CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

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

I remember seeing a HD setup at a computer conference in Europe in, what, 1985? It was in some Japanese company's booth -- Hitachi, maybe, or Sony? I don't remember if they had a tape-storage option or not. The main thing I remember is that one of the displays had a camera pointed at a geisha doll sitting right next to the monitor, and it was hard to tell the difference between the monitor and the doll. Very impressive, but it was obviously a looong way from commercial availability!!

MaximRecoil · Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 22

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

MaximRecoil · Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 22

Digital displays will always be stuck with a fixed resolution, so in that sense, they will always be inferior to a CRT-based display. That's a big issue for me, because I insist on watching content in its native resolution. I'm also highly skeptical of other people's assessment of what looks good/better without seeing it for myself, because I know of too many instances where I have seen something for myself; know it looks like crap (IMO), and see other people claiming it looks awesome.

I also consider film to be a better technology than digital, at least in terms of visual qualities. Of course, digital beats film for convenience by a long shot, but if a genie popped out of a lamp and wanted to give me my ideal home theater, the projector I chose would not be digital, nor even a CRT; it would be a film projector complete with every movie I could ever possibly want to watch; on pristine 70mm dye-transfer film prints, and enough money to indefinitely pay for an on-call projectionist.

Another older technology that is superior in terms of consistent quality and dependability to a newer technology is the land-line phone system (especially the old pre-breakup "Ma Bell" version) vs. cellular networks. I suppose that could be extended to most anything that is hardwired vs. wireless technologies.

As another example, many people believe that the best computer keyboard ever made was from the 1980s (IBM Model M).

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Maxim,
That is a good thought process to have. What looks good to one person may look bad to another or a huge improvement to one may be negligible to someone else. As to native resolution, that is an advantage of CRTs, but I would disagree about always watching in native res. VPs are really good nowadays.

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

For a little while, I had a couple "portable" Ampex 1" Omega Loop format VTRs. They were the size of a large suitcase. Some were B/W,
and one was color. I tried very hard to get the color unit working. I called Ampex and they gladly sent me their very last copy of the
service manual that they had on the shelf, for free, and their tech who still remembered those dinosaurs gave me some tips on what
to look for.

The reel motors and capstan motors were fine, just previously I'd had no video head drum rotation. First I cleaned out the goopy remains
of the old belts, and put new belts in. After putting the new belts in, I fired it up and it ran perfectly...for about ten seconds. Then the
head servo loop lost its mind, the head drum spun up to "HOLY CRAP!" speeds, and smoke poured out of the motor and it free-wheeled
to a stop.

So, I calmly disconneted the unit, toted it to the street, and left it for any other gadget hound, or trash collection, to come pick up.
I was very DONE with it at that point.

I hauled the other parts machines out there, too. I also left the service manual with the one machine.

About a year later I saw those same machines in the trash pile at my friend's house across the street. He'd grabbed them. He never
even told me.

Many years later, I realize I should have changed the caps on the servo board before starting it up.

CJ