I’d like to start this newsletter off by standing on my little soapbox and ranting about the quality of service (or lack thereof) that I ran across last week. As many of you know, I  have always been fascinated by how things work, which explains why I do board level service to many electronic items, right back to my high school days. I abandoned my commercial sound contracting business (well, most of it) to work on projectors full time last year.

For fun recently, I bought five InFocus digital projectors for next to nothing locally. Three of these were the 4-5 year old InFocus X1 projectors, that a zillion were sold of, and I’m sure many are still running. Now, I don’t normally deal with digital projectors, but I happened to have a spare bulb from an old installation for the X1, and at the price I paid, I couldn’t resist picking these up, if nothing else to sell them on eBay.

Much to my surprise, the projectors were really well built, and while they were dusty inside, there were no scorch marks or hotspots in the sets. I cleaned them out and installed the bulb into the units. All three worked fine, but all had the same problem: The color wheel motors had noisy bearings so that the projectors screeched when turned on.

Now here’s where it got interesting. The motors were some tiny PC board mounted motor, and I couldn’t see how I could clean the bearings. So I decided to call Infocus to see how much replacement motors were.  The 800 number on the Infocus website directed me to India for tech support as expected. I was told by the friendly rep that InFocus did not sell parts for any of their projectors, but they would be happy to set me up to send my projector in. I told them ‘no’, that I wanted to repair it myself.

Two transfers within India tech support later, I wasn’t going anywhere. I decided to call InFocus sales instead. Now interestingly enough, there was no hold time as there was with tech support, and the call went to the InFocus head office in Oregon instead of India. I told the sales person that I was told that you couldn’t buy parts for InFocus projectors, and she told me that was incorrect, that I could buy parts. Great! Transfer me to the parts department please. I got transferred back to India. Finally after the 4^th call, I got a hold of someone in Oregon that told me that InFocus could not sell parts to end users, but he was happy to refer me to a repair depot in my area that could work on the unit.  OK, fine I say, give me the phone number of  a repair facility close to me (he asked me for my zip code). He then tells me that there is no one close to me that can work on my X1. OK fine, I say, connect me to someone not so close that can look at my X1 and can sell me a color wheel and motor.

Apparently there is no one in the world according to this service rep that works on X1 projectors. He couldn’t give me a name of a repair facility. He offers to give me the part number of the color wheel/motor assembly.  Great, I copy that down. I then ask him for ANY InFocus repair depot for any projector that I can order the motor through. Oh no, he says, no one can sell me the parts, as repair depots are not allowed to sell parts to end users.

Now let me get this straight. InFocus doesn’t sell parts to end users, I understand that. It protects their repair facilities. However, InFocus cannot direct me to any repair facility as apparently none exist. In addition, if there were repair facilities (which there are none though), they are not allowed to sell any parts to end users. Then why the heck would he offer to give me the part number of the motor?

Now, I guess you can look at the above scenario in two ways:

a) The projector is an entry level obsolete unit, go and buy a new one.
b) The entire electronics industry is now based on selling the consumer products that are disposable.

I have no problems admitting that I’m a bit of a renegade when it comes to electronics. I love a challenge, and when I’m told that something can’t be done, I’ll attack it head on. Sometimes I succeed in providing a customer a solution that other salespeople said were impossible, occasionally I’ve beaten my head against the wall and have to admit, what I was trying to do is impossible.

The frustration here with this InFocus scenario that I ran into is that  these little projectors would be working fine were it not for the refusal of Infocus to sell me a tiny motor. Why is this acceptable in the electronics industry? I certainly wouldn’t buy a car if I couldn’t get it serviced outside of a factory facility, and heck, I can buy a spare carafe for my coffee maker if I break it.

I think it’s high time that the public is made aware of company policies such as this InFocus one and that we stop putting up with the disposable electronics that we are encouraged to buy. I’ve seen this in the sound industry as well in the last 5 years. The quality of product goes down, and the manufacturers and reps ignore service issues, hoping that the product will simply outlast the warranty period so they can sell a new item to me to sell to the end user. Don’t get me started on the high end TOA amplifiers that have overheating issues and fail at about 1/3 their touted ’17 years mean time between failures’ as per the sales rep…(I’d be happy to fill you in if you email me))

Oh, and when I mentioned to the InFocus customer service rep that I would be writing about my experience on my website and in my mailer, he didn’t really seem to care…

So… when you’re buying electronic products, check to see if you can get support for the product during and after the warranty, and support manufacturers that provide quality products that stand a reasonable chance of lasting a decent lifespan, not just days/weeks outside of the warranty period. And please, let’s not support the no name brand products sold at non electronics/stereo stores. I mean heck, you wouldn’t take your car to Radio Shack for a tune-up, why are you buying a DVD player at a place that specializes in car parts?

OK, rant off!

I’ve fully updated the list of projectors. I’ve managed to pick up a whole bunch of new projectors including some NEC XGLC sets and 19(!) Marquee 8500s that aren’t here yet, along with another 9500LC and 9000LC, two Sony G70s, etc, etc. Most of these sets have some form of tube wear, so I’ll change my listings a bit and will now start offering sets with tube wear. This is a great way to get into a high end set now without spending the money on new tubes now. Retubing a set is relatively easy, so you can watch a set with some tube wear, then replace the tube(s) as budget allows. Otherwise, a fully checked out chassis with all mods done is a great way to get spare parts for your existing set, or upgrade a set like an older Marquee 8000 with good tubes to a later more reliable 8500 set by transferring your tubes over.

Featured sets:

(1) Marquee 8500: Excellent condition, I sold this set 2 years ago with new tubes, customer used it for maybe 500 hours, and is moving and has no room for the set. All mods done to it, I’ve checked it out fully. $2000.00. A steal at this price!

(1) XG 1351LC: Hard to find in superb condition, I’ve got a few of these in. This is the best of the lot currently. Original R and B tubes with a NEW NEC green (very hard to find!). Case in good shape, 135 Khz scan rate, etc. $3200.00.

(1) Barco 1208: All original tubes in mint condition. Similar to the 8500, in excellent condition overall. $2200.00.

I’m getting in a bunch of BLACK new Marquee covers. I’ll be listing options of upgrading your Marquee purchase to an all black case in the next mailout.

There’s many other updates on the list, check it out!

Other items:

Audio Authority 1365 transcoders in stock. I’ve got good stock again of the 1365 transcoders, that also act as a scaler, up to 1024p. Take any component signal up to 720p, convert it to RGBHV and scale it at the same time. My price: $275.00, that’s $24.00 less than from Audio Authority!

As some of you know, I have repaired and reconditioned a number of reel to reel tape decks in the past. I know the mechanics of them inside and out and have the alignment tapes and test equipment to work on them. Recently the bug hit again, and I dug out a bunch of the older decks that I've had here (and bought more as well).

NOt quite ready yet, but very close are three ReVox B77 decks and a Pioneer RT 909. These are top of the line reel to reel decks, all 1/4 track, 3 3/4 and 7 1/2 IPS units. I've gone all out on the reconditioning of these. THe heads are in great shape, and I'm going through these as carefully as I do my projectors. I'm waiting for a number of pieces that are en route for each of these machines. THe ReVox all come with rack ears, the rack ears are integral to the front panel of the Pioneer. The face plates of these decks are in good shape (I've replaced the one on the Pioneer due to some scrapes). I've checked the frequency response to 20 Khz on all decks, and the tape counters and belts on all machines have been replaced. These will sell for $450-500 each USD, and are well worth it considering as is decks go for more than 2/3 that typically, and you never know what you get. Let me know if you're interested in one of these quality analog tape machines.

A PLEA FOR HELP!

Now that this seems to be the world’s largest site dedicated to CRT projectors, I’m getting DAILY emails from newbies wanting assistance with setting up their projectors. Those of you that are now on their second or third upgrades and want to possibly make some extra money assisting others that have just purchased their first CRT, PLEASE see consider adding your contact info to our referral pages (see here). The more people that can assist in cities outside of the Vancouver area the better. Many newcomers to the CRT projector world simply need some guidance on basic setup. Share your knowledge and help each other out!

3rd Party Products

Do you have a service/product that you think our visitors would find useful? Feature it here! Our site gets 3/4 million page loads per month and 7000 serious home theater enthusiasts read our newsletter, so if you've got something you'd like to make a few bucks with, this site's the place to do it! You'll get your own special email addresses, forum, and other tools to help you sell your items and track your orders. Contact the webmaster for details.

Please also note that I do not sell these items myself. You’re dealing directly with the person that put these items together. Please email them directly through the emails provided.

Parts n' stuff

I am adding parts to my stock daily. I seem to be one of the only places left that can repair virtually any CRT module down to a component level. With some other casual resellers now out of the business, rest assured I'll support ANY CRT projector out there, whether purchased from me or not. I’ve recently parted out a bunch of NEC XG sets, so I’ve got a great selection of XG modules in stock. I’ve also parted out a bunch of Ampros and have a good set of tested LVPS and HVPS in stock that are stable and run cool. Email me for info.

I’ve managed to score some NOS (new old stock) SD 187 tubes that will be here tomorrow. I’m using two sets myself, but that leaves 4 blue and 4 greens that are available for sale. $125.00 USD each. A great way to bring any ECP. Ampro 2000, 2600, or Barco 400, 500, 600 700 or 701 back to new condition without the price of buying (or shipping) a new set. I will test all of these tubes prior to shipping to ensure as-new emission and focusing ability.

Parts needed

(2) Ampro 2000 style remotes. I've got a need for two good working old style Ampro remotes. I've got lots of sets but few remotes.

As many 8” tubes as I can get. I’ve got a lot of NEC PG, PG Xtra, XG, Barco 808 and Marquee sets that need green and blue tubes. I’ll pay reasonable prices for any 8+ condition blue and green tubes to finish off these 20+ sets that I have here.

(4) Sony 07MP or 07MSP tubes. I’d like to sell off the Sony 12XX units that I have here, but 4 have worn blue tubes. Again, I’ll pay reasonable going rates for good blue tubes for these.

(2) each of blue and green P16 tubes as used in the Barco 708 sets. Again, I’ve got two great sets here, but with worn tubes, they can’t be sold.

(2) Sony 1292 tubes. I am looking for a blue and a green. I have two sets here that are in good shape, and I can currently make one out of the two here, but I still need one of each.. :)

Thanks for your support!

Curt