Former CRT "experts" Hidden Agendas? - Page 3  

Yes, Art, we've heard this all before. And I have heard quite the opposite from many people as well. You make your choice, I will make mine, others will make theirs. I think you need to spend more time watching movies...

William

Art, CRT's aren't even there yet as you put it since you need two of them to get what you want! ;)

I really hate all these debates over picture quality as it is so subjective.

I wonder how much of it is comes from what we are used to. A CRT guy will always notice the "bright blacks" of a digital. The few CRT setups I've seen have had very noticeable (to me) brightness uniformity problems - especially the edges. Is it a big deal? No, but distracting because it wasn't what I was used to.

I do wholeheartedly agree with Art that black levels are very important, and that's the main reason I am looking for a CRT projector at least to play with. I also realize that black levels aren't a huge concern for everyone. That said I don't think either technology can be said to have to best PQ. Different strokes for different folks...

I think we all need to spend more time watching movies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even watching half of "Timeline" last night hasn't dissuaded me from the sentiment...

It was a great book - is the movie worth watching?

William

I couldn't make myself watch the whole thing. I hesitate to say it is not worth watching as my wife thought it was OK. It's amazing how I can watch a slow movie like 2001 A Space Odyssey and my mind never wants for stimulation, then I can watch a big action blockbuster like Timeline and get bored. CRT or digital, the weakest link in home theatre is the amount of content truly worth the effort we put into it.

James

At least we can agree on that !:D

Art

"Do former CRT experts have hidden agendas"

I think some people have jumped to the wrong conclusion. It should be obvious to anyone that "expert" refers to me. Not astronomers and stuff.
Do I have an agenda? Yes, of course I do. I've been trying to peddle all those government surplus AmPros I bought for two years now. And even still, I still told you I like my DLP better. Case closed.
So don't get your panties all tied in a knot here. I've been honest with you.

You're a classic Bob.

Actually, I think either CRT or digital both provide a good home theater experience now. Maybe CRT is still better if you're interested in only the absolute very best picture in all respects like Art and William and some of the rest of you. But most of us don't drive Ferraris. We drive mid priced cars. And we think they're great. We feel the same way about projectors. The HD2+ DLP has all of a sudden become very affordable. And the better 8" CRT projectors are within reach of most all of us. It's a win win. We should be looking at the bright side (no pun intended).
I'm more interested in the really important stuff. Which is whether William thinks they'll receive an extraterrestrial signal at Arecibo within my lifetime (probably about 5 more years if I don't quit smoking). But I guess that's for a different message board.

No more Arecibo! It's all moved to Hat Creek now, and it's 24/7 instead of just a few days twice a year. Still, not quite the experience of a trip to that big dish...

William

That would be me... I have been to far too few eclipses - now THAT is a life changing experience! (and way off topic)

1999 Eclipse images

Personally I'm comfortable with digital PQ eclipsing CRT, or even claiming that it has when it may not be true. I just don't see this as an important issue.

William,
Those are really amazing photographs, you can actually see flares coming from the surface of the sun! Thanks for sharing, that is excellent photography. When you are personally in a total eclipse does it actually get as dark as night time during the day? Is it true that you can damage your retina if you look at a total eclipse?

I am also wondering what digital projector are you replacing the G90 you sold? What do you feel it does better for you and what was the difference in cost? What size screen do you have and how far do you usually sit from it?

RVonse,

You may want to read through this thread for wm's answers to the latter part of your post.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&highlight=crt

Bob,

Those are prominences, not flares. I know, PBS shows time lapse of prominences and calls them flares, sorry about that. It gets dark, you can see stars and planets, but not as dark as night with no moon. It is NOT dangerous to look at a TOTAL eclipse. It's the partial eclipse that will get you. The trick is to stop looking when totality ends, and it's very hard to do that because it is SO amazingly gorgeous. Chromosphere, prominences, ripples and field lines in the corona... It's really something you have to see with your own eyes to appreciate... Although Wendy Carlos has done an amazing job of capturing images FAR better than mine...

The replacement is a JVC HD2K, and it's been discussed lots already so I am loath to go back into it again. Screen is 80x45 Stewart 130 (all I have room for here), I view from 100 inches away.

William

Since we're already way off topic, I just think it's really funny that I've always had a difficult time connecting the AVS user "wm" to William Phelps, and all because of the yellow hardhat.

Does anyone else have trouble imagining a CRT calibrator (cough cough, probably a nerd) running around with a hard hat on while converging?

I love these threads. CRT is not for everybody as is digital. Every time someone throws a digital fart into the wind, the stuff I like becomes cheaper. The threads of the last three or so weeks turned someone against his 2200 hour Ampro 4600HD and put it nicely into my theater for wicked short money (a couple of bulbs worth). Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking digital. I just happen to like big, bulkie, over weight, finicky, old fashioned clunkers that do the job just fine and will never leave the house under the arm of a lone thief, or two.

Chip

The difference is that when a digital farts, you can actually smell it. You have to stack two 9" CRT's just to be able to smell the fart. But as if that isn't bad enough, both CRT's have to have the same amount of wear on them if you want a really good smelly fart.

9" CRTs are crap.
They're heavy.
Friends, relatives, co-workers, and neighbors will be much more impressed by a 3 pound DLP.
You can install it and set it up in minutes.
You can buy a replacement bulb, if ever needed (they last for up to 2000-4000 hours and very few people watch more than 100 movies per year... ~200 hours), for less than the cost of just a CRT installation.
9" CRTs are crap.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Digital projectors can handle HD and DVI and all the new digital formats without complicated transcoders and scalers.
CRT prices have depreciated 50% in the last 6 months.
Sell them now.
9" CRTs are crap.
They're worth maybe $500. $1000 if no wear is visible on the tubes.
9" CRTs are crap.
Sell yours now and cash in before it's completely worthless.

That picture was taken while I was standing on the top of the Arecibo antenna feed, about 500' off the ground. The hard hat was a requirement - not that it would have helped much, but it made us more visible. You wouldn't want them turning on the radar transmitter while you were up there, it has a tad more power than Art's G90's...

These days I probably need to wear it when I post in this section... :-)

William

Yeah, but the digital farts have pixels in them - watch out!

All true. But you left out one thing. If you wanna sell em you gotta crate em unless you can find a buyer who doesn't mind receiving rubble. And crating em is a pain (can't imagine how Curt copes with it). That's why mine are still sitting here. So with that in mind take em down to about $250.

Do you have 9" ampro's in your big pile of surplus, or is it all ECP 2000's and Ampro 2000's? If they light up, list 'em as local pick-up only and let 'em find good dark homes for $250 each.

I have several 4300's. One of these days I'm gonna pull the tubes and sell em. But after I fell off the roof following the hurricane I'm not in any shape now to even be able to open the covers.
The ECP2000's were stored under a tarp carport with another tarp thrown over em. I pulled the carport tarp off before the hurricane so the whole contraption wouldn't take flight (which did happen in the 95 hurricane). They got wet the night of the hurricane but it hasn't rained since and they've dried out.
They're now all free for the taking. Would save me a trip to the landfill.
But I can't imagine what anyone would do with em. They have those funky
short neck tubes which don't work in anything worth using.

p.s. not even 120 mph sustained winds could budge em. They're still stacked like they were. So I guess that's one thing you can say about CRT projectors. They're rugged.

If I were closer, I'd take a couple of ECP2000's just to see the single lens design. If you ever do a forwardair drop-off, I'd pay freight.

Ouch... I didn't hear about your fall. Good luck with the clean up. I took the last evacuation flight out of Gulfport.

Geeze, if I wait a couple of more posts here, someone will pay me to come and remove their useless G-90's and do what ever I want with them. Take em to the dump. Wrap a chain around them and use them for a boat anchor. Hold them hostage for a Big Mac. Strip them down and recycle the plastic. Put them in a museum next to the dinosaurs. Strip them out, flip them over, put an outboard motor and turn them into a speed boat. Hey, here's a great idea, just take one home, hook it up and have someone with an "affordable" digital come over for a side by side comparison.

Chip

shhh... 9" CRTs are crap... no need for a side-by-side comparison

9" CRTs are crap.

PM me for free disposal

Bob,
Sorry to here about the fall. Been there done that. If your going to yank the tubes, Im looking for a decent green (P19LC) and I'm also looking for a set of HD-10L's if you got them for my 4600HD. Thanks,

Chip