Ok, tell me I've lost my last marble.... but..... I'm throwing out the questions anyway.

Is it possible to get decent results from two very different projectors.

Say a 1031q which is currently ceiling mounted and I don't intend to take it down with a Marquee 8000 on the floor?

I know I'm limited in what I can send through the 1031q, and I intend to run the Marquee at 1081i.

I'll continue to run everything to the Sony through the DVDO Iscan doubler.

Things I know I can handle.... converging the two.. I know it's a task but not beyond me. I know that it will increase light output which is a plus.

My biggest concern is whether even the very best image I can get out of the sony would be so lacking in comparison to the Marquee that the image quality of the Marquee alone would be the best option? I'd only be using them together for movies. I don't see putting hours on the Sony's tubes for TV viewing after the Marquee is setup unless it's for something pretty special.

Ok, shoot me down, call me crazy.....

Hello

Except for a tad more light output, the 1031 is not going to enhance the 8000 image by itself in any other way.

congartulations, this is absolutley the worst idea I have ever read on this forum in 5 years. :)

congartulations, this is absolutley the worst idea I have ever read on this forum in 5 years. :)

Where's my prize? :p

Where's my prize? :p oh that's easy,well if your really serious about stacking then get a second working Marquee and i'll give you a free RGB pass-through card. :)
If you don't mind sacrificing the floor-space, having one marqee on the ceiling and another on the floor is a proven method of getting a working stack. Even better, build a custom cradle for the ceiling and have them both up there over/under.
The 1031 has got to go though. i know it has served you well for a long time but it's almost 2008 and by todays standards that thing's a beater.:o

Here's the irony in that suggestion..... I HAVE another Marquee. I picked it up in Colorado. My brother's friend just switched to digital a few months before and was going to give it to me, but I'm the sort who feels guilty about taking something for nothing so I gave him $50.00 for it.......

I got it home and hauled in all sorts of favors to help get it to the basement, fire it up and find the tubes are crap. The burn in on it is horrible... If you project a white field the burned in areas project about a milk chocolate brown color surrounded by beautiful white virgin tube area.

When I started pricing tubes, I found I could just buy another pj from Curt for less than retubing this one...... so...... hmm..... got tubes for a Marquee? I'd gladly take those then stack these puppies.

sure i got lots of tubes, but I assume your looking for good ones? ;) Good used tubes are very hard to find, and when i get them I install them into a machine. If you got an M8000 with burnt tubes for $50. then it's actually worth a little more than that. you might get a couple of hundred out of the power supplies?

I'm not parting it out.. I'm keeping it for parts..... unless of course some giving caring soul takes pity on me and sends me tubes (where's the "bats eyelashes" icon?)

Not that it matters that the first Marquee is en route from me, but considering that we have no women on this forum here for one (save for Rhonda, but we won't go there will we?)

Give Lori credit for THINKING of stacking two projectors dammit! :p

For the helluvit, you SHOULD stack the two 8000s, even the one with the burnt tubes. While the color of the image won't look good, you should still be able to get an idea of the added brightness that the second set will give. (this is assuming the focus is still decent despite the burnt tubes).

It might just tempt you to get a second set. Finding good used red tubes is pretty easy, it's finding decent G and B ones that's the problem.

Actually, drop the coin on a Silverstar screen. Single 8" would do VERY nicely with it.

Cliffy

I was thinking that with the right processing, splitting off two separately adjusted images to two PJs, you could take one PJ, and either defocus it or use a PJ which is inherently low resolution, and stack it with a high resolution PJ.

You'd basically send a low-passed image to the blurry PJ and a high-passed image, plus about 50% brightness on the lower frequencies, to the non-blurry one.

Since CRT projectors make less light output when projecting big blocks of area, you could theoretically improve brightness by about the same amount as a conventional stack, while retaining detail because only one PJ is throwing the high frequency data.

I haven't thought this through in detail because I haven't got a way to implement it, but on a basic level it seems that this would work reasonably well - gain the increased punch and light output of a stack while retaining the sharpness of a single PJ. You'd still have to align carefully, though, because if you didn't you'd get weird bright/dark rings just inside the edges of bright objects. However, a one-pixel error would be barely noticable in this scheme, whereas a one-pixel error with a conventional stack halves your effective resolution.

Hey you might have somethng there..............

Maybe you could split the picture into two halves, and use each PJ for each half ???

Maybe an overlap with some sort of fade out to even the light out a bit.

Projectors side by side would save room.

A sort of sideways stacking system.

Must be a name for that kind of thing :confused:.

This discussion is definately fun to watch. I really don't think there's much left in this other Marquee to work with. It's sad..... because after playing with it the last couple of evenings (quick and dirty setup to get familiar with the controls and setup) I hooked the HD box up to it and you can tell the machine is capable of throwing an awesome picture, but gawd that big brown patch in the middle...

I'll have to grab a screen shot tonight so you see just how bad the burn in is......

You really don't want to stack Marquees. They are not designed to be stacked. You will never obtain a perfect stable overlay. Better to get a single projector right and shine it on a high gain screen if you want big or bright, or maybe depending both. I've said my piece. I know some who have purchased two Marquees with all the trimmings and are attempting a stack. Stacking Marquees is not like stacking G90s.

Hey you might have somethng there..............

Maybe you could split the picture into two halves, and use each PJ for each half ???

Maybe an overlap with some sort of fade out to even the light out a bit.

Projectors side by side would save room.

A sort of sideways stacking system.

Must be a name for that kind of thing :confused:.

Sarcasm?

You really don't want to stack Marquees. They are not designed to be stacked. You will never obtain a perfect stable overlay. Better to get a single projector right and shine it on a high gain screen if you want big or bright, or maybe depending both. I've said my piece. I know some who have purchased two Marquees with all the trimmings and are attempting a stack. Stacking Marquees is not like stacking G90s.

Ahhh if only NEC made a 9" XG. Would be perfect for stacking and blending :D. But then you would probably get beat tones since the XGs are so loud :(.

Why not a DIY Torus screen and forget stacking?

Why not a DIY Torus screen and forget stacking?

There are really no good options for high gain screens. The Vutec Pearlbrite has streaking issues, the highpower is not recommended for ceiling mounted projectors, and the Stewart Ultramatte 200 is really expensive. Then add in the fact that a DIY torus screen is more complicated to build and setup. Just to put things in perspective, I ran out of geometry adjustment on my NEC, and was unable to obtain even close to proper geometry - again, this is on a NEC, a projector with the most extensive setup options. If you want bright, just go with a smaller screen. I went from a 96x54 torus with 3.1 gain pearlbrite to a 84x47.25 Wilsonart Designer White and the wilsonart at 50 contrast is about as bright as the torus at 40 contrast (disclaimer: eye comparison only, no light meter). I have much better geometry and sharpness with the DW and setup is much easier as well. The only negatives are the decreased brightness and less color uniformity.

You really don't want to stack Marquees. They are not designed to be stacked. You will never obtain a perfect stable overlay. Better to get a single projector right and shine it on a high gain screen if you want big or bright, or maybe depending both. I've said my piece. I know some who have purchased two Marquees with all the trimmings and are attempting a stack. Stacking Marquees is not like stacking G90s.

Actually, you can get a pretty good and stable setup for stacking. but it requires work.

Myself being one not for stacking or blending, mainly because I have neither funds or space to do either. But based on the results I've seen the last time I was at Williams and saw that image on the 12' wide blended CRT system. I really wish I had the space and could afford a blend setup.

That blend setup, though it's not where I would say it should be, produces a very very special image, that I've never seen on anything else anywhere. There's really something special about being able to use the full 4:3 raster and take advantage of what the higher resolutions can hold and see how easy that system handles it.

Sharpness, many many and very vivid colors, punch, brightness. man I can go on.

A DIY Torus isn't that tough to build.

Did you kick in the bottom of the Torus slightly?

There's always going to be some trade-offs with any screen. I've heard of some issues with the Vutec Pearlescent material but the local Toruses seem to be holding up troublefree. Torus screens are not going to be sharp on a computer desktop, but I sure don't notice it while watching a movie. I've seen halo'ing on the Silverstar and prefer the Studiotek130 over it. The High Power screens have a real narrow viewing angle and the low mounting position is another tradeoff.

A smaller screen is an option, but again smaller is a compromise. Decreased brightness and less colour uniformity are also compromises.

Pick your compromises, and choose a screne that works for you.

Too bad Goo systems doesn't make their 1.5 gain screen paint anymore... :(

MP. You are talking about a blend. A blend is possible but a lot of work and one better be able to do most of it yourself. There just aren't people around with the skills and knoewledge to do it for you.

A stack is another issue. Can you obtain spot on focus for high resolutions with an overly, not a chance. What does one gain? Double the ft lamberts and double the hassels without double the fun. Unless you want to continually tweak and even then the cogniti with criticize the focus. Buy a high gain and optimzie your funds and time on the best FP CRT you can buy. Same result. Cheap and truly optimized except for the holy grail of time and money, a blend.

Sarcasm?




Just an internet version of an invitation to a snipe hunt. :D

ok, back to business here.... I started this, I suppose I should just lay it to rest.

I'm sure I will be more than pleased with the single Marquee. It's got greater light output than the Sony from the get go and we've never had issue with the brightness of the Sony. The theater room is in the basement and dedicated. It's dark down there even in broad daylight. The picture has always been bright enough and we had no problems bringing the lights up just a touch to be able to see our snacks or food if we decided on "dinner" and a movie. I never ran the brightness or contrast over 50% on the Sony in an attempt to not shorten its lifespan, not knowing when I'd be able to upgrade.

It was just an off the cuff question I thought would be fun to try since I already had one pj hanging and one that's going to have a coffee table built around it.

My new Marquee is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and getting that one perfect will keep me busy for a while.

Another thing I noticed about the other one last night was that all 3 tubes just randomly shut off. There's no rhyme or reason, no magic time frame. They just turn off. Power it down and back on and viola, everything is fine...

I do think I'm favoring 720p on the Marquee rather than 1080i.

What size screen do you have?

When I built the screen I built it with the intention of someday using a bigger screen size, so what's available to me is roughly 130" . I've been running the Sony at between 90 and 100 inch diagonal. Once I have the pj set up and the image sized, I just pull the black curtains in to the edges of the image.

I have a temporary stack right now of my M8000(ceiling) and my Reference 8/8500 Table
and i have a stable setup once i followed mikes advice on getting rid of banding on my 8000 , i still have a little on the ref 8 but not as much and the drift i was getting has gone away. I cant go back to one projector now. Cant wait till i save up for my blend unit and all the other stuff to start that project.

Hey Andy, I'll be in london next week from the 3rd til the 7th. I'd love to see how your coming along with the TV-One C2-7200 blend setup if you, and I also, can find the time.

Athansios

MP. You are talking about a blend. A blend is possible but a lot of work and one better be able to do most of it yourself. There just aren't people around with the skills and knoewledge to do it for you.


Yes, with blending the owner should be prepared to learn to maintain the system themselves, or be able to make it happen. It is not a system any the faint in heart. or someone who does not have HT in their heart also as an hobby.

I mentioned blends, because without a doubt, it's the absolute best image possible If done right.

Agreed. But what do you really think about a stack to give more brightness on a large low gain screen?

I think it depends on one's HT values. Clearly there will be a loss of focus in an overlay. Its easy to say only a gain of 1.0 screen for me. But in my high resolution values I would trade some hotspotting for not losing the great shapness possible with all the right mods, windings, lenses yada yada done to one projector. This doesn't make somebody's stack bad. hpwever, I would rather keep the projectors to one if a blend was not being done. If you sit in or near the center, hot spotting is a small cost and a much lesser one to me than loss of focus. But different strokes for different folks. I certinly respected Art's old stack and Cliffy's current stack which reportedly has ben improved since I last saw it. I did enjoy it then.

Iasafng!

Agreed. But what do you really think about a stack to give more brightness on a large low gain screen?

I think it depends on ones HT values. Clearly there will be a loss of focus in an overlay. Its easy to say only a gain of 1.0 screen for me. But in my high resolution values I would trade some hotspotting for not losing the great shapness possible with all the right mods, windings, lenses yada yada. This doesn't make somebody's stack bad. I would rather keep the projectors to one if a blend was not being done. If you sit in or near the center, hot spotting is a small cost and a much lesser one to me than loss of focus. But different strokes for different folks. I certinly respected Art's old stack and Cliffy's current stack which reportedly has ben improved since I last saw it. I did enjoy it then.

Stack are great. And Cliff's stack does something that you'll never expect from a stack. I've never seen Art's, but If the budget is limited and one would want something similar in performance without having to go the second projector, I would suggest a curved screen. One of these done right is Special. And they're BRIGHT.