CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[deronmoped]

You do not get it, it's all about ones perception. Audio and video can be measured till the cows come home, but when it comes to someone sitting down and telling you of their experience it becomes subjective. You have to remember too, you are looking at it from a educated perspective when it comes to video. Sit the average Joe down in your theater and they would not have the slightest clue when you start getting into the minutia. Just like we could sit in some audiophiles room and they could point out all kinds of things to us and we would sit there and stare with a dumb look on our face, "yeah, if you say so".

I see it all the time. I go over to a buddies who has a "light cannon" and all the people can say is "Awesome" to the 20' wide image. Too me, the image is horrendous, pixels, bowed image at the bottom, convergence out of whack, ghost image, dead colors and that is just the stuff that jumps out at me.

It even happens to me, I look at images off digital PJ's and they just do not look right to me. Too sharp is probably the biggest thing I can not relate too. I grew up on film and CRT's, the sharpness of a digital looks artificial, not real, not believable too me. A lot of people may say that is the best digital image in the world, but I'm not them.

Deron.

[km987654]

[tri_joel]

[benareeno]

If it wasn't for size and noise, I would likely always prefer crt to any current or future digital...a 9500LC is like being in a film based theater...a digital is amazing too, but not nearly as romantic:)

Give me the smooth, dim look of a crt any day!! Bright and ultra sharp digitals just don't do it for me.

I would say though...the panasonic 3000 with it's smooth screen technology is a serious contender....seriously.

[Spanky Ham]

Deron,
There will probably never be a high end HT pj. They will all be modified commercial pjs. just like CRTs. The fact is the market isn't there. I bet there is no more than 50 pjs over $50k sold to the HT market every year. As Elaine said, the commercial market drives the HT market for the most part. I would have to look up the figures again, but HT pjs account for around 10% of the overall pj market. They probably account for 75% of the complaints. About the only way to make it feasible would be to make a high end division of a current manufacturer. Another point is that the difference between a dedicated and modified digital might not be that great. Scott told me once that digitals were uninteresting to him, because there wasn't a lot to do to them.

As to the time period, I would say that I lean to what Crabb said. I would say most here would be more than satisfied with the JVC. In three years, LCOS will probably be at 100k to 1 on/off and will probably have minimized the motion issue. At that time if your CRT has went belly up or you want to buy a new pj, then digital will be a viable alternative for all but the most diehard. In ten years, 4k will be affordable and most will not even remember what a CRT looked like. Of course, if your CRT is still running then it should still be more than adequate.

I do have a question for Elaine and Crabb. What resolution is your companies pjs? I ask, because Pete Putnam has stated recently that most companies are still buying XGA.

[ecrabb]

Yep. XGA. Almost every damn corporate projector I've seen in recent years was XGA. I'd imagine XGA is still overwhelmingly the corporate standard projector, with few exceptions. That'll probably take several years to even start changing in any decent numbers.

That's one problem with looking for "commercial-grade" projectors on the second-hand market going forward. It doesn't matter much anyway, though. Most of the mid- and higher-end corporate installation projectors are overwhelmingly geared toward providing brightness, wireless connectivity, and integration and convenience features like IP control and monitoring. Most of them would suck for HT, regardless of resolution.

A few larger venue machines are going into some multi-use or exhibition type spaces like auditoriums, but thy won't be any good for HT.

It's going to be years and years before anything digital will be coming out of corporate surplus that will be worth a crap for HT. Unfortunately.

Even the dCinema projectors like Sony's 4k SXRD projectors won't be any good on the second-hand market for HT... Besides being as big as a CRT, they're designed for huge screens with long throws. The bulbs are super-expensive to replace, but then so is a set of LUGs. Oh, most of us don't have a 220 outlet in the ceiling or a dedicated air conditioner in our HT's, either.

The glory days of corporations taking the massive depreciation on really expensive projectors that are also great for HT, then making them available for dirt cheap for HT nuts like us are really over for the foreseeable future.

SC

[Spanky Ham]

Here is that Pete Putnam article:
http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/ResolutionConfusion.html

Well, I plugged my laptop in and it didn't recognize the pj. It kind of makes you wonder why everyone doesn't go Mac.

Your right, it really makes no sense to be looking for used commercial pjs. Unless you want to do a fifty foot screen. Some of the 3 chip DLPs are great, but by the time they reach recycle status there will be a better cheaper alternative for HT.

[Kiev Savoie]

[quote="Spanky Ham"]Here is that Pete Putnam article:
http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_c/ResolutionConfusion.html
[/quote]

It's nice to know it's not just us amateurs that occasionally resort to wildly shaking our fist at a projector exclaiming, "Sync Damn You, Sync!".

[Elaine Benes]

[Spanky Ham]

That is XGA.

I was taking a look at some places to see some of the different resolutions that are being sold. I am surprised that companies wouldn't want to go with 1280x800 or 1400x1050. If most places are running 16x10 desktops and notebooks, then it would make sense.