I'm curious as to who set up their own projectors vs. paid for a professional to do it for them? By "set up", I mean anything from magnetics adjustment to greyscale to simple geometry. Hopefully if you did pay, then you got *everything* done.

Oops, I forgot to add "I plan to pay for a calibration within the next six months".

Mod's, if you can add that to the poll options... please do. :)
I'll wait till that option is posted before I select my option. :P

Ken Whitcomb set up my G70.

nuff said

ed

I chose #2

MP set up my pj :p :cool: :D !

I forgot who set my projector up.

Cliff

I change them too often to ever really set them up. :)

Troy

I had my project calibrated by Chuck Williams in 2000, and had it recalibrated (with new source devices) by Dan Miller this year. Both were well worth it.

Chad Billheimer came through the Dallas area on a calibration tour in Feb. He spent over 14 hours setting up and calibrating my G90 and did a fantastic job given his limited experience working on CRT projectors. Very pleased with the results.

Ken Whitcomb set up and calibrated.

Art

Didn't we have this poll a few months ago?

Bjørn Hegelstad at www.crtht.com does a very nice job with mine! One of the very few specialists in Norway.

Didn't we have this poll a few months ago?

If we did, then I either missed it or forgot about it. :)

I tried a search for (+poll +calibration) and it didn't come back with anything.

Ken Whitcomb Set up my G90. Super sweet picture. Projecting onto a 135" Stewart Delux Luxas Studiotech 130.

Denver

If you want to call what I did setting up.......then it was me.

So far I've setup my projector, but plan to have it professionally calibrated.

The bummer seems to be that the G90 gurus are not in southern california. Ken was good enough to reply to my inquiries but without discussing any numbers he inticated the cost to get him out here "could be a little prohibitive".

The local tech that helped me replace the tubes on my D50 owns(ed) a G70 so I'm thinking of getting him to come out and at least help me get the greyscale and white level (I've set it by eye and know it cant possibly be correct).

Kris,

There is a G90 guru in NorCal area. Might want to ask him to notify you the next time he makes a tour. William Morris is his name I think? I may have that wrong or backwards. As for prices in general, I'm fairly sure that a full calibration would be under $2K if the projector is already mounted and level to the screen. I think it's not practical to ask for a fixed quote though. There are always little things that add to the time (from what I hear and what I would assume).

I'm enjoying hearing about the names on this thread. This is good.

Set it up myself. All it took was a lot of time. First reading manuals to understand what I was going to have to do. Then a lot more time making the adjustments. Only thing I don't have is test equipment for calibration. Just used the old eye balls, and adjusted till it looked right.

So far I've setup my projector, but plan to have it professionally calibrated.

The bummer seems to be that the G90 gurus are not in southern california. Ken was good enough to reply to my inquiries but without discussing any numbers he inticated the cost to get him out here "could be a little prohibitive".

The local tech that helped me replace the tubes on my D50 owns(ed) a G70 so I'm thinking of getting him to come out and at least help me get the greyscale and white level (I've set it by eye and know it cant possibly be correct).

You might want to check with William Phelps as well, he goes by Wm here on the forums. His specialty was G-90's, but, I don't know if he will do a crt anymore.

MP and Ken. I didn't vote however. Too many complicating factors to pigeon hole.

Mine was set up at first my myself, then i just had it calibrated by Craig Rounds . He specializes in Mitsubishi rear crts but also does Front projection. he was very thoughro and spent two days at my place doing my marquee and Mitsubishi. Needles to say the colors are alot more realistic, i didnt realize i was way off on the grey scale for the Marquee. Love watching my LG multi blue player on that projector now. Awsome Job Craig, and if you read this thanks for sticking arounnd alittle later helping me out.



Kris,

[QUOTE=KrisRoberts]So far I've setup my projector, but plan to have it professionally calibrated.

The bummer seems to be that the G90 gurus are not in southern california. Ken was good enough to reply to my inquiries but without discussing any numbers he inticated the cost to get him out here "could be a little prohibitive"[QUOTE=KrisRoberts]

Craig owns his own G90 and i would highly recomend him. here is his web site he does tours evry year across the country.

http://www.cir-engineering.com/

Athansios

Love this new crt Addiction

Slighly modded Marquee 8000
Dalite 159 inch 1.2 gain screen
Lumagen HDQ
LG BH100 Multi Blue Player

I had mine calibrated by William Phelps, back when he was still doing G90s of course. The nice thing about this unit is that its pretty much rock solid after it was calibrated. If I didn't need to add 1080p to the G90 and support programming to the Lumagen VisionPro HDP, I wouldn't be scheduling the first recalibration since William did it back in 2003. I've already made arrangements with Craig Rounds to do the work, just haven't nailed down the date yet.

Slighly modded Marquee 8000
Dalite 159 inch 1.2 gain screen
Lumagen HDQ
LG BH100 Multi Blue Player[/QUOTE]

How do you have the LG blu-ray/hd-dvd player going into your Lumagen and how out of the Lumagen into the G90?

I set up my own, but I used my Philips PM 5639 color analyzer to do the greyscale, and my Display Mate for Windows to get geometry and focus bang on for the higher resolutions, and made sure my physical placement was within a 1/16" of optimum before I even started to dial anything in...

Set it up all by lonesome... but hopefully one day I can get Ken down under

Terry Ferrentinos (Chuchuf) calibrated and setup my G90 and did a great job. Money well spent.

Slighly modded Marquee 8000
Dalite 159 inch 1.2 gain screen
Lumagen HDQ
LG BH100 Multi Blue Player

How do you have the LG blu-ray/hd-dvd player going into your Lumagen and how out of the Lumagen into the G90?[/QUOTE]


I use the component out at 1080i of the lg , into the lumagen which outputs at 1080p to the marquee via rgbhv.

pic looks great !

Athanasios

How do you have the LG blu-ray/hd-dvd player going into your Lumagen and how out of the Lumagen into the G90?


I use the component out at 1080i of the lg , into the lumagen which outputs at 1080p to the marquee via rgbhv.

pic looks great !

Athanasios[/QUOTE]

Great. Thanks! Did you have a chance to compare the component out and the HDMI output on a HDMI-capable device to see if the LG player's component/analog video was comparable to the primary intended connection type HDMI?

So far then, about 70% of CRT projectors are not profesionally calibrated. And yet so many people love them. Just imagine if 1/2 of that 70% got their PJ's calibrated.

Or just imagine the job opportunity for calibrator's if they lowered their prices so that more of the 70% could afford a pro-calibration.
Kinda makes you wonder just a little bit.

I think I set all 9 of mine up :confused:
At least pinned them to the ceiling , you must have beer for this, to bring forth the super human strength. I may have mechanical setup issue problems :p

Makes me wonder how my projectors look. I haven't had any pro calibrations, but I have a colorimeter and do grayscale setup, etc. I really wonder how much better it would look with a pro calibration -- but I futz with the setup so often that it would be silly to pay a calibration.

Eddie, I'm sure more people would get calibrations if it was cheaper. But if I was a calibrator I wouldn't work for cheap either. Most of them spend hours on the road to reach those gigs, and I wouldn't do that if it wasn't paying me.

So far then, about 70% of CRT projectors are not profesionally calibrated. And yet so many people love them. Just imagine if 1/2 of that 70% got their PJ's calibrated.

Or just imagine the job opportunity for calibrator's if they lowered their prices so that more of the 70% could afford a pro-calibration.
Kinda makes you wonder just a little bit.

These guys will lower prices a bit when they can get a tour set up in an area so that they can do mutiple jobs while there.

Art

I'm willing to setup a tour in Ohio. Hell...I'll pay for a night's stay at a Hotel. I bet Ken would make my lowly barco data 701 with a DIY screen look better. :D

Terry, AKA Chuchuf set mine up.

I have a mini grayscale tour in mind for Terry for myself, and for two of my friends pj's that I set up. Once I receive my Moome HDMI card back, that is.

Nice having someone as good as Terry here locally.

I set my ECP 4500+ up and run it with a custom low end gamma curve. I just was checking out the new Texas Chainsaw massacre film and the dynamic range with good dark detail is absolutely jaw dropping. Pitch black fade to blacks, great dark detail, amazing colors, etc. I swear I don't even feel I need HD sometimes, because with FFDShow I am simply blown away all the time by the sharpness and dynamic range.

I wish I had a camera that could do the picture I see in person justice, because I'd have more screenshots up. I still can't believe this only cost me $700 total. The picture is just unreal with a good source on my silver torus.

I set up my own.

I wouldn't trust anyone else down here in Oz to get near it! I'm very anal about picture quality :D

Cheers :)

Russ

I had Eliab from AVICAL.COM. He did all three of mine and I'm telling you he is great. He did my Pannosinic Plasma Sony LCD and my newest SAMSUNG LCD/DLP and all three pictures are perfect he just recalibrated my Sony because it was almost three years and I had to change the bulb I changed it he calibrated it and it looks like it's brand new again. His the man I mean that there isen't anything that you can't ask him about that he doesn't know and he takes his time his never in a rush. His defintly one of the top three out there. Look around on other boards you'll read about him HDTVoice.Com and others. Well good Luck it changes how you watch TV you just change the chanel and every picture is perfect. He even did my HDDVD and watching a HD movie after his done is unbelivable.

I set up my own.

I wouldn't trust anyone else down here in Oz to get near it! I'm very anal about picture quality :D

Cheers :)

Russ

I've heard how anal you are Russ :p ... any chance of helping me out?

I've heard how anal you are Russ :p ... any chance of helping me out?

Hi Gino,

I'm not planning on any crusades to the holy land until later this year. A good mate of mine relocated up to Cairns with his family over Xmas and he's constantly telling me how great the weather and lifestyle is up there :D I won't have a chance to get up there for a lengthy period until about Sep or thereabouts and I'll make a point of dropping by to see your blend. If you were down here in Melbourne I'd be happy to drop by and offer advise.

Cheers

Russ

Russ spent about 6 hours on my astig, with the video camera and monitor...I get bored after 1 hour..

I did the basics, and Russ did the astig and white balance. Normally I do the astig myself, but Russ has all the gear to really nail it.

Would be great to see what sorts of improvements you could help me with Russ. I think I've got an amazing picture at the moment (did you see my most recent screenshots?), and I'm at 95% of my capability, but probably only at half of yours. I hear that you can spend days just doing astig!

The weather is pretty great up here, if you can handle the heat/sun, it's tropical paradise, but it comes with rain/humidity, floods and cyclones in the wet season :) Lifestyle is slow paced, relaxed, stress free.

Let me know when you plan your crusade up this way.

Russ spent about 6 hours on my astig, with the video camera and monitor...I get bored after 1 hour..

I did the basics, and Russ did the astig and white balance. Normally I do the astig myself, but Russ has all the gear to really nail it.

Hehe, yeh, was just typing I hear he is nuts with astig while you posted. I think I maybe spend 15 minutes a tube doing astig, then I feel like I can't see anymore difference, after 6 tubes my eyes start playing tricks on me.

John Gannon tried to get Ken Whitcomb but just could not hook up John's work is flawless though and I am loving it. Last calibrated Dec. 06.

I did my own but I am a professional AV dealer so maby that dosent count.
However I dont have calibration gear just my two eyes and a THX OptiMode disc lol

Vic

Believe this then Vic your TV is not Calibrated whether your a professional AV dealer or not two eyes and a disk just isn't gonna do it. LOL :-)

Terry, AKA Chuchuf set mine up.

I have a mini grayscale tour in mind for Terry for myself, and for two of my friends pj's that I set up. Once I receive my Moome HDMI card back, that is.

Nice having someone as good as Terry here locally.


Ditto. Don, we need to stop copying each other ;)


Terry set up my G70 six+ years ago, and I've redone all focus and alignments since, as I keep moving my screen (something about a big center channel (http://www.mindspring.com/~jonfoulkes/Home_Theater/Speakers/MLSL3XC.htm) to fiddle with). So I'm adept at alignments.

However, I do plan to have Terry over for a preventive maintenance session and full-on mechanical focus on out reset of the unit.

Before I had any experience with CRT projectors a former forum member helped set up my NEC XG 1100. Chuchuf did a full calibration -- well worth it.

Terry did my 9500 and later G90. Couldn't imagine not having a pro setup to get everything out of these great projectors. Looking forward to him doing the John's fan mod on the G90 and calibrating for Moome's new HDMI card. Great guy, highly recommended.

A combination of Mike Parker and Ken Whitcomb will be installing, setting up and calibrating my pair of Marquee Extremes for the East Coast BlendZilla Meet.

Tbase1, Ken Whitcomb is driving to Virginia for the Meet, and is lining up calibration stops along the way. You are on the way. See earlier in this thread for contact info. See also Cliffy's thread on this topic in this forum.

Terry did my 9500 and later G90. Couldn't imagine not having a pro setup to get everything out of these great projectors. Looking forward to him doing the John's fan mod on the G90 and calibrating for Moome's new HDMI card. Great guy, highly recommended.


Couldn't imagine not doing it myself and with my mates.

I guess it helps when my mates are the local pros, but a lot of the fun of CRT is the little community you end up with, due to the size and complexity of the things.

A combination of Mike Parker and Ken Whitcomb will be installing, setting up and calibrating my pair of Marquee Extremes for the East Coast BlendZilla Meet.

Tbase1, Ken Whitcomb is driving to Virginia for the Meet, and is lining up calibration stops along the way. You are on the way. See earlier in this thread for contact info. See also Cliffy's thread on this topic in this forum.

Hey William, are the extreme's yours to keep? Is the DVX is a loaner or you're buying it or thinking of buying it?

Hey William, are the extreme's yours to keep?

I can better answer this - yes. and this is an upgrade for any of you guys who has the Blendzilla and got your Marquee mods from Tim.

but, I' would rather you provide a second set of boards first. And you'll have to do so after the meet. By then I will have someone else doing the mods (board work) for me, and that way you can get a quicker turn-around.

At the meet I will be using either 02's or 03's, but more likely the 03's. Not sure at this point. I was also hoping to show off the difference between the two sets, but that's not going to be easy. So I'll keep it simple.

Doing the board re-work for the mods has been mind boggling. I've counted the tiny parts that I swap out and/or add to boards, and on some board sets, I'm near 180 components. This has been exhausting at times. And it can take almost a whole day (5 - 7 hours) to do one set. Upgrade from V2 is much easier.

Plus, I'm doing other stuff... and did I mention I'm presently waving my magic wand over a G90.....oops (keep this under your hat)..;)

MP, we'll definitely be talking about this at the meet, looking forward to it. :)

I guess it helps when my mates are the local pros, but a lot of the fun of CRT is the little community you end up with, due to the size and complexity of the things.You're lucky, Mark. I live in a fairly populated area, but I only know of one G70 owner (LaserMark4) about 30 mins away, a few Marquee owners (draganm, GEBrown, a few others I don't know) 1-2 hrs away, and a PG owner (PAW) about 1.5 hrs away. All too far away to get together very often. I'd love to have enough CRT owners around me to have them over regularly.

Dear Gino;

The first Marquee Extreme was originally a 9000, and I have owned it for 10 years. Over the years most all of it has been upgraded to a 9500. It is getting new tubes, and the latest MP VIM and neckboard mods, plus some selected other "upgrades". Then it will be installed and setup by Mike, and color calibrated by Ken while Cliffy is frying your brain.

The second Marquee was Mike's "reference 9500" projector, which I purchased from him. It is also getting Mike's latest VIM and neckboard mods, plus some selected other "upgrades" this weekend. Then it will be installed and setup by Mike, and color calibrated by Ken while Cliffy is frying your brain.

Oh, and both Extremes will have HFQ900 lenses, and red C element color correction.

The BlendZilla is a loaner for the Meet. If it works as well as I hope with Mike's 1080P+ video chain, I will be purchasing one, probably next year.

I have also contacted Pixel Magic, requesting the loan of a Crystalio II for the Meet. Am awaiting results.

William

I wish the poll was "Who messed up your CRT"?

Then I could truely say, ME.

Still working on it when I get time.

Hopefully, I can pick up some tips at the blendzilla.

wallace

Jim Doolittle setup mine. He did a great job.

top!

I notice that most of the people who paid for a calibration had a Sony G70 or G90. Which is odd, since Marquee outnumber Sony by quite a bit as far how many are out there. At least in the USA.


John Gannon tried to get Ken Whitcomb but just could not hook up John's work is flawless though and I am loving it. Last calibrated Dec. 06.

Why would Gannon try to get Ken to do it instead of doing it himself? I thought Gannon is a highly regarded calibrator?

I notice that most of the people who paid for a calibration had a Sony G70 or G90. Which is odd, since Marquee outnumber Sony by quite a bit as far how many are out there. At least in the USA.


Maybe because Marquee's are very easy to learn on ;) Or perhaps we're cheap bastards... :o

CZ Eddie,

KJohn mis-spoke, I didn't try to get Ken for him...he jumped on one of Ken's schedules because I was unavailable.

I suffer from cyclical clinical depression, usually containable with rest, diet, and exercise...but when triggered by traumatic events can cause some severe agoraphobic episodes. Sometimes so bad I simply cannot get out of bed.

Just like when you lost contact with me recently, Keith got frustrated and almost had Ken over for his work.


This condition seems directly related to my perceptual and analytical gifts, every time I've tried to medicate it the side effects were way too severe to suffer. I've had two deaths in a few years...my mother (back when Keith was looking for me) and a very close friend this year (when you were checking on a tour from me) that I'm only NOW recovering from...and for only the first time in ten years I am considering trying another more modern medication, but ONLY to weather this deep bout that I cannot seem to shake.


Amazing how I only see the damage in retrospect...part of the effects of my depression are a distinct lack of being able to plan ahead, even a day. I know if I simply had someone to answer my telephone, and run my schedule, life would be much different for me.

I'm working on that!

Cheers.

Graham Johnson set up my 1292 and the outcome was nothing short of amazing. If you want that last 10% out of your set-up - a pro is the way to go.

Thanks Graham for the great job! Please come back to California. AVS party at my house (after the touch-up of course :) ).

Ed

Sorry to hear that John. My wife suffered from severe depression for years, though maybe not as bad as yours. It's a horrible condition. Good luck digging out of your hole.

CZ Eddie,

KJohn mis-spoke, I didn't try to get Ken for him...he jumped on one of Ken's schedules because I was unavailable.

I suffer from cyclical clinical depression, usually containable with rest, diet, and exercise...but when triggered by traumatic events can cause some severe agoraphobic episodes. Sometimes so bad I simply cannot get out of bed.

Just like when you lost contact with me recently, Keith got frustrated and almost had Ken over for his work.


This condition seems directly related to my perceptual and analytical gifts, every time I've tried to medicate it the side effects were way too severe to suffer. I've had two deaths in a few years...my mother (back when Keith was looking for me) and a very close friend this year (when you were checking on a tour from me) that I'm only NOW recovering from...and for only the first time in ten years I am considering trying another more modern medication, but ONLY to weather this deep bout that I cannot seem to shake.


Amazing how I only see the damage in retrospect...part of the effects of my depression are a distinct lack of being able to plan ahead, even a day. I know if I simply had someone to answer my telephone, and run my schedule, life would be much different for me.

I'm working on that!

Cheers.

John,

Hang in there dog!!!! I've been wondering when you were going to come down for a night? It's been a while. Your welcome anytime.

Cliff

Thanks!

Garyfritz, this isn't new to me, but has been exacerbated a few times by life events. I fully don't believe I suffer from this, everybody around me who expects anything out of me on time suffers.

Cliffy,
Guilty as charged...I've thought about you and the family more than a few times, but have only been near you once since, and that was an overnight drive from Chicago during that last big rainstorm we had a few weeks back.

Thanks for the open invite...you have NO idea what that does for my weakling little inner-man! heh (I've got to start teasing myself to get past this weird psychological trap door!) I'm back in your neighborhood next on the first weekend of August!


Cheers, all.

I setup all of mine myself, and LOVE doing it of course. I missed CRTs so much lately that I decided to grab a Sony D50 that was offered to me for calibrating an RS1.

I have had so much fun playing with the D50 CRT again:)!!! I forgot how much I enjoyed these things!!!

FWIW, I'll be heading to Colorado in the very near future if anyone's looking for ISF and/or installation services? Flying into Denver and can go just about anywhere in the state (Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Bolder, Aspen, Durango, etc.)

Hey John, don't know if you remember me? I hope and pray everything works out well for you. We met and knew each other back in my old TAW days. I helped with their Rock scaler series and the venerable and award winning HD800 & 900 CRTs. You did the review of the Rock Video Processor for SGHT.

We're in a picture w/ Tom Norton on the UAV website (then it was SGHT) where he's giving all of us TAW guys an award:D!!!

Here's the link: http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/11484/index.html

I'm the fat ugly guy on the left end of the top picture :p :rolleyes:

Hey Dave. Nice to hear from you. Are you going to be at Cedia Sept 6 -9? My wife and I are going to Colorado a week early for vacation. She heads back on the 5th and I get to stay and PLAY.

Probably not, unfortunately:( It looks like I'll be on the other side of earth in some "hostile" areas for a bit:eek:

Terry Ferrentinos (Chuchuf) calibrated and setup my Barco 1208 and did a great job. Money well spent.

He spent a lot of time making sure the physical alignment was perfect before doing geometry, color temperature, and gray scale tracking.

Joe L.
He was doing a calibration tour up the east coast and ended up spending the night in my guest room. Pretty sure I ended up feeding him dinner and breakfast too. Still well worth the money.

Terry Ferrentinos (Chuchuf) calibrated and setup my Barco 1208 and did a great job. Money well spent.

He spent a lot of time making sure the physical alignment was perfect before doing geometry, color temperature, and gray scale tracking.

Joe L.
He was doing a calibration tour up the east coast and ended up spending the night in my guest room. Pretty sure I ended up feeding him dinner and breakfast too. Still well worth the money.

I really want to get Terry to set up my NEC unit when I'm ready. I'm curious what state of readiness your projector was in when he arrived. You say that he spent a lot of time working on the physical alignment, does this mean your Barco was not ceiling mounted yet or did it just require some minor shifting? I'm just wondering what I need to have done myself before calling in the pro.

I really want to get Terry to set up my NEC unit when I'm ready. I'm curious what state of readiness your projector was in when he arrived. You say that he spent a lot of time working on the physical alignment, does this mean your Barco was not ceiling mounted yet or did it just require some minor shifting? I'm just wondering what I need to have done myself before calling in the pro.It was ceiling mounted and required minor shifting.

I think the first thing we did was to adjust the "front-to-back" tilt of the projector, then did a crude adjustment of the astig magnets on the necks of the tubes so that when they were rotated, the beam would not wander on the face of the CRT, then physical toe-in/shift of the CRTs so we ended up needing far less electronic correction. He was here most of the day and into the night... As I said, well worth the money.

As a result, convergence drift basically went away. I only need to touch it up every few months or so, if that. Have not done a full convergence setup in a few years.

Joe L.