CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[jcarson]

I've just bought my first G70 - 3600hrs on the tubes. (yes we still get excited about G70's here in Aus ) I've had a Sony 1272 for a few months now which after figuring out how it all worked I love - seems like a great unit to me so I figured the G70 must be even better....but.....

The problem.

I think it's been run too far back (see tube face pics) and been moved at least once. At the 'correct' distance from my screen (100inch 16:9) I can see the wear, at least in the test patterns so far, and my room won't support me moving the PJ any further back. Ah the disappointment!

In the opinion of the pros here are these tubes really no good or am I being too fussy? The guy I bought it from said the blue tube was a 7.0...but now I have the lenses off it doesn't look like a 7.0 to me (note to self always see the tube face pics!)

Options

I've done a bit of reading, and it seems like my options are:

1. I can swap out the green and blue tubes from VDC for around $1500 plus shipping from Australia each way (gulp). Is it worth getting them to do the assembly or is the bare tubes installation doable for a careful novice?

2. Find some good secondhand tubes on ebay or in the buy and sell forum here

3. Boost the output of the green and blue tubes (will that solve it?)

4. Any other ideas???

[huggy]

Sorry to tell you but those tubes are about a 4 according to Curt's tube wear chart... i.e not good for movie watching.
You will have to source a new or good condition green and blue.

I would hunt around for someone who's parting out a set and do a deal on the tubes,will be much cheaper than getting new from VDC.Maybe Curt has something?
So the seller told you they were a 7? I would ask him for some sort of compensation,as the set is definately not as described.



Dave

[ecrabb]

That blue is a 5 at best. The seller either misrepresented the condition of the tubes or was ignorant himself of the exact condition. Either way, it's a bummer.

Don't spend big bucks on tubes from VDC - these machines just aren't worth enough money to justify that. Just be patient and watch the forum and eBay and buy some tubes with hardware installed. Shouldn't take long - with prices the way they are, I think we'll start seeing more parting out.

SC

[jcarson]

Thanks for the replies guys - looks like the tubes are toast then. I was pretty gutted when i switched it on and saw the warm up white screen with brown in the middle, I thought all couldn't be well with my new toy.

The VDC option seems ultra pricey - around $AUD 2000 plus shipping, kind of a last resort for me. Still despite this, I'm a CRT convert, they're big, heavy, noisy, and a pain to set up but they just throw a really good picture, and have a certain magic to them (although the only picture I've ever really seen is a Sony 1272 so far)

If anyone has any good condition tubes for sale, or knows of anyone who has some let me know. Consider this opportunity knocking for anyone parting out a G70

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Mate you just missed a heap of tubes that went a few weeks ago, im not sure but i think there were some sets of tubes that suit a G70 as well as an XG ( or they are simular tubes, i dont really know ) A friend of mine here in QLD got a set off this guy and they were quite cheap. We will have to modify his 9PG XTRA to fit the tubes due to the extra length.

Looking at those tubes, they are pretty shagged, if you could keep it in the wear pattern it would still look pretty good, but probably wont last long before itll be too hard to get good colour balance.

I would really like to know who you bought this off, cause i bought a 9PG of a guy a while back that advertised it as a 9PG plus, and the set has a heap of issues with it at the moment. The tubes on it are perfect though. I noticed a while ago the same guy was selling a G70 and had no tube face shots. I had a real battle getting him to actually ship the damn thing to me, cause every other day he came up with another excuse as to why it hadnt been sent that day, and despite is 100% positive feedback at that time, looking back at all his feedback revealed that i wasnt the first one that had alot of issues with shipping delays and also with the product not being everything he said it was.

I dont know his name or ebay name, but he is in NSW.

Get onto Curt, see what he has, he is a real top bloke and has always gone out of his way to look after me with both my CRTs. You can buy from him with 100% confidence, cause what he sends is exactly what he says it is, and his prices are more than fair.

[jcarson]

I bought it off a guy in SA who had upgraded to a G90. Not sure if he was semi scamming me or if he just didn't take the lenses off the tubes to truly see the wear - he seemed an OK guy though, and was happily using the unit (though I assume further back than recommended).

Overall my mistake for buying a unit without seeing the tubes faces. Now I have a PJ that isn't worth hauling up to my ceiling (no easy job!) until it's fixed. I guess its the old 1272 for a while yet!

The good PJ's seem pretty rare here in Australia, and still seem to fetch good money, even units like the G70 go for a bit. You almost need to buy them when you see them, because it might be months before you see another.

[CIR Engineering]

If you could move the projector back more and stay within the darkest wear pattern the image would probably look pretty decent. But since you can't pull the projector back anymore that option is out.

The other option (which you won't like ) is to run a smaller screen to keep the image inside the dark section of phosphor.

What I would do until you score new tubes is just set it up and run with it. Calibrate the gray scale at the center of the screen. You will notice a different gray scale outside the wear pattern, but if you don't dwell on it you'll still be able to enjoy the projector.

Whether the tubes are 7 or 4 you would still have this issue in your size room because you wouldn't have been able to stay within the existing wear pattern. For your situation you should look for new tubes, or tubes with zero visible wear.

craigr

[CIR Engineering]

One more thing...

...you need all three tubes, not just green and blue. You may not be able to see the wear pattern through the red, but it is there and on the phosphor. If you don't also change the red tube you will still have a discoloration around the boarder of your projected image.

So do get a full set of all three tubes.

craigr

[CasetheCorvetteman]

[jcarson]

[jcarson]

[CasetheCorvetteman]

No worries mate, if i were you though, i wouldnt rule out an NEC XG from Curt instead of another G70, he has a couple XG110s at the moment for about $1,500 including the brackets, i dont think they are LC units for that price but they are $1000-$1,500 cheaper and pretty near as good ( in my opinion, cause i like NECs ) Either way, they will show a better picture than that G70 you have there with rooted tubes, and even without LC the contrast with good tubes on an AC XG will be just as good if not better than that G70 with rooted ones.

No real good reason to stick with a Sony, cause he has a Cine 8 listed on his site here: http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTforSale_Intermediate.shtm for $2,500 as well with brand new tubes. I reckon that is a better buy.

[jcarson]

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Hold the bus, ill look at the list, i like the NEC myself, but ill look at the specs and all the info and see which one i would choose, cause the Cine 8 is a great rig too.

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Ok, after reading up abit about both, they are so close to the same its a real hard call, the specs of the Cine 8 say its got a higher contrast ratio even though its AC compared to the LC XG, they both have the same lumens, the Cine 8 says max res is 1600x1200 vs the XG at 2500x2000, but that is in my opinion neither here nor there cause you wont use it, reading about the Cine 8 in the products for sale section the Cine 8 in there has been modded to use the simular tubes as the XG,

[CIR Engineering]

Of the projectors you are looking at I would certainly choose the NEC. The NEC has a much tighter, higher bandwidth, and overall better signal chain than either the Barco or Sony. However, if the G70 had good tubes I would stick with that over any of the others.

FYI you can put the G70 on the ceiling and change the tubes out later with it on the ceiling. Sony made the tubes incredibly easy to remove from the projector when ceiling mounted so it is a non issue. I retube quite a few Sony G90 and G70's and I always leave them on the ceiling. Its four bolts and a few wire disconnects and the tubes slide right out.

craigr

[CIR Engineering]

Also, for anyone who wants proof of the superior signal chain in the NEC, send 1080p 60Hz to all three projectors and look at a SMTPE 1:1 pixel pattern. The NEC will almost fully resolve the 1080p just like a good 9" projector such as the G90 or modified 9500. You can get near 1080p 60Hz on the NEC and this is the only 8" stock projector that can do it.

craigr

[Spanky Ham]

You may want to fire it up and see how you like it before you start thinking about buying a new pj. It may not be perfect, but you can still get a good pic. Down the line, you may run into some good tubes for a decent price that you can replace them with. If you are going to go to the trouble of ordering and shipping a new pj from Curt, then you might as well get a 9".

[CasetheCorvetteman]

[CIR Engineering]