CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

barclay66 · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject:

Thank you!
I hope I never forget the right order for forums: Read - Think - Post and not the other way around Wink

Regards,
barclay66

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 7:11 pm Post subject:

Trust me, with my speed reading, I leave out the 'think' part entirely. Very Happy

Gannon · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:49 am Post subject:

I never really thought about it...but I DO set these up rather unconventionally. Done so from when they were brand new...I was a dealer for them at one point. During the transition from 500 to 700 for sure...there was an uncomfortable delay before he could ship the 700s at first.

At $12,500, versus the next nearest comparable thing in the residential marketplace being the Zenith 900 selling profitably at $11k, and then the Runco 980 way up at $18k (of which I was a dealer for all of them at the time...wow...I kinda forgot all that until now)...the Dwin was a powerhouse and best-seller by four-to-one or maybe six-to-one.

Once he came out with the variable-rate scaler, the Transcanner...after surviving a lawsuit from Yves Faroudja for using the same mathematical transfer function in his line doubler...it was all over for everyone else. We could do a full scaler and projector, with an RGB pass-through for future use...since HDTV was still in the chicken-and-egg phase of its nearly-aborted rollout...for 'only' $25k with screen, wires, and setup/installation/calibration. I even upgraded the HD-145s to color-corrected green and red on a few...now THAT is one key Mod.

But back to the setup...I have NEVER been able to get satisfactory performance from any of these chassis with the contrast higher than 15. I may have gone to 30 with a guy in Livonia (a NW suburb of Detroit) with a 10-foot wide screen, because he insisted on the large image.

Setting the contrast that low would help make a tight beam-spot focus. I DO get great detail and depth-of-field from these, probably because I don't try to get them to smoke 12 ftL's on peak white!

With this one, I experimented with a new on-the-fly method of setting black level and G2 voltage...and the gamma of the Moome box came in VERY handy. I DO so wish it could be implemented digitally, with repeatable values, instead of the hundred-turn variable resistors he uses now! I'd settle for a stepped resister where I could count the clicks! At least, perhaps, some reference series of LEDs allowing a gauge of gamma...like my guitar tuner.

Oh yeah, and with grayscale at that contrast level...the green is almost peaked out, and blue is almost at zero...but I get excellent grayscale.

Occasionally, there is a sliding black level...which also seems to have some delay to it, indicating a feedback sensor/mechanism...and the one I just setup near Detroit seems to need that adjusted. I'm sure it is one of the unlabeled pots on the Motherboard...there are six or seven of 'em.

Enough for now, I've finally unwinded from the six-hour drive home...time for a July 4th vacation weekend...we'll see how far into next week we can make it linger. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Cheers,
John

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

John would you happen to have any Dwin service manuals ?

Gannon · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 9:46 am Post subject:

Nothing of that sort ever left the company, as far as I know, Tom. Edward MUST'VE made a service script, too...because in the end, they had a nice young fellow running service...who unfortunately only seemed qualified to read. I miss ol' Roger...whose work visa ran out, I believe.

I have some service code information, but that's it. One level deep in pretty much all of Edward's products before the fixed-pixel crap came out.

The HD-700 has an hour meter there, and a curious adjustment that affects G2 and Grayscale that needs to be done after certain repairs...plus one which I've never been able to figure out.

Cheers,
John

**kal** · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:48 pm Post subject:

Gannon · Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:24 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I forgot about the D50. That was one helluva good chassis, too. Certainly more sophisticated than either the Dwin or Zenith...due their excellent Scheimphlug lens flapping. They were always tough to find around Detroit...and Sony discontinued that HTU version of the D50 WAY too soon. They really missed the boat, but had those sh*tty early LCDs to peddle instead! LOL...

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