With all the hype about the new JVC RS-1 digital projector (and it hasn't even been released yet!) I thought I would post some screenshots for all those looking at getting into CRT front projection.

These are images that one can attain just by reading here on the AVS forums and lots of patience, trial and error.

I completely re-tubed, calibrated and setup my XG on my own (I had never done it before) and you can do it too with the wealth of knowledge and friendly people here on the forums.

Bang for the buck CRT projectors still rule in my book.

Screen size is 100" diagonal.

Ant bully on HD DVD=holy cow!
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9431/hddvd3042pa9.jpg
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/692/hddvd30702ha7.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3923/hddvd3115jg9.jpg
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8954/hddvd31372is0.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5016/hddvd3160rxl0.jpg

Beautiful

What resolution are you running?

Superb, really beautiful, NEC's are so sharp...can you give us something with FLESH, pretty please ? Something from HULK HD DVD would be great....

What resolution are you running?

1920X1080i

Superb, really beautiful, NEC's are so sharp...can you give us something with FLESH, pretty please ? Something from HULK HD DVD would be great....

Green flesh?

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8222/hddvd2006py0.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/4061/hddvd2042yh6.jpg

Tell us a little bit about your video path setup.... what hd-dvd player? Hooked up how? gamma added?

Kal

Tell us a little bit about your video path setup.... what hd-dvd player? Hooked up how? gamma added?

Kal

Hey Kal,

HDA1 -> 1080i HDMI -> moome ISS with gamma -> Blue Jeans Cable Belden 1694A with Canare BNCs RGBHV -> NEC XG750

Brad

Absolutely beautiful Bradad!! Even though I just bought a Marquee 8500, I'm still on the lookout for a cheap XG. Crt projectors totally rule.

HDA1 -> 1080i HDMI -> moome ISS with gamma -> Blue Jeans Cable Belden 1694A with Canare BNCs RGBHV -> NEC XG750
Thanks Brad! Nice shots indeed!

I'm considering something similar:

HDA1 -> 1080i component -> Kim's RTC2200 transcoder with gamma -> Bettercables.com VGA-to-RGBHV cable -> Zenith 1200 (Barco Cine 8 Onyx)

I suppose in your case of going HDMI, you have the added bonus of being able to upscale SD-DVD's past 480p...

Kal

Could you try standard DVDs? I'd like to some comparison.

Nice. I was looking at buying a 1080p Digital projector (Mits. HC5000) but man. These shots look outstanding. About how much would one of these cost? Can you point me in the right direction for CRT projector pricing? Thanks Bradad.

Nice. I was looking at buying a 1080p Digital projector (Mits. HC5000) but man. These shots look outstanding. About how much would one of these cost? Can you point me in the right direction for CRT projector pricing? Thanks Bradad.Yep... CRT+HDDVD is a beautiful combination.

Check the AVS Marketplace (link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=125)), videogon (http://cgi.videogon.com/cgi-bin/fs.pl?projcrta), ebay, and Curt Palme's site (http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTForSale.shtm).

A 7" ES starter CRT will cost ~$500. It'll do a great job with 1080i on a 7 wide screen.
A 8" EM CRT will do 1080i/720p/960p on a 96" wide screen for $750-$2500.
A 9" CRT will do 1080P on a 8'-9' wide screen, but will cost $2500-$6000+.

Here are some of my CRT "Ant Bully" screenshots:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9489089&&#post9489089
The "Ant Bully" HD-DVD finally came in the mail today. I ordered it before Christmas.

G90 CRT projector at 1080p, 9.5' wide screen (Wilsonart Designer White laminate), HD-A1 HD-DVD player:

http://crtforum.com/img/antbully1.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/antbully2.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/antbully3.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/antbully4.jpg

http://crtforum.com/img/antbully5.jpgMore CRT+HDDVD screenshots:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9494604&&#post9494604
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8957346&&#post8957346

Nice shots Clarence. I haven't had the luxury of seeing a G90 in action, and probably a good thing too. ;) But I wonder how much of an improvement over my XG I would see on my "small" 100" screen with a G90?

The thing I love about CRT front projection vs. the digitals that I've seen is that CRT displays the image will all of the sharpness but at the same time the image is so smooth.

Here are a few more from Ant Bully. All of these images have been resized only.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3240/hddvd3025ym4.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6413/hddvd3198wm9.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3126/hddvd3009qe2.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5130/hddvd3212ek5.jpg

I love this shot, check out the details:
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5656/hddvd3167sc5.jpg

Nice shots Clarence. I haven't had the luxury of seeing a G90 in action, and probably a good thing too. ;) But I wonder how much of an improvement over my XG I would see on my "small" 100" screen with a G90?Don't be in a rush to upgrade to a 9"... your XG with fresh tubes is better than 95% of the projectors in any of these forums. The advantage for staying with an 8" projector is that they love 1080i/720p directly. When you upgrade to 9", you get sucked into video processors to scale/deinterlace everything to 1080P.

The thing I love about CRT front projection vs. the digitals that I've seen is that CRT displays the image will all of the sharpness but at the same time the image is so smooth.Yep. The other thing I love is not having to worry about the number of hours on a lamp. My G90 has over 8,500 hours on the original tubes... We've put over 2,500 hours on it in the last 18 months, and the wear isn't any more noticeable than it was on the day that I got it. I figure somewhere around 10,000 hours I'll decide if I should swap in my spare tubes.

But the other amazing thing about CRTs is that even when you think it can't look any better, there's always something that'll improve the PQ another 10-20% (which I correlate to the amount of improvement that makes my wife say "wow... that looks even better than it used to"). Even after I thought I had it 95% as good as it could get, it's gotten 10-20% better about 10 times.

Your pictures look great... nice colors, convergence, geometry, focus... good photography too. But before you ever consider upgrading, look for a professional CRT calibrator in your area. You'll be amazed at what a perfect white balance can do. Plus, you'll pick up several focus/setup techniques.

Not bad prices Clearance. I'm going to start focusing my research on CRT projectors. I'm saving for and planning my Home Theater build. I hope to start This time 2008. Early stages. I have a moderate HT setup now. Not bad, but I want the "Theater" look. I'll be contacting you more about the whole CRT setup! Thanks.

Brad, outstanding shots. What camera are you using?

Hi,

I bought my XG at a local government surplus auction for $$$$$$. That was a few years ago already and was quite the bargain at the time I got it. The tubes were of course completely shot, so I got new ones and replaced them.

I would recomend to you to keep your eyes open as the price of CRT projectors are dropping and you can score a XG pretty easily for the same price I got mine for now.

Tubes are getting harder to find new though, but there is a company called VDC that "rebuilds" tubes.

You can check out eBay, Videogon, and private "resellers" like Curt Palme and even the AVS Marketplace just as Clarence mentioned.

Hope this helps,
Brad
Thanks Brad.

Brad, outstanding shots. What camera are you using?

Hi Curt!

How have you been??

I am using a tiny hand held Olympus C-7000. 7.1 megapixel. Seriously all I did was tripod mount it, disable the flash, left all settings at default, point and shoot, resize the images and post them here. ;)

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/c7000.html

Brad

Thanks Brad.


Hmmmm, I thought that was a private message you sent me??? lol. ;)

Just to add, buying privately could be a pretty big risk. You don't really know what your getting until it is in your possession. I was very lucky and fortunate that the opportunity came for me and I could inspect ahead of time and make sure everything was okay. I also avoided any damage that could be caused from shipping one of these beasts.

Buying from someone like Curt, you know that you are getting a projector that functions properly, has good tubes and he backs them up if you should ever have any problems.

Just something else to think about when you decide to purchase.

Brad

Ahhhhh, the beautiful picture that is the XG series. Very very nice.

Cliff

Yep... CRT+HDDVD is a beautiful combination.

Check the AVS Marketplace (link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=125)), videogon (http://cgi.videogon.com/cgi-bin/fs.pl?projcrta), ebay, and Curt Palme's site (http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTForSale.shtm).

A 7" ES starter CRT will cost ~$500. It'll do a great job with 1080i on a 7 wide screen.
A 8" EM CRT will do 1080i/720p/960p on a 96" wide screen for $750-$2500.
A 9" CRT will do 1080P on a 8'-9' wide screen, but will cost $2500-$6000+.

Here are some of my CRT "Ant Bully" screenshots:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9489089&&#post9489089
More CRT+HDDVD screenshots:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9494604&&#post9494604
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8957346&&#post8957346


Good Lord I'm envious. :)

Especially the third and fourth shots. :eek: Unbelievable.

With all the hype about the new JVC RS-1 digital projector (and it hasn't even been released yet!) I thought I would post some screenshots for all those looking at getting into CRT front projection.

These are images that one can attain just by reading here on the AVS forums and lots of patience, trial and error.

I completely re-tubed, calibrated and setup my XG on my own (I had never done it before) and you can do it too with the wealth of knowledge and friendly people here on the forums.

Bang for the buck CRT projectors still rule in my book.

Screen size is 100" diagonal.

Ant bully on HD DVD=holy cow!
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9431/hddvd3042pa9.jpg
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/692/hddvd30702ha7.jpg
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3923/hddvd3115jg9.jpg
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8954/hddvd31372is0.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5016/hddvd3160rxl0.jpg


Those shots look 3D. Crap, you guys and your damn gorgeous CRT's.