CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

and I got it!

Now can anybody here tell me anything about it?

Make: RSVP VIDEO PROJECTOR
MANUFACTURED MARCH 1988
SERIAL #10467
HARMAN ELECTRONICS INC
JBL VIDEO GROUP
8400 BALBOA BLVD NORTHRIDGE CALIFORNIA

This thing has Delta TAC 3 lenses, TDK -V7 TUBES(?), built-in tv tuner, internal amp with surround, audio outs, speaker outs, A/V1 & A/V2 ins/outs, tuner out, RGB external input, comp blank in/sync out and ANT, ACC1 & ACC2 RF switcher inputs.

I brought it in the house, pulled down a 6' Day lite screen, set up about 8' away and connected the cable tv coax.
Holy Crap! This thing is awesomw! Ran the audio out through my Kenwood AV receiver and BOOM! Not to mention KING KONG is on right now!!!!!!

I've googled the unit but don't find anything at all..........

anybody know where to look for owners/service manuals?

....................

I gotta go watch KONG die now................

Smile

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

Get the info here but offer $5 ... Wink

http://cgi.ebay.com/JBL-Harman-RSVP-II-video-projector-brochure_W0QQitemZ350024255979QQihZ022QQcategoryZ3320QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

its wierd how non-descript this thing is.......
other than the info above, even the remote has no model #, etc. it just reads "REMOTE DIGITAL TUNING"
on the back, made in Sweden
takes 4 AAA batts

i can't find anything like "setup", "program", "reset", etc. with which to run alignment, pin, keystone, convergence, etc.

any ideas?

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

yeah i saw that earlier today before i got the unit
with that being a single page front and back advertising brochure i figured it wasn't worth the money
i assumed it wouldn't tell me much, but after getting this thing it might help

maybe i can copy that pic and zoom it in to see what it might have to offer

gonna try that now

but yeah, $5.00

maybe $3.00.................

Smile

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

just checked the pic, its just a spec sheet on that side and the other side is probably just a picture and sales pitch of the unit

i really want to find a owners manual and service manual for it but i think that is not going to happen

the unit is a floor model that was set up with a 6' concave sreen about 6'-8' away. it has a beautiful oak wood cabinet and sits on a custom pedastal about 3" high

this is a strange story but,

this came from a $4 million home owned by a man who its said has the personality of Ben Stien's teacher character in Farris Beullers Day Off, but is a genius. he owns some 7 homes within and without the u.s.a.

funny thing is, this unit i got is missing the oak wood top as he has seen fit to keep it on which he has placed his new projector of the LCD/DLP whatever type. what a pisser! here this guy is worth millions and instead of springing for a new coffee table for his "little p.o.s. projector", he's decided to keep the top from MY DAMN PROJECTOR!!!!!!!!!!! Smile

that's cool though. i already have an idea of a bullet-proof 1/2" plexi top blacked out on the underside.............

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 6:47 am Post subject:

Post a picture of that will ya? I'd like to see it.

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

going to try and post some pics.....

not sure how to do this but here goes..............

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

me isp is as archaic as me video system...........

dial-up and all y'know..........

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 7:11 am Post subject:

Arrrrrr I get's ya matty.

That thing looks SOLID! I love old stuff that's built to last.

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

Yeah, but what the hell is it??????

if ya google Harman electronics

ya get some outfit out of frickin' Dehli!!!!!!!

This thing is awesome! Its been running for the last 6 hrs or so and i haven't even touched the lens focusing..........

the guy told me the old man didn't frequent this particular home of his all that often but i gather the property manager (groundkeeper/houseboy) ran it when he was around........

I just need to know all i can about it so i can tweak it a bit eh?

Laughing

kschmit2 · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:32 am Post subject:

this is Harman:
http://www.harman.com

They own (among others):

Mark Levinson
JBL
Harman/Kardon
Studer
AKG
Lexicon
Revel
Infinity
Crown

Dave Lister · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:05 pm Post subject:

The trim pots on that green board would be the convergence controls, set them to their mid point before starting to converge it.

Why bother blackening the underside of a piece of perspex?
Leave it clear so you can see the insides, it would make it more of a conversation piece and with the perspex overhanging the edge it would make it a good coffee table projector.
It would have a spot in the coffee table book about coffee table projectors then. Very Happy

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:40 pm Post subject:

FINALLY!!! I've been frequenting the AVS CRT forum for 6 years and this site since it was born, and I've still only ever seen one other machine like this... and it was in my Dad's basement!

In his case, it was an Infinity RSTV - looks like the identical machine simply rebadged. I think his was ~1985 vintage, though - possible the I version to your II version. Infinity must have already been owned by Harman/JBL Intl, or was just doing a "Runco", maybe.

This was an EXTREMELY reliable set. If you can believe it, my dad was still using his only about two years ago as the main projector in his theater. It still worked perfectly... the only thing he had to do was put it on a UPS because when his power blipped, it would drop all the color/tint/contrast/brightness settings. It must have had tens of thousands of hours on it. What a machine.

My dad and a friend of his each bought one - they got a deal on two - from Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, NE. My dad set his up in our basement on the 6' retro-reflective curved screen that came with the Advent it replaced. My dad's friend wanted his set up on the white wall in his living room for night-time only viewing, so we set it up to project a little larger - maybe 8'x6' or so. Too big for 480i IMHO, but he was a bachelor and wanted a big screen. I remember taking my Apple IIgs over there because it had a composite video output on it so I could display some test patterns I whipped up in a paint program. Aahhh... those were the days.

I have no idea if my dad still has it around, but I might even be able to scrounge up the service manual or at least the install manual for it.

SC

PS - The oak top was really nice - too bad the old man didn't keep both pieces together. It was a really nice furniture-quality piece of equipment. Not wood-grain look junk like some electronics of that time - actual, nice, solid well-built oak veneer just like decent furniture.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject:

Hah, I'm going to completely contradict ecrabb's post.

This thing was a HUGE P.O.S.!

JBL first came out with this set, and it was called a 6810, later a 6850. It was not made by Harman/JBL, it was actually made by Philips. There were about 3 of these installed locally, in bars. One bar spent stupid amounts of money ($8K?) on it. Like other sets of the day, they weren't very bright and the tubes lasted a long time.

The cons:

The biggest problem in this set was the design of the double sided PC boards. The feedthrough points of the boards, where the conductors went from the top of the board to the bottom was always going intermittent. There were literally 100s of feedthrough points, and you had to resolder the joints top and bottom to make them work.

THe convergence controls were better than the Zeniths that I was selling at the time, but there was always one corner that was out, as the controls were still limited.

If it's running, then great, I would NOT reset the convergence controls to the midpoint, hopefully the set is set close enough now to be useable, then get to learn what the controls do and go from there. You'll need an external crosshatch pattern, from what I remember these sets only had a crosshair.

I haven't seen this version of the set before, but your pix clarified what it was.

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:07 pm Post subject:

Curt, are you sure we're talking about the same projector? The picture I found of the 6810 on a brochure looks NOTHING like the JBL pictured here or the Infinity I'm talking about:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350024281904

SC

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:09 pm Post subject:

Yes, the guts are identical. I hated that thing. THe whole chassis on the 6810 was plastic/injection molded as well. Maybe not on the coffee table model.

ecrabb · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:23 pm Post subject:

I suppose you're right then, but I have to say... In the 20 years or so my dad and I were using it, it barely even burped. Focus was always really good, given that we never reset it from being set up for curved screen (which is how it came out of the box). But, I don't remember having any trouble with corner focus or geometry when we set the other one up for flat-screen, either. You'd know I guess, though. I set up and maintained two while you probably set up and maintained... a lot more than two.

SC

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 2:53 pm Post subject:

No, I only ever touched three of them.. Smile

I remember back in about 1993 there was a lot of about 5 of them at the local auction house when the JBL distributor for Canada went bankrupt. THey wanted something like $2K each for used units. I offered $300 and they declined. Dunno whatever happened to those ones..

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject:

DARNOLD · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 61 Location: St. Louis

it sure do look nice!

ecrabb - if you should happen to be able to get any paperwork at all for this thing i'd sure like to get a copy Smile

i found the crosshair pattern and its converged pretty well except at the very top where the colors just start to pan out a little

thanks for the info guys and let me know if someone comes up with anything on paper for it

i'm just letting it run for now and will wait till i have a little more time to play with it

have a great day all

Dave