CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

ElTopo · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1608

CRT + digital in 2017

ElTopo · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1608

My Cine9 is waiting to be lifted to the ceiling Thumbs Up

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I am ashamed to admit that in the next week I will be picking up both another Marquee Ultra and another G90.

But the G90 has under 2000 hours on it. Very Happy

ElTopo · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1608

New LUG's in mine Laughing

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

So do mine...ALL OF THEM. I have spare sets of new LUGs, both in Marquee hardware and unmounted, just waiting to be put into service or sold to someone who needs them.

I have TOO MANY red LUG tubes. I'm about to recycle about a dozen that have a super faint wear pattern on them, simply because they're not as good as the roughly 18 I have that are new. On those tubes I'm going to recycle, the wear pattern, though very faint, would cross over the borders of a 16x9 raster area and even if I sold them for 20 bucks a tube, SOMEBODY would gripe about it!

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

larryp · Joined: 24 Jan 2012 Posts: 252 Location: eden prairie mn

When my 1272 dies It's the last crt for me. I put a Samsung ks8000 in the bedroom & it has a incredible picture.
Probably get one in place of the Sony in the living room.

greg9518lc · Joined: 19 Apr 2016 Posts: 360

I have a Rs520 and I use it for htpc and off air tv as well as a 46" flat panel. All movies go through my modded 9518lc. Can't wait for the day digital actually out performs a properly setup crt. Guess I am bisaed but since I sell digital and own crt I guess I am in the know. Thanks to the latest mod development crt is still the king. CRT is reality and digital will always be just a window looking in. It's all about the phosphor.

dochlywd · Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:13 pm Post subject:

Spank, I currently have a RS1 with a new bulb calibrated through the Lumagen next to my G90. I don't have that trained of an eye so it looks great to me. I found a good deal ($400 with only a couple hundred hours) on a X35 3D last August that has been sitting on the shelf on the storage side of my basement. Having that sitting there and never using the G90 is why I go back and forth on making the decision to just go straight digital.

Doc

jbltecnicspro · Joined: 23 Apr 2016 Posts: 512

Pzyked · Joined: 02 Apr 2017 Posts: 30 Location: Sweden

Had Sony G90 for a long time, and went digital this year. Sad

Got a JVC RS520. A huge positive upgrade, and don't miss my G90 yet.
I always said that my CRT was more real than digitals, don't say that no more.

But will hang on to the G90, everybody says wow just seeing the G90 without picture. Its so dam big.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I now own a G90 that was previously owned by Sylvester Stallone. Not sure if that adds value to the unit.
Its red and blue tubes have no wear, the green had light even 16:9 pattern wear. I have replaced that tube already.

Only 1999 hours on it.

I added a dark green C element to it as well.

That makes SIX G90s...and eight Marquees.

I am now at the point where I can't watch any movies because there are too many projectors blocking the light path! Confused

Remember those photos of that room with a wall full of G90s and G70s and other CRT projectors in storage in their own
little cubbyholes in the shelving along the walls? It's starting to look kind of like that in my warehouse. But not as fancy.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Well...this is my garage as of this moment.

Yes, I do have red C elements (and dark greens, too) for those projectors that are not so equipped as of yet.

I guess you could say I'm not ready to ditch CRT just yet. No surprise to anyone who knows me at all.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Where do your parents park their cars?

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

My father is still quite dead so I don't think it matters. My mother parks her car in her garage.

km987654 · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 3:34 am Post subject:

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

You could be right. I just shipped a G70 to a guy who basically collects G70s.

If you are still a CRT enthusiast and plan to stick with it for some time to come
it makes sense to have a source of spare parts.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 6:37 pm Post subject:

Unless you get them for free, I wouldn't stockpile too much however as some of the components degrade over time when not even in use. Electrolytic caps are a great example. Unless someone is handy with a soldering iron and knows how to test them or is willing to shotgun recap an entire board, no point in having too many projectors as 20-30 years from now (possibly less) many of those caps are all going to be long dead.

The good news is that many models were over engineered/built like tanks so they knew the caps would degrade over time such that the units were built for a long MTBF. Ie: overdo the the farads by a factor of 2-3 (assumption is the cap's only used for filtering of course). There's a limit how far you can go however. Some of the higher end CRT projectors that people covet may be over 20 years old. Examples:

Model (year introduced)

Electrohome Marquee (1993)
Sony G70/G90 (1997)
Barco 1209 (1995)

All that to say that you can't expect to put in an nearly unused (or even new) board into a projector 10-20 years from now and expect it to still work. That's even true today to some degree with some models.

Some models have parts that are no longer available too. The Sony G90 Dallas Chip is a good example. Always good to try and have spares of those.

Kal

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Dallas chips are available. I've bought fresh ones within the last couple of months.

I'm personally very competent with a soldering iron, and today solid state caps with a very long
working lifespan in values useful in these projectors are available.

I will shotgun all the caps on a board without hesitation. That's 53
caps in a stock Marquee LVPS. 2 hours labor.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 7:16 pm Post subject:

Interesting. I thought Dallas chips were no longer manufactured. Or maybe I'm confusing this with some other part? Was it the Dallas chip that (for some time) was the Achilles heal of the G90 as they weren't available/made anymore?

Kal