CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[joster1969]

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Hello!

I have been offered a Barco 1209/2 for a fair price (should be in good condition too). Can anyone tell me if there is a huge difference in picture quality compared to my Ampro 3600....

Thanks

/Johan

[gjaky]

Actually never saw neither working, but just looking at it's specs, the barco should a big improvement since it has 9" LC tubes, so it should fully 1080p capable, better contrast, longer tube life etc.

[joster1969]

Ok, what about colours?? My AmPro has filter on green and red.

Johan

[Zebu Fellenz]

[virusc]

I would think Barco parts would be easier to get especially in Sweden. See on Curts website rank of CRT projectors. Assuming the tube condition is similar between the Barco and the Ampro the Barco should be better in every aspect including reliability and ease of setup. Ampro3600 usually is not color filtered. Do you mean color corrected lenses? You added the filters? You can add colored C-elements to the barco. they are 100-200 each $US if you can find them.

[joster1969]

I have used thin coloured plastic film between the tubes and the lenses. Read about this on AVS-forum years ago and I had to try it and it worked good....

[virusc]

you are probably referring to stage light filters by Rosco or 3M are most common. They can fade over time and will lower you ANSI contrast due to reflections so the if you add the C-elements to the Barco the colors should be better and you would get better contrast(less reflections) due to LC and not having those filters in place. It should be a very big difference actually in your case. I assume you have HD-8 lenses on the Ampro. They are really not that good so all the way around a 1209/2 in good shape would be a huge step up.

[Spanky Ham]

It depends on what is a fair price. Everyone's definition is different. LC to me and a lot of others makes a huge difference.

[joster1969]

Sounds like I should go for the 1209 and try to get color corrected C-elements....

[stefuel]

I can tell you first hand that if the 3600 is set up correctly it can do 1080P with the raster compressed to 16:9 aspect ratio.
But thats where it starts to overlap, exactly.

[secstate]

I think the 3600 came with the higher resolution PT-18s/P16s which should help with HDTV. I put a set out of a 3600 retro into a Barco Data 808s and the difference was huge though honestly I found 1080p still a bit soft but that might have been a limit of my setup abilities though I think it was honestly more due to the HD8s. A 1209/2 does not have Schiempflug so you have to get the position spot on and stay within certain screen size to have good corner focus. I'd say all else being equal (tube condition, etc.) the 1209/2 would be a good set up for the right price. To me that would mean a pretty cheap price on the 1209/2.

[joster1969]

The 3600 has the 180DVB22 tubes (at least mine...)
The seller has asked for about $1350 for the 1209/2

[secstate]

[cmjohnson]

It would seem that AmPro used different kinds of tubes in 3600s at different times. Not long ago I got the tubes out of a retro 3600 which had been killed by a glycol leak on the circuit boards. I don't specifically recall the tube type but it was NOT a DMB or DVB type. It was
an LNQ or LNN or something like that, if my memory is any good.


I'm thinking that later examples of the 3600 were upgraded to higher resolution tube types like the LNQs.


Tse should be able to give a more accurate answer as he worked on those at AmPro.

CJ