CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

digitalayon · Joined: 02 Mar 2009 Posts: 921

Last week I pulled a 9500LC from a theater in Spanish Fork. I paid in 25 bucks for the unit and lets just said I feel like I over paid.....it was a dirt ball....32,000 hours with bad burn in, tubes are completely shot and power supply fan have caked on dust with no fans running. Dirt was all over the inside of this thing and the outer white was a discolored yellow. He said it won't stay on for more than 2 minutes. Gee I wonder why. I did offer to fix and help him with the unit. He said no because it's UGLY. I told him I will take a few parts out like the Moome card, and the red c element and neck cards and the HD10L lenses which I just sold. He said he doesn't know what those are and I showed him what the VV1 looks like and he then goes......"if mine looked like that, I would not be selling this but having it fixed". So is looks just as important as function? I mean he could have had a nice hush box built. His basement had 8 foot ceilings and he was bringing in a 65 inch LED and was shrinking from a 110 inch screen. If anyone was wondering where I got the free time, The kids are at Disneyland and the beach with grandparents. They left early Friday.

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

Good youre getting out of the house mate Smile

I dont think a 9500 is the nicest looking projector out there, but i dont think its at all ugly. The older Barcos are ugly, the old Panasonics and a couple models of Sonys are ugly, but not the Marquee.

ElTopo · Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1640

Barco Cine 9 looks beautiful Mr. Green

UncleWill · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:31 pm Post subject:

Not so much ugly as strange looking. The first time I ever saw one of these, I was mezmorized by the three colored tubes. The SONYs are certainly sleeker and more consumer friendly. I think Electrohome was more concerned about function than looks in their models. All of them have an industrial look.

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:50 pm Post subject:

Design and aesthetics - what you call "looks" absolutely play a part in the desirability and appeal of products. It's why some companies spend huge resources on design. Still, some companies don't have a clue about the emotional part of buying and using products, and put almost no resources into design or aesthetics.

In the case (pun intended) of the Marquee, clearly there was little thought or concern put into aesthetics since, like dragan said, it was a commercial product for the commercial market. Same with the old Barco and even Sony projectors. It's why so many commercial products from two totally different manufacturers look so similar (think beige or grey rack-mount products) - form follows function. Engineers in a broadcast or production studio would place little to no value on aesthetics, so no development funds are spent there.

Later, some of these products started ending up in residential applications (there was a market), then some resources were spent there, for competitive advantage. It's why, for instance, the 808 and 909 were significantly more attractive than the boxy 1208/1209, why the XG was much more attractive than the PG, and why the G70 and G90 start to get some sexy curves compared to the boxy 12xx projectors.

There was also an overall better awareness of aesthetic product design in the market place that started in the late 80's and 90's, mostly with companies like Apple, IBM, Frog Design, Sony, and a few other big companies that cared about design. If it weren't for Apple, IBM, and a few others blazing the trail, we might all still have beige plastic projectors and computers. Wink

Of course, all this ignores the subjectivity of taste. Personally, I find the Marquee one of the downright ugliest projectors - right at the bottom with the ECP, and the old Barcos and Sonys. Not just the case design, but the overall shape. More square than rectangular, "fat" instead of slim and sleek. They remind me of the old Volvos, which I also find very unattractive. Thank God for Vidikron, the only way I could have ever had a Marquee even though it still didn't save the undesirable shape. At the top of the heap in my opinion are the later Barcos, the G90 and G70, and XG.

SC

ecrabb · Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:56 pm Post subject:

BTW, I can't fault the guy in Spanish Fork. I don't know how nice his theater was, but aesthetics are also important to me. Maybe not as important as performance, but then it depends on the product and application. If I spend $20,000 on a room picking chairs, carpet, paint, trim, doors, fabric, and everything else that goes into a room, I wouldn't be too hot on putting a giant beige and grey box on the ceiling. However, I can see how another guy, who's more focused on function, might be happy to throw some black carpet down, some black paint on the wall, paint the Marquee black, and spend the money on gear.

It's really the same with cars, houses, and every other hobby. Some people want 6-burner Wolf in the kitchen to cook on, some people couldn't give a damn. Some people are happy with an older high-performance car, others will sacrifice some performance to have clean, reliable, or new - cost be damned.

Just depends on people's wants and needs, and what they really desire from their hobby.

SC

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

The XG, while exceptionally nice looking, is not better looking than the PG... Especially when you take into account the periods in which they were released. The PG is a very nice looking machine indeed.

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

Aesthetics are one reason I bought the Sony Qualia 004 projector. Aside from it still being one of the better 1080 projectors out there, it looks SEXY as hell, I still can't stop staring at it!!

I think the look of something has a lot to do with purchasing anything. If it doesn't look good in your home, you wouldn't really want it most likely. People like nice looking things - its just how humans are Smile

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

Ya know... why is this even being asked? Aside from the fact that we can't change how our old CRT projectors look - This is a home theater forum... Look has everything to do with it! Razz

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 4:13 am Post subject:

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

You see any beige there???

Its white and grey.... No beige anywhere.

ecrabb · Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:22 am Post subject:

I guess the plastic had turned from grey to yellow on those I'd seen, or the color balance was off on the photos. Hell, it looks beige even on the PG on this site. Regardless, I Still don't find that case attractive. Sorry!

SC

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

No reason to be sorry Stevo, i dont see any good reason for that!! I do think it looks quite well designed for 1992 though.

Yes id say youre right about the yellowing, could be a number of reasons for that.

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

CasetheCorvetteman · Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 6326 Location: Australia

You know you can easily paint you XG again dont ya? Wink

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:02 am Post subject:

Case be damned! I'm looking at the screen, the projectors are behind me!

the big E · Joined: 20 Apr 2013 Posts: 1928 Location: speedwell Tn.

This is why I have a vikadron vision case on my marquee way better looking then the stock quee panels(which I have two sets of)

The pg cases looks pretty darn good for what they are