[Eklund]

As a step in my quest for an upgrade to the old 800x600 DLP, I decided to go and check some CRT's. Before I was on a Swedish shootout with several of the new DLP/LCD that is arriving now (Infocus SP7200, Marantz VP-12S2, Nec HT1000 and Sony HS10). So with these in recent memory I want to see what CRT can bring. As I understand second hand CRT is great value for the money. I'm going to check a few second hand CRT and I think they were Barco (1209) and Sony (don't know model).


I'm not sure at all that I'm going for CRT, but if I do, what should I look for when checking second hand CRT? I mean potential problem areas etc. Is there a good guide for this on the net?


(I don't know much at all about CRT, and in fact I have only seen one before. And that one was not correctly adjusted)


I'll report here later with my impressions.

 

[KennyG]

The main thing will be tube condition, you can do it one of two ways.

Either shine a flashlight into the lenses and look for wear (it'll be a brownish hue) However, some that are new to CRT may miss minor wear...the best way to check is to remove the lense from the tube and look at the bare tube face.

I'd think the second thing to do is throw up a crosshatch test pattern and make sure all areas of the screen are converged.

Another thing might be to make sure the rasters are within the tube edges. You do this by decreasing Contrast to almost nothing, increasing Brightness to almost max, the raster will light up, the object is to make sure all areas of the raster are within the tube face, and not hanging off an edge. This is just proper maintenance.

 

[Fredrik]

I was at the shoot out as well.

Nice to see so many PJ's at the same place so that you could compare them. Though I think the only PJ that came close to the CRT's I've seen is the Marantz VP12S2. (the crt's had only minimum of calibration)Unfortunatly the price tag is $13K on the Marantz. I'll go CRT when I've decided on which one and if customs could pull their thumb....

I'll probably import one from Curt Palme, since the second hand market is

a lot bigger on the other side of the pond.


Other then that you have www.filmhemma.com or www.biorummet.nu as sources for used crt PJ's.

Haven't found anyone else in Sweden.

Then you have crtprojetors.co.uk, a bit pricy but often low hour count PJ's.


There is also a link floating around were you could see what tube wear looks like, anyone with the link ?

 

[miscrms]

I think this is the link you are looking for:
http://home.centurytel.net/rshannon/crtburn.htm


Rob

 

[Fredrik]

Yep, that is the link.

Thanks.

 

[Eklund]

Thanks for the tips KennyG!


Hello Fredrik. I am also thinking in the direction of second hand CRT. As you said the Marantz was the best projektor on the shootout. But it is so expensive.


Anyway, I was at Biorummet yesterday and checked two used CRT's. One was a gigantic Barco 1209 with 9" tubes. It had newly renovated tubes. From what I understand there is some discussion on how renovated tubes isn't as good as tubes that are new but have have shorter useage. Disregarding that the picture was great, very movielike. It was bright, but not as strong as the newer DLP/LCD's. He said that with a HTPC the picture was even better, he used a processor with linedoubling for the demo. Colors where very good. The picture wasn't as sharp as latest DLP though.


He showed a short sequence from D-VHS to with 1080i and the resoltion on HD material rocks. But I wasn't blown away, I thought the DVD material looked very good (better than I had thought in comparison).


No grey blacks, pixelation, scaling artifacts or rainbows.

 

[Fredrik]

Eklund,


Yep, the Barco 1209 is too big for my room.

Will almost take half the ceiling space


I think they use an Iscan linedoubler and with a 1209 that may be a bit too little but I'll let anyone more experienced on 1209 to comment that.

I don't think you'll see a CRT that will be brighter then a LCD/DLP which makes it necessary for lightcontrol.

On the other hand the contrast is very high and black is black.

As you noticed the Marantz had the best PQ, the PJ is 700 lumen but with a (from the specification) contrast ratio of 2600:1

When they demoed the Marantz they ran it at 1280x720.

So you would need to test a CRT at 720p to compare them, I think the Iscan only does 480p or 576p (depending on if you use NTSC or PAL).


Fredrik

 

[basdeng]

Eklund,


As well as CRTProjection you could also speak to Roland at b4projection ( www.b4projection.co.uk ).


He's based in Reading, England and has got a wider variety of CRTS that are a bit cheaper. His website lists what he's got.

 

[Fredrik]

Basdeng,


Ahh, excellent, thanks for the tip.

The company I work for has it's UK office in Bracknell.

So it's just 15min by car and I travel there quite frequently.


Fredrik

 

[Eklund]

BG808s seems to bee a good choice if you find one in good condition and for a fair price. Anyway, I wont buy a new PJ right now, my old 800x600 DLP will have to do for a while more. But I'll be checking everything. And if a very good deal appears, I'll may decide.