[JohnMP]

Hi all


I have a chance to buy a 1208 Barco for reasonable dollars but before I make the trek to see it one question I've asked the owner is what are the tubes (Sony or Panasonic) as she states the green has slight ware with an all over even light hue (the other's have no signs and I assumed replaced as the unit has 12K hours on it) Of course it's from a government installation and quite possibly only chassis hours and not tube. Point being a rebuild-able tube would be preferable but when I asked her to pop the lid she says she cannot see the tubes to identify. I can on my BD800 so I assumed it would be the same. Is there an easy way to see the tube make?

 

[secstate]

John,


She obviously isn't opening the CRT cage as the CRTs are as plain as day ;-). The labels might be a little harder to see. One can tell pretty easily from just the look of the CRTs whether they are Sony or MEC but she doesn't sound like an expert. What specific model of 1208 are you specifically looking at? The 1208 and 1208/2 always use MEC 180DVBs. The 1208s nearly always or always use Sony tubes. The 1208s/2 uses or nearly always uses MEC PT-18s or P16s (which are essentially updated 180DVBs and are rebuildable). The order I listed them in is chronological so the 1208s/2 is the newest and rarest of the bunch.


So what I would do is ask the seller to give you the data off the silver sticker on the back which should give you the real model number and the article number which is usually some thing like R9000907 (BG 808s in this example). Once you have these head over to Barco to their CRT history spreadsheets ( http://www.barco.com/HomeCinema/en/d...CRTHistory.asp ). With the model and article number you will be able to look up the CRTs used in that particular model. Go to the CRT DESCR. row and look at the number under column for your projector, 07MFP2 = Sony. Anything else 180DVB PTxxxx, P16xxxx, is MEC and rebuildable.


Also if she is looking for wear through the lenses rather than them being off, assume twice the wear with them off. That has been my experience anyway. In fact really light wear can be hard to see with the lenses on.

 

[Z-Photo]

S-


Is there an issue between swapping just one (the green of course)180DVB22 into a projector that has PT-18? or should you swap the entire set?


Pete

 

[JohnMP]

Thanks Secstate I have e-mailed her for the info.

 

[secstate]

Quote:

Originally posted by Z-Photo S- Is there an issue between swapping just one (the green of course)180DVB22 into a projector that has PT-18? or should you swap the entire set? Pete

Good question. the PT-18 and P16s are interchangable with each other. In fact I have seen Barco 1208s/2 models with factory CRTs where they used them together. The 180DVB to PT-18/P16 is a more of a challenge. Charlie at VDC says they will work no problem (I have asked him twice). I called Barco Reality (the folks that now support Barco CRT projectors) and they said they "should" be interchangable but said they would get back to me. They haven't and I haven't had the time to follow up with them yet. On the other side are folks like Curt who have no less experience who say they don't appear to be interchangable. I haven't had the time to swap in the Ampro P16s yet in my Barco Data 808s. Until somebody does that we will not have the difinative answer. I will am happy to do it, but with the hardware swaping, et al. It will probably be a while. People have successfuly reported subbing 180DVBs for Sony tubes with just a neckboard change so it is hard for me to imagine that the newer MEC tubes are much different.

 

[secstate]

Oh and one other thing. If you go inspect the projector, you can tell if the tubes have been replaced by the fact that there will be sticker on the original tubes that matches the serial number of the projector. If they are the same, then orginal tubes, if different most likely new. Barco put the serial number on everything. Handy to figure out was original and what is new.

 

[JohnMP]

Well I'm pretty happy, it turns out its a 1208s/2 built Mar97 with iris 3 and internal scaler and I got it for a pretty good Aussie price (probably not that good a price for you guys in the USofA) but hey we don't have as many government installations to pull em from.

I factored in the cost for a replacement Green tube and after that it's just great to have a decent high end machine over the old BD800. Of course the next question is who is the best people/person to get to rebuild/exchange the tube (if it needs it, I have yet to pick it up and set it up to see to what extent the ware really is). I will have a go here is AUst but I wont hold my breath for a new one let alone a rebuilt exchange unit.


I assume from the information secstate pointed me towards the tubes are PT18-205. Are these identical to the 808s? And Secstate you mentioned a PT16 is this compatible with the PT18 and the 1208s/2?

 

[secstate]

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnMP Well I'm pretty happy, it turns out its a 1208s/2 built Mar97 with iris 3 and internal scaler and I got it for a pretty good Aussie price (probably not that good a price for you guys in the USofA) but hey we don't have as many government installations to pull em from. I factored in the cost for a replacement Green tube and after that it's just great to have a decent high end machine over the old BD800. Of course the next question is who is the best people/person to get to rebuild/exchange the tube (if it needs it, I have yet to pick it up and set it up to see to what extent the ware really is). I will have a go here is AUst but I wont hold my breath for a new one let alone a rebuilt exchange unit. I assume from the information secstate pointed me towards the tubes are PT18-205. Are these identical to the 808s? And Secstate you mentioned a PT16 is this compatible with the PT18 and the 1208s/2?

John,


The P16s and PT-18s are interchangable for sure. They MAY also be interchangeable with the older and far more common 180DVBs used in non-S Barco 808 Data and Graphics models as well as the Data Barco 808s. However this has not been truly confirmed here yet. The Barco 808s Graphics uses Sony tubes for 99.99% (the exceptions are some highly modified simulator models) NOT MECs so they are not a source for you. The Barco Retrographics 808s in some all interations uses P16s. Other than that and the much later Cine8 models, I don't know of any other Barco projector that uses P16s. However, Ampro used them as well in their later projectors.


Your only source for reasonably priced tubes is VDC (search here for contact info). They sell rebuilt P16s and PT-18s for $495 or $595 US. International folks though report extremely high shipping costs so you will probably have to add to that. Also you need to provide your burned tube or they charge a $100 dud charge. You might just get lucky with somebody here as the U.S. Govt. recently surplussed a bunch of new in the box P16s for Ampro models that should work in your projector with the external hardware changed. However I doubt most folks are going to sell them.


Also are you sure about the Iris 3? You sure it is not Iris 2? The only reason I ask is that seems an early production date for Iris 3. It is possible it was updated as some point in its life as Iris 3 is just a software update to the Iris 2 system.


secstate

 

[JohnMP]

Secstate,

Until I get it up and running I guess it could be either. I have read the different between 2 and 3 is only the software. I am aware that it has it built in and read Iris 3 of the Barco brochure. It is interesting from my searching on AVS many people feel it's not that good and following the on screen menu calibration will produce better results I picked it up today and the thing looks immaculate it even has it's lens covers, the owner fired it up and to be honest the green has a definite shade but it is not dark and the images looked very good. Originally the unit was set up as 4:3 so for 9:16, which I will use, the image will be within the original worn area. So I might get a few hours out of it yet before the green need to be replaced. The guy who I bought it from was a really decent down to earth bloke ( originally when I e-mailed him he used his daughter's address with out signing his name, so I assumed it was a woman I was dealing with ), showed me his new home cinema (seats 15) which he is currently building and will use his G70, imagine my shock when he told me he had four G70's and two 1272's with only 350 and 50 hours use, all ex government. He cut me off with a "... and no there not for sale "before I could even ask . He didn't say how little he paid but alluded that it was not much. Talk about being in the right place right time.

 

[jsp]

Hi John, I too looked at a barco 1208/s about 2 weeks ago which was then put on ebay and needed a new green. I would be very interested to see if its the same machine. The green tube was simply brown. I would love to see what the other tubes come up like given the condition of the green, from a quick visual inspection they looked OK. I was at the auction it was sold at.

 

[JohnMP]

JSP

Where was the auction? The green has a definite raster wear shadow but not really much more , I certainly wouldn't describe it as brown. Did you get to see the unit you mentioned switched on or use a torch into the lens etc?

 

[jsp]

Hey John, how good are you with the dig cam? pull the lenses and take a pic and I can tell you right away if its the unit I looked at