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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 12:19 am Post subject: Which way is up? |
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Hello to all,
I am new here, but have been reading posts from this site for a while. I was wondering if anyone could help me with my situation. I just got my hands on a Barco Data 808 and need help badly! I have a dvd player running through my receiver and my set top box going directly into an Extron DDS402 scaler. I am using the YUV input on the scaler for my dvd. Here is where my dilemma starts. I have an old pioneer laserdisc (CLD-A100) and I am trying to figure out how to put this in the mix of my setup. It only offers composite out and the scaler does not offer this type of input (at least I don't think) I have a transcoder that will take VGA in and pass component out. Is there a type of adapter that will allow composite---vga---component, which will then run to my receivers other component video input and them back to the Extron? Or is it not even worth it to use the laserdisc anymore? I have about 100 movies and I hardly ever get a chance to debut them since I moved. I am new to CRT and have very little knowledge about what I am doing. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
Stinger72 
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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First off, laserdisc was great on a 27" TV. It does not look that good on a 100" projector! I find the picture too bad to watch on the projector. But, some people don't mind if the picture looks bad, as long as it is big!
You need a composite to RGB or better a composite to component (save a step).
Composite to RGB:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio-video/video-converters/composite-video-to-vga/c10000-c11200-c11201.html?sorter=productname-en-asc
Composite to Component:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio-video/video-converters/composite-video-to-component/c10000-c11200-c11202.html?sorter=productname-en-asc
Frankly, you would be better off picking up a used scaler. They will scale better than the extron and have the inputs you need. I would recommend a Lumagen HDP if you are willing to spend about $800. If not, a Lumagen DVI is almost as good and can be had for <$400. The advantage of these is that they will also process HD signals as you move into that. However, if you want a cheap solution and don't care about processing HD signals, then you should be able to pick up an old DVDO iScan HD or HD+ for under $250.
What VGA to component transcoder do you have (most are crap)?
_________________
Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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Another option is to really look at that collection of 100 LDs and ask yourself which of them you seriously think you're ever going to watch again and simply buy them on DVD or (better yet) Blu-ray if they're available. Odds are just buying the the ones you're going to watch on DVD as you need to will be the cheapest.
Kal
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jkruger
Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Posts: 2435
Location: Carlsbad, CA
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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Sell the laserdisk stuff to a collector and buy an upscaling bluray dvd player and the movies you want with the $$.
Movin' on up....
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject: |
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| kal wrote: | Another option is to really look at that collection of 100 LDs and ask yourself which of them you seriously think you're ever going to watch again and simply buy them on DVD or (better yet) Blu-ray if they're available. Odds are just buying the the ones you're going to watch on DVD as you need to will be the cheapest.
Kal |
If if not yet available in HD, WAIT. I think it was crazy 5 years ago to buy 100s of DVDs (costs you way more then renting them for the amount of time you usually watch them), but to buy a DVD now is just plain stupid.
_________________
Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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Hey guys,
Thanks for all the speedy responses, I guess the old laserdisc isn't worth keeping at all. I hate to throw away Raiders of the Lost Ark. Don't know who'd be interested, so it's off to the yard sale I guess. As for the transcoder, I have the one that RCA made for the DCT-100 box. I am sure there are probably better ones out there, but for now it's just to get me running. I am still a little confused about a thing or two however. Since I am running the DCT-100 (off air only) to the extron through the rgb input (#1), will this accept an HD signal? I know that manual says it will output 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, but I am not seeing the actual resolution that it can take as an input. I am assuming 480i/p through the BNC/Component input. I am only asking cause it was suggested that I get a better scaler, but I was told that this one was a good one.  Oh yeah...Is it necessary to hook up the H/V to the projector from the extron since I am only inputting a component/rgb signal? Thanks again...Stinger72
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Person99 wrote: | | If if not yet available in HD, WAIT. I think it was crazy 5 years ago to buy 100s of DVDs (costs you way more then renting them for the amount of time you usually watch them), but to buy a DVD now is just plain stupid. |
Figure buying a used DVD for $5 (some of the new ones are almost that cheap) will still look better than the LD's and will be 4-5 cheaper than Blu-ray.
Kal
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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I know the extron will do more than just 480i/p, I just can't remember if it takes HD input frequencies. It probably does.
It processes in 8 bit space like the IScan HD and HD+ as well as the Lumagen DVI. The Lumagen DVI will have better scaling that the extron or the IScan. The Lumagen HDP processing in 10 bit space. The Lumagen and DVDOs have more config options than the extron also.
I suggested a better scaler because converting composite to component is going to cost you almost as much as one of these scalers and they will do better.
Bear in mind that a "good one" from 4 years ago is not necessarily a good one "today".
If you are going to dispense with the LD, then just pick up a Toshiba HD DVD player to use as an upscaling DVD player, an HD Fury, and an HDMI switch. Total will be less than $400 and the quality will be better than anything else you can get for this money (the Lumagen DVI having only a bit better scaling).
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Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| kal wrote: | | Person99 wrote: | | If if not yet available in HD, WAIT. I think it was crazy 5 years ago to buy 100s of DVDs (costs you way more then renting them for the amount of time you usually watch them), but to buy a DVD now is just plain stupid. |
Figure buying a used DVD for $5 (some of the new ones are almost that cheap) will still look better than the LD's and will be 4-5 cheaper than Blu-ray.
Kal |
Yes it will. But, renting costs $4. It is unlikely he will watch all 100 of those before high def versions are available. I could see buying something you watch twice a year and has no announced BD date for $5. But I don't think it makes sense otherwise. He could buy the set up in my last post cheaper than 100 $5 DVDs and get much more bang for the buck!
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Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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We've been through this many times before it seems but buying *does* make perfect sense for some people. Everyone has different needs, priorities, and situations. To say that buying a movie *only* makes sense when you watch it more than twice isn't a valid statement. That's true for you and many others but can't be used as a blanket statement. You keep posititioning the dollar amount as the absolute and only thing that matters and that it trumps everything else.
Kal
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Person99
Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 4899
Location: Flower Mound, TX
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| Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| kal wrote: | We've been through this many times before it seems but buying *does* make perfect sense for some people. Everyone has different needs, priorities, and situations. To say that buying a movie *only* makes sense when you watch it more than twice isn't a valid statement. That's true for you and many others but can't be used as a blanket statement. You keep posititioning the dollar amount as the absolute and only thing that matters and that it trumps everything else.
Kal |
That is true. It may be worth thousands of dollars to one to have a movie on hand just on the off chance that one might want to watch it IMMEDIATELY (i.e. can not possibly allocate the time for the 15 minute trip to the rental store). So you are correct, financially, it is an incredibly dumb move, but for some, putting that money into media to sit on the shelf, collect dust, and likely never be watched more than once is a better use of their money than buying better equipment. I do confess that I truly cannot wrap my head around it, but it is obviously true for some.
However, in this instance, I still don't see the sense in spending $500+ on DVDs, some which may never be watched before they are available in HD.
Let me put it this way, it takes 1 year of two movies per week to watch 100 movies. It is unlikely anyone is watching 100 "old" movies per year, instead allocating more of their movie time to new releases. But again, I could be wrong here. It could be that those with collections of 400 movies watch movies "old" movies 7 nights per week and on some nights do a double feature with new releases so they can see each of the movies in their collection once per year.
In the end, I know we have been through this, but really, there is no way you can justify a large movie collection unless:
1) You just like to collect and don't care about the logic of the situation,
2) You think it makes you cool to be able to show off a large movie collection
YMMV. 
_________________
Dave
A train station is where the train stops. A bus station is where the bus stops. On my desk, I have a work station....
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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 2:02 am Post subject: |
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Again, I thank all of you for your assistance. I am going to keep the extron for now as this is my first setup and I have to start from some point. I just recently required this and I don't see the need to spend extra money for something I haven't even seen perform yet. Oh, the extron will pass and scale HD content.....found about that in another manual. As for the lasedisc issue, I have decided to eliminate it from my scheme and just use my dvd player and the DCT-100 for now. If laserdisc is not worth, I guess DVHS isn't worth aquiring either. I'll keep you posted of my progress once I finish framing the room. By the way, does anyone know where I can find distance to screen calculations for a BD808? My room is 19Lx12W. I don't know what size screen I want to use...any suggestions. I think I am goin gto ry and squeeze two rows of seating but not sure if it will work.
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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kal
Forum Administrator
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 18114
Location: Ottawa, Canada
TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7
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| Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Person99 wrote: | In the end, I know we have been through this, but really, there is no way you can justify a large movie collection unless:
1) You just like to collect and don't care about the logic of the situation,
2) You think it makes you cool to be able to show off a large movie collection |
I dunno - I don't do it for either of those 2 reasons and it makes sense to me to own, at least in my head.
First off, if logic was the prevailing factor none of us should have HTs at all. There's absolutely nothing 'logical' about owning an HT.
Not that it matters as we've been through this before but here's my situation and why for me it makes more sense to own than rent (my situation only):
3) All of our Blockbuster and other rental places within a 30 min drive from us only have a handful of Blu-ray movie (and I live in a reasonably large city of about 1M with surrounding population). Those that they do have they only have 1-2 copies of each. Want to rent a newer release? Forget about it. They're already rented. You can't reserve either.
4) We entertain a lot. We have other couples come over to have dinner & watch movies 1-2 times/week. We let them pick the movie and there's no way we could get them to organize themselves enough to rent ahead of time (we've tried - it just never works). By the time we've eaten and had a few glasses of wine/beer, nobody feels they should be driving anywhere anyway.
The number of titles we watch more than once is probably less than 10% but it just makes sense for us. I spend about $1-$2K/year on movies and know and acknowledge that. It is not a significant part of our family income and is part of our entertainment expense or anything else we have to spend money on.
Re (1): I don't like to collect and actually sell back a lot of the used SD titles to Blockbuster whenever they have a sale (min $5 each when I spent $10/each on average to buy the titles used). So for 50% of my SD collection this amounts to paying an average of $5-7/title to 'rent' them for 2-5 years as most cost me $10-12 to buy used.
Re (2): I have limited shelf space so I will sell back titles I really have no interest in re-watching as mentioned above. Yes, my collection's fairly large but I'm actually a bit embarassed by it. I like to try and only stock it with titles that are worth watching more than once. Nobdy wants 500 titles of junk with 500 'good' ones. For me, a bad movie's not even worth renting: It's not the $8 fee, it's the 2 hours you can't get back. I have a lot more money than time.
Kal
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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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So....is that H/V sync gonna be an issue? And does anybody know where I can find a lense to screen calculation for the barco?
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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jkruger
Joined: 24 Oct 2007
Posts: 2435
Location: Carlsbad, CA
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 12:17 am Post subject: |
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There is a Barco lens program available here:
http://www.curtpalme.com/Barco808_Downloads.shtm
Component carries the sync on one of the three leads.
Lots of really good info available, just gotta read it.
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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 3:54 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for all the info that you have willingly given to me. I actually have an image on the 808 now, just go to get it set up correctly. But this is over in another thread, so I really appreciate getting me started.
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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Stinger72
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 53
Location: Fountain, CO
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| Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:12 am Post subject: |
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This is an old thread, but I am having an issue. I have been away for quite sometime (go Army) and I have a question about my scaler. I built a HTPC and I am running it through the extron dds 402. As of now I am in the process of hanging the projector so my images have been tested on a 19" Polaroid LCD through the vga input. I think the resolution of that panel is 1400x900. I have the computer's resolution set to 1024x768 as well as the extron's. I really don't see a great amount of detail this way on the lcd panel. Am I wrong or should I set the computer's output to a lower resolution and let the extron scale it up? I have an older graphics card (nvidia 5700), but I think my processor is to slow for the newer cards with higher resolutions. To some movies look okay, while others with animation (i.e Cars, Monsters INC and such) look kind of dull and lifeless. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
_________________
I hate working on saturdays!!!
Barco Data 808
Pioneer VSX-D810S
HTPC
RCA DCT-100
Samsung SIR T451
Extron DDS-402
Carver AV 705
Athena AS-F1.2x2
Athena AS-C1.2x2
Athena AS-B1.2x2
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