CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

LOTREE

After a long wait the newest member of the family has arrived!!! Cool

I picked up the 1200x yesterday after clearing it through Canada Customs and paying final shipping charges. All I can say is that she is beautiful. There was always something about the Barco design I admired. Coming from an ECP unit most anything looks better.

A big thanks goes out to Greg1292 for putting up with me for the past 2 months arranging this and getting it out of his way. Kudos on using some high quality shipping foam, it kept things well protected for sure. As for the box, it managed to stay in one piece. Hope you're still enjoying the G70! Thumbs Up

The kicker in all of this is that an Electrohome 9500LC hit eBay a day after I put my money down and for significantly less at that. Thankfully, and after much consideration on his part I convinced my dad he had to have it as he was ogling over one for years now. I never realized how big Marquees were, a 9 incher at that. My single focus HD-215 lenses are so tiny vs his HD-10L's or even the HD-6's in the ECP, a carrot compared to a cucumber in size.

After 20minutes of figuring out the menu system setup and convergence was a breeze on the 1200x. Using a cordless remote with it, priceless. I'm still in amazement of the amount of adjustment that can be done. It's like going from a Chevette to a Maybach in options. The shorter throw distance on this this is PERFECT for my space as the living room is just over 12' long and I'm able to get just about an 84" wide screen image right now.

The ECP 4500 may find a new life on my bedroom ceiling, I'm not sure yet. The IQ between the two, nothing remarkable... YET. The 1200x is almost too sharp, did I just say that? I found DVD's played back 800x600 on the 4500 looked great, with sharpening turned on through ZoomPlayer of course. The same resolution to the 1200x, holy scan lines. It's up to 1024x788 for now and looks a lot better but still far from perfect; sharpening was still enabled in ZP, I just had to lower it a bit. A 30min setup vs. 5hrs on the 4500 has a bit to do with the differences for now. I can't wait to get this hoisted above the couch. Very Happy

-Greg

km987654 · Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:34 pm Post subject:

Its really great to see someone excited about CRT. I really hope you enjoy it.

**kal** · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:10 am Post subject:

Cool! I still love my Zenith 1200x. The short throw HD-215 lenses let me put it directly over my front row of seats and no bumped heads for those in the second row. The same wasn't true with the older Barco projector which had HD-8 lenses.

Make sure to give this section a thorough read: http://www.curtpalme.com/Zenith1200.shtm
Especially this: http://www.curtpalme.com/Zenith1200_Layout1.shtm

I posted everything that was wrong or missing from the manuals.

Kal

betel · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:51 am Post subject:

A bit of history on this 1200x:
I found the projector in the Atlanta Craigslist list a few years ago. Had a real hard time getting the guy to return my messages and took a couple of weeks to finally get in touch. Turned out he was out of town working as a DJ in NY for some special event. Took off from work and drove to Atlanta to pick it up at 9:00 am. Found his house easiest enough but couldn't get anyone to answer the door or phone. After just about giving up, he finally answered. He thought I meant 9:00 pm and had been up most of the night working. The projector was sitting on the floor in a dark windowless downstairs room that had a strong odor of cat urine. I swear it was the nastiest house I have ever been in my life. The floor had this dark thin carpet that made a squishing sound when you walked. On top of that there was no electricity in the house because he hadn't paid his bill. Fortunately I had a flashlight and some tools and was able to view the tube faces. All three tubes were clean with absolutely no sign of wear. He said it powered up and would project an image but since he couldn't prove it I got a couple of hundred off the price (it was a very good price). After I got it home, it turned out to be in almost perfect cosmetic condition with only about 900 hours on the chassis. The close focus lenses meant I would have to completely redo the ceiling support if I wanted to use it and I didn't feel like tearing my room apart again. I ended up selling it to greg1292 of course.

These machines do get around. The seller told me the 1200x originally came out of an upscale Altanta home that "upgraded" to a new projector. I understand my G90 came out of a Las Vegas mansion. Anyway Greg, I thought you might appreciate a little history on this machine.

Jimmy

LOTREE · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:54 am Post subject:

Yeah Jimmy it's rather cool to know actually, thanks for filling me in on that. My crafty Google searching Craigslist skills found this one also. Cool

If anything it's probably one of the most historically documented and followed projectors at this point on here, haha. Thankfully the projector doesn't smell like cat urine now. It's still in awesome shape, haven't check the hours or found out how yet. I'm about to take off the lenses to clean dust from behind. Thanks for the heads up on the articles Kal and the slight differences. I don't know why but I never bothered to even look at the manual yet. I'll have this one for a long, long time I'm sure.

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:07 am Post subject:

I love these crazy stories about used stuff... My dad and a buddy of his have bought some old muscle cars, and some of the history they can compile on the cars is amazing if they track down a previous owner or two... Sometimes right back to the original delivery. Amazing.

SC

LOTREE · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:14 am Post subject:

When I bought my '95 200SX SE-R it came with all the repair, oil change and tire purchase receipts along with owner transfers and the original factory window sticker. Thumbs Up

I was watching parts of Star Trek First Contact just now before bed, I love the color and closeups in that movie. I decided to check the hours and she's currently sitting at 3777. It just says run hours, I assume that's tube only or time the projector has been on? I had all the lenses off to clean out the dust in behind, I can't see any sign of wear.

Ile · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:11 am Post subject:

Have fun with your Lc 808s. Thumbs Up

**kal** · Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:55 pm Post subject:

LOTREE · Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:08 am Post subject:

In an attempt to get the best possible picture I can I've ventured into the magnetic astigmatism controls. Unfortunately I cannot get any better than this after about an hour of tweaking (The image was taken at a slight angle, the dot is level on the screen):

When I turn the brightness to zero, contrast to 100 and midpoint focus to zero or 100 I get a perfectly round circle, nice halo with bright center, after moving and dialing the pole magnets. I followed the Barco 808 CRT replacement guide as outlined. When I adjust the midpoint focus to where the lines and dots are the sharpest, right now at 32, everything seems to flatten out more so than the picture above shows, like a grain of rice. The blue tube is the same but the controls are not accessible and most likely would not be noticeable regardless. The red looks the best with close to round dots when focused correctly.

I find the dynamic astigmatism does very little if nothing for top and bottom and of course offers no adjustment for the center. The sides and corners benefit the most but even then I'm getting slight flares. Electronic focus seems to only work best for the image center also.

Any ideas what to adjust next or is this as good as it gets?

Ile · Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:41 pm Post subject:

Are you using Barcos internal test patterns for this?
Those aren't round with 16:9 screen, only with 4:3.

Use external 16:9 pattern for spot shape adjustments. Also find sharpest placement for focus yoke before final astig. Set midpoint focus to 57 and move focus yoke along tubes neck for sharpest spot...

secstate · Joined: 20 Mar 2006 Posts: 720

Ile hit the nail on the head for the shape of the dots if you are using a 16:9 screen. For electronic focus I find using a "resolution" pattern with alternating 1 pixel lines of black and white works much better for seeing the change in focus than Barco's internal patterns. Oh and you probably won't get the astig perfect in the corners and edges most likely. Green is usually the worse and red the best in my experience.

LOTREE · Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:17 pm Post subject:

Yep, using internal test pattern during setup.

This is the only thing I haven't done yet as I thought there may be something else first.

Ile · Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject:

Decibel · Joined: 31 May 2007 Posts: 904 Location: Roma - Italia

Which firmware version is installed in Zenith Pro 1200?

A question for all: my modded BG808 (in signature) have all parts like Zenith Pro 1200 except SMPS module.

My SMPS module is R7621705 (from BG808 non s).
Zenith Pro 1200 instead have R7621706 (same BG808s with voltage filament trimpot).
I have one R7621706 in my spare modules, can I use it?

The Zenith Pro 1200 Service Manual say that filament voltage must be 6.6v (factory preadjusted).

This voltage is correct for my P16 tubes?
Zenith Pro 1200 have P16 tubes then I think yes but I would be secure before the swap.

Thanks

sorry for my language Wink

LOTREE · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:51 am Post subject:

Decibel · Joined: 31 May 2007 Posts: 904 Location: Roma - Italia

Decibel · Joined: 31 May 2007 Posts: 904 Location: Roma - Italia

I've swapped SMPS board with success, it working correctly Very Happy

LOTREE · Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 7:24 am Post subject: A close call!

Well, the projector has been working perfectly although I haven't really used it much lately. I still don't have the screen cut and mounted.

That aside, last week with the sun beaming in on the black leather couch I thought the cushions were expanding and rubbing against each other. Anyone who's ever sat in a leather/vinyl piece of furniture will know the sound I'm talking about. I didn't think anything more than that but thought it odd as it never made that noise before. I soon discovered water dripping down through my light fixture on the floor.

I first thought, Oh NO, one of the 6 lag bolts I put up last year eventually made a water pipe leak. The logical explanation was that the new upstairs neighbor has a leaking tub/shower surround. I went up and checked and it turned out to be an old O-ring on the cold water hose for the washer which they moved in about a month ago. A steady drip from the faucet and on the floor behind the curled up vinyl flooring, through the wood, insulation and drywall.

A little bit of sanding, plastering and paint should make it look good again. I meant to repaint the ceiling anyway. I really need to put the projector on the apartment insurance though.