CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

mc86 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:15 am Post subject: Post of encouragement and thanks!

Wow. Today in about three hours -- after 18months of not making time, but researching soley here on Curt's site -- I setup my first CRT starting at square 1! I need to go back and spend another few hours being more rigorous, though. I cheated a bit on physical setup and used more convergence than I should have...I wanted to watch the super bowl on it via my HTPC.

After the super bowl, to ease my depression, I quickly hooked up my DVD player's s-video to the Faroudja LD40 and got the images below. Again, for less than $300 a person can buy an ECP 4500, spend some time learning, and in a few hours with 1997 technology, knock out a sweet 80" diagonal! I am totally stoked to see what I'll be able to get this machine to do in the coming months!

Thanks all -- wanting more than this seems greedy -- glad I haven't seen a 8" or 9" machine setup, I guess!

Very Happy

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12088 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Congrats!

And you can be certain that this first setup is about the WORST you'll ever do. Run through it a few times and you'll get better and better. And I suspect even that old ECP would benefit from a better signal source. Do you have a better connection to the LD40 than S-video?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:36 am Post subject:

Congradulations

Run your HTPC to the ECP and play your DVD's from there.

What resolution were you running from the HTPC?

dturco · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 2:55 pm Post subject:

I'm always amazed when I see the pictures on a "lower end " set. The difference between that picture and a 9" machine isn't as great as you would think. The colors are nearly as good and the focus at the same resolution would not be much different. Feed that thing a better signal and you'll be twice as happy.

Congratulations. Now do it again. Wink

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

Condolences on the loss but regardless of who was playing and who won the gameplay was just awesome. They duked it out like the champions they are.

Ditto what the others said. Before you get too fat and happy (and subsequently lazy) with S-Vid and don't do much else to it for another year...it wants more input. If you think it looks good now go ahead and feed it better. It'll have you giggling like you just witnessed a moronic skateboarder crushing his nuts on a handrail.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:07 am Post subject:

I just got in a DVDO HD processor in mint shape. Need to test it, I don't think that model transcodes an HD signal, but it will be cheeep!

Good work so far.. now take it to 11!

LOTREE · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:35 am Post subject:

The 'weird green effects' you see were usually caused if the contrast and/or brightness was turned up too high although more prominent in the menus. If your G2's and contrast/brightness are set correctly you shouldn't have that problem. I'd love to be there to help as configuring an ECP is a bit of fun. Now that the stitches are out and the finger is healed up I'm gonna dig mine out of the closet to play with again. Also, throw up a grey image, see if you're getting any color shifting. Here's a 60" wide shot from my 4500 before I adjusted the R1 and R5 pots on the Waveform Generator board. The remaining pots R2-R3, R6, R7 can be adjusted for better grey scale.

Just before I took it down:

70" wide

I remember watching AVP and I Robot through S-Video from the DVD player before I switched to a HTPC. It's weird, I'll never forget those moments, nice big scan lines.

mc86 · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:39 am Post subject:

Hi -

I had the HTPC sending 1024x768 at maybe 60hz; it looked OK using Win7 media center live TV. However, the aspect ratio was moving all over with commercials, etc. As of right now, my plan is to try these signals (via an 8x1 rgbhv switch & 50ft crazy-expensive cable):

1) (40% use) family-friendly win7 media center TV - can look as is right now and they are happy. 1024x768.
2) (20% use) laserdisc (and very rarely SVHS) through the LD40 or maybe the IDC3000 if it works. Better, inexpensive processors?
3) (40% use) DVDs [soon BR] either a) HDMI to HDFury3 or b) via HTPC

I gather 1080i will likely look better than 720p, but I've haven't started looking into scalers, doublers, etc.

Any idea why I get green smeering to the right of only bright white spots on the screen? True for both sources I've tried so far...does it for light bulbs, men's shirt collars, bald guys' heads, etc. Even on black and white images. Not convergence, it is weird.

Matt

LOTREE · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:50 am Post subject:

I was slow editing my post Matt before you posted, watching tv here. My dad's 4501 was terrible with the green blooming on whites, mine was also unless configured correctly. I completely reset and adjusted all controls multiple times and dialed in proper grey scale as best can be done by eye and it eliminated the problem.

mc86 · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 4:07 am Post subject:

Man, was my brain totally fried just a few mins ago. I hadn't refreshed my browser from circa ~9PM and was all confused on how LOLREE posted the reply to green smudge Q when I hadn't yet posted...I was seriously wigged-out. Of course, I just went back and looked at the photos...

I did greyscale adjustment only using the G2 controls and video gain board. I see now in Curt's ECP write-up that there was to be "posted a separate tech tips section that describes how to tweak the trimpots on the front of this (WG) board, again under normal circumstances it’s not required to turn these pots." -- but I never looked for that write-up and don't think the service manual called it out for greyscale...looks like I've more homework to do.

No worries about me being lazy just yet...tomorrow the "new" AMP (kenwood km-x1 via ebay) comes and I'll have real sound! After 9 years subsisting largely on a 19"TV and no speakers, words can hardly describe the joy. The party is just getting started!

Few folks here mind losing to a Mike M. and the Packers organization; Games like that are why the Stanley Cup is so great...hard to argue about who the best is when 7 game series decide everything throughout.

The wife thinks I'm a geek...but very clearly one she is loving right now. (Cue "she thinks my tractor's sexy" and substitute CRT)

Matt

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:58 pm Post subject:

mc86 · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:35 pm Post subject: how did you know?