CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

mc86

Hi all -

My reliable old ECP 4500 is finally getting wonky with enough frequency that I am ready to pull it off the ceiling and go digital* moving forward. I thought maybe I'd claim I was the last 7"ES man standing -- but feel confident that won't be true until some disturbing year...maybe 2028? Smile

Anyway, advice welcomed. My budget is $750-$1000. I'd like to change as little as possible -- as close to only swapping-out the PJ, ideally. I do realize that to go above my current 1080i setup that I will, however, probably need/ought to swap out the DVDO iScanHD+ for something newer -- the iScan+ will only process 1080i and below. If you think I can just passthrough a 1080p analog signal out of the HDF3 tho' and use the VP for my LD ad VCR, that'd be good to know. Also, video signal transport maybe issue as it is 50ft to my PJ from the A/V rack and not sure if I must used HDMI to the PJ. Some details of my setup are below.

Oh yes -- A few years ago I made a note that a JVC DLA-RS45 or similar would be what I should look for in the future that is today. However, I have done ZERO research and paid NO attention to anything HT tech in ~2+ years. BTW, I am happy to trade paying a little more for something sitting on eBay or a regional CL as opposed to searching for a deal for a week or two; I'm getting a puppy American Water Spaniel in January and want the PJ transition done before the impact of the pup.

Thoughts?

DETAILS
+ My throw could be between ~100" and ~160" max (currently bit less than 10ft, IIRC). Further is better for my setup.
+ Screen width is 93" max. I have it masked/covered to 84" for the ECP, but would like to use all of the 93", if I can.
+ Sources: HDMI from HTPC or laptop used 65%, Oppo BRP-83 is 32%, both LD and VHS sum to 3%.
+ I use an HDF3 for my HDMI to VGA conversion, 1080i right now.
+ I run a 50ft RGBHV cable to the PJ that cost me like $200 and weighs a ton. Good news: before I closed up my ceiling I ran a 2" conduit from my AV rack to my PJ mounting area, so I can pull wires, if needed.
+ Audio split out at HDF3 for PCs, Oppo sends 7.1 to my pre-processor [outlaw 970]

Thanks,
Matt

*Note: As a Chemical Engineer I've learned a lot through the ECP and really do enjoy working with it. As I have space to store the stuff, I'll hang onto everything ECP for when and if the day comes I can play with them more. But middle age is teaching me to be increasingly ruthless about focusing on what I want to do most...and this is quite low on the list. I probably have 3 chassis worth of boards, power supplies, along with some NIB or minty-new tubes somewhere. It pained me, but I got rid of 6 or 8 very, very good tubes maybe 18months ago...gave them to a local artist. IF someone wants all my ECP stuff, they can also have it all...I have the extender board and all sorts of crazy stuff. I seem to have seriously misplaced my painstakingly compiled MS OneNote notebook, however...I made awesome notes made from Ehome documents, clippings from the web, learning from pretty much every "ECP" post every on this forum, notes from Curt, Tim, Guy, and others, etc. SIGH.

**kal**

Whatever digital you move to you won't need a scaler as it'll have one built in. You'll only need a video processor if you want to do some fancy stuff (3D LUT, automatic calibration, noise reduction, etc - see our Radiance order page for complete details), but just for scaling you'll be fine without one. Just feed the digital projector whatever resolution you like and it'll convert to its native resolution. You don't need the HDfury anymore. Just feed everything into your pre-pro (analog or digital) and then out digital to the projector. Best to replace the 50' analog cable with an HDMI cable too.

Good luck!

Kal