CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Spanky Ham]

I have been thinking about this subject for awhile and it reminded me of the distinction that someone came up with in the audio community. From this link, Keith Yates talks about the difference between audiophiles and music lovers. The first time I heard the two labels it was to describe a music lover as someone who has a huge library of CDs or albums and spends most of their time listening to their collection. In contrast, an audiophile spends most of their time thinking, reading and discussing the audio equipment. Those are kind of simplistic descriptions, but most should get the drift.

With this set up, it seems that their are two types of people from what I have seen. There is the video lover, who has a huge collection of software and/or is constantly watching new material as it comes out. I would say a video lover probably prefers to spend their evenings watching their system. I would also say a video lover probably doesn't care what technology is displaying the picture, as long as said technology gives them what they want. The CRTophile on the other hand spends more time thinking, reading and discussing CRT than actually using their projector. This person loves CRT and is probably more concerned about CRT then which technology provides them with the best picture. Like I said earlier, this is kind of a simplistic description and being either one or the other isn't wrong.


For me, I probably started as a video lover. Then in the middle part of the decade for a couple of years I was probably a CRTophile. During that time, I was semi-obsessed. Hell, tse had to get a restraining order. Now over the last year or two, I have probably swung back to being just a video lover. I spend more time watching programs than spending time on the technology. In the last two years, I probably have two hundred posts on AVS as opposed to four thousand in the years before that.

So, which are you?

[Nashou66]

CRTophile ........but to be Honest I am burning out. lately I have been watching more movies on he partially completed blend and even with its slight flaw I love watching movies again.

Athanasios

[huggy]

I'd say I'm a bit of both,my passion is movies and CRT is my preferred delivery device for the content,but that's about where my dedication lies.If I preferred digital than that would've been my choice.I enjoy the tinkering ONLY when it is necessary and that's it.




Dave

[greg_mitch]

Will always love technology and tinkering with it...but I am a movie/video lover first. I love getting lost in a good story line.

Unfortunately keeping up on technology means that I am constantly looking for rainbows, banding, etc. and that can ruin it sometimes.

[ecrabb]

Greg... That could be my post you wrote! Seriously, that's exactly how I am. Love movies, like CRT to watch the movies, like tweaking a little to eek out as much performance as I can - without cutting too much into movie time. I notice artifacts, too which is why I just can't get into digital... For the time being, anyway.

SC

[cmjohnson]

I like movies that are presented very well. Today, the best digitals can do that. I'd be perfectly happy with one of them. But they're
expensive, far more so than a CRT projector that performs as well as any digital, or better, and digitals aren't showing the sort of
longevity that I want out of any product I intend to invest in. My 9500LC was built (upgraded) from a 1996 Marquee 8000 chassis with
nearly 50,000 hours on the counter before I did the retrofit. It had to have been on at least its third set of tubes but they were so badly
burned that the only thing they could project is pictures of toast. I did all the upgrades to make it a true 9500LC and even reset the
hours counter (accidentally) and there's no reason the chassis couldn't last another 50,000 hours.

Show me any digital that has a 50,000 hour service life. Heat issues in the optical engine make it unlikely to happen. And most digitals
still don't have an optical engine that's sealed against dirt and dust intrusion. They get filthy.


Even if digitals are equal to the best CRT projectors in terms of picture quality, the longevity isn't there, except for possibly some 3 chip
DLP units where the optical engine is better suited to handle the heat over the long term. But I still think that dichroic elements will bleach out and kill the color accuracy with them.

But now, FINALLY, there is hope for digitals. LED based sequential RGB lamp sources with simple optical engines with no dichroic
filtering elements give us a cool running, bright, high contrast projector which should last for the life of the electronic components.


I'm a CRT enthusiast because it's top notch in picture quality and it's affordable. But I'm not welded to the CRT technology.

I also LIKE the interactive tweaking that's required to get the best out of them. Mere appliances are less fun to me than things
I can hack and modify. I like to explore and (hopefully) make the machine better.


CJ

[WanMan]

Umm, watching high-definition brings to mind film-based and video based content. They are distinctly different. CRT is only a means of transporting the best image of both contents to this subjective viewer. If SED/FED ever makes it to market in 120" 16:9 aspect and within a budget I can afford, then it may be THE technology that moves me away from projectors.

Until then, the choice of image generation of CRT, but I am all about the best image on the screen.

[mp20748]

[WTS]

I'm of the same mind too. I love watching a good movie in HD but not at the expense of bad PQ. I get what I can out of my CRT only because I can, if it was perfect to begin with then I'd leave it alone. Maybe someday digitals will get to where I'd like to see them which is longivity and consistant PQ.

[Zebu Fellenz]

I play on both sides of the fine line.

Right now I probably spend more time watching test patterns and reading up on how to setup my G70 better with the latest gadget than I do watching movies. But I really enjoy both equally. I rent most of the movies I watch and the nearest rental store is the next town over, so it's a little bit of a trip to pick up some movies, usually I get 4-5 BD's when I rent and then rip them to my HTPC to watch later, if I have new movies I haven't seen yet I usually watch one a night until they're all watched.

If I had Netflix, or another by mail rental I would be watching many more movies but until I do it's just as easy to spend time doing research on my G70, and just mess around with getting it setup better.

I'm getting myself Netflix for my birthday next week so I'll likely be watching many more movies and less test patterns soon!

[akajester]

I'm in the middle. I love watching movies and playing games. I also have a technical side and like tinkering and tweaking. all depends on my mood that day.

[rssimm]

as a beginner CRTer im doing test patterns more than movies. i've made adjustments then watched movies. the family is happy but i'm nitpicking the image quality as much as watching the story.

put me down as a tinkerer who likes good movie experiences.

[Nashou66]

[LOTREE]

[Zebu Fellenz]

[AnalogRocks]

Our boy's growing up

[AnalogRocks]

Our boy's growing up

[HighDefMike]

[Spanky Ham]

Maybe I should have went with the term Videophile, but I figured CRTophile might be more appropriate here.

Mike,
What pj do you have? Roger Galvin is based out of Weston, I think. If he is still doing cals, then you might want to check him out.