Dwin TV3 Owners Thread

Since most of the other threads with Dwin TV3 info are mostly about shootouts with other projectors, I thought I would start a special thread for owners of the TV3 where the subject matter could be dedicated to how the owners and dealers of the TV3 are installing it, doing various tweaks, and adjustments, etc. In this way, I would hope we can collect positive, beneficial and constructive information to assist new owners of the TV3 in achieving the best performance from this projector. I would like to request that those who feel they have a duty to post derogatory, defamatory, and "my projector is better than your projector" posts that you would have the courtesy and integrity to start your own thread.

With TV-3 installed and cables run.

Took some digital pictures tonight of some key scenes. The detail in the entire movie was about the best I have seen on any DVD. This is one that rivals HDTV in 720P.

Thanks, Alan.

I found some wire molding that just slips over the DVI cable at Home Depot. Right angle bends are a problem as I don't want to risk the sharp bending that this molding requires so I left it exposed. I would hate to see the size of the conduit required for the CRT with 4- 1" dia RGBHV cables!

I need to finish the putty and paint yet so please excuse the mess in the PIC!

Panasonic RP56 connected with component cables. And, Yes, I may be interested in getting a DVI DVD player but wanted to wait a bit for more reports to come back on the few that are out now. I really want to see DVI in action on DVD's.

Xcode-
I reprogrammed my Home Theater SL9000 from the SL8000 that came with the TV3. I haven't had any problems with either. If I recall, your room is white, like mine. Usually white ceilings will do much better with IR controls than rooms with black everywhere. I have often heard complaints about this in the past and black room HT's will get equipped with IR repeaters. I just point my SL9000 up at the ceiling and even the equipment in the glass door case works. The one problem I had was that the HTR SL9000 would not take the TV3 code of 177 for the AUX button so I had to program each like button. I changed the AUX button to read TV2 (There is no TV3 in the list of LCD labels).

My intended 2 - DVI use will be a DVI DVD player and the E* PVR-931 receiver. RGB1 will be the DTC-100, RGB2 will be my E*6000 if I keep it.
Component 1 connects to my Panny DST50 Tuner. Currently, I have my DVD player connected to Component 2.

Someone posted in another thread a great use of the composite video connections. -- To monitor the AV receiver and other on screen displays. What a great idea! I plan to do that this weekend. I now have a small 5" color TV in the rack for this purpose but that idea will allow me to retire it.
I still have an SVHS VCR for a cable analog tuner and VHS player. That will get the SVHS connections. I don't have any plans to add an HT computer but I may add one for internet use, a low tech game or two(not into games)but that has very low priority for me now.
As you can see, the Dwin 2x5 TV3 switch input compliment was a huge weighted selling factor for my needs. One that no other projector could handle except my ECP-4000 with the switch box accessory.

Currently, behind every source device I now have two cables, one that goes to the CRT and the other, to the Dwin. My cabinet is positioned that I can easily swap the connections in a few seconds. Reason? I am leery of the bulb life/cost so I am continuing to use the CRT for non- quality TV stuff, like when my daughter want to watch MTV or I watch the news.

OTA here is very solid! When I lived upstate NY, I had to have a 120 ft. tower to get a variety of stations. Here, I live 4 miles from the city's tower farm for all the stations. I can see the towers from my roof so I am lucky. We also have every major station doing 1080i except for local PBS who is in bed with the city government for multicasting goals. The only thing I can say is that during these startup years many stations are running low power. Some day your situation may improve. Also, in the attic antennas is good for stealth but very bad for reception/ and usually loaded with multipath. I have my antenna mounted outside the house about 10' above roofline. At 5 ft above roof line the signal was about 30% of what I have now.

Daniel-

I am using a Da-Lite Matte white 1.0 gain screen which is custom designed for variable aspect ratio using flat black non-reflective variable size masks.

I decided against screens with gain long ago because all screens with gain will have artifacts depending on viewing location. There are disadvantages, of course, but I overcame most of these by making my room light controlled. I have two choices of seating (which may change if I ever get rid of the CRT. Prime seating is about 1.7-1.8 screen width (92") Room for 3 people. Secondary seating is on the side at about 1.0X screen widths. Room for 2 people.

The on-off is the power button on the remote. Not sure if that answers your question. It toggles. There is also a power button on the transcanner box. LED is flashing when plugged in and on when turned on.
The remote is actually a universal Home Theater Master Remote with custom silk screened labels. It is the model SL8000. I presume any remote will work with remote IR code 177 entered for all commands. The number keypad will direct access each of the inputs switch. Like 1 selects Composite 1 and 2 Composite 2, 3 SVHS 1 and 4 SVHS2. etc. 1-0 for all 10 inputs. Each input remembers it's last setup.

rba51- I recall that is in the manual, which I read rather quickly late one night during a commercial break on JAG.

Twelly-

It depends on whether you want to please your local ISF guy or whether you just want to enjoy your TV3. It depends on whether you want to have what others, like Cary said, a very good picture, or whether you feel uncomfortable knowing that you haven't had your TV3 calibrated to D6500. Then, having spent a good sum of money to go through the calibration to 6500, will you feel better knowing that is what it is or would you feel better buying a new DVHS VCR or new DVI DVD player with that money plus some chump change left over?

I have the codes in case I want to spend some money to make my local ISF expert happy, but I know that I would not be happy in the end as I don't need to satisfy a color temperature spec to be happy with MY Dwin and I don't care what others think as they won't be out the money nor will they be watching my TV3. I don't have the specialized test equipment nor the specific experience to perform the calibration so I stay out of the menus.

But, let's consider the real world environment here. I use a screen that is a 1.0 gain white. Dwin recommended a 1.3 gain white. Most likely if you use their spec screen out of the box would be perfect according to what Dwin wants. If you deviate from the spec screen by using a Firehawk or other negative gain screen, you may find calibration is definitely in order. There are mixed opinions on this but many claim that non-1.0 gain white screens will add shifts to the image and require a tweak of calibration to maintain spec. I've heard arguments both ways on this. In my opinion, when I set up the dwin, out of the box, I found the picture lacked a bit of "pop" that I had anticipated and saw at CES with the Dwin demo. Considering that I was using a screen with less gain than what Dwin had recommended, I decided to enter an increased Contrast that brought the picture quality to where I felt it pleasing to my eyes and it suited a SMPTE color bar pattern better under blue glass when I did a check. The contrast out of the box was factory at 60 and I increased it to 78. That was the only tweak I did and I am very pleased with the picture. Yes, the whites on the Dwin do appear more like the Sony Trinitron look and I'm sure that it is preferred that they be more like the color temperature of a broadcast SMPTE white I use in my edit suite. That white has a softer look and is a bit less blue. What Cary did was achieve that look of the broadcast standard and he can be happy that he has a calibrated Dwin. I know that the higher color temperature will have more punch to it but I don't feel the need to spend the ISF money to achieve the softer look that D6500 will achieve. You have to decide what you will need and whether the money spent is worth that look.

Here's another issue about MY home theater that I know affects the picture but as I have stated before, I have a total multimedia experience I try to create, not a perfect specification picture on the screen. I have various mood lights I turn on that sometimes spill ambient color light and, well heck, why go to all the trouble to achieve a perfect color temperature when that would be lost in a room that most of the time is filled with soft moods of reds or blues? Some of us just have different goals with our home theater experience.