CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject: OK, OK, I'm sold on digital.....

...

http://www.hedidntseethatcoming.com/

(click on the plasma screen).

...ok, maybe I'm not quite sold... I don't need THAT feature... Mr. Green

Joe L. · Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 13

And if it is an "X" rated flick?

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:47 pm Post subject:

I like the advertising though. Guaranteed that ad would not fly in North America though..

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:31 am Post subject:

Funny ad, but then I started looking... Found this in the FAQs:

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject:

What a bull**** stat all around. I have yet to see a CRT tube last 30K hours. Well, actually they probably could, but the electron gun would be pretty iffy at that point.

I don't disagree that a plasma or LCD display can/should/will last 60K hours. The catch is the chassis around the display panel itself will die way prematurely to that 60K hours. Try 1500-10K hours. Seems like the pubs around here all get free NEC plasmas from the BC lottery company, and frankly I think that NEC is amongst the tops in chassis life. All of these pubs run them 14ish hours a day, and I haven't kept on top of how long they last, but I do hear that BC Lottery has a warehouse full of dead units.

THe few airports that I've been in also use NECs (Seatac and Vancouver) from what I've seen, and they are on 24/7. But... most consumers aren't going to buy the big buck units. THe only one that I've had personal experience with was an LG that was installed at a restaurant that lasted 18 months. We sent it out for repair, $350 charge to reseat modules, and then when I was in 6 months later, they replaced it with a Panasonic.

So it's kinda like putting a lifetime warranty on the spark plug wires of an engine, but you know the engine itself will only last 100K miles.

David_Web · Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Sweden

I know what I wanna watch to have something nice dropping out of the screen.

I have a RD708 with 54k h on the clock. Not sure if it has been retubed but the serial stickers match for all the tubes.
Text wear is bad though, and focus is horrible.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

My RG808s has 42K hours on it. Minty clean tubes (not sure if it's been retubed, I'm assuming so). It's fine... Smile

Dave Lister · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject:

Well I have no reason to doubt you, but you're the only person that's done that.. Smile

I serviced literally 100s of sports bars with Zenith projectors, and all of the tubes needed replacement at about 10K hours. Most let them run to 20K hours, thus the bad reputation that CRTs had when I started selling them on eBay. I always told local customers to check out an NEC PG projector with a line doubler before they bought a year 2000 vintage LCD <yuck!>. I think I lost one sale to a digital back then from a woman that absolutely wanted a 3 lb small projector.

I just don't see how you can still watch a projector with a true 80K hours on the tubes, even if they were in standby mode for 70K hours of that.

At 8760 hours in a year, your set would have had to be on for 9.1 years at 24/7 to reach 80K hours. I guess it's possible...

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject:

Curt, the thing I was thinking about was a post I remember you writing a year or two ago about how the SMT electrolytic caps would dry out pretty quickly and cause failures. I'm having a hard time remembering, but I was thinking you said that because of the subminiature nature of a lot of the new stuff (and the complexity, I suppose), that the problems would be difficult to diagnose, and that the life-spans on a lot of the new electronics would be very short.

Your post kind of bummed me out because I've got a really nice Sony HDV camera I expect to keep for at least 5 years, and the time-frame I seem to remember you kicking around was in that ballpark. Don't the caps dry out whether you're using the device or not?

SC

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject:

Funny, I fired up my 10 year old Sony camcorder for the first time in about 3 years this weekend. The auto focus part of the lens is stuck, as you zoom in, the image goes out of focus, and the unit recorded in b/w for the first 1/2 hour (it's got a b/w viewfinder so I couldn't tell!). THen I got color squiggles, then finally it kicked into color for the last 1/2 of the tape. Wanna bet it's bad capacitors????

Also, the rubber (?) covering on the top of the unit is all sticky. I thought I'd spilled something on it, but the rubber stuff itself is sticky. My backup SOny camcorder is doing it as well. TIme to ditch them for a DVD HD recorder... one fine day.

Stupid unit, I just bought a new $70 battery for the damn thing. I'm pulling the lens apart to see if I can free up the mechanism.

The problem is that the metal cans of the caps that keep the electrolyte in place corrode over time and leak all over the PC board. Can't prevent that at all.. Sad

dropzone7 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1069 Location: Charlotte, NC

Camcorder sticky? Hmm...what have you been filming Curt? Laughing

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

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:46 pm Post subject:

Why not just make thicker cans? (insert crude joke here).

To me it's all about skimping out. The arguement seems to be that everything electonic is obsolete within 5 years. I still prefer the sound of a 30 year old Pioneer receiver over any of the new crap out there today.

1031 · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 657 Location: Finland

Dave Lister · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:54 am Post subject:

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

What are you using for a screen? In that first shot I see a "wrinkly" texture like you'd just hung up a sheet or something...

Dave Lister · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 2:43 pm Post subject:

That is the wall, it is a type of surface effect that was popular in the 1970's - 1980's, I think it is called either statuette or stucco, a mixture of plaster and sand is applied to the wall about 1 cm thick and then either a rake or a thickly textured roller is used to create random vertical grooves that make it look like either the surface of a split log or the surface of ground /carved rock.

I painted over it with ghost gum grey paint as the surface had yellowed over the years from the slow combustion heater in the lounge room.

One day I will get a proper screen that is 138" - 140" diagonal when measured in 4:3 ratio, the picture is 2.8 metres wide and 2.1 metres tall in 4:3 but in wide screen like the screenshots here the height is less.

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY