CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

drice1234 · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 1309 Location: Allen, Texas

Some of you may already be looking at the same thing but there is the above for sell close to me. Currently at $500. Seller does not have pics of tubes or hour meter but says he has used it in his home theater and has around 4000 hours. The listing originates from a very ritzy part of town. It looks like this will barely fit into the same table that I currently have my D50 in. Trying to figure out if I should go for it or not. I am happy with the D50's picture but I'am sure the 8500 would look much better. What are the opinions about changing out the D50 and what a good price would be on the 8500. If you are going after this, PM me and let me know and I will not bother.
Dan

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very Happy

No need to ask.

Athanasios

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

you will gain 10 to 20% in sharpnes and light output but you will lose color filtering unless you mod the Marquee. Also, be aware the Marquee needs a few critical tech service bulletins performed for reliability. Other than that it's agreat opprotunity and there's a good reason why the marquee's have such a strong following. Also, you will getting rid of a sony which is also a good thing. Thumbs Up

BradTheAggie · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 651 Location: Oak Point, Texas

Don't Do IT!!!!

The seller has cooties, and if you buy his projector, you'll get cooties too!
(Plus, he had it listed on Craigslist for $1,300 a few weeks ago. I emailed him back with a really low offer he would not bite on. Maybe if he cannot sell it on fleabay he will reconsider my rather absurdely low offer) Wink

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

4000 hours is enough to wear the tubes noticeably if he ran the contrast high. If he's near you anyway, I'd go pull the lenses and check the tubes. (If I remember right, you need a large hex wrench to pull the HD-8's?) It'll probably have SOME wear, but the question is how it was set up. If it's got a small wear pattern, it might not be worth the bother. If the wear pattern is reasonably large and not too dark, I'd be tempted. But as Dragan said, you will have to get some HD144's and adapters, so figure another $300-400 for that.

Dragan, only 10-20% sharper!? But the D50 is a 7" ES machine. I would expect an 8500 to be a LOT sharper. Dan, I've only used one ES machine (a Dwin HD700) but the 8500 was waaayyyy sharper. When I converged the Dwin I always felt like my eyes were going wonky, because it was so blurry!! I had already had an XG and an 8500 and I wasn't used to such a soft image. I think the 8500 would be a big step up, especially for HD.

Elaine Benes · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1416

I've had a D50 with brand new tubes, they are a very sharp ES machine. Although I almost never agree with anything draganm says, his assessment of the D50 is pretty accurate.

Buy the Marquee cheaply enough that you don't have to make the decision until you have both in your HT. I did that between the XG 135LC and my old reliable Marquee(although that was about 6 months ago and I'm no closer to a decision....).

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

For 500 bucks its a no brainer, he can part it out for more. And why wait to make a decision, the D50 wont fetch more than a couple hundred. Even with slight wear its better than the D50.

Athanasios

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

You should definitely pull the trigger. Ideally, you should aim for the tubes, pull it several times, wait until the bleeding stops, and then go get a Barco like a real man.

Wink

In all seriousness, it's a risk at $500 without seeing the tubes. The odds are improved by its being in a ritzy section of town (and thus presumably used in an HT rather than in a board room, projecting the Windows NT login screen 42 hours a week), but as several esteemed forum members told me when I got the Barco, bad tubes = paperweight until you get new ones. I managed to luck out and ended up with a smoking deal, and 8500 tubes are probably a lot easier to find than 808s tubes, but I'd still check if at all possible.

nuttall_chris · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject:

drice1234 · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 1309 Location: Allen, Texas

I went ahead and passed on this one. I still have a PG6 sitting on the shelf at work I need to mess with. There were not any bids at the starting price of $499.00 If anyone is interested look up home theater or marquee in the Dallas area under completed auctions on e-bay. You might be able to PM him with an offer.