building a projector from a crt tv - Page 2

Get a Barco. Everybody likes Marquees, but Barcos are just as good or better, and Marquees are just too damn ugly to have visible in your house. If you're planning on building a hushbox to go around it, you could probably get away with a Marquee, though.

I think Barco setup is somewhat easier - apparently with Marquees you have to worry a lot about not using too much point convergence, or you end up with these wacky lines across the screen, geometry has to be perfect... My Barco 808 seems to handle pretty much anything.

Whatever you get, find a way to have color filtered (not corrected - FILTERED) lenses, c-elements, or glycol. It is *ESSENTIAL* to having a good picture. Absolutely essential. If I had to make some kind of agreement with God to not have color filtering on my Barco 808s, I'd strongly consider swapping back to a 1271, which is an order of magnitude lower on the performance spectrum otherwise; that's how important it is.

For that budget, I'd really try to find something liquid coupled, though I don't know if you could get a 9" LC for that unless you were pretty lucky. A Sony G70 would probably be good, though people are saying they're getting hard to find parts for. But a G70 is probably the max performance you could find in that price range. Another option in the same performance range would be a Zenith Pro 1200x/Barco Cine8 Onyx - but I think those are fairly hard to find?

nice little place, but...... 15 feet is too far back for that room you'd have a 16 foot wide screen for most CRT's.

First ho high are those ceilings? you have to consider where the PJ will come down into the room, a Marquee 8500/9500 are 16 inches tall so add another 3-5 inches for the mount or superstutt and your at the 20 inch range down from the ceiling.

Second the throw distance is about 1.2 x screen width approximately, but the best way to place it is to get the screen size you want and set the PJ on the floor first on a cart and max out the size on the tube face then move the PJ till it fills the screen, this is your mounting position on the ceiling. So you have to make sure it wont bump your head. Barco Pj's are not as tall


and Ampros shortest hight wise for an 8 inch and larger tube size is what i would get(tube size not the ampro but they are nice but hard to find).


Dwin's are the smallest but are only 7 inch tubes and I would not go larger than 80 inch wide for a screen.


You also need to consider parts replacement, Barco and Marquees have tons of parts available so its not an issue, sony Pj's have some parts issues with the Big 9 inch set(G90) but the G70 is a better option for Sony.

And you have to read and learn about set up, its not an easy thing for those who are not technical, I assume you are. but another warning once you get into CRT you'll get an obsession you cant control!! be Carefull what started out as one marquee 8000 turned into 6 marquee's. And i still find myself looking for more!!!!

this is what you need to read

http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTPrimer_1.shtm

http://www.curtpalme.com/ElectrohomeMarquee.shtm from here you can look at the other PJ's on the side bar list.

Color calibration tips and guide

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457

And browse Curt Palmes forum and Join it as there is more activity there, ask lots of Questions, were a fun bunch there and will always help to get someone to join the darkside.

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewf...4fe02d66c98a47

Athanasios

Oh And getting the pic to the PJ, in your set up its going to be hard unless you have an attic to get he cables to the PJ and a power source. with the Marquee you can buy an HDMI input card that plugs right into the PJ so you'll have one cable going to it.

Athanasios

Forget about blends/stacks for a grand and the time being!

I would start with a Marquee 8500 with a dvi/component card for that price and then work up from there!

You can always use a painted wall for the time being until you get a screen.

As fas a player is concerned you can use a PC.

Just the way I started!

Martin

Nice little setup Mike! (I like that renegade...looks like a 77/85!)

...too bad you are in VA...

There is a local marquee 8500 that is in decent shape for 770 bucks here in LA! (moome card included )

A grand will get you started on the CRT and the card! (...you might wanna setup a "fund" for the VP and Players at some point down the line! assuming you wanna go all out! if not a HTPC will do for the time being!)

There are a couple of 8111 on ebay...not sure where they are though or condition.

As far as connecting the gear you will need the above mentioned moome card and then a hub for hdmi...everything connected to the hub and then "piped" into the moome from there on!

For which model/manufacturer to get that is a personal choice...I have had almost all the models mentioned above with the exception of the am pro and the 7 incher...(...My preference is the Marquees, I have also had (2) two G90s but still prefer the M9500Ultra!)

Liquid ones are "better" as far as haloing is concerned. (...but not absolutely necessary at this stage of your "addiction"! HEHE)

There is also videogon...There is a nice barco 808 with brand new panny tubes for 2400 bucks but that is out of your budget! (Not to mention the vison one will all the bells and whistles!...but that one is whay out of your budget...but nice non the less!!!)

Shoot for a 8 incher and above...at this time 7 inchers are almost at the same price bracket as the 8 inch models so not a choice there! (...unless you get a Dwin for dirt cheap!)


I would also forgo the motorized screen and get a permanent one! (I know it is nice to have stuff move by themselves but why bother! ..but with a CRT you want something anchored and non moving! it is something else if you wanna give a presentationa with a digital and you don't always use the screen...in that case a motorized is the way to go...but with a CRT!?!?!)

But I guess you have that plasma to worry about in the way and that is why you are considering a motorized screen! (simple move it out of the way or just sell it and get a better/more expensive CRT!)

...trust us when we say that once you get "used" to a watching a proper "CRT" picture you will not wanna watch it ever again on anything else! (Well maybe for game paying!)

Next on your list should be a video processor after getting the CRT!

Good luck on your hunt.

Martin

Thanks mike

My first "addiction" was cars!!!

--(5) 67/69 camaros
--(3) 70 camaros
--64 Pontiac tempest convertible looking like a GTO
--GMC Typhoon
--A couple of 72 Blazer K5s

...and a few jeeps here and there!

..to name a few

Now it is all CRTs and computers!!!

Martin

If it's in flawless shape it might be worth a couple of hundred bucks.


Maybe.

Bigger brother to that NEC 6 based Runco, higher bandwidth is main benefit.

It's not so much lenses as tubes you need to worry about. Go to curtpalme.com and check out his CRT primer if you haven't already - it'll tell you what you need to know.

If the tubes are good I'd say it's probably worth somewhere in the low 2s - of course, it all depends on what you're after and what the rest of your budget is. If you have some specific requirements - say, run a screen N size, or you want to run 1440x960p for DVD upscaling, or something - then you probably want to find out which PJs match before jumping on something.

On the other hand, if you just want to get your feet wet and need something that will throw a non-crappy image, a clean ~$200 9PG will probably do just fine.

Keep an eye on CraigsList in the Free section for deals. Maybe I'm just one lucky CRT soul, but I was surfing CL just after Christmas & found a posting for an NEC 9pg that reportedly didn't power up & the guy was offering it for free for parts. I initially believed that it could be a simple fuse or some issue in the power supply that I could repair. When I got there, he says "I got it powered up". I then figured he'd want to keep it, but nope, he said "Take it, still free!"

He helped me load it, along with the setup remote & 2 operation remotes, into the vehicle & I hightailed it before he could change his mind.

In course of conversation, he had it in his garage for a few years & wife was getting sick of bumping into it.

His wife was quite happy to see it go, my wife was dismayed, especially when I got it home & proceeded to spend hours to tweak it for the 76" pulldown screen (previously used for a digital ).

I hauled it back to my AZ location, on a cart in a spare bedroom now, but when we get back to my house I plan to use it as a basis of a great theater.

The kicker was, this 9pg has under 800 hours on the meter, and I pulled the lenses to look at tube faces and they are barely worn in. I'd rate them at 8 or 9 on Curt's scale for tube wear. The pic it throws is just stunning as well.

This is my second CRT, had a Sony 1042 before that had a wire disconnected from the power socket (about 30 sec. fix with a soldering iron). Bought it from an electronics surplus shop for $50 as-is, and ran that for a year or two. Was responsible for getting wife hooked on 'big screens'.

Seems I managed to get a deal (steal?), now to wait for the new HDFury to go public!