CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I picked up a NIB Philips E-Box for a good price. It is a line doubler and 3D comb filter Philips produced for plasma televisions. It sends out 480p and 1080i at 60MHz through an HD-15 connection. The trick is that the E-Box has an ID signal sent over pin 15 so it would only work with certain Philips plasma tvs. I have the service code so I hooked it up to my computer monitor and changed the E-Box to operate in stand alone mode. It worked perfectly on the computer monitor (an old Sony). When I connected it to my ECP the PJ went into a horizontal roll. I disconnected it put it back on the computer monitor, it worked perfectly again. I then put my old source back on the ECP, it worked perfectly again also.

I beleive the ECP is supposed to resolve 1080i. Am I missing something?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:43 pm Post subject:

How do you have it connectoed to your ECP? RGBHV or RGB H+V T'd together?

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

RGB H&V T'ed together. I tried RGBHV without the T, didn't matter.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:56 pm Post subject:

Maybe someone else can chome in here. Is there a way in the menu of the ECP to change the sync signal? Maybe called the Clamp setting?

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Anyone have any ideas? I tried again last night with the same results. I cannot figure out why it would work on my computer monitor but not the ECP.

I have been running the PJ through a cheap transcoder. I tried running the E-Box through the cheap trancoder's VGA passthrough (thought I would be able to lower the resolution) but I got an "out of range" message. Is the E-Box just outputing a resolution that is to high for the ECP?

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I think the e-box is scanning at 90Hz and this is my problem.

The E-Box is not adjustable. Is there a way to step down the scan rate?

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:48 am Post subject:

THe projector will only display what you put into it. There's no conversions going on inside it. You need to feed it a signal it can handle.

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Thank you for the reply. The E-Box was a bit of an impulse purchase because it was cheap and new in the box. I couldn't find much information about it on the net. What I have found is that part of the processing the E-Box does is increasing the bandwidth, Philips calls it FALCON.

I am no expert, but I believe typical 1080i is about 50 MHz, the E-Box is increasing that to what appears to be about 90 MHz. The ECP will only handle 65. It's to bad because the E-Box has digital natural motion, pixel plus, and a 3D comb filter. The picture on my monitor was unbelievable.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a vga to vga transcoder that would step down the bandwidth without totaly destroying the video quality.

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Does anyone know of a solution? I have been searching for an answer. It seems that there should be some type of transcoder that does nothing more than adjusting the refresh rate but I also know that I am probably the only person in the world that would want to do such a thing. I am no electrical engineer but I can build something if I had a schematic.

This may seem crazy but could I make a breakout cable with some inline resistors that would reduce the refresh? I am game for trying anything until I can afford (and convince my Bride that I need) a better projector.

gonyr · Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 138 Location: western NY

I run my ecp3100 with a directv box. It's a samsung ts360. The box can tune regular cable tv or directv, and scale to 1080i and 720p through a vga out port. It can also handle 4:3 or 16:9 by either letterboxing, pillarboxing, or stretching the image. I run my regular dvd player through it on component and scale with the directv box, then feed the projector with a vga breakout cable.

I got the box used on ebay for about $75, and it works perfectly for what I needed. If you go this route, make sure the box comes with a directv card. It's needed somehow, even if you aren't a subscriber.

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

Thanks gonyr.

I looked into the Samsung. I found several complaints about needing to reboot the unit with each use. Have you had any problems with yours?

gonyr · Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 138 Location: western NY

The only problem I had was when I first got it. It wouldn't power up properly, and just made a clicking noise about once per second. I was afraid it was dead. Some google searching led me to discover that I needed to leave it plugged in overnight until the clicking stopped and it said "boot fail". Then hook it to a display and set it to no dish. I've since found that it makes the clicking noise every time it loses power or gets unplugged. The longer it's without power, the longer the clicking persists. If it's less than a few hours, it only clicks once or twice.

Other than that, no issues. I just upgraded my projector to a Barco 1208/2, and had problems getting it to recognize 1080i or 720p. That turned out to be a sync problem, and was easily solved just last night thanks to a post from z-photo on the other forum from about 3 years ago. The ecp worked fine on 720p and 1080i, but wouldn't show 480p through the box. I think it's because the ecp likes positive sync (what the ts360 produces) and the Barco likes negative.

I use the Samsung for upconverting regular dvd's and regular cable. I don't have any hd-dvd's or an hd player, and I don't get directv or hd cable channels. It has an input for over the air hd channels, but I haven't gotten around to buying an antenna yet. It has all sorts of inputs and outputs, so it should be able to handle just about anything you need. I almost bought a cheap transcoder, but this seemed much more versatile. So far I've been really satisfied.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:04 am Post subject:

tri_joel · Joined: 03 Jul 2007 Posts: 646 Location: Northern Virginia

I'm leaning toward a new projector. I'm happy with the ECP, got it for a good price and have had fun learning about CRTs without having to be concerned about damaging an expensive unit. It doesn't make much sense to me to buy an expensive scaler for the ECP.

I would like to try to do the capacitor changes. I can't help it, I'm a tinkerer. I'll probably pack up the E-Box and store it until I can upgrade the PJ.

Maybe someone with 9kids will make me a sweet deal on one he found on a loading dock. Laughing

gonyr · Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 138 Location: western NY

gonyr · Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 138 Location: western NY