightest hint of a blendzone?" With most sources, I'd say 95% of the time the answer is no. Even with the PS3, like in the IceAge2 pics above, most of the time you won't notice the blend, except with solid blue or solid white scenes... but in Ice Age, there are a LOT of white and blue scenes.

MP is right, blue seems to be the easiest color any flaws in our blend. White is next. Especially with large, solid areas of color. So that's the other reason the MPAA screen worked as our example of the worst case scenario.

Anyways, the intent is to repeat that screenshot to AFTER Ken does a real alignment and a color balance on both projectors. Right now, we're only using a lot of point convergence to align the grid in the blend zone. We started off trying to do a proper, measured linearity, but if can quickly get frustrating to have one section of the grid aligned, then you touch up a geometry setting on one projector and the blend zone alignment that you just worked on in a previous step goes out of whack. So we just stuck with the rough blend that we did Wednesday night and didn't dink with it yesterday, knowing that Ken was coming today to do it right.

draganm,

You might've exactly nailed why I am not comfortable with digital.

Too many hard limits...truncation...no fudge factor to adapt to the wonderfully analog human perceptual system.


CRTs are much more like the eye/brain mechanism...and can be run at a rate where the perception of motion is rendered more fluidly. All video contains just enough to trick the eye/brain, because of our persistence of vision...but every one of us has trouble tracking horizontal pans on ANY current video display. I've noticed it in real life, so this 'judder' might just be another limitation on the mere human system.

I was happy to hear that we'll be experimenting with 72Hz with this video monster...

Yes. It was chosen because that was the worse blend we could see... but there was a lot of negative factors involved.

First, it was PS3. The PS3 has been frustrating because we can't get the entire image when we have it set to output 1080P from the HDMI cable. You'll notice in that MPAA warning that the right 10-20% of the image is missing.

When we try to change the settings to 1080i, we only get 480p. Cliff has tried this a dozen times and everytime, the PS3 comes close to getting thrown across the room. I guess it's a common complaint from other PS3 owners/gamers... it seems to really want to run at 720p or 480p, not at 1080p or 1080i.

Cliff's going to look for a local PS3 component cable today so we can try 1080i from component.

We also tried 1080P from the XBox 360's VGA cable... same issues that I'm having at home with my single G90... no matter how much we use SIZE and SHIFT, we can't get the left side of the image and the right side of the image on the screen at the same time.

All of the other sources look 100x better in the blend zone. Even the FBI warning from HDDVD has an 99.44% undetectable blend. For some reason, PS3 is the worst.

We've been playing a game called "Can you see the slightest hint of a blendzone?" With most sources, I'd say 95% of the time the answer is no. Even with the PS3, like in the IceAge2 pics above, most of the time you won't notice the blend, except with solid blue or solid white scenes... but in Ice Age, there are a LOT of white and blue scenes.

MP is right, blue seems to be the easiest color any flaws in our blend. White is next. Especially with large, solid areas of color. So that's the other reason the MPAA screen worked as our example of the worst case scenario.

Anyways, the intent is to repeat that screenshot to AFTER Ken does a real alignment and a color balance on both projectors. Right now, we're only using a lot of point convergence to align the grid in the blend zone. We started off trying to do a proper, measured linearity, but if can quickly get frustrating to have one section of the grid aligned, then you touch up a geometry setting on one projector and the blend zone alignment that you just worked on in a previous step goes out of whack. So we just stuck with the rough blend that we did Wednesday night and didn't dink with it yesterday, knowing that Ken was coming today to do it right.


Sony just released the patch for the PS3 to allow 1080i output yesterday I believe.

Man, all I can say is WOW! Those have to be the best screen shots I have ever seen posted on AVS, and to think you guys are still not properly set up yet blows my mind.

Awesome work guys! Can't wait to see the screen shots after the final tweaking.

Ruben

Man, all I can say is WOW!

Ruben

That is exactly what I think of your Screen Ruben!!!!!!! :D ;) :D ;)

Cliffy

Its probably embedded in this very long thread but what are the screen dimension? Is it 1.78 or 1.85?
btw I concur, best shots I've seen. Period. The actual image must look incredible.

Cliff

Have I missed the directions? You aren't in mapquest or ms streets. You have my cell if it wasn't lost in the move. Give me a yell or send me a PM....Email....anything. It's getting close. I can't wait. Hurry........I'm leaving for Bourbonaiss....first have to pick up the kid's kids. Be there around dinner.

Is the old 708 number I have your cell number?

Walt

XXX

Its probably embedded in this very long thread but what are the screen dimension? Is it 1.78 or 1.85?
btw I concur, best shots I've seen. Period. The actual image must look incredible.

Lewis,

The screen material and frame is 12ft wide but after framing and proper 1.78 aspect ratio the dimensions will be 135" wide by 76" tall.

Cliff

First, it was PS3. The PS3 has been frustrating because we can't get the entire image when we have it set to output 1080P from the HDMI cable. You'll notice in that MPAA warning that the right 10-20% of the image is missing.

When we try to change the settings to 1080i, we only get 480p. Cliff has tried this a dozen times and everytime, the PS3 comes close to getting thrown across the room. I guess it's a common complaint from other PS3 owners/gamers... it seems to really want to run at 720p or 480p, not at 1080p or 1080i.

Cliff's going to look for a local PS3 component cable today so we can try 1080i from component.

We also tried 1080P from the XBox 360's VGA cable... same issues that I'm having at home with my single G90... no matter how much we use SIZE and SHIFT, we can't get the left side of the image and the right side of the image on the screen at the same time.

All of the other sources look 100x better in the blend zone. Even the FBI warning from HDDVD has an 99.44% undetectable blend. For some reason, PS3 is the worst.


I have been trying to determine if the G90 offers a Fast Retrace or Short Retrace setting; this would allow drawing more pixels on the visible scan line and fix the wrap issue, perhaps something Sony did not anticipate needing in home theater applications. Does any one know for sure?

I'd like everyone to notice how even the simple grid of the screen perforations increases the APPARENT clarity on the comparison shot between the screen and sheet of paper.

I've been trying to find an effective way to reveal to everyone duped by fixed pixels that much of the 'sharpness' of the image is falsely made by the grid structure of the panels!


Hi John,

I just grabbed an objective set of eyes, and asked, "Which side of the "S" is sharper?"

"What, are you kidding me? The left side, obviously."

I was about to explain aliasing and center-surround visual processing when my objective eyes left the room.

Anyhow, thanks for the explanation about scaling. Regarding scan-line spacing on a 4:3 CRT projection display, it's a problem in my set-up. The bottom of the image, in my floor mounted arrangement, is slightly, but notably sharper than the top.

To Cliff et. al.:

If you guys have a chance, could you keep an eye out for ANSI contrast issues? Say, for instance, if one side of the image is really bright, and the other is darker, is there is a washout effect in the bright half of the image and not the other? I've only ever seen this in one scene, but I'm not using liquid coupled projectors.

LOOKING FOWARD TO SEEING EVERYONE TOMORROW!!!!!!!! :D ;)I'm jealous of all the fun you guys have been having, and the beer you've been drinking. :D Have a great time tomorrow!!!

Clarence Can you show me how to snap those wonderful screen shots when I get back there. :) I would like to take some of mine when the theater has been completed. And well short of a miracle or flying you out I need guidance ;)

Cliff left you a message on I think your cell. I hope everything is coming together the way you wanted. Looking forward to seeing the final product, man those snap shots look amazing.

Cliff

Check your e.mail, I found out where they hid short retrace........

This is goanna be one remarkable event ! Thanks Cliffy and Clarence for the great screenshots.... Now how many screenshot shot's are we up to Clarence ? :D

Yay!

Can you believe I'm only NOW leaving Lansing?

Three hours on the Interstate, can't wait.

I guess I get to join the sleep deprivation club.

UGH.

Very excited for you Cliffy! Don't forget about us unfortunate souls not able to make it, please keep us updated on more pics, thoughts etc....

Sony just released the patch for the PS3 to allow 1080i output yesterday I believe.

I can't believe one of the largest console makers in the world had to patch a HD gaming system to output 1080i. Seems like it would...you know...just be an option as a result of base logic.

Very excited for you Cliffy! Don't forget about us unfortunate souls not able to make it, please keep us updated on more pics, thoughts etc....


Same. This is an exciting thread. That is a good size screen. Makes Clarence look like a Keebler Elf :)

Lewis,

The screen material and frame is 12ft wide but after framing and proper 1.78 aspect ratio the dimensions will be 135" wide by 76" tall.

Cliff

This should allow a nice comparison to my 132" wide image. See you guys in a few hours. :)

Art

From Target on Rt. 41 (Wicker Ave), I am exactly ONE STOPLIGHT SOUTH... 5 left turns:

One stoplight south from Target is Rt. 231, turn Left.

Turn left into my subdivision and drive through a couple of roundabout circles ALL THE WAY DOWN to the MODEL HOUSE.

Turn LEFT at the MODEL HOUSE.

2nd street on your left after the model house TURN LEFT again.

I am on the LEFT HAND SIDE:

Cliff

My gawd... I've heard two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do! What about five lefts? :D

Good luck guys, and post pics!

For those tuning in late, our DVX "BlendZilla" processor is from Analog France, a broadcast grade switcher with some interesting capabilities; eight inputs including SDI and HDSDI, dual transcoders, and dual exotic scalers that can redraw a 16:9 source into squarish "halves" that seamlessly overlap at the screen:


http://i14.tinypic.com/4dqocxk.jpg


http://i11.tinypic.com/2vbkjgi.jpg


http://i11.tinypic.com/43yoi89.jpg


http://i10.tinypic.com/4i4m2rk.jpg


This technology, known as edge blending, enables us to light up the full height of the phosphor and the use of larger screens in the range of nine to twelve foot width.

Paired with two nine inch CRTs, figure on over 500 ANSI lumens!!!

Tim

A few questions ???
Let me know if I have this correct.

2 4x3 images side by side give you 235:1 so with this system you will want a 235:1 screen. Does this processor allow you to place a 16x9 in the center of the 235:1 screen.

Does this processor offer true 1080i de interlacing and 48hz output and will it take 1080p 24 from hd dvd and pass it through. Does it allow you to use an outboard VP processor of your choice coupled to the BZ using the BZ for the overlap processing only.

Sorry for all the questions but this interesting.

Thanks!

One more

Id be curious on average with source from both DVD and HD DVD how close of a viewing distance can you get to this setup before you start to see any nasties.

Alan

Two 1.33s adjacent is actually 2.66 but if we overlap 10% we are near 2.35. The DVX will stretch 2.35 to full raster height if needed. I do not automatically recommend that as I watch a lot of 16:9 stuff, for myself I settled on a 1.92 Stewart screen and 2.35 is full width but not full height.

We are pleased that John Gannon has made it to the demo and he will have a lot to say through the weekend!

Cliff,
Scott and I will be there later afternoon. See you then.

One more

I'd be curious on average with source from both DVD and HD DVD how close of a viewing distance can you get to this setup before you start to see any nasties.

You would likely need to be inside of a screen width to start seeing any hickies, I sit fifteen feet from a nine foot screen no problem.

Somebody just please shoot me now and get it over with............

Alan

Two 1.33s adjacent is actually 2.66 but if we overlap 10% we are near 2.35. The DVX will stretch 2.35 to full raster height if needed. I do not automatically recommend that as I watch a lot of 16:9 stuff, for myself I settled on a 1.92 Stewart screen and 2.35 is full width but not full height.

We are pleased that John Gannon has made it to the demo and he will have a lot to say through the weekend!

So it is setup as a constant width with masking from top and bottom?

So it is setup as a constant width with masking from top and bottom?

That is the approach I recommend or your HDTV resolution is compromised.

That is the approach I recommend or your HDTV resolution is compromised.

Going 235:1 you would lose some horizontal resolution doing 16x9 but you would always maintain full vertical resolution.
Im a 235:1 fan boy. Id go 235:1 all the way with this thing:)Regardless, this is cool as henry.
Glad to see everyone getting together and having a great time. Post them pics.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

The twin G-90's were hung on the ceiling with care,
In hopes that the spectators soon would be there.

Any updates?

Guys!

I talked to Gannon just now to beg for news,,,,,,,best meet he ever went to he said, and the image is "Stunningly 3D" :-)

Having a fun time!

I think Cliff is finally starting relax... the blend is looking good, the screen is looking great, lots of good demo clips. Good crowd. Art took some people pictures.

I'll take some final screenshots later tonight... I don't think you'll believe how much better it looks after Ken did the calibration and Cliff stayed up waaaaay too late tweaking the blendzilla settings.... I crashed at 3am (early compared to the previous nights this week)... he woke me up at 5:30am to check out his final settings.

Stay tuned...

Having a fun time!

I think Cliff is finally starting relax... the blend is looking good, the screen is looking great, lots of good demo clips. Good crowd. Art took some people pictures.

I'll take some final screenshots later tonight... I don't think you'll believe how much better it looks after Ken did the calibration and Cliff stayed up waaaaay too late tweaking the blendzilla settings.... I crashed at 3am (early compared to the previous nights this week)... he woke me up at 5:30am to check out his final settings.

Stay tuned...
Well, having to leave early has one advantage - I get to post first.

The image is stunning. The best word to describe it would be immersive. It is very filmlike and 3D like - tons of depth and bright. The time Cliff, Arli, Clarence and Ken put in was well worth it.

King Kong actually scared me. The picture and sound really really put you in the action, its like being there.

The blending issue, is not an issue. If you want to split hairs you can, but when your watching a movie its not an issue, IMHO.

The speakers behind the screen is something we all should strive for. Especially due to Cliff's current screen size a massive use of blackout material - it was intense. The entire front wall is screen.

This will be one the best CRT pictures available when this is done. Go 10.5 feet wide instead of 10 - I was loving the oversized screen.

Good job guys, nice to see everyone again and nice to add another theater to the Nw Indiana region.

Awe Mike you beat me.

It was quite amazing. It is hard to describe. Movie houses should display pictures and sound as good as this. I guess the best way to describe it would be when I was leaving. I stuck my head in the room to say good bye to Cliff and noticed Art, in a seat, with his mouth hanging open. :D

Cliff, once again thank you for the hospitality. It was great meeting new people and renewing acquaintances from the previous meet. It was fun talking to John Gannon. That's all I'll say. He reminds me of me when I was a lot younger. Your "hottie wife" did a splendid job. I don't know how she put up with you and Clarence this week. You must have been obsessed with those devices. She said she couldn't sleep. Are you sure the subs aren't doing structural damage? :eek:

Thank you again.

Walt

I stuck my head in the room to say good bye to Cliff and noticed Art, in a seat, with his mouth hanging open. :D

Nice, Sounds like the SmX Movie Screen and the Blendzilla make a nice combo.

Ruben

:D MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Tim

A few questions ???
Let me know if I have this correct.

2 4x3 images side by side give you 235:1 so with this system you will want a 235:1 screen. Does this processor allow you to place a 16x9 in the center of the 235:1 screen.

Does this processor offer true 1080i de interlacing and 48hz output and will it take 1080p 24 from hd dvd and pass it through. Does it allow you to use an outboard VP processor of your choice coupled to the BZ using the BZ for the overlap processing only.


Alan, 2.35 is with 10% overlap, smaller aspect ratio screens are handled by increasing the overlap and also making the raster slightly skinnier. 2.35 also allows you to use most of the available raster, but is problematic if you do lots of 16:9 viewing too, and is why Tim recommends the 1.92 AR.

I'm not sure its capabilities as a 1080i deinterlacer. But I choose to use an external VP processor (VP50) as I believe it does a better job. Also, the DVX (blendzilla) does output 48/50/60/72/75 or it can match whatever framerate your external VP is doing. So basically my sources are all going through the VP50 except the Xbox360, then the VP does all deinterlacing/scaling etc... then the DVX splits the image to each projector.

EDIT - Forgot to mention it accepts 1080p24/50/60 and the recent firmware release this week adds 1080sF@29Hz. Dont know what you mean by passthrough Alan, it needs to split the image!

Going 235:1 you would lose some horizontal resolution doing 16x9 but you would always maintain full vertical resolution.
Im a 235:1 fan boy. Id go 235:1 all the way with this thing:)Regardless, this is cool as henry.
Glad to see everyone getting together and having a great time. Post them pics.

Actually Alan, the way I will be setting up my 2.40 screen will allow me to do 1920x800 for this aspect, then 1920x1080 for 16:9. This means I will not be sacrificing any resolution at all. This is made possible by using an external VP, but will take extra time setting up.

I stuck my head in the room to say good bye to Cliff and noticed Art, in a seat, with his mouth hanging open. :D


Well ART, care to comment??!!

Someone do a blend vs stack comparison!!

Your "hottie wife" did a splendid job. I don't know how she put up with you and Clarence this week. You must have been obsessed with those devices. She said she couldn't sleep. Are you sure the subs aren't doing structural damage?We unplugged the subs at midnight every night and she still came down at 2am and 4am everynight and scolded us like teenagers. :D

She's gonna be glad when I leave and all of this is over so she can have her husband back for a few weeks. Bless all our wives for putting up with our childish obsession of bigger and louder.

That processor looks like one serious piece of equipment! I would hate to see the price tag on that mofo. :eek: You guys don't do anything halfass, that's for sure!

Can I have my screen back now? J/K sounds like it was fun! I too am interested in Arts comments on mainly the SMX as compared to a 9K screen and Im sure he was sitting much closer to a Large Screen than he does at his Theater

:( Sorry things fell apart for me, I could not make it. The site manager that I just hired got in a really bad accident on black ice... I could not leave to go home. Hopefully he will have a speedy recovery. Looks like everyone had a good time, I only wish I could have made it.

Cliff I'll see if I can find a cable and drop it off on the way back home, If I can't I have the pin tool and could make you one when I get home.

Cliff,

Thanks for the good time. Glad to see everyone again, and meet a few new.

You and Arli put a ton of work in a short period, NICE JOB!!!

Clarence, Nice to finally meet you.

Ken, great job again.

Bigpictureidus, Spreadscreen, WalltoWall, Inyourfaceproductions

I think you still have quite a bit of time before digital comes aknocking with a serious threat.

Thanks again, MIKE

Ok guys and gals, it's time for the nitty gritty. First of all, I have been working my ars off so bad for so long now that by this morning I was absolutely spent beyond no recognition.

Thank you so much for all that attended today and I truly hope that EVERYONE left here with satisfaction and a true representation of what the G90's are capable of.

Clarence is in taking screenshots right now that everyone will be able to see very soon. Simply JAWDROPPING is all I have to say and for now I leave it at that.

I want to add a few small suggestions for improvement for the Zilla........

Proper scaling, make it consumer friendly, accept common HD sources and adjust to make the sources feed optimal output for high end Home Theater Displays (keep a database of the limitations of todays top high end displays). :)

Please keep in mind that when I say limitation, it's not that a G90 cannot resolve 1080P, it's the fact that Sony sent certain timings to the G90 at other resolutions besides 1080P than are crucial to the G90's video chain.

With that being said, my last three nights now with this box has been a complete jawdropping experience that will be burned into me for a long time to come.

For now ladies and gents, I must stop because I really need some serious sleep and time with my wife, kids, and most importantly myself because if I dont get the last part I just spoke of like tomorrow, I WILL start losing MYSELF........ ;)

Cliffy

Cliff pointed to the pile of empty bottles and counted how many screenshots I owed, so let me settle my bar tab before I crawl to bed.

OBTW, my favorite beers this week:
"Alpha King Pale Ale" from Three Floyd's Brewery (http://3floyds.com) in Munster IN
"Two Hearted Ale" from Bells Brewery in Comstock MI.

First, the twins:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff20.jpg

and the rack:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff21.jpg
XBox360 HDDVD
XBox 360
DVDO VP30
JVC DVHS
SDI DVD
Toshiba HD DVD
Blendzilla
HTPC
audio receiver

This solid blue field now shows a slight blend zone... a rare worst-case scene when the blend might be detectable:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff22.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff23.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff24.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff25.jpg

King Kong on HD-DVD:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff32.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff33.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff34.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff37.jpg

In two words: UN-BELIEVABLE! :p

Thanks for the pics (I've been hitting the refresh button a few times already just in case Clarence felt more generous before going to bed...).

I concur: these are the best screenshots I've seen in AVS, or... elsewhere for the record... and I cannot really spot the blend zone in the blue image.

Question: did the blend zone become noticeable when looking at the screen from an angle? (based on the results here I think I am just going to use the SMX screen and go as big as possible, and place the speakers/sub behind the screen)

Regards!

Question: did the blend zone become noticeable when looking at the screen from an angle? (based on the results here I think I am just going to use the SMX screen and go as big as possible, and place the speakers/sub behind the screen)All of the attendees will probably concur that the blend zone was not noticeable at ANY angle during any of the demo clips. The only time the blend zone was noticeable was during complete black, but with some more time, that could probably be completely adjusted too.

The SmX screen was a huge success. It should share credit with the G90s, the blendzilla, and Ken's amazing calibration skills in the success of the incredible presentation that we shared. Highly recommended!!! I can't think of a single flaw in that screen material. The acoustic performance exceeded my highest expectations.

Blend zone noticeable during blackout? How's that? A "gray" strip?

Cliff.... go to sleep now!!! ;)

You guys have motivated me to get my setup up and running again. I've replaced the GT17's to HFQ900's, and I've installed the new 156" wide 2.40 AR screen. I've repositioned the projectors, so will spend the next few week nights after work setting it all up again!

Cliff

How do I stop my credit cards from rattling in my pocket? It's the next day. I thought they would have stopped by now. I'm glad my wife wasn't there. Chapter 13 would not be far off.

Walt

Wasn't there a pearl there too? Any comments, or were you guys having too much fun with blendzilla to even turn it on?

Finger Puppets, Arli !!!!

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/38.gif

I just got up so please pardon my even more stunted writing skill and delusions of elloquence than usual.

Cliff,Clarence,Ken Arli....an extremely impressive display ! Very sharp,tons of light great great contrast and just unbelievably engaging. Of course ,having experienced a lesser device three years ago I was looking hard for the blend zone. Just spectacular.I particularly felt like I was sitting in front of something that was almost three dimensional in that it being that large and encommpassing you felt like things were just in the room with you.

I had several things I really liked in the demos but the skeleton dance in Corpse Bride brought out my mwuuu,haaa ! :D

One test I wanted to see was complete black out near the start of Serenity on HDDVD. It easily passed this without any visibilty. As Clarence stated at the start of my demo session, the zone can be seen after about two seconds of total darkness. There was some discussion regarding the fact that this could very likely have been even further ameliorated with some more tweaking but they had run out of time.

The display had better uniformity than mine I believe due to two factors one being the lower gain screen material the other is the the shape of the two images side by side with merged centers at edges not overlayed( figure eight or hour glass shaped as opposed to a single circular shape on mine).

The hospitality was fantastic. I'm very much looking forward to the enjoyning your theater when it is completed Cliff.

PS Cliff, when you said something to the effect "yea !! fuuck yea!! that's how it's done!! " after one of the demo pieces and it could have been heard two blocks down the street that was the high point for me. :D :D



Art

Wasn't there a pearl there too? Any comments, or were you guys having too much fun with blendzilla to even turn it on?The Pearl was about what I expected. I was surprised that it was able to fill the entire 11'3" screen... there's not an over-abundance of throw-distance in Cliff's room.
The pixel mis-convergence bothered me most... especially the red MC was visible from seating distance. I'd keep sending it back until I found one with better pixel alignment.
Pixel structure disappeared in the SmX screen's weave. So, just like the Qualias and Rubies I've seen, SDE is not an issue.
Yes, finger-puppet shadows were very visible during the "black" scenes
It looked softer than I expected, especially with "House of Flying Daggers" on Blu-Ray. Ice Age 2 looked much, much better. IIRC, This is the same model that Kipp has and even he thought the focus was off or that the projector might've been slightly out-of-plane with the screen.
The first night he turned it on, it seemed brighter than what we saw last night. I know the iris was off the first night, but maybe it was turned on last night. IIRC, Ken measured <5 ft-L... so not much more than one of Cliff's G90s on the same screen. I think the bulb had 10-12 hours.
The Pearl wins the cost/performance ratio. Even without the cost of the blendzilla, the G90s definitely cost more than a Pearl. Even if you just estimate that a single Pearl costs about half of what a single G90 goes for, I don't think anyone there would say that the Pearl PQ was less than 50%. It'd certainly be a watchable image for 99% of it's buyers. And even for most of us in this fanatic CRT forum.
I think it'd do much better on a 8' high-gain gray screen... and maybe with one of darin's ND filtersPlease keep any Pearl comments civil. Or post them in another thread... I know Cliff would be upset to see this thread degrade into a d!%!#@| bashing rant.

Clarence just to comment quickly on the Pearl also. It was very impressive that it could light up the screen as well as it did( of course it is a brand new lamp) and Christ, tough to beat the price! Nice sharp picture . The model had panel errors on about two thirds of the image but at about 1.3x width they weren't obtrusive for me. The image did not have the depth of the G90 set up. I know Kipp stated that he has one that is essentially spot on with the panels which is great. This one looked better than the uniot I saw in a dedicated room a few weeks back where the errors were close to two to three times what this unit had.

Yes the hand puppet test wasn't close but this is pretty much as we expected.

Art

I never even SAW the Pearl...funny, after Ken started doing his magic, it was not mentioned. Not once, at least not while I was in the room.


What's up with THAT, you say?


Because what happened on this acreage of woven white was so compelling that more than a few of us could be found grinning in the recognition that not only will our adored CRT setups still have legs WELL into any foreseen widescreen (widESTscreen?) future, it absolutely KICKS any and all fixed-pixel ASS because of the absense of artifacting (outside of the aforementioned de-interlacing issues, which the makers of Blendzilla MUST address, along with the stability problems we had, which could have a myriad of causes...not necessarily ALL in the processor).


It's just gonna cost a wee bit more to gain this perfect-for-the-human-bi-eyed-visual-perceptual-machine figure-8 hotspot (think the infinity sign, or an 8 taking a rest) that yielded some of the best uniformity and corner energy I've ever seen with ANY CRT.



The way we've been using them in the past is akin to the suburban SUV driver with the sparkling-new never-used trailer hitch...and the lonely single child hiding in back...while the driver is duped into thinking they've got all the power and ownership of the highway.


I regret my lack of phosphor stewardship in the past, and resolve to NOT waste it in the future, if I can help it.




This thing passed my ONE screen height seating test EVERY time I dared it...thanks to anyone who had to look over my punkin' head to see the bottom of the image while I was parked in the middle of the floor. Goodness, it was overwhelming to have my ENTIRE visual field filled up with Hollywood's 'creations'. Kong!



NOW, onto even better things...how do we "starch" this screen fabric into holding a parabola, so I can have all of the image the same distance from my eyeballs?! That flat field could take away a wee bit of the pseudo-reality as the focus to the upper part of the screen took WORK, or effort, within my eyeballs. (not nearly as much as, say, the digital-to-analog constant effort of DLP and plasma, heh)


Lemme do my speaker tweak on a system around the Blendzilla...which y'all will hear when I do MY theater meet...and we could arrive at the MOST sensory satiation available with modern, er, saved-from-retirement technology!!


You think having a full-eyeball aspect ratio and size was compelling and convincing...

WHEN did y'all fire it up?! How did I miss this? OH yeah, I was upstairs philosophizing and conversing...what a great party.


If there were ANY fixed-pixel devotees there, I didn't hear from them, but hopefully they were convinced that our obsession with BLACK is warranted.

There is simply NO OTHER WAY to achieve three-dimensionality and rock-solid image convincing of our eye/brain mechanism.

The digital apologists just don't know yet, or they simply don't care that their pictures are flat and dead...and falsely 'clear' from the grid pattern.


Nah, we're on the right road to video heaven here...just a few little adjustments to the 'zilla, I can see the glowing golden shores across our home theater Jordan.

Cliff,
Thanks for being such a gracious host. You have a beautiful home and family. Oh and the cineplex in your basement was "FOOK YEAH, THATS HOW ITS DONE!!!" awesome!!! BTW, that was the funniest line I have heard in quite some time. Just above Art saying how your wife has a "nice caboose" and your reply was golden "Guys, I am hitting that as much as possible".

It was great to see you take such pride and enjoyment with your new HT. Great job, it looked and sounded fantastic. Hey those rice crispy/chocolate peanut butter treats were pretty good too.

IIRC, This is the same model that Kipp has and even he thought the focus was off or that the projector might've been slightly out-of-plane with the screen.

Very true, I could not believe how bad that Pearl was out of spec. The panels appeared to be off by 3+ pixels. On top of that the Pearl really should not be thrown over 110". Also the unit there was out of focus.

Kevin from the Littles guys admitted that because the Pearl was being shown on such a big screen 11.5 feet, the focus adjustment at that throw was maxxed out. The Pearl was also throwing at an angle which caused the left side of the screen to be very very soft and blurry.

At best, the images thrown by that particular Pearl were DVD quality. That unit needs to go back to Sony for repairs. I sure hope Kevin is not using that unit in their store. See below for the shots I took of my Pearl and notice there is no pixel offset and how detailed the images are. Nothing like the unit last night.


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9102652#post9102652

I forgot to add it was great seeing everyone. On top of the great Ht experiences, I really enjoy meeting all the people, Cliff & co., Art, Angela, Ken, Arli and everyone else!!! I have seen Art and Ken in 3 states now.

Art always seems to be in the same state when I see 'im.

Controlled joy and bliss...how does that MF do it?!

Those screen shots show it all. Thanks for posting and sharing the meet and setup.

If there were ANY fixed-pixel devotees there, I didn't hear from them, but hopefully they were convinced that our obsession with BLACK is warranted.

There is simply NO OTHER WAY to achieve three-dimensionality and rock-solid image convincing of our eye/brain mechanism.

The digital apologists just don't know yet, or they simply don't care that their pictures are flat and dead...and falsely 'clear' from the grid pattern. Too bad you couldnt get your hands on a Digital Projections 3 chipper, even 720p, its far from lacking blacks and that 3D look especially on King Kong HD at 14'. The SMX screen was a major part of the 3d look and aweshocking experience in the nature of the fabric itself. It would have been interesting to pop another screen up and see the difference, I have tested it against a Stewart StudioTek and the SMX really helps with the "pop" effect.

I thought everyone knew the Pearls and Rubys were soft looking.

Whats the cost for this G-90 setup, I know someone whos curious and has about the same sized screen in an anamorphic setup and using a 1 chip DLP.

Whats the cost for this G-90 setup, I know someone whos curious
Your friend will find that a Pearl wins in cost/performance as acknowledged above.

Unlike digitals, for two G90's and a blendzilla you can't just go to a website and click "Buy Now".

But as a rough estimate for your curious friend, tell him 10-20K for each G90 and IIRC, about 17K for the blendzilla. Or a little less if you beg, boroow, or steal. And possibly even less if you have some luck and a little patience.

Ken did an EXCELLENT job on the blend. That blue image (Walt Disney) looks fantastic, and it's not only blue that reveals a great job, he bought the white in right along side the blue. Sure with time he may have been able to do better, but with blending, you're not going get much better than that when tweaking blue - KUDOS!

You guys were all great. That was an awesome gathering, but I got to give Ken his props here. Based on that blue image alone, he's all that and some change..;)

Thanks Cliff, for putting together a great gathering, and bringing it to the forum.

Whats the cost for this G-90 setup, I know someone whos curious and has about the same sized screen in an anamorphic setup and using a 1 chip DLP.

Say Mark

The DVX processor lists for $17K and will end up at around $15,900 on your front porch. The demo unit there is Serial Number 05 and I believe that many of the issues mentioned have been corrected in subsequent builds, such as the one I am using. :-)

I thought everyone knew the Pearls and Rubys were soft looking.

What you mention above is not that the two are "soft" looking, its that they do not have the "digitized, unnautural" edge that many DLPs have. Remember its two different technologies here and each has their pros and cons. I am a former DLP FP owner. I still have two DLP displays.

Say Mark

The DVX processor lists for $17K and will end up at around $15,900 on your front porch. The demo unit there is Serial Number 05 and I believe that many of the issues mentioned have been corrected in subsequent builds, such as the one I am using. :-)

Hardware or firmware upgrade?

The demo unit there is Serial Number 05 and I believe that many of the issues mentioned have been corrected in subsequent builds, such as the one I am using. :-)


That explains a whole bunch, Tim. I spend the better part of the day trying to reconcile the fact that I saw none on your setup over the summer. To be confirmed when I'm through on the way to CES in a few weeks!

Too bad you couldnt get your hands on a Digital Projections 3 chipper, even 720p, its far from lacking blacks and that 3D look especially on King Kong HD at 14'.

Mark,

What would be the ACTUAL (not theoretical) bulb-replacement costs for 3000 hours per year on that Digital Projection unit? They are at least the ONLY honest projection company, listing the bulb replacement costs in their price sheet.



What is the real cost of the bulb failing the night before your biggest video event of the year...what I call the 'Murphy factor'?



Nah, I ain't touching a fixed-pixel until they all have those LED backlights...sorry.


Cheers!

Hardware or firmware upgrade?

Andres

I suspect small improvements to the boards since the first few were built, chip revisions, I will inquire if that is so.

Mark,

What would be the ACTUAL (not theoretical) bulb-replacement costs for 3000 hours per year on that Digital Projection unit? They are at least the ONLY honest projection company, listing the bulb replacement costs in their price sheet.



What is the real cost of the bulb failing the night before your biggest video event of the year...what I call the 'Murphy factor'?



Nah, I ain't touching a fixed-pixel until they all have those LED backlights...sorry.


Cheers!My spare was $850 for Murphy Law, actually you run about 500 hours or your warranty out then use that as the spare and replace it with the new. I was impressed with their CQ documentaion that came with the PJ where they actually ran the PJ and hand wrote the particulars like Contrast Ratios and such, are you saying they are dishonest or honest ? I know I love their product and got a $4000 rebate a year ago six months after purchase, how many companies do that?

LOL at backlights, I dont see them they are hidden in a hushbox. Automating the beasts on button proved a little challenging but now done.

OH NO, don't get me wrong.

Digital Projection is THE honest maker/reseller of these devices!

It's the REST of the buggers I'm pissed about...and all the retailers and salespeople so eager for business they don't warn people about the bulb problem, or IF they mention anything they quote the bulb maker's highest expected life length.

That will just piss MOST people off, because if you only quote the highest estimate, MOST will fail well before that time.

Every bar and restaurant I've been to here in Detroit has had serious issues with their projector purchases...since we still allow cigarette smoking indoors here, that tar and nicotine makes bulbs fail in less than 10% of their expected time!

My next door neighbor, the best Thai food restaurant downtown, actually had the blue-pass dichroic filter burn from a lack of airflow after their 'filter' clogged...it looked amazingly like a burned CRT image (of which I've seen exactly ONE true 'burn' in an old golf-simulator projector!).


Back to your regularly scheduled thread...sorry for the diversion.

BTW, has anyone proven that they've fixed the bulb 'degassing' issues? Early on, they discovered that bulbs didn't exactly have a long shelf life, so buying a spare and storing it right might end up a huge waste of money.

Darn, just caught your description of storing the original bulb...good idea.

Pics look great. Every picture to date of " The Incredible" always showed the foreheads washed out from peaked whites but not here. Looks like you had some headroom left for brightness if needed. Looks Incredible:) From what Ive read the SMX was hit. Its already become popular with digital projectors so its nice it has been accepted on the other side of the technology pond.

Yeah, we got SOME fun now on the 'sunset' side of the pond.

Talk about your magic or golden hour...

Pics look great. Every picture to date of " The Incredible" always showed the foreheads washed out from peaked whites but not here. Looks like you had some headroom left for brightness if needed. Looks Incredible:) From what Ive read the SMX was hit. Its already become popular with digital projectors so its nice it has been accepted on the other side of the technology pond.

Alan,

There is only one other place that I've seen an image this good and that image is located in Leroy, Michigan. :D

The contrast ratio was absolutely through the roof and in the heavens. I cannot believe that in another day, the setup will be gone.......... :(

The SMX Material is by FAR the BEST accoustically transparent screen material I have EVER seen. PERFECT and I mean PERFECT color uniformity, no hot spotting, and not to mention that it took my Klipsch KLF30's and matching center channel to a new height in audio that I have never heard before. Simply amazing.

To give you an idea of the light output Ken acheived on the screen without sacrificing my tubes for the meet was 9FL on 11' 3" wide. :eek: ;) :D

Ruben really has SCORED a double whammy on SMX..........

More thoughts coming soon........

Cliff

Guys, I have to quote this one more time just in case these shots got missed.....

This solid blue field now shows a slight blend zone... a rare worst-case scene when the blend might be detectable:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff22.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff23.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff24.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff25.jpg

HOLY CRAP!!!!! :D

King Kong on HD-DVD:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff32.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff33.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff34.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff37.jpg

Oh ****, did ANYONE consider the withdrawls?!


Cliffy, we're with you man, hang in there.


Just don't overdose this last day...

MUST COME TO GRIP WITH REALITY.......

We are having SO much fun with this!

Ken, Arli, and Don left hours ago to get some sleep like sensible people, but Cliff and I kept playing and did a rough setup so we could watch some blended 12' wide HD:

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff01.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff02.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff03.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff04.jpg

TWEAKING AWAY.........

Since I get a free beer for every screenshot, here's tonight's buzz...

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff07.jpg

This is the screen weave vs. plain paper... 1024P. These lines are side-by-side (on-on)... not alternating on-off like the test patterns we usually shoot:
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff08.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff09.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff10.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff11.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff12.jpg

We took this one as an example of the worst blend we could find...
http://crtforum.com/img/cliff13.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff14.jpg

Enough with the screen shots already, lets see some people pictures, especially Cliffs hottie wife! :D

Ruben

Ok, one more screenshot before the wife and I go upstairs to get nekked..... :p

I woke up exactly 24 hours ago to drive here :D

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff06.jpg

Cliff's wife came down a few hours ago and yelled at us, so Cliff unplugged the subs

We are looking at the ultimate here ( Cliff you lucky man ) with a pair of G90s but I would guess those on a budget or limited on space could use a pair of 7 or 8" CRTs and still benefit from the BLENDZILLA could they not.
Would that be a waist or would you guys say go for it ?

I second Rubens request :)

Alan

Absolutely! A pair of retubed M8500s or similar and a DVX would start around $30K and look fabulous on a nine or ten foot screen width; one could scale up to nine inchers later.

Those are steller screenshots!

I have 2 questions for anyone who might know:

1. What was the throw distance of the G90's (how much closer does that compare to 1 G90 or stacked G90's to do the same job)?

2. How much does the SMX screen material cost and where can someone go to buy it?

Those are steller screenshots!

I have 2 questions for anyone who might know:

1. What was the throw distance of the G90's (how much closer does that compare to 1 G90 or stacked G90's to do the same job)?

2. How much does the SMX screen material cost and where can someone go to buy it?

Not sure about question No.1 but here is a link to answer question No.2. I am definately getting 3 yards of that stuff when it comes time to set up my CRT unit. Looks great!

http://www.smxscreen.com/smx-ordering.html

PS Cliff, when you said something to the effect "yea !! fxxk yea!! that's how it's done!! " after one of the demo pieces and it could have been heard two blocks down the street that was the high point for me. :D :D



Art

My friend you and your wife are stellar to say the least and thank you for coming down.

If it wasn't for you and Ken, none of this would have been possible. Looking foward to seeing you again soon........ ;)

Cliff

Those are steller screenshots!

I have 2 questions for anyone who might know:

1. What was the throw distance of the G90's (how much closer does that compare to 1 G90 or stacked G90's to do the same job)?

2. How much does the SMX screen material cost and where can someone go to buy it?

Bob, when I get a chance, I will measure again what my throw distance ended up being.

Cliff

Those are steller screenshots!

I have 2 questions for anyone who might know:

1. What was the throw distance of the G90's (how much closer does that compare to 1 G90 or stacked G90's to do the same job)?

2. How much does the SMX screen material cost and where can someone go to buy it?

Say Bob

Throw is less than 1.0 with HD10-something lenses, because each projector is only drawing onto sixty percent of the screen width. Cliff was near 120 inches if I remember correctly. The SMX fabric is around $4 a square foot I think.

Well done Cliff eta al. It was a great journey watching through this thread every night to see your progress and see how far you could take blending. Thanks for sharing. By all reports the night was a huge success, with the screenshots to prove it, and I imagine it is much much better being there in person. For those of you who have seen blended and stacked G90's at about the same screen size, care to make a direct comparison?? Advantages/Disadvantages of each. Also, I've heard mention that you guys had problems with the DVX... what were they? In any case, looks like I'll have to hire Ken to do my blend when I get the dedicated theatre!

Thanks guys for reaffirming that Blended CRT's still give the ultimate experience. :cool:

Well, Clarence stopped in on the way back to Virginia.................. what a class act and such a bright man. He wanted to see my room but was demoed out and I understand. My expectations ,as I told him , were very different than the deliberate ,even ,soft spoken gentleman I finally had the good fortune to meet.

Our time was short but I certainly appreciate the fact that he came to my home.

Cliff,
I enjoyed very much last night ..the Chicago guys are just such a great bunch of warm, genuine , bright guys. Thanks for inviting me. Oh yea ,your not exaggerating about your wife..I'm sorry,or maybe I'm not, she is lucious. :D

Art'

Also, I've heard mention that you guys had problems with the DVX... what were they?

Thanks guys for reaffirming that Blended CRT's still give the ultimate experience. :cool:

Gino

Relax pal, the demo unit was a very early sample........

We are looking at the ultimate here ( Cliff you lucky man ) with a pair of G90s but I would guess those on a budget or limited on space could use a pair of 7 or 8" CRTs and still benefit from the BLENDZILLA could they not.
Would that be a waist or would you guys say go for it ?
I was just getting ready to post about this. YES, you can definitely do a magnificent blended set-up with less expensive machines. A pair of G70's, Mike Parker modded 8500's, or even Barco 1208/09 would be pretty stellar. Just because cliff used the most expensive CRT projector ever made doesn't mean everyone has to. :) I have actually been dreaming of blending a pair of M8500's ever since I saw Blendzilla at Tims place about 10 months ago. Wish I had the space for a really big screen like that. :(

it sounds like everybody had fun at the meet... glad that so many people came out to slobber over the eye candy... its now time to rest and enjoy the wacky season called christmas. have a happy holidays..

Gino

Relax pal, the demo unit was a very early sample........

I'm not worried at all Tim. My unit is very stable. I was just curious what difficulties they were facing.

Oh yea ,your not exaggerating about your wife..I'm sorry,or maybe I'm not, she is lucious. :D

Proof... where's the proof! We need pictures ;)

That's what I kept thinking! Where are some "screen shots" of the hottie wife, Cliffy?? :D

Sounds like an amazing evening, gentlemen. Wish I could have been there -- even more for the quality company than for the quality PQ.

Cliff,
Where are the pics of the meet???

Proof... where's the proof! We need pictures ;)Here she is. In this photo, Cliff's wife is subtly hinting it's time to wrap up the meet.

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff03.jpg

I have actually been dreaming of blending a pair of M8500's ever since I saw Blendzilla at Tims place about 10 months ago. Wish I had the space for a really big screen like that. :(

Dragan,

You and I both! But at least I can "invite" myself over to Tim's place once in a while...

;)

- Steve O.

Here she is. In this photo, Cliff's wife is subtly hinting it's time to wrap up the meet.

http://crtforum.com/img/cliff03.jpg


Sorry, that does not do Cliff's wife any justice.

Cliff,
Where are the pics of the meet???

Kipp,

Thanks so much for coming and seeing the fruits of my EXTREMELY sleep deprived hard work for the last week and a half. I really appreciate the nice words you said and you are truly one hell of a stand up guy.

Unfortunately, being so damn busy, I only got 2 pictures and both look horrible. Hopefully, Art, thank God took a few so maybe he can post them when he gets a chance if they worked out.

I cannot get over when we were in the demo together with Art and looking at your faces when we did the King Kong scene from the end of the movie when he gets killed. Priceless.

I hope everyone was happy with the demo material picked and enjoyed what I truly feel is 1 of 2 of the best projected images I have ever seen in home theater.

Cliff

Well, Clarence stopped in on the way back to Virginia.................. what a class act and such a bright man. He wanted to see my room but was demoed out and I understand. My expectations ,as I told him , were very different than the deliberate ,even ,soft spoken gentleman I finally had the good fortune to meet.

Our time was short but I certainly appreciate the fact that he came to my home.

Cliff,
I enjoyed very much last night ..the Chicago guys are just such a great bunch of warm, genuine , bright guys. Thanks for inviting me. Oh yea ,your not exaggerating about your wife..I'm sorry,or maybe I'm not, she is lucious. :D

Art'

Thanks much Art. I'm really happy that you enjoyed yourself and you could not be more right about the Chicago/midwest/michigan group of HT enthusiasts. What an incredibly enjoyable and extremely friendly and caring bunch of people.

Cliffy

I'm not worried at all Tim. My unit is very stable. I was just curious what difficulties they were facing.

Gino,

There were actually MANY factors that played into issues that I ran into BUT......

The end result was JAW DROPPING and that is all that mattered.

One problem I will admit that I did run into was my dumb self thought both of my G90's were running the latest firmware and it ended up not being the case. After several unsuccesful attempts to flash the one that was running older firmware, I had to give up and just accept the situation to be what it was.

Trust me though, in the end, it did not take away at all from the experience.

One more thing I will also add is I DID NOT have enough time with the Zilla before the meet to REALLY be able to understand how it works and was forced to "rush" the setup to get to my deadline.

Also, I cant remember if it was you or Andres that said that you can do this setup in one day, but no way. Not possible........... ;)

Cliffy

Gino

Relax pal, the demo unit was a very early sample........

Tim,

Thank you again for making this possible. We both, not knowing each other at all, managed to get together to make this happen and it worked and worked well.

I'm sure that everyone is aware, especially the antendee's the difficulty and extreme hard work that was involved in getting the theater in an acceptable shape to be able to make the experience what it really needed to be in order to truly show in all ways the benefit of what CRT is capable of and this had to in every way shape and form be taken care of or the meet would NOT have been a success.

Properly making a room that is not even half finished to be able to exploit this is next to impossible in a week and a half especially considering the fact that I JUST MOVED IN, have 3 wonderful kids and a beautiful and loving wife that has been so patient while being so busy with handling the rest of making sure that the things that I did not have time to do were taken care of. What an exeptional and Patient Woman she is. I sometimes find myself thinking that I dont deserve her and I honestly do not think that I would even be here right now if it wasn't for her.

Enough rambling.......

Thanks again Tim.

Cliff

I want to add my thoughts of the Pearl to the thread and also thank Ryan from The Little Guys in Glenwood IL for spending the time to calibrate and tweak his Pearl for my room and screen to be able to demo it for the meet.

You seriously ROCK Ryan, thanks again, I seriously OWE YOU DINNER, and onto my thoughts:

First of all, the Pearl and the SMX material got along VERY well. No issues at all to speak of and I was blown away at how much light the Pearl was able to produce on such a large screen.

Just so everyone can get an idea of the seating arrangement of the meet, there was one row of seating just SLIGHTLY over one screen width of that massive screen in a room that is only 13ft wide.

From that seating distance, SDE was absolutely NO ISSUE at all and I am VERY happy to FINALLY see digital get to this accomplishment. Very cool.

Kipp is correct about the panel misalignment and it was very noticable at that distance and this particular unit would not be acceptable for me at all.

Once I put that aside though, I was actually very impressed with what I saw blacks set aside and it is getting close everyone, very, very, very close to the point that digital will be able to throw an image that I will be happy with. I give it 2 to 3 years........

Ryan,

Once again thank you so much for putting up with me and spending your own personal time to make the Pearl demo happen. You are exceptional..........

Sony on the other hand right now though.... Well....... I just leave it at that.

Cliff

Yeah, we got SOME fun now on the 'sunset' side of the pond.

Talk about your magic or golden hour...

John, thanks for coming. My wife really got a kick out of you and spoke much of you.

I was very glad to meet you.

Cliff

Also, I cant remember if it was you or Andres that said that you can do this setup in one day, but no way. Not possible........... ;)


Cliff, It was me, and it is possible. :p But you must remember that the level you guys do it to is likely much more comprehensive than mine, I'm completely self taught here without seeing it done right by someone else... and also I've done it 4 times already. It did not take me one day the first time, let me tell you that, and my first go of it was nowhere near where I can get it to now, and definitely nowhere near where you guys got it to. I'll still stick by one full day though, I'm going to spend 2 hours each night of this week setting up the blend again for my larger screen. I bet I can do it by the end of the week, hopefully half as good as yours. :)

EDIT: I'm sure Ken's colour calibration took sometime too. Something that I havent factored into that one day ;)

I don't know if this was mentioned already... but 1024p or 1200p?? 60/72 Hz?? I remember you had 1024p as you were having problems with 1200p, but did you get it to work in the end? Also, how were your sources connected, directly to the DVX or did you try going through the VP30 first?

Cliff...

Even not having attended, I'd like to thank you for putting the meet together. Those images and comments serve as inspiration for a lot of us that cannot make it, and like Gino, go to the forum every night (morning in my case) to see the progress. I'd also like to thank the long-term CRT enthusiasts that have helped me (and countless others) in our CRT adventures: Clarence, Tim, Art, MP, cm, etc...

Regards!

EDIT: I'm sure Ken's colour calibration took sometime too. Something that I havent factored into that one day ;)

I don't know if this was mentioned already... but 1024p or 1200p?? 60/72 Hz?? I remember you had 1024p as you were having problems with 1200p, but did you get it to work in the end? Also, how were your sources connected, directly to the DVX or did you try going through the VP30 first?

Gino,

That is exactly what I speak of. The time it takes for full calibration, geometry, and blendzone tweaking........ :)

In the end, I had to run 1024P/60. I desperately wanted to run 1200P but I was unable to make it happen in time........

Cliff

Cliff...

Even not having attended, I'd like to thank you for putting the meet together. Those images and comments serve as inspiration for a lot of us that cannot make it, and like Gino, go to the forum every night (morning in my case) to see the progress. I'd also like to thank the long-term CRT enthusiasts that have helped me (and countless others) in our CRT adventures: Clarence, Tim, Art, MP, cm, etc...

Regards!

Not too shabby for a "RUSH" job to get it all done in time huh? ;) :D

Cliffy

Cliff

I am finaly recovered enough from the weekend to make a post

Thanks for putting this on. I was amazed at the amount of work you were able to get done in such a short time.... The image was one of the best I have ever seen ( I am a regular at arts) I was amazed at how much of a 3d image that was being produced and was really impressed with the screen. If I ever have a need for an acousticly transparent screen I know what I will be getting.

I just wished I had gotten an earlier start on the day after partying at Bells Beer all day friday. And I had to get going after just a short time due to another GTG up almost to wisconson(2hr drive).

Clarence.... Bells does have some good beers eh?

I was really impressed by the 'apparent increase' in sharpness of the smx screen compared to the piece of paper. Would it make sense to get this material even if its not required for acoustic properties. Cliff do you have any Stewart screen samples to see how the effect translates to non-acoustically transparent material.

Also someone on the screens forum said they looked closely through a magnifying glass and couldn't see any directional weave properties. In other words the material could be put on its side and get the same image. Do you agree? Would make it a lot cheaper as the material comes 98" wide.

Well, Clarence stopped in on the way back to Virginia.................. what a class act and such a bright man. He wanted to see my room but was demoed out and I understand. My expectations ,as I told him , were very different than the deliberate ,even ,soft spoken gentleman I finally had the good fortune to meet.

Our time was short but I certainly appreciate the fact that he came to my home.I had a chance to see Arli's and then Art's theaters on my journey home.

I wonder if anyone else has ever seen six 9" CRTs... all set-up by Ken Whitcomb... in 4 different states (travelled through 8 total: IN, IL, MI, OH, PA, MD, WV, VA)... all within 24 hours! :D :eek: Cliff's blend, Art's stack, Arli's sweet 10PG, and finally home to the solo G90 hanging from my ceiling.

Art, I was glad to finally meet you. Thanks so much for inviting me over to see your HT. I felt like I'd already been there after following your construction threads so closely for the past 3+ years... and I felt like I already knew your family too. I had high expectations... you, your family, your G90 stack, and your theater all exceeded my expectations. I feel privileged to be the first to experience the power coming from your new subs.

What a great trip and a fun vacation! I don't know how Cliff is still standing after several weeks of that pace.

Cliff, you pulled it off. Damn nice results! Now crawl into bed with that hottie wife and stay there for at least 3 days.

Also someone on the screens forum said they looked closely through a magnifying glass and couldn't see any direction weave properties.

With a digital projector it moired at 1080p (ruby) when using the 98" as width. No moire the other way or tilted. Not a CRT problem though . . .

It is pretty symetrical to my eyes, so the perceived sharpness benefit may transfer. I have 4 yards of it sitting in my basement waiting for my contractors to get me some bids.