CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:44 am Post subject:

Kid that works at the car wash down the street just got given a 69 Camaro by his 83 year old uncle. It's a big block 871 blower car. The kid get's his licence in 3 months Shocked

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

871? That's not usually a street blower. Is it drag or street?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:53 am Post subject:

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5237 Location: Osceola, Indiana

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:18 am Post subject:

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

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 5:21 am Post subject:

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

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Ken commented:
> 1st the HDFury1 was like $99... <

Nope. This is part of your fallacy. While the HDFury1 is "like $99" now, it didn't start out at that price. And if you added in the options for the v1 that are now standard on the v3 (power supplies, cables, etc.), I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the price was about the same. Thus your basic premise, and the title of your thread, are wrong straight out of the gate.

So, essentially, you're faulting them for dropping the price on their v1 model, yet keeping it around as a more cost-effective option, for those who can't justify or afford the best. That seems a bit disingenuous. Their prices also include worldwide priority shipping, which makes them an even better deal (but hides the cost of the unit itself, which is less).

> As for R&D, the basic design has not changed, just the chipsets, which are developed for mass applications by large corporations. <

How can you know that? Do you think that all that was done on the HDF-v1 to v3 was changing out one chip for a newer one? That's pretty naive.

> None of the transcoder manufactures have really invested much in R&D that's bunk. <

That's really unfair to John, who has spent a lot of time designing and testing, to improve the circuits, and hence the performance of the products. The cool thing (IMO) is that there will be 3 versions available, at differing performance levels, and you can choose whichever one you want, and pay the corresponding price. If you don't like the v3 pricing, just buy a v1 or v2. After all, they're really no different (according to your claims).

P.S. BTW, is a D/A converter really a "transcoder"? I've never considered it so.

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

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Spanky commented:
> As for the cards, I understand where Ken is coming from. With digitals being pretty good these days, one has to decide whether they want to spend money on add on or just go digital. <

Oh, certainly. I understand and agree as well. If that was the point he'd made, I'd just have said, yep. There will be a point where putting more $$$ into your CRT makes no economic sense. But that point will differ for each of us. And for a few, economics simply won't be a significant factor.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 6:03 am Post subject:

Mark_A_W · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 6:32 am Post subject:

I understand how much work goes into designing a decent circuit (I work in an engineering design company which does elec and software as well as mech (me)).

I understand that they are produced in short runs.

But I have kittens when I see the price of the latest HDMI transcoders. They literally cost more than either of my XGs did.

And given how HDMI from a PC is a nightmare, RGBHV is what I have stuck with - it just works.

I have compared the Moome DVI card and the Moome ISS card, and they both had issues (black level/bleeding + HDMI compatibility issues on the ISS card, and the DVI was too hot), RGBHV was visibly better.

I have not compared the later stuff.

One thing that would be worthwhile is the ability to program the transcoder with a custom EDID so you don't have to set a custom res on the PC - it should just work.

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

They get you both for the content and the chips to decode what you just paid for what a deal ! Wink

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

MAW commented:
> But I have kittens when I see the price of the latest HDMI transcoders. They literally cost more than either of my XGs did. <

Really? I wasn't aware that any of them cost over $30,000. Wow! That is pretty expensive. Smile

Oh, wait, did you mean your XG cost used? In that case, come back in 10 years or so and check out the prices on 10-year old used HDMI transcoders. I predict they'll be quite cheap (or even free, if you can find one).

kschmit2 · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 10:39 am Post subject:

moome's devices are actually getting cheaper. IIRC I paid something like $465 for my ISS-HD input card (and that requires a NEC ISS switcher as well).
Still use it and still like it.

secstate · Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Posts: 720

I run a HTPC using VGA for all the issues mentioned. Running an HTPC has its own challenges of course but I can do gamma correction for free and I don't have to give any though to the HDCP issues at all. I rip BluRays to my server. I don't expect to go to digital signal delivery until such time as I have a digital projector. I have had both the Moome v1 Sony card and John's Barco box and sold them. Never used them enough to really know if they had any issue I just found that my HTPC with VGA worked great so I was never forced to look for alternatives. I'd guess these are all niche devices and niche devices tend to be more expensive than mass devices.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 3:23 pm Post subject: