CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Joe Patino Jr]

First an introduction: My name is Joe Patino Jr. live in Houston Texas, new to projectors, both digital and crt. I have some questions for the experience members of this board this questions are for the CRT"S(1) what is the widest width. and height, an 7 or 9" can throw? (2) what other piece of equipment is needed besides the feed source? (3) what is the reliability of the crt's? (4) What is the approximate cost to calibrate this things? I know I'll have other questions but this will do for now. Thanks in advance for any information I get, Joe

[gjaky]

Hi, and wellcome to the forum,

I am not a big expert, but I tell my opinion.
1.) I can tell you that my friend had a NEC 9PG xtra (7,5"), and he had a 7 foot wide screeen, and projected it without any problems.
2.) Depends on what source do you have, if you have a PC then you need only a dsub->RGBHV cable, but if you want to use a ss DVD player, or BR player you may need a video processor, or HDMI->RGBHV adapter (or a suitable input card for your pj if available) but these are all $$$, (HT)PC cheap, easy, still good
3.) depends on luck, these stuff are getting old, so part failures are getting more common, but the crt projectors itselfs are super reliable machines, since in their time they were intended to be commercial products, if something is going wrong, then 98% sure that it is repairable.
4.)If you have a little DIY blood and the color balance is not messed up, then you can lear by your self the setting up method, therfore it is free

[draganm]

84 to 92" horizontal wide screen is ideal. You'll need a moome card or HD FDury, to transcode HDMI, and age can be an issue at this point. If you can get a CRT with rebuilt eletronics it helps a lot.

[Curt Palme]

Hey Joe, welcome! Loaded questions to be sure!

1) Very subjective, ditto really for all your questions. Generally speaking, I'd go with no more than a 106" wide screen, 96" or 92" would be preferred. The smaller the image, the brighter it will be. THe largest practical one I've done with a 9" set is 120" wide, and while a good screen size for the room, it was an underwhelming image.

Unless you're going to experiment with an entry level set, I would not go for a 7" set at this point. Too old, and with the price of 8 and 9" sets being low, if you're serious about HT, I'd go right into a higher end set.

2) Assuming you're feeding the projector an HD signal via HDMI, you'll need a Moome box or an HD Fury. THe Moome site is down for the last week for some reason, but that's about all you need. As gjaky above says, you can use a PC computer as a source, and go VGA to the 5 BNCs on the back of a CRT projector.

3) The above comment pretty much nails it. A typical CRT is 15 years old or so at this point, so failures do happpen, but since they are modular, service is easy. From a reseller like me and Tim and a few others out there, I/we do a bunch of mods to replace known problematic parts before you're buying the set, and I'm only now getting calls from some customers that I sold sets to 8 years ago that are now breaking down for the first time.

NO reason that a good quality CRT can't last another 7-8 years if the chassis is in good shape and the tubes are good. If however, you buy an as is set that has been stuffed in an a/v room for the last 5000 hours of use with no ventilation in it, then expect a set that could break down every year due to heat damage.

4) Ranges from free if you DIY it with some patience, to say $1200 for a pro to calibrate the set. No question that a pro like Craig Rounds who posts here often under CIR Engineering will get the best out of your image, but with some time spent learning your set, you can do a really good job without calling anyone in.

[Curt Palme]

Hey Joe, welcome! Loaded questions to be sure!

1) Very subjective, ditto really for all your questions. Generally speaking, I'd go with no more than a 106" wide screen, 96" or 92" would be preferred. The smaller the image, the brighter it will be. THe largest practical one I've done with a 9" set is 120" wide, and while a good screen size for the room, it was an underwhelming image.

Unless you're going to experiment with an entry level set, I would not go for a 7" set at this point. Too old, and with the price of 8 and 9" sets being low, if you're serious about HT, I'd go right into a higher end set.

2) Assuming you're feeding the projector an HD signal via HDMI, you'll need a Moome box or an HD Fury. THe Moome site is down for the last week for some reason, but that's about all you need. As gjaky above says, you can use a PC computer as a source, and go VGA to the 5 BNCs on the back of a CRT projector.

3) The above comment pretty much nails it. A typical CRT is 15 years old or so at this point, so failures do happpen, but since they are modular, service is easy. From a reseller like me and Tim and a few others out there, I/we do a bunch of mods to replace known problematic parts before you're buying the set, and I'm only now getting calls from some customers that I sold sets to 8 years ago that are now breaking down for the first time.

NO reason that a good quality CRT can't last another 7-8 years if the chassis is in good shape and the tubes are good. If however, you buy an as is set that has been stuffed in an a/v room for the last 5000 hours of use with no ventilation in it, then expect a set that could break down every year due to heat damage.

4) Ranges from free if you DIY it with some patience, to say $1200 for a pro to calibrate the set. No question that a pro like Craig Rounds who posts here often under CIR Engineering will get the best out of your image, but with some time spent learning your set, you can do a really good job without calling anyone in.

[Joe Patino Jr]

Curt, knew the questions would be. but had to get an idea as to what I'am looking at as far as equipment and size of screen. I much prefer the picture quality to size. I've seen some of the digital prj. and they just don't do anything for me. I appreciate the feedback from everyone that did I know that I will have more questions and that some of them might sound stupid to some of y'all, just don't crucify me too bad. Joe

[Curt Palme]

No, they're all good questions, I just wanted to make sure that you knew about the DIY factor. THe setup is relatively easy. Some good links (if I dare say so myself):

http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTPrimer.shtm

and to give you an idea of a typical setup:

http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTSetupGuide.shtm

[Curt Palme]

No, they're all good questions, I just wanted to make sure that you knew about the DIY factor. THe setup is relatively easy. Some good links (if I dare say so myself):

http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTPrimer.shtm

and to give you an idea of a typical setup:

http://www.curtpalme.com/CRTSetupGuide.shtm

[retro-rick]

I recently accuired a Sony 1270 recently. I think I put more hours on it in the 2 months I have had it than the previous owner did in its 20 year life. I am running a xbox with vga cables using 720p. The picture sharpness to me is comparable in sharpness to a film cinema. If you have been looking at LCDs you may think the CRT may be lacking in resolution. This may be the case, but my entry level CRT just has a natural feel to it.

[Joe Patino Jr]

One more question for all you experienced people on this board. I have been trying to wrap this around my 65yr old mind. I've read on the digital boards how a prj with 1200 lumens can light up a 120" screen, but an crt with the same lumens cannot . Am I missing something here? Can somebody out there enlighten me? I'am trying to gather as much info. as I can to make a sound decision weather to crt, or digital. Joe

[garyfritz]

Lumens can be measured differently. Digital projectors are usually rated in ANSI lumens, which is some standardized method of measuring the light output.

CRT specs tend to cheat. CRTs are current-limited, meaning there's a limit to how much current can run through them -- which means there's a limit to how many photons it can pump out at once. You can get really bright in a small area, but if you try to light up the whole screen, your maximum brightness goes way down. Guess what, the ANSI measurement lights up most of the screen. So CRT ANSI lumens tend to run pretty low. To make it look impressive they tend to spec CRTs with "peak" lumens, which is basically the brightness measured with a small bright area instead of a large bright area. CRT "peak" lumens tend to run about 4-5x higher than the ANSI lumen rating for the same projector.

If you tend to watch mostly somewhat-dark movies, the CRT does just fine because there aren't many bright areas on the screen. If you watch something like Ice Age, with an all-white image, the CRT will look a bit dingy. If you compared a 1200 ANSI lumen digital to a 1200 "peak lumen" CRT on Ice Age, the digital will be a LOT brighter. The CRT just can't pump out that many photons over that big an area.

[zGman]

Questions are free - answers $3
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