CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Hdale85]

Just curious if this is possible? I emailed Curt and he recomended the 8500 but I'm wondering if it's the best option for the budget and if it's capable of displaying 1080p 72hz clearly and with nice detail? I noticed he also has a few NEC XG 110's and that could be another option? Or maybe I should extend my budget a bit? Is there something better for 2500? 3000 at the VERY most. I really don't want to spend 3000 though. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm still trying to decide to go digital or CRT, I know CRT would definitely be nicer but this isn't going in a dedicated space right away, but eventually it probably will.

[Elaine Benes]

You need to see a really well setup 1080p digital, it will do the size you want EASILY and have an excellent, punchy(ie. VERY bright), lifelike picture. Not sure why you spec'd 72Hz, but if your source is BD, you can feed digital projectors 1080p 24 and have no conversion at all.

An 8500 and XG will DISPLAY 1080p 72Hz, no problem, but if sharp focus is important, those crt projectors won't even come CLOSE to a decent digital for focus and sharpness. If you want a sharply focused 1080p image using a crt, you'll need to go very high end, G90, or 9500LC, at least, whereas any of the new 1080p digitals will be VERY crisp and sharp easily. CRT isn't necessarily "nicer" for 1080p at high refresh, CRT has absolute black, that's pretty much its only selling point at this late stage of the game.

Personally, if you've got a budget in the $2000. to $3000. range, I think you'd be crazy to buy a 10 year old CRT projector for what you want to do...this is just my opinion having seen a couple well set up new native 1080 digitals in direct comparison to a well setup G90 and several other crt projectors...

One thing that makes it so difficult to get an accurate picture of how good digitals have become is the fact that the vast, vast majority that are set up for demonstration in a commercial setting, are set up just about as poorly as they CAN be setup, whereas, in comparison, when you see a crt projector in an enthusiasts home theater, it is often set up just about the BEST it can be setup...from my experience, when the setup is even, the new digitals look FANTASTIC.

[Hdale85]

But they still don't have the shadow detail and black levels that a CRT has. I'm looking at both options. The shots I've seen of the G90's is incredibly sharp but I can't drop 4500 on a projector. I've been considering the Panasonic PT-AE4000U though.

I'm not saying the sharpest image is the most important thing to me, but I don't want it to look crazy soft and worse then 720p.

[Elaine Benes]

Sorry, I would totally disagree with you. the new digital projectors that *I've* seen, have BETTER shadow detail than ANY crt projector I've ever seen, under ANY circumstances. CRT projectors have NEVER been any good at shadow detail, unless they're helped out with a gamma correction device of some kind.

Absolute black level, sure, you just can't match crt for absolute black, but the new digitals that *I've* seen have much, much, much better shadow detail, are much sharper, and have much better "in scene" contrast than any crt projector, bar none. And the ONLY circumstances where you can SEE that they lack the ability to do TOTAL black is when its a fade to black that lasts long enough for your eyes to adjust. Fades to black that are followed by quick return to normally lit scenes you can't "see" that the black isn't absolute cause your eyes haven't adjusted quick enough to tell you that.

A really well set up G90 is about the only projector that *I've* seen that will come close to the sharpness of a digital, and its still, objectively, a long, long way off. You can see this easily when you do an a/b comparison using the same image at the same size on the same screen, which is what I'm using to judge this.

You need to get out and look at the ACTUAL projected images yourself, cause you can't judge them by screenshots. In person, the new digitals look FANTASTIC....The majority of people sticking with CRT are doing so for economic or hobbyist reasons, not necessarily because they are still the absolute best image available...If I had the dough, I'd have a new digital, but my $200. Barco Graphics 808s works perfectly and provides a superb image for next to nothing, I've no reason to spend 10X its value to replace it with something better, I'm happy enough....

[stefuel]

Also keep in mind that after you spend 3K on a CRT projector, you aren't done. You need something to get from HDMI to RGBHV and probably a video processor, switcher and cables. $$$ start to pile up fast.

[draganm]

funny, the guy comes to the biggest CRT site in the world and gets told to buy a bulb burner. I always wonder why some of the people here are even here at all?

[Hdale85]

[Hdale85]

By the way, part of the reason I was looking at CRT is the fact I won't have to replace a bulb in 1-3 years...or possibly sooner if I get a dud. And I mentioned 72hz because some experience flickering at 48hz.

[Nashou66]

Whats your location?

Athanasios

[Hdale85]

Near Youngstown, Ohio

[kschmit2]

an alternative to 1080p72 is 1080i96 from a good scaler (Lumagen HDP and up).

[draganm]

[Nashou66]

Drags grab that !!!! Just for the Greyscale at 11 points!!!! it will accept 24p and with the moome card you can run 1920x800p@72, just change the anamorphic squeeze resistor to 68kohm to get more adjustment range.

Honestly get it.

Athanasios

[Sparky015]

[Hdale85]

Is a good Vidoe processor still going to run 1k or more? I see the DVDO is 999 and uses the Anchor Bay VRS.


And yes Cleveland isn't to far About an hour. I've honestly never seen too many CRT setups. I have a few friends (online) that are enthusiasts though and love them. So thought I'd see what my options are.


There is a G90 locally (sort of) on CL, but the guy is asking 5k for it. He'll never get that locally I don't think. Either way too much for me even though I wish.....

[perisoft]

[Hdale85]

I have an HTPC, currently it has an Nvidia 9500GT which I run linux with XBMC as a front end.

I've been considering swapping to the PHC C-200 because it can do all the HD audio formats without a problem even embedded into MKV's now. Not sure that you can bitstream these from Windows from an MKV?

[secstate]

I owned and used for a number of years a Barco 808s with the higher res MEC tubes. To my eyes it was too soft at 1080p and I ran it at 720P. I never tried the interlaced 96Hz that some have recommended. Those higher res tubes are better than the standard issue in the Marquee and made a huge difference at HDTV resolutions. I would not recommend a standard Barco or Marquee 8" for 1080p. Maybe the 8500LC or those with the HD144(5) lenses are better along with the upgraded high res tubes (I think the HD8 are a big limitation). From what I understand I believe the Sony and NEC's might get a bit closer on 1080p. I now have a 9" Barco 1209s (Runco 1100 clone) and it does 1080p wonderfully. So the bottom line to me is, if 1080p is your thing I'd look at 9" sets or digital. Or you at least need to see an 8" set doing 1080p and decide for yourself if it does it well enough for your tastes. On video material the difference is somewhat subtle but it is obvious on any test pattern/Windows desktop. Also I second the HTPC recommendation. It is what I use but they are a pain to setup and get going. Personally my secret is, once it is working is to leave well enough alone other than security patches then it tends to keep working without too much ado.

[kschmit2]

[lexx21]

If you are going the htpc route, you can use ffdshow to tweak your output enormously. Take a look at it and see, but be forewarned..... it will require a lot of processing power (think quad core) to upscale from 720 to 1080. My dual core opteron couldn't handle it but my quadcore phenom did easily.

Also take a look at media portal for a front end. Pretty nifty and under constant development for new features.