CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

buschdogg · Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 25

I don't really need this, but I thought it might be a good deal if the tubes are decent. It's a vph-d50 for 400 or best offer... does anyone on here have one of these? I doubt it would compete with my 6pg xtra, but I've never seen one... I do like the chassis, though. Very Happy

zGman · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 599

That's way too much, unless the tubes are perfect and the hours are very low.
I have one here with only 4K hours and nice tubes, but very low output - cute
little bugger and totally useless. Even if it's perfect the picture is soft and
they streak terribly, and you would just be better off waiting to find a
good deal on a EM focus machine, preferably one not made by sony.

G

buschdogg · Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 25

Wow.. that's about as negative a review as you can get, lol. Oh well, I figured he might take 150-200 from the sound of his craigslist post and it might be a decent second 1080i unit, but not after hearing that! Thanks!

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

hate to say.. i wouldnt even pick it up for free... its too little performance for the space it takes up.

Unless you just want something to play with. Embarassed

buschdogg · Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 25

Now THAT is saying something. I had figured since it was a 1997 unit or newer, it had to be decent, but apparently not!

Mark_A_W · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject:

No, you couldn't give me a D50 either.

It's different if you have no projector, but once you have an EM machine a D50 is basically worthless. Maybe for the kids to play games on.. if you have the space.

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:34 pm Post subject:

Man, you guys have gotten to be an uppity bunch in these days of sub-$1000 EM/LC machines! I wouldn't go so far as to say "worthless" or "wouldn't pick it up for free". A D50 is certainly worth something if it's in good shape. If you have nothing and you want to get into CRT, a free D50 is a steal! If you had to pay $100 for it, and it's in good shape, it's still a good deal! $200 and over - not so much. Not in good shape? THEN it's worth nothing but for parts. I probably wouldn't pay over a couple hundred for a D50, and that's if it's in good shape.

Some people here are cheap skates, so take all the opinions for what they're worth. It's easy to sit here and rip the D50 from afar and tell you to get a bigger/better EM machine... But, maybe that better machine will be $500+ and maybe you don't have that kind of money. Maybe you live in area where CRT projectors are rarely ever for sale. We all have to start somewhere.

IMHO, the D50 is a good little 1080i machine that will, in some ways look as good or better than a new $999 720p LCD or DLP. It's not the sharpest or the best, but it's better than nothing if that's all you have!

It really depends on your condition, what you have (if anything now), your budget, and how long you're willing to wait. $400 is definitely not realistic. If I didn't have a projector and wanted one, I'd look at it and if it looked good, I'd offer the seller $100 and see what happened. Might get lucky.

SC

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

Odd, I thought it was an upgrade to the 127x, and everybody seems to like the 127x series...?

Mark_A_W · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:08 pm Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:08 pm Post subject:

MYoung · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Madison, WI

I gotta second SC! I have a D50 and for a second beater projector it's nice. It has component video input so you don't NEED a HDfury. So there's a $70 to $150 built-in value right off the bat! Just get some RCA to BNC adapters and you're all set for piping 720p or 1080i to it. With its 7" tubes it cannot fully resolve 720p or probably even 1080i, though it still looks decent. 1080i is probably the recommended resolution unless you have a scaler or HTPC for running a more customized progressive resolution and refresh rate. It's 800 lumens, which is pretty decent for a 7" projector. For video games, DVDs, and HDTV why put wear on a nice CRT projector when a D50 will do those formats pretty good justice?

I actually just got a Runco 980/6PG Xtra to replace my D50 for my video games and light movies setup. I can tell you that the 6PG Xtra is noticeably sharper. Unlike the D50, it can resolve 720p. Though if you have the room for a second setup and like playing video games, watching HDTV, or watching DVDs, I'd say go for it! If the tubes are in good condition, say 7+, then I'd say it's worth $200 and maybe even more depending on how much you want a second CRT projector to make your primary CRT projector's tubes last longer and how often CRT projectors are for sale in your area.

Loudmouse · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Portland, Oregon

zGman · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 599

Well I am glad someone had some fun with the D50 - I have two - they both suck,
if you're in the neighborhood just come by and pick 'em up for free. I was pretty
disappointed - obviously. No way in heck they could ever resolve 1920 horizontal,
1280 didn't even look good, and the streaking - reminds me of band camp in the 70's...

The 1271 I started out with years ago looked much better in my opinion....

G

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

Man, there is some hat'in going on

I must dissent and say that I have had my D50 setup for about 1 1/2 years and am very happy with it. Everyone who has seen it has been blown away with the quality of the picture. Ignorance may be bliss as I have seen only 2 other CRT setups. Phil Smiths rear projection G70 and another local higher end modded unit. (can't remember the model) and although both of these were better than the D50, to my untrained eye it was not a night and day difference. I have read a couple of times now where people have posted that the D50 cannot fully resolve 1080i. Can someone please explain what is meant by this. I have mine setup for 1080i, is some of the resolution being lost? zGman, if you are in the Dallas area I will take you up on your offer. I am curious how many people who are beating down the D50 have actually ever seen the picture on one. If these are such horrible units why is Curt still asking over $1000 a set?
Dan

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:44 am Post subject:

A D50 with good tubes is nothing to sneeze at. But.. I bought one locally for $100 that had been installed for a few years. Came up with about 500 hours on the meter... yay!

But after viewing the image that the customer said looked pretty crappy.. yuck! I'm guessing it was actually 10,500 hours on the tubes. Low emission, poor focus, never mind the color on it. I've got about 5 D50s here all needing tubes. Finding minty tubes is the trick with these. If the $400 set has no wear, it's a good set, very reliable. If the tubes are crap, run away. Smile

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:54 am Post subject:

I gave my G/F a D50 I picked up last year. It doens't have the streaking unless you crank it up to 80+ contrast. I have it set at brightness of 50 and contrast of 64.

Having the component input was a plus but since I'm running it from a 1271 switcher I added an HDFury and an IFB-12 card to the switcher. We played GTA IV on it all last weekend. They are a nice little projector. It's projecting onto a 110" 4:3 Stewart 130 screen.

I have it set up for 1080i 16:9 and 480p full screen 4:3. I think I have about $250 into the projector total, it's small, cute ( what she said ), came with the remote and the lens caps. She loves it.

Never could convince her to take the Ampro 4000 Laughing

Loudmouse · Joined: 09 Jul 2008 Posts: 46 Location: Portland, Oregon

My D50 was a big step up from the 1020 I was running.
As it aged even 1080i got a little soft but 480p DVD still looks great on it. Mine has the streaking issue even with contrast at 50 and brightness around 60.