CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[perisoft]

So, those of you following my Barco 808s odyssey may know my story. For the others -

1) Wonder why I can't resolve 960p - or, for that matter, barely half that
2) Find out that the green astig magnets were on backwards

Since then, I've gone through:

3) Switch the magnets
4) Find out that the astig setup on the R and B wasn't so hot either
5) Do complete mechanical and electronic setup

...And now we're at the current position.


TRIUMPH

After the setup, things are looking absolutely fantastic. I've got scanlines on the green at 960p - though none on the red and blue - and I'm fully resolving 1 on, 1 off vertical and horizontal stripes on green in the center and all four corners, and very close on red and blue. Blue's defocused a bit anyway, but both R and B need astig work. The R is flaring - the spot size is OK but it's flaring.

The convergence is now vastly better too, with far less adjustment required; 1-on-1-off white lines are perfect in the center and pretty good in the corners.

I also redid the G2 for the blue, did a better black/white level setup, and some careful gamma adjustment, and the colors are looking as good as ever.

So, I'm absolutely thrilled! That, combined with a new HTPC running limitedsharpenfaster, and DVDs are utterly fabulous. Time to take some screenshots!


TRAGEDY

The only problem was that, for some reason, the Creative Extigy I was using before is FUBAR on the new machine, causing horrible timing problems - imagine a movie running 100fps for 2 seconds and 15 for 8 - and I mean the frames are desynched, not just stuttering. It's funny, but not really good for movie watching.

I'd had some other issues with the Extigy anyway, so I decided to ditch it in favor of a SB Live! 24 bit I had lying around, which would do in a pinch.

So I put in the SB Live!, and now my computer is an HTPC Dead!. That's right, folks - the computer hasn't even posted since I put the SB in. I took it out, rechecked things, and nada - no post, no fan, no lights, nothing. My hope is that the power supply packed up and went home for some reason (I checked the switch), particularly as I *have* another power supply.

All of this, everything lined up and as good as it's ever been... and... Denied.

Such are the trials of home theater. At least, though, thanks to Curt, I can share my pain.

Anyone who wants to come to Ithaca and buy me a beer is welcome - and I don't even drink beer!

[jask]

Ouch! hope it is "just" the PS.......

[Zebu Fellenz]

What are the specs on the HTPC, have you tried disconnecting everything but the motherboard and the CPU to try to get it to post?

[perisoft]

Well, I went to test the supply, and it tested fine. So I put it back in and started hooking everything back up one thing at a time, and... well, it all worked! Hmm...

At any rate, all appears well in HTPCland, so we'll see if it stays reliable. Meanwhile, I just need to get the sound hooked back up and hope that's all good, and I'm golden!

With any luck, screenshots to come....

[perisoft]

Well, I got a chance to grab some shots. For some reason the screenshots turned out absolutely awful; I can't get the camera to agree with the color, and I was shooting hand-held so there's blur there... but it's something. The test patterns are the good part, anyway. They're at 960p72. (They're noisy because I shot at uber-ISO to avoid blur as much as possible.)






Ah, progress!

[garyfritz]

There's this kool hi-tek invention called a "tripod" ...

[perisoft]