I have the option to purchase from a local seller in my area and I'm wondering if this is a good deal. The unit is a 9PG+ that appears to be in good physical condition. I went and looked at it yesterday and looked at the tubes with a flashlight through the lenses. I did not see any wear on the tubes but did not take the lenses off. I have a question about those as well. I have a 6PG and that unit has "dowels" to hold on the lenses. This 9PG+ unit has screws instead. Is that normal or has someone put screws back in place of the dowels? The unit was pretty dusty inside but we started it up and all tubes lit up. He does not have the remote which is a negative. However, I have a remote with my 6PG. Will that same remote work with the 9PG+. I think the answer is yes but I'm not sure. Well, his asking price is $$$ but I told him without a remote it would be hard to sell. He then dropped the price to $$$. Should I jump on this or not? Honestly, I don't know enough about what I'm looking at to know for sure but if I go back and pop off the green tubes lens and that one is clean then I might buy the unit. Suggestions?

Screws are normal for Plus.

Remote should work, not certain about CTL+functions, PG remote has discrete buttons - Doug will know.

You should take the lenses off.

If the tubes are good, then $350 is a good price.

Thanks Mark, I thought I had read somewhere that screws were on some of these. I might stop back by this afternoon and pull the lenses but I just felt kind of uncomfortable doing it yesterday because the guy had his kids running around like cowboys and indians and it's always weird being in a stranger's house. At least for me it is. He was a nice enough guy so maybe he wont mind if I take the thing apart.

On another note, if I get this thing it's going in my next home theater and I want it set up correctly. Does anyone know of someone that can travel and do setup of these projectors? I have done a partial setup with my 6PG but never got it just right. I think it was Clarence that told me about Terry (Chuchuf, I think?) who does this type of work.

RC 6011 has two rows of function keys and the RC 6051 has one row. To use the 6011 on the plus you just select the right color and function and it will work. To use phase you can go through the alignment menu. Its a bit odd but you can get to things.

The plus is capable of throwing a really nice image and alot of parts for them are available. Doug

RC 6011 has two rows of function keys and the RC 6051 has one row. To use the 6011 on the plus you just select the right color and function and it will work. To use phase you can go through the alignment menu. Its a bit odd but you can get to things.

The plus is capable of throwing a really nice image and alot of parts for them are available. Doug

Thanks Doug, assuming I get this unit, how much of my 6PG is interchangeable with it? It would be nice to keep my 6PG to pull boards and such if they fit the 9PG+. I'm thinking items such as the HVPS, deflection board, etc.

Quite a bit of it will swap out except the F drive, yoke and some card cage boards. The plus has improved edge control and astig and different lenses which is an improvement over the HD6's. Doug

Quite a bit of it will swap out except the F drive, yoke and some card cage boards. The plus has improved edge control and astig and different lenses which is an improvement over the HD6's. Doug

Ah, so that would explain the HD-145 stickers on the lenses I saw yesterday. Thanks!

dropzone7:

make sure you consider bleeding the tubes.

The unit has apparently been in storage for quite some time.

If you don't do that, you might run into MUCH more work later.

http://www.curtpalme.com/Bleeding_CRT_Tubes1.shtm

dropzone7,
Yes and also why the difference is screws to mount them. The plus uses tab rings and the other uses spacer plates for different screen sizes. Different mounting lugs. Doug

dropzone7,
Yes and also why the difference is screws to mount them. The plus uses tab rings and the other uses spacer plates for different screen sizes. Different mounting lugs. Doug


Yeah, that was confusing when I first started setting up the 6PG because all of the literature I had talked about tab rings and setting them for the proper screen size. They were in the pictures in the manual but nowhere to be found on my 6PG. That's when I found out that I had a plain vanilla 6PG.

kschmit2, thanks for the heads up there. I will take a look for those bubbles for sure.

kschmit2, thanks for the heads up there. I will take a look for those bubbles for sure.If there are no bubbles don't let it throw you off buying it. As long as you're comfortable bleeding the tubes yourself the tubes will be perfectly fine.

Kal

If there are no bubbles don't let it throw you off buying it. As long as you're comfortable bleeding the tubes yourself the tubes will be perfectly fine.

Kal


Good to know, thanks Kal. I wish I could borrow one of you guys for a weekend once I get this thing. One of my original questions was regarding suggestions for calibrators or technicians familiar with the PG's. Anyone have names/locations?

Man, even if the tubes have a bit of even wear $350 is a great deal. I got my 6PG for $200 and it has a little wear (a little uneven wear too more on the green and blue though, but I can't tell 99% of the time during a film) and even a little bit of light swirly burn in (usually can't be seen on a video image 99% of the time though). The thing puts out a superb picture though that looks WAY beyond even $350.

I'd take off the lenses of the set if I were you just to be sure of the actual condition. Using a flashlight made the seller of my NEC 6PG miss some of the burn-in on my unit. For $200 though I can't complain. The image is just too great overall.

If the set has a point board makes it even more worth it. Those can be pretty pricey by themselves.

Man, even if the tubes have a bit of even wear $$$ is a great deal. I got my 6PG for $200 and it has a little wear (a little uneven wear too more on the green and blue though, but I can't tell 99% of the time during a film) and even a little bit of light swirly burn in (usually can't be seen on a video image 99% of the time though). The thing puts out a superb picture though that looks WAY beyond even $350.

I'd take off the lenses of the set if I were you just to be sure of the actual condition. Using a flashlight made the seller of my NEC 6PG miss some of the burn-in on my unit. For $200 though I can't complain. The image is just too great overall.

If the set has a point board makes it even more worth it. Those can be pretty pricey by themselves.


Yeah, I'm thinking of making a crazy offer today and see if he bites. I don't even have a place to put this right now but I can certainly put it in storage for a bit. Probably early next year before I can install it.

Good to know, thanks Kal. I wish I could borrow one of you guys for a weekend once I get this thing. One of my original questions was regarding suggestions for calibrators or technicians familiar with the PG's. Anyone have names/locations?Don't know if there's anyone in your neck of the woods but this is a start: http://www.curtpalme.com/ReferralList.shtm

Kal

Don't know if there's anyone in your neck of the woods but this is a start: http://www.curtpalme.com/ReferralList.shtm

Kal

Thanks Kal, looks like Terry would be the closest to me as far as someone familiar with NEC's. That's cool because I have heard good things about him here on the forums already. I'm leaving digital behind hopefully. I'm reading a lot about smaller screen sizes with CRT which kind of concerns me. I was using a DIY screen before at 96"x54" and felt it was a great size for the room and still plenty bright for my modest digital unit. Do you or anyone else here foresee problems in using that size screen with a 9PG+. I briefly had my 6PG projecting on the same screen and it looked pretty nice to me as far as brightness and uniformity. Since I never made it to a full and accurate setup I can't say for sure how it would have looked once complete.

I don't see any problems with a 96x54 screen with the 9PG+. That's the size I used (DIY screen as well with a gain of approx 1.1-1.2). Been using it will all my PJs, some of which are less bright then the 9PG.

Again, that's just my opinion. The Joe Kanes of the world will tell you to use a screen no more then 60" wide. :)

Kal

P.S. If you're going to get Terry to set up your PJ, you're going to be getting about the best setup possible. Good choice.

Don't worry about the screen size.

I recently moved my 7" ECP 4500+ set down the hallway and decided to see how big I could go. I took a screenshots of it at 11' tall with a 16:9 Bit Torrent download. It's not the world's greatest screenshot since I used a camcorder and had to use 1/15th shutter to make the image look closer to the brightness I saw (which introduces TONS and TONS of grain). So, I had to run it through a degrain filter a few times too smooth out the grain.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4678/hugecrtveronicamars2coau6.jpg

If the walls weren't blocking the width and and my wall was big enough the image would've been about 19.55' x 11'. :D

Use gamma correction. It seems to help with brightnesss a lot.

I don't see any problems with a 96x54 screen with the 9PG+. That's the size I used (DIY screen as well with a gain of approx 1.1-1.2). Been using it will all my PJs, some of which are less bright then the 9PG.

Again, that's just my opinion. The Joe Kanes of the world will tell you to use a screen no more then 60" wide. :)

Kal

P.S. If you're going to get Terry to set up your PJ, you're going to be getting about the best setup possible. Good choice.

Cool, I was hoping not to have to downsize my screen. Yeah, when I saw Terry's avatar I liked him already! Al Swearengen from Deadwood!

MTyson, yeah even that is bigger than what I want to do but I get your point! By the way I have been reading through the CRT forums and have seen your name come up a good bit recently. These CRT guys seem to be giving you a tongue lashing!

MTyson, yeah even that is bigger than what I want to do but I get your point! By the way I have been reading through the CRT forums and have seen your name come up a good bit recently. These CRT guys seem to be giving you a tongue lashing!

:confused: They must not do it enough or very well since I can barely recall recieving any. :D Perhaps my hundreds of posts here has clouded my already selective memory. :)

I take it you must have read my old NEC threads (you being an NEC owner and all)? :) There were some frustrating issues with that set.

As someone who boxes a tongue lashing is nuthin'. :D

Well, I negotiated down to $$$ yesterday and I'm going to take one final look this afternoon. I'm pulling the lenses and if the tubes look decent it will be coming home with me. :D

Cool!

A entire (possibly minty) 9PG+ for less then the price of one digital PJ bulb. Will wonders never cease! :)

Kal

Hey, does anyone know where to find an original mount for one of these? I can do the unistrut deal but I would kind of like to have the mount for a proper install.

Nothing improper about a unistrut mount. Given a free 'original' mount I'd still go the unistrut route as the 'original' mount for any projector gives you zero adjustment flexibility.

Kal

Cool!

A entire (possibly minty) 9PG+ for less then the price of one digital PJ bulb. Will wonders never cease! :)

Kal

Yeah, the prospect is exciting. Hey, how do you Canadians get so many CRT's up there? Are you guys using them for space heaters or what? :D

Well, I am the new owner of a 9PG+ with what appear to be almost perfect tubes. I negotiated down and against my best judgement I did not pull the lenses off until I got it home. I did one more sweep with the flashlight when I picked it up and decided to take a chance. I guess I got lucky because when I took the lenses off (green tube first) I was very surprised to see how white and clean everything looked! :D I figured if green looked good then there was a chance that they all would be okay. Sure enough, all three tubes were white as snow. My girlfriend helped me load it up into the back seat of her civic at about 9:00 last night (what a trooper...). On the way home we had a crazy driver pull out in front of us and my girlfriend proceeded to let fly with some choice words. I turned to her and looked at the back seat and said "sssshhh...not in front of the baby!" :D

Nothing improper about a unistrut mount. Given a free 'original' mount I'd still go the unistrut route as the 'original' mount for any projector gives you zero adjustment flexibility.

Kal


Thanks Kal, good point. When the time comes I will research some DIY mounts and give it a try.

Congrats!

I suggest running the PJ floor mounted for a while until you're comfortable/familiar with it.

Here's the first stop in your research of DIY mounts: http://www.curtpalme.com/MountingMethods.shtm :)

kal

Yeah, the prospect is exciting. Hey, how do you Canadians get so many CRT's up there? Are you guys using them for space heaters or what? :D

Huh? There's hardly any up here. I spend way too much money on trucking, customs and courier to get them into Canada. OK, so it's safe to say that per capita, Vancouver has an INSANE amount of CRTs compared to other cities.. :D

But seriously, 99% of the sets I buy come up from the US.

Congrats!

I suggest running the PJ floor mounted for a while until you're comfortable/familiar with it.

Here's the first stop in your research of DIY mounts: http://www.curtpalme.com/MountingMethods.shtm :)

kal

Cool, those are nice pictures and pretty much what I visualized a Unistrut mount would look like. Doug was kind enough to put me on to an OEM mount which I might also consider. I'm sure I will have plenty of time working with this thing at the 2' to 3' level before I even consider putting it above my head! :eek: My house hunting is certainly taking a home theater into consideration and I'm hoping for a nice sized room with high cielings and access above. The last house was far from ideal for a home theater but I worked around it. This time I will be more picky.

Huh? There's hardly any up here. I spend way too much money on trucking, customs and courier to get them into Canada. OK, so it's safe to say that per capita, Vancouver has an INSANE amount of CRTs compared to other cities.. :D

But seriously, 99% of the sets I buy come up from the US.


Yeah well, save some for the rest of the world would ya! :) You know I'm just jealous because your so far away and I can't bribe you to come tweak my projector in exchange for a 12 pack! :D

While I am waiting trying to find a place for the new projector I thought I would ask about a transcoder. Any ideas what would work best with a PG? I have read good things about the Kim transcoder but it looks like it's out of stock. I have a breakout cable and a nice 25' RGBHV cable. Clarence was nice enough to lend me his VDIGI unit for the better part of a year and I finally shipped it back to him. I used the VDIGI while trying to set up the 6PG I have.

Anybody have thoughts regarding my last question? I have a birthday coming up and I would like to get a transcoder of some kind. Is the Kim unit still the one to go for?

Send Kim an email; he produces these on demand as they are ordered. I use one with my 9PG+. Very nice; very much better than the VDIGI or similar lowcost transcoders.

Willie

Send Kim an email; he produces these on demand as they are ordered. I use one with my 9PG+. Very nice; very much better than the VDIGI or similar lowcost transcoders.

Willie

Hi Willie, I believe you are the one that bought my extra green tube a while back. How did that work out for you? Did it go in your 9PG+? Thanks for the info on Kim. That looks like the best option for me at this point.

Dropzone7,

Nice deal on the 9PG+. The only thing I would say is don't expect a big step in performance over your 6PG or you are likely to be disappointed. Both projectors use the same tubes and chassis and other than better corner focusing and the ability to scan higher the performance is going to be very close.

Dropzone7,

Nice deal on the 9PG+. The only thing I would say is don't expect a big step in performance over your 6PG or you are likely to be disappointed. Both projectors use the same tubes and chassis and other than better corner focusing and the ability to scan higher the performance is going to be very close.


Yeah, I always try to keep my expectations low so that I don't get disappointed. I liked what I did see with the 6PG although I never got a complete setup with it. I only got the 9PG+ because it was a great deal and had a better green than my 6PG. If I can get either of these ceiling mounted and shooting a decent picture onto an 8' screen I will be happy. I was running the 6PG on my 96x54 DIY screen and if I had gotten it properly converged and focused I would have bee content with that. This is going to be a long term project for me. I'm a slow learner I guess because everyone gave me a hard time about setting up the first one. I want to give it another shot and really study up on the mechanical setup this time. I'm going to need a lot of help from you guys. Even then I plan on getting Terry or someone to properly calibrate it for me.

Guys, I have a question. I will admit that my knowledge of line doublers, scalers is limited at best. I was wondering if I use something like a DVDO Ultra, one of the older ones with component and s-video inputs and RGB output if I could uses this in place of a transcoder? Would this perform the transcoding function and also serve as a doubler for my standard 480p signals? I have a VGA to 5 BNC breakout cable that would take the DVDO to the projector and most of my sources will be component input and run through a component switcher like the Audio Authority 1154 model. Any suggestions?

Anybody have thoughts regarding my last question? I have a birthday coming up and I would like to get a transcoder of some kind. Is the Kim unit still the one to go for?
Yes it is the one to get and it is about to come out with gamma corection I think so get that one for sure.

I thought I would revive this thread as I'm finally getting around to playing with this unit. I carried it up stairs this weekend and just started some minor adjustments. I'm happy to say that I have already made more progress with this unit than I did with my last PG attempt. I'm taking it really slow this time and I have not messed around with the astig magnets yet. This projector looks like it was setup for 16:9 viewing by the last owner and only had about 3 inputs saved in the memory. I know I should not be using a HTPC for setup but it's the only thing I have available right now until I get a transcoder. I got the rasters centered pretty well last night (only the blue was pretty far off) and did image centering and blanking. Attached the lenses again and the tubes lined up much better. The lenses and glass are pretty dirty and I think I might work on those tonight as well as blowing some of the dust out. I checked the hour meter and it read about 2,100 hours. All tubes look good with just the slightest bit of discoloration on green. I would probably still call it a "9". I know that I should clear all the memories out but I did that on my last PG and it was an uphill battle from there. Once I get comfortable with the remote again I will start fresh with a new memory.

Drop,
Just move the entries back until your running stable with no problems. Write down your color settings also. You dont want to delete a signal line if it holds a good grayscale and might be what is stored to default for AKB. Take your time and do it your way. Doug

I pulled the projector about 9' away from the wall last night just to get a bigger image (no screen yet) and found myself sitting there enjoying the picture for about a half hour. This really is a different looking image than I am used to. I am coming from a low end 480p digital which was very bright. The image I'm seeing from this 9PG+ is so much more film like and smooth than the bright "in your face" look of the digital unit. Even with the half ass setup I have achieved thus far I can already tell that there will be no going back. Colors and flesh tones look so much more accurate and I really feel like I'm watching a film rather than a bunch of pixels forming an artificially "punchy" image. Maybe that does not make sense the way I explain it but I really see a difference for the better with CRT and I can't wait to get it looking even better.

Well, I'm still playing around with this thing and I'm getting better at the mechanical setup. I'm getting a fairly decent image in the middle but it breaks down as you get near the edges. I'm seeing the primary colors of red and blue not overlapping, especially near the top left of the image. Also, the pictures seem a bit washed out and is lacking in contrast. I have played with brightness and contrast to try and adjust but it does not seem to help much. I have not touched any pots or settings other than those necessary for alignment. Any suggestions? I should note that in the beginning I was using a PC with breakout cable for testing but have since moved that PC to another location. Now I'm using an older DVD player through the S-video output. I'm sure that has something to do with my image quality.

dropzone- I'm fairly new to the whole CRT area, but I can attest to the fact that running a s-vid cable is going to give you a horrible picture compared to a proper component/hdmi/dvi input. I purchased the rather inexpensive x2vga-2 transcoder to convert my 480p dvd player's component outputs to my sony's RGB input, and WOW! What an improvement! Color's improved dramaticly and the scan lines dropped in half. The transcoder was deffinatly worth the $59.99+$22 shipping/handeling.

dropzone- I'm fairly new to the whole CRT area, but I can attest to the fact that running a s-vid cable is going to give you a horrible picture compared to a proper component/hdmi/dvi input. I purchased the rather inexpensive x2vga-2 transcoder to convert my 480p dvd player's component outputs to my sony's RGB input, and WOW! What an improvement! Color's improved dramaticly and the scan lines dropped in half. The transcoder was deffinatly worth the $59.99+$22 shipping/handeling.

Yeah, I'm sure the S-video feed is not helping but the PC I was using found a new home in the kitchen of my new house. I have been meaning to pick up the Crescendo transcoder but funds are tight right now to say the least. I may just move the PC back and forth while I'm doing setup. It was noticeably better than this DVD player.

Played around for a bit last night and turned the focus pots for the first time. Wow, that made a huge difference in my center focus but the edges are still hurting. I think that's due as much to fact that I'm not totally converged rather than edge focus adjustment. I had to sit down and enjoy a movie because for the first time I'm actually getting a watchable picture. I did hook my PC back up to the projector because S-Video just was not getting it. I don't even have a screen yet which I know is the wrong way to do this. Right now I'm projecting onto a white wall with a huge window in the middle of it. At least the window has white blinds! The room is on the second story of my house and you can see the picture against the blinds from the outside of the house. Kind of freaky looking. When all is said and done I'm going to have to cover that window up neatly and place some kind of screen over it (probably a Wilsonart Designer White screen).