CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

nidi · Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 305 Location: Switzerland

So, looks like:

lots of people seems to have viewed the posts, but only a few have put their systems in.

- Barco seems to be a European thing

- Sony a US thing

- Marquee ???

and all other Brands seem to have disapeared.

- screen sizes 100" and up

- source devices seem to hold about a balance between PC and Player/Processor

hope more people will participate.

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

nidi · Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 305 Location: Switzerland

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

Some people left when they ditched their CRTs. Some of us didn't -- partly because we're still interested in non-CRT HT stuff, probably more because we like the crazy people here.

Probably more people would leave if not for the off-topic forum.

robin36mac · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Posts: 46

gjaky · Joined: 05 Jun 2010 Posts: 2802 Location: Budapest, Hungary

I have encountered all common projector brands here. Myself have owned four different NECs, and all these should be around in the country. I also had three different Marquees. Me don't, but a friend had/have a few Barcos. Sonys were/are less frequent though, I don't know about any EM focusing Sony. most of the above mentioned projectors were 8", as for 9" EM LC machines I only know Electrohomes here.

mc86 · Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 10:06 pm Post subject:

Interesting to see this thread. It is funny -- I was worried this site only had a few years left back in 2011*, but I'd guess 75% of the top 50 posters in 2011 still visit at least monthly. Too many neat people and discussions, too many old friends, and too many long-running debates for this to go away. And a few bawdy jokes never hurt.

As per the OPs Q, I'd be curious to hear from more knowledgeable folks, but my out-of-my-rear-end guesstimate is the number of "regularly" used CRTs installations left in the world is....600 hundred? Curt once wrote there are TONS more lurkers and people who just run their CRTs and never visit or participate. I see in last month there have been 100 unique members visiting. I think I'd be shocked by the number of units still running. Maybe something like:
9" machines = 300 [but 100 in 4 years]
8" machines = 250 [but 50 in 3 years]
7" machines = 50 [but ~5 in 2 years]

I imagine those left will start to die at an increasing rate and that the drop-out rate will increase as machines age. I have a 1997-built 7" unit hanging on my ceiling (ECP4500+) and I have 2+ backups of every part. But at 22 years old all of the10-15 year life expectancy components are toast and the ~20year caps are getting bad. This is consistent with my failure rate now being unacceptable and operation is poor* (little issues) a lot of the time it will run. Do I go over every board to keep it running for fun? At my age, other things are more fun and more important. So, I've decided to go digital, recently cleared out almost all my tubes, etc. In another 4 years the "newest" of the 9" beauties (ok, save a few 9500 machines from FL) will be 20 years old...and will start to have similarly bad and frequent ailments. And they seem to me to be an order of magnitude more complex or demanding than my dinky little ES-focusing, air-coupled ECP.

cheers,
Matt

* see my study in 2011 in the members-only forum
** no wise-cracks about "operation is poor" meaning all the time [even if functioning 100% correctly], please!