CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

larryp · Joined: 24 Jan 2012 Posts: 252 Location: eden prairie mn

Looking for a new blu ray player for my Sony 1272. Is it worth getting a 4k upscaling player? Would it improve the picture ?
Or should I buy a regular blu ray?

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Your 1272 can't handle 4K. There isn't even any way to get a 4K (HDMI 2.0) signal into your projector.

The best you can do at this time is a Mooome HDMI 1.4 input card in your Sony, which supports up to 1080p.

Even if it was an HDMI 2.0 spec input card in your projector, you ran out of video bandwidth LONG before you get close to 4K resolution.

The 1272 is rated only for 1600x1200 resolution so you probably won't even be able to get 1080p with as much sharpness as you would like.

larryp · Joined: 24 Jan 2012 Posts: 252 Location: eden prairie mn

I know that, Not what I asked.

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:30 pm Post subject:

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 11:33 pm Post subject:

Tim in Phoenix · Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 4409 Location: Phoenix

Hmmm

Perhaps Larry's best next move is into a nine inch machine, they have never been less expensive than now.

larryp · Joined: 24 Jan 2012 Posts: 252 Location: eden prairie mn

Nope, What i have will be my last crt

barcodude · Joined: 14 Jun 2014 Posts: 169 Location: The Netherlands

maybe a PS4 than you can also play some cool games and other content maybe? Cool

or a good working laptop or pc with bluray player and play with diffrent timings.

racerxnet · Joined: 20 Jun 2007 Posts: 362 Location: Illinois

Its not about upscaling to 4k, but the benefits to downscale to 1080p.

MAK

**kal** · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 2:49 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't even run a 1272 at 1080p. It'l be too soft. I'd use 1080i.

Kal

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

You SAY the 1272 is your last CRT projector, but understand this: The cost of a good flashlight (digital projector) today will set you back more than the cost of a low hours 9500LC Ultra with MP mods.

The Ultra does things the flashlight doesn't do, chief of which is to generate a picture you really WANT to watch!

CRT, done right, still has a wow factor to it that no digital has ever been able to match. The effect is difficult to quantify, but it's real.

I think it's because when you have an optimal setup, your brain thinks you're looking at film and not pixels or scan lines.

Even with a digital running full 4K, something in the back of your brain just knows the pixels are there. They're not obvious,
but they're being sensed at some level and they detract from the experience.

When a CRT projector is tuned to be exactly sharp enough to make the scan lines start to blend, you're seeing a film-like image,
your brain is happy with it, and it's as good as it can get for that resolution.

No, defocusing a digital projector doesn't match that appearance. It just gets soft and blurry.

barcodude · Joined: 14 Jun 2014 Posts: 169 Location: The Netherlands

**kal** · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 3:53 pm Post subject:

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

I've seen a fairly late model JVC RS40 recently. Watched a couple of movies on it.

It really looked good. Not kidding.

Then I went home and watched the same movies on my own 9500LC that was in need of a coolant change,
and it knocked my socks off. A way more ENGAGING picture.

There's still something about a CRT image that I have never yet seen matched by a digital. Not saying that elusive quality
doesn't exist in some digital projector, but I haven't seen it yet.

Still today, I walk into a home theater store and look at the picture thrown by whatever digital they're demo'ing this week,
and walk away, not having been impressed. However, that store is probably running an "affordable" projector, not a top tier model, so I'll give you that.

CRT projectors are also, by the nature of their construction, highly likely to outlast many more generations of digital projectors.
They've already outlasted EVERY generation of digitals, and my 19 year old Marquee chassis is still running strong with tubes that have under 500 hours on them at this point. Chassis hours are over 50,000 and I frankly don't expect any lamp based digital projector to make it 50,000 hours without having to have its optical core replaced due to heat related issues.

The latest units that have LED or laser light sources might finally give digital projectors the long service life of a CRT projector.

But, to be fair about it, CRT projectors are quite capable of outliving their usefulness. Technology marches on and if it weren't for
Moome Products, and Lumagen, and a few other providers of high definition pathways into our projectors, CRT would be an extinct hobby by now, except for a few nostalgia buffs who can't let it go. And I concede that I COULD be one of them, and if I can't get good 4K into my machine eventually, I WILL be one of them.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2016 4:26 pm Post subject:

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Oh, I think the day WILL come, if it hasn't already, where even the most enthusiastic and dyed-in-the-wool CRT enthusiast has seen the very best that CRT can do and seen the very best that digital can do and decided that digital had finally FULLY equalled CRT in every way that matters, or even beat it.

The history of CRT as a display device began in 1897 with the invention of the first CRT of any kind. CRT projection is the result of a hundred years (and more) of development.

Digital projection is, even now, barely 20 years old as a technology and it's impressive that digital has in just 20 years reached a point where it can perform on par with the best of CRT technology in most, maybe even ALL, respects, and exceed it in others, primarly in brightness and resolution capacity.

The day's coming when a new affordable digital projector will be released and it's going to beat the best CRT units at their own game. It's probably not more than a couple years away.

For now, I'd rather keep my 9500LCs and just keep using them, because they're paid for and have fresh tubes and besides,
they're fun to mess with, in a hands-on way that no digital projector really offers.

barcodude · Joined: 14 Jun 2014 Posts: 169 Location: The Netherlands

i heard oppo has the best picture quality out there...... only very expensive, the best way to go is a sony blurayplayer i guess

Francisco · Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 305 Location: The Netherlands

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Laser on phosphor is an interesting concept but I think that the phosphor will wear and burn just like in a CRT.

And that's the ONE attribute of CRTs that is most objectionable!

You'd think that by now some brilliant chemists would have figured out a way to formulate a phosphor system which
can't burn or oxidize because there's no oxidizer in the formula. Phosphors wear out because of chemical interactions,
and if those chemical interactions can be prevented by removing the offending chemicals, you'd have a phosphor that never
wore out.