CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Gday people

I seem to have some sort of compatability issue with one of my Epson LCD projectors, its an EMP-S5.

The issue was first noticed not long after i bought the rig, went to watch a VHS tape on it and the image jumped abit before saying "UNSUPPORTED SIGNAL" on a blue screen, then showing a clear picture for anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 or 4 minutes, before doing it again. What is unsupported about it? It falls within the specs.

First off i thought the tape was buggered, so i tried another tape, and it did the exact same thing, so i tried a few more, all did the same thing, and i assumed the VCR (Panasonic NV-HD620A) was going bad after 10 years plus of good service. This thought was backed up later on in the night when i tested the tapes in the other room on the other Epson (this one is an EMP-S4 with a Panasonic NV-FJ600 VCR) and all worked fine, so i left it at that for a couple days.

I then tried 2 other VCRs i had sitting spare here that ive aquired over the years, first was an RCA 6 head (model number unknown, but as soon as it did the same thing it went straight in the bin, it was rather a poorly built VCR) followed by a pretty new Samsung 6 head, which was known to be working on a DLP rear projection TV just 3 days prior.

I bought a brand new VCR/DVD player combo unit, Samsung DVD-V6700 and it did the same thing. Although when watching a DVD or TV channels, its fine through composite (or s-video for DVD). VHS still no good.

3 of these 6 head VCRs cant all die at once with the exact same issue, i tested the Panasonic and the Samsung on the other projector, and there was no issue at all.

I tried running the VCR direct into the composite input on the projector with no change, was originally running through a Sherwood receiver.

Now running through a Harman/Kardon AVR 347, no change to the issue, using composite or upscaling to s-video it does the exact same thing.

I tried an NTSC video tape in it (the only one i have is the Corvette video that come with the car) and it does the same as any other PAL tape i had the issue with.

Last weekend, the issue also showed up when i connected a Panasonic 3DO game console to it, but it did it in both s-video and composite video, the console is NTSC 3.58 and a Japan import version. It worked fine on a Sony VPH-1001QM minutes later.

I would like to point the finger directly at the fact the 2 Epsons while being almost the same are quite different as far as quality goes, the EMP-S4 i have is made in Japan, and the EMP-S5 is made in China. The difference in quality is VERY EASY to see when you put them side by side. But this isnt the issue.

I would like to have this thing work as it should, id be really happy to hear from anyone that has an idea or has seen the same thing happen (or even someone that is sick to death of good quality being replaced with sh*t from China)

Thanks in advance

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Does anyone have any ideas on this at all?

[AnalogRocks]

I've had this on my D50. It doens't like VHS tapes unless they are minty mint mint. Anything I record would make it shake then loose sync. Even through the line doubler. We just decided to watch them on a 27" CRT TV.

[AnalogRocks]

I've had this on my D50. It doens't like VHS tapes unless they are minty mint mint. Anything I record would make it shake then loose sync. Even through the line doubler. We just decided to watch them on a 27" CRT TV.

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Yeah, but this doesnt explain the NTSC game console non compatibility!!

[AnalogRocks]

[AnalogRocks]

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Well i dont know, cause im already using RCA Home Theatre 24 carrat gold S-video cable, tried another cable, i think its a Mercury AV, also 24 crt, it works fine on the PAL console, but the NTSC wont go, yet it will work fine on the other Epson, and also works fine on the Sony CRT.

[buschdogg]

3DO!!! (Sorry, i don't have much more to say here.. but I LOVED the 3DO... what an underrated system that was.)

[CasetheCorvetteman]

Dead right there Buschdog, ive got quite alot of games and 3 consoles, a fair few control pads, so plenty to keep it working for many moons to come yet