CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

I definitely know...as I'm almost going to buy another crt. I'm not biting yet though...I see the size and loudness of a crt and I know I don't really want it. I like to play with it, and I like the resulting image quality...but a digital like the 710 at $500 is a real no-brainer. No transcoder required...

gcom007 · Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:33 pm Post subject:

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

That is the biggest draw to crt...that feeling like you're pulling the last 5% of performance out of it with your tweaks. The reality is that the 5% is just not noticeable when watching movies. Dialing in the best possible color is definitely noticeable though!

gcom007 · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 5:03 am Post subject:

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

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

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

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

My next move after the blend i set up is to finally get an HDMI pre amp. Either the New Outlaw audio pre/pro coming out soon or the Pro Onkyo model Boilermaker told me about.

Athanasios

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

You know, in the end, although many (especially 2 or 3 years ago) would have called me a "CRT guy", and while that was sort of true, I've really always been a "bang for the buck guy". 4 years ago, the tinkering time was a no-brainer. A digital with slightly less quality than the one hanging in my theater now cost $12,000 about 3-4 years ago. The digital OP just purchased originally cost $12,000. At that time, a G70 or similar was about $4500 and a good 8" AC machine was about $3000. The CRT was simply a no-brainer. The digital was not superior--at best it was roughly equal (better at some things, worse at others), why would you spend so much for it?

Fast forward, OP just bought that PJ for $500. It is still as good as it was 3 years ago and so is the G70. But the G70 is a bigger pain and usually costs at least $1000 (PJ plus good HDMI input). The G70 costs $3600 to re-tube. 3 bulbs for the digital costs $1200. The balance has tipped.

I've said this before, I honestly did not think I would be able to achieve a set up as good as I have in the digital world for as little as I spent. I went in thinking this would be a significant downgrade, but it turned out not to be. If judging the two pictures purely on flaws, then the CRT would win as it has fewer flaws. But, if judged by movie watching enjoyment, the extra pop, the CIH, the brightness makes the digi win. Funny thing is, I'm about the only one that notices the flaws--everyone else thinks my current set up is better than the last.

One neighbor I've not even told the PJ is a 720p (I'm not sure what he thinks it is), but he has said repeatedly that my (tweaked to hell) CIH set up looks better and is more enjoyable than one of our other neighbor's 16:9 Panny AE2000-based set up and way more than his own 16:9 panny AX200-based set up. And my full display chain (PJ, lens, scaler, screen) cost less than the Panny 2000 and screen--so the bargains in the digi world are starting to surface.

Now, if I were a purist that watched a CRT on an 80" wide screen and did not mind letterboxed scope movies or was willing to handle the expense and hassle of a blend, I might be singing a different tune--but I'm not. But then again, for the price of the blend you can get an RS20 and a nice anamorphic lens, so the blend case is still a hard one to make.

Citation4444 · Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 59 Location: North GA Mountains

I went both ways. I have a Sim2 C3X and Panamorph UH480, and recently added a Runco DTV-1200/Cine9. I use the C3X for scope movies, the Cine9 for everything else. I'm quite happy having gone this direction.

Bob

Person99 · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 4899 Location: Flower Mound, TX

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

Citation4444 · Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 59 Location: North GA Mountains

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

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

huggy · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 1:41 am Post subject:

I have a runco 1101/1209s which I use for all movie content and an epson tw700 720p lcd which I use for gaming tv and sci fi series,I like having both.I recently saw a well calibrated optoma hd81,epson tw2000 and very recently the new hd350 jvc pj,all 1080p pj's.
I really really wanted to like any of the new affordable 1080 pj's but I didn't.They were all super sharp and super bright,didn't care about colours being off or convergence being off by 10000000th of a mm Rolling Eyes

etc etc,all I cared about was absolute black and image depth,these two factors are in my high priority and everything else comes a distant second.

So for me as much as I want a scope image,I'll put it off for a little longer and enjoy my 9"er Mr. Green

I'd love to get another 1101 and do a blend however,I'm not at all tech savvy and think it would be too much of a learning curve for me.

Dave

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 4:20 am Post subject:

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

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:35 am Post subject:

Triple 3 eyed monsters. I like it.