[bambam_101]

Hi all. Im looking to purchase a Sony G70 projector thats for sale in my area and i went and checked it out and gee what an awesome picture. I compared it to a Sony1272 that the guy also had and now im a bit concerned about the G70. My problem is that when we watched the G70 on DVD through a Farouja Line Doubler, the scan lines were clearly visible. No big drama, obviously it needs tripling. But then we switched to HDTV running direct at 1080i and the scan lines were just as obvious. Isn't HDTV meant to be cleaner than DVD? Next problem, the 1272 that we then ran was as smooth as silk. no scan lines at all! Not on DVD nor HDTV. Both were running the exact same size screen too.


Is this a fault with the G70? I really really want it but also dont wanna buy a lemon. Ive seen lots of CRT's and love them but definately cant live with clearly visible scan lines. Also, I intend on using the Iscan HD+ with whatever unit i buy. Is this a good unit? Any opinions?


Thanks in advance guys.


Scott

 

[Curt Palme]

If he was running a 4:3 image with HD, then yes, the scanning lines should be clearly visible. IN 16:9 mode, I'd think that 1080i shouldn't make for visible scan lines unless you're very close to the screen.


What was the screen size?


Curt

 

[bambam_101]

Hi Curt.


The screen size was about 90" diagonal 16:9.(2 metres wide) We were standing about 4-5 metres away. (roughly twice the screen width away)


Now that you mention it, HDTV was running in a slight 4:3 mode. The geometry hadn't been adjusted properly but it wasn't that far out of whack. The thing that gets me is that the 1272 looked fine running in the exact same configuration as the G70. It too was the same size image and it also was slightly out of whack in geometry. As I said earlier, there was not one scan line visible on the 1272 at all even from 10 inches from the screen. Is there possibly a fault that you or someone might know of that could cause the scan lines to be clearly visible? And when i say visible I mean they were so bad that i had to ask him if his line doubler was actually working. To me it looked worse than a barco cine 7 with no doubling at all.


Damn it!!!! I'm starting to stress. He is about to put it on Ebay and i got a chance to pick it up now but really cant live with the scan lines the way they are! What do i do?!


Cheers mate.


Scott

 

[Sokoloff]

Seeing scan lines is a good thing, not a bad thing, generally. (When you can't see scan lines when up close, you're running too many lines for the projector to fully resolve, which softens the picture.)


Obviously, we're not looking at the same picture you're looking at, but if you can see scanlines on a 90" 1080i picture from 4 meters, that PJ is pretty well dialed-in.


For reference, on my G-70, I can *see* scan lines from about 1 meter on 1080i or 720p material, and I can *detect* scan lines on red and green from about 2 meters away. On 480i materail, I can plainly see them from 6+ meters (if I could get farther back, I could probably still see 'em).


The G-70 will blow away the 1272. If the picture looks good (is bright), the presence of scan lines is a good thing, and you can easily cause them to disappear if you end up finding them objectionable. If you don't want to see them, crank the contrast, mis-adjust the focus (EM or optical), or stand farther back. The 1272's (relative) lack of tight beam spot is what's making the scan lines disappear. You can adjust the G70 to look like (as bad as) the 1272. You can't adjust the 1272 to look as tight as the G70.


---Jim

 

[ecrabb]

The G70 and G90 are newer EM focus machines - they should be sharper than a 1272. Enough so that I'd pretty much expect to see some scanlines if it's reasonably well set up.


On the other hand, if a 1272 is set up even half-decently, you should see scanlines on the 480p material at least. You probably couldn't see any scanlines on that machine because it wasn't focused well. As ES machines rack up hours, they lose sharpness. I learned about that from some of Curt's posts, I think.


Seeing scan-lines at 1080i isn't too surprising, either. There has been plenty of discussion around here about why people don't like 1080i, and seeing obvious scanlines is one of the those reasons.


SC

 

[Curt Palme]

You can always defocus the G 70 a bit... (shudder!)


Curt

 

[bambam_101]

Just out of curiosity, how would a Barco Cine 7 compare to an older projector like a NEC 6PG XTRA or the Sony 1272QM? Only reason I ask is cause my work said they would offload their Cine 7LT to me at a dirt cheap price and it is brand new with only 150 hours on it. (I know cause i installed it myself), and there is also an NEC for sale quite cheap too. Just incase the G70 falls through. Getting it checked out in a few days.


Cheers

 

[bambam_101]

Sorry, I meant a Barco Cine 7 LT.

 

[Mark_A_W]

Cine 7 is in not as good as a Xtra, but it's new.


Order of performance


G70


Xtra




Cine 7







1272



Skip the ES focus machines (Cine7, 1272), get a EM one. Go for the G70 if the TUBES ARE OK.

 

[bambam_101]

Have a feeling the NEC might be the way to go. The guy selling the G70 was very apprehensive when i told him i was coming back to see the projector again but this time with a friend who knows CRT's inside and out. Its always good to get extra opinion. I hae a sneaking suspicion that the tubes might be burned or the hours might not be genuine.

 

[bambam_101]

Just another quick one.


You guys mention that you run various resolutions to your projectors depending on what you are viewing. DVD, HDTV, NTSC, PAL etc. Obviously this is going through a HTPC but are you guys changing the res manually or is the pc program changing it automatically when it detects the format?


Cheers

Scott

 

[Mark_A_W]

Scott, I use UltraMon and DVDautorefresh to do the res changes.