Am I wasting my time for Blu Ray???

I've bought a few of these as new versions came out and always thought they were worth every penny.

http://www.curtpalme.com/NEC_XG-FULLHD.shtm

Not sure what kind of DLP/LCD you could get for $1500. but it's probably not one I would watch personally. I run BD direct to my Marquee and pic is as good as or better than a $3K LCD in many ways.
If the noise from the XG bothers you that much then you might have to just gamble on the best LCD you can afford and hope it's good enough.
Oh an BTW, after watching many, many BD's on my Marquee regular up-scaled DVD is very noticeably inferior.

Hificanuck

Foremost welcome to this portion of the forum!

Secondly...you are asking us a bunch of CRT fanatics/heads if a CRT is worth the effort, for most of us here it is! (...for the "point and shoot/plug and play" consumer types it IS NOT!!! )

So you need to figure out under which box you fit under and where your values are!

If I were in your place I would try and get an external Moome card and then a cheaper or if you wanna go all out a standalone source device! (Such as the OPPO BR player!"

OPPO just came out with one model that is a special edition that does not have the VP capabilities and is much cheaper than the full out version (Which does have a VP but also allows you to turn that capability off in case you have a standalone video processor which you will be using!)

With such a player and a Moome (...or even a Fury card!) you will be getting that much closer to that "Visual Nirvana" that so many of us are looking for only a few have found!!!

Good luck and rest assured (...and I am sure that most of the "digital" lovers/consumer types here will disagree with the above statement!) that you are not wasting your time/money and with such a CRT display device (...such as yours!) and a decent enough video chain, (...which can always be moved to a so called better digital setup at some point down the road!) in place you cannot go wrong and will have a decent enough PQ! (In some cases much better than the same amount of money can offer you with a so-called "digital" solution!)

So if your NEC is in decent enough shape and has tube life left in it then it does warrant for you to spend some more money on it and try and enjoy it to its fullest and most capable PQ!

That is all, (keep in mind that these are my thoughts and mine alone!)

Good luck on your journey that that "Visual Nirvana" that I mentioned above.

Martin

I have a NEC6PGextra myself, and for many years enjoyed DVD's upscaled to 720p. Recently I upgraded to an Oppo BDP83 modded for multiregion blu-ray playback. A HDFury (first version) is placed in the video chain to take care of HDCP.

There are many catalog titles on blu-ray nowadays, and I have most of my favorites on blu-ray. Even downscaled to 720p blu-ray looks stunning, much better than any DVD upscaled to 720p. I have many Criterion blu-rays and their releases have excellent transfers. Newer movies I rent with a service comparable to netflix in the US.

So I'd say go for blu-ray !

I have been on the Blu-ray bandwagon for a while using the moome card. The new version with HDMI is excellent. I use a vp50pro at 1400*960 at 72 to my NEC 1352 and the picture is stunning.

I had a power supply go on me so I connected my oppo 83Se direct and still got a great picture even then I had to go down to 1080i on the NEC due to the wraparound effect at 1080p. I may set up a new memory for 1920*817p@72 and try that out when I have some time.

I believe it is quite a step up to go to bluray. Having said that I have not gone back to analogue to compare in a couple of years.

So, based on my recollection blu ray has greater detail, better colours, and seems more 3d.

yes, you will groan when you have to watch a normal DVD after going full HD.
Also, if your receiver has 6 channel in and you get a player with 6 out the sound quality jump to Dolby True HD audio is quite astounding too.

Sorry to hear about your health. Keep in mind though that it's easier to touch up tweaking a CRT than it is to replace a digital every 3 years..

I'll second what Dragan said, you're doing yourself a HUGE disservice if you're not running true HD and BR at this point. DVD looks soft and fuzzy compared to BR.

While I'm actualy a sound guy before a video guy, if you need to save on spending money, upgrade to BR first before spending money on the sound. For the $200 for a Fury plus $150 for a BR player and a cheap HDMI cable, it will be the best $350 you've ever spent on your HT.

I'm using a fairly low end projector a Sony 1270Q. I tweaked and tweaked this thing till my eyes couldn't take it no more. Then I made the jump and got all the components I needed for Bluray. I tell you I couldnt be happier. In the past I had to make small convergence adjustments every time I fired her up. But now, not only is the convergence ten times easier (better signal) but I don't ever have to mess with it anymore, just fire her up and go!

I think, you should try and give some of your crt friends a call, and see if you can either check out their setup or have them come over with some of their equipment so you can see the difference in your own home. Thats what I did.......

hificanuck, I happened on this thread today, read your posts, and in particular I'm touched by your reason for wanting to improve your setup. Pm me an address and I'll send you a new BR Player and whatever length HDMI cable you require.


Jim

Alun,

Jim has shown the way. We CRT guys have to stick together. But, wow, now I know who is watching those late night infomercials. Have you guys looked at the time stamps on these emails.

Curt has great products so I don't want to usurp his biz but I have a spare HD Fury 1080P I will send. Not sure if it is a HD Fury 3--I think so--I am using a Moome now but have switched back and forth. It works fine on my hot rod Madrigal MP9 (Marquee 9500) and I'm running full 1080P at 60 Hz and 72 Hz.

The HD Fury I will send has a female DVI input (a RGBHV output, of course), so you will need an HDMI to male DVI adapter. They are inexpensive and easy to get at Best Buy or Radio Shack. If I find an adapter in my equipment room, I'll send it along.

So, PM me with your address.

Best wishes to you and your family!

Robert

my Denon 3300 is 10 years old but it has 6 channel analog input to bypass the internal audio processors. What model number is yours?

Alun, no problem. Per your request, a check has been written to the Cancer society (in the name of "Alun the hificanuck") My very best wishes you and your family.

Kindest regards,

Jim

yes but make sure the BD player you choose has analog audio out. I really like my Panasonic BD-80 for $250.

HiFI Canuck,

Let me have a look in my left over box I might have a spare Moome card ( or three) in there I can give you, I also live in Calgary. When you get an HDMI cable get one long enough to go to your projector, that way you can install the Moome box right at the projector.

Hifi -

Re the receiver I will give the contrary view that it (true-HD) really doesn't matter - stick with your current receiver and listen 5.1 via the digital out of the Blu Ray player. (set it to bitstream and ignore the warnings).

That's how I have mine set up. You can read a little bit about this in the AVR FAQ on this web site; but bottom line most "normal" people can't tell the difference between True-HD (or other lossless formats) and a high bit rate lossy DTS or DD 5.1 track provided by the Blu Ray player. Look at some of the blind testing that is referenced in that thread. If you have super sharp hearing and discrimination then pay the extra for a new receiver; but I wouldn't bother. Similar argument for not springing for analog out of the blu-ray player; but if you do have analog pre-out in to your receiver I suppose you can then can be listening to lossless via the analogs into receiver; but I'll bet if you are a "normal" listener you still won't be able to tell the difference.

THE Fury3 is over $300, but the Fury2 is $199.

I guess i'm not normal, to me there's a huge difference.
Also, one thing that comes to mind is a lot of "normal" people are running a Home theatre out of a box with plastic speakers. Under those circumstances I doubt any signal quality differences would shine through.

I certainly agree with you on the low quality speaker aspect; but what was really surprising to me (when I was analysing what to replace my receiver with) was reading the more objective analyses behind the blind testing. A whole lot of people with what they thought was "good" hearing and discriminatory tastes blew it in the blind tests. There was a positive correlation - so at least it is apparent that the lossless format wasn't detrimental to the perception of quality audio; but the correlation wasn't strong (e.g.; most can't tell the difference in blind testing).

In my case; and IMO probably many others; as you note money would be better spent on better speakers, as opposed to upgrading a capable, quality receiver.

Normally those would be analog pre-outs and you would need corresponding analog pre-outs (in) on your receiver; and use the receiver for volume control.

It's entirely possible. When I think about it, the audio from my HD-DVD player and SPDIF was being decoded by my 10 year Denon receiver. when I run 6 channel analog full Dolby HD from my BD player the player is decoding and that's a huge leap in just the quality of the processor alone, never mind whether it's 92Kb or 192Kb per second transfer rate. On my system the true HD audio is much,much cleaner. Clearer dialogue, better channel seperation, better surround sound porcessing with more information in the rears.


Mine are nothing exoitc, Quad L series front end. My 22L's were $950 a pair in Rosewood, these are even less

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....-floorstander-

Hi Hificanuck,

I don't have an XG Moome card, but I think the old ext Moome box I have still works. If you're interested let me know.

HI Hificanuck,

I'll give you a call sometime. I'm not in need of it as I have a few spares I guess you could say. I'm still running a CRT, a modded Zenith 1200pro (AKA-Barco Cine 8 Onyx).