CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

Ok, I have been getting a lot of PM's and emails from people across the internet offering me their G70, now heres the deal,

I am currently in the process of purchasing an NEC XG1100 which I got to preview, and fell in love with before I even got to the end of the stairway, and when you get to see it in person vs just hearing about it it makes a lot of difference in a sale...

From what I gather these projectors are somewhat similar, but I want everyones opinion on what they would go for, why, and so on...

As it stands, the XG1100 is my top choice, but I just want to hear what you all have to say so any advice and comments are welcome Mr. Green

Ben851 · Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 221 Location: Ottawa, Ontario

In my opinion it's going to come down to the condition of the tubes. The big difference between the two is that the G70 is LC and the 1100 is AC. This means you'll get a slightly better contrast ratio with the G70 but I would much rather AC optics with minty tubes than LC optics with worn out tubes.

I was actually in the same boat you were - someone offered a trade of my XG with good tubes for a G70 with slightly worse tubes - I turned it down for that exact reason.

Also, others can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that the XG is a bit more reliable and also has more flexible convergence controls...

They're both top end 8" projectors though so you really can't go wrong...

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

I tend to agree with you as well there Ben, I would preffer the AC Optics over a better black level, besides CRT already has black levels better than any other projector I have seen.

as far as I am aware the XG1100 had pretty decent tubes, some slight wear on the blue but nothing I was worried about, the picture looked phenominal compared to my 9PG

Thanks for your input Ben! Keep it coming Very Happy

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

XG will look better than the PG...but not waaayyyy better. Adding LC is a big deal, if you ask me.

The last PG I had here was killer sharp....it look phenomenal!

Have you defocused your blue yet? I'll bet you haven't...

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

The blue on my PG is defocused so I can have better greyscale, thats not my issue with it unfortunately, Its just not working period at the moment Razz

Thats not the reason for replacing the PG, Just want to upgrade to a better machine, the XG will probably be my choice since it is a local machine and I got to preview it. But with all the offers of G70's I just wanted to see what people would preffer for what reason Smile

deronmoped · Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1154 Location: San Diego

I noticed the big difference in the PG to the XG was the brightness. Otherwise, they seemed to have about the same picture.

Deron.

Jesse S · Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 209 Location: Etobicoke

I went from PG to XGLC. Huge difference in contrast especially in "mixed" scenes of light and dark areas. That's way more important to me than the minor difference in sharpness.

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

So since no one has really mentioned much about the G70, I take it an XG is the way to go? Which I'm perfectly content with since I love my NEC Touchscreen monitors, and have hardly come across any NEC product that has failed (Unless it got abused like my 9PG did Sad

)

XG it is!

As for LC, It wont really bother me as the contrast of the 9PG blows away my digital sorny

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

I'd much rather have a G70 than an XG....but I would definitely prefer an XGLC to a G70.

Also, if you get the G70, the LC chambers could be used in a PG someday...if you're so inclined Smile

LC is important...for sure.

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

Well when I go and have another look at the XG1100, I will ask the guy I am getting it from if he can setup his XG1101 so I can see how noticable the difference is, I got to see his G90, but you cant compare a G90 to an XG :p

Zebu Fellenz · Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 2567

If tube condition is the same I would go for the G70 without a second thought. I made the jump from AC to LC going from a Marquee to my G70 and would never go back (even though my Marquee had better tubes).

Erik

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

I had a G70 for a while but it had "issues" so I sold it to Curt. While I had it, I set it up under my color-filtered Marquee 8500, and had a G70-owning friend come over to help me set it up & check it out. We agreed there wasn't much noticeable difference between the two pictures, which surprised the heck out of both of us. I expected the G70 to spank the 8500 badly.

So I don't know what I was missing, but the LC difference wasn't very visible to us. Given that, I'd be tempted to go with the XG, especially where you're already familiar with NECs. I *hated* the G70 memory model, whereas my XG made a lot of sense to me. But the G70 has much better convergence/etc. The system board can blow on the XGs, and they're hard to replace -- but I'm pretty sure the G70's are prone to the same irreplaceable chip failure as the G90's.

Especially where the XG is local, I'd probably go with that. The major downside of the XG is noise. You really need a hushbox with XG's.

jarseneau · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 323 Location: WI

I can offer a few points to consider...
-Reparability
I would say the G70 is about 1/2 generation newer vs. the XG (judging by the greater use of SMD components). The NEC boards should be simpler to repair and require less sophisticated tooling for component repair. SONY also has a fun tendency to use proprietary parts that can no longer be sourced at any cost. The G70 shares the Dallas chip issue that the G90 has but that issue is easily fixed if you do the replacement before the chip dies. Any of the XG's can develop the scrambled mess issue which I'm betting is its version of SONY Dallas chip in that the XG's system board looses programming. For CRT replacement, I can only say that the NEC's are a b*tch for removing the faceplate hardware. From what I've seen the SONYs are much easier.

-Tweakability
Many first time NEC owners find the learning curve pretty steep in using the Convergence and Alignment menus as there are so many adjustments. The SONY has an easier setup interface but I would give the NEC the edge in allowing adjustments in more areas. OTOH this makes learning how a more daunting task for the NEC.

-Live-ability
The XG has some pretty noisey fans. I can only compare to a G90 (which is very quiet) but I bet the G70 is much quieter. OTOH, I've heard that G70's are heat sensitive and don't tolerate any fan mods that reduce air flow.

The Green C-element on the SONY G's are known to be a bit yellow (but yields a brighter image for it). The stock NEC's are closer to spec.

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject:

Jeremy112 · Joined: 28 Sep 2006 Posts: 2649 Location: Fond du Lac, WI

Well i'm glad to see many opinions, however, Since I have owned both a sony and my current NEC, I am familiar with both their menu structures and how they like to save things, the controlling of the units isn't a deciding factor for me. I'm always willing to try a new one anyway.

as for the halo effect, I can't say I've noticed it really from seeing an LC Machine vs a non LC machine.

One of the more important things to me is colors. And I have always noticed NEC Monitors and their projectors have the most accurate colors you can get, I have also seen many people agree with that too. An accurate and more colorful image is just as impressive as the clarity of a picture.

And yes the fact that the XG1100 is local also makes a better deciding factor too. I think I'll stick with the NEC Smile

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

If you have a light colored room...especially the front wall where your screen is, you may not see a huge difference in contrast with LC. But, if you have a darkened theater room, the difference is not subtle IMHO. I have compared PG's to XGLC's to G70's...I see a nice contrast improvement for sure.

I love NEC's and can dial in convergence in no time at all. It's a matter of knowing exactly what the controls do...The G70 had the akb line on all the time and it also could not have it's G2 adjusted. I came to hate it after a while Smile

small fan mod on the NEC make it the same or better than a G70. G70 is still really loud....likely very much the same as an XGLC.

Still...I'd want LC if possible, but if the XG is cheap, and local...may as well get it.

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

I hadn't had my XG for quite a while before I got the G70 -- but the XG was near-unbearably loud, and I didn't think the G70 was too bad. I still considered a fan mod but the G70 was usable without a hushbox. The XG wasn't IMO.

I have a very dark room and I didn't see a big diff between the 8500 and the G70.

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:52 pm Post subject:

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

I had both XG and G70, though not at the same time. Trust me on this, an XG is significantly louder, and harder to mod to be quiet.

ecrabb · Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:45 pm Post subject:

Wow, those things must be damn loud... Because I sure wouldn't call anything about the G70 quiet.

Gary, you didn't see a big difference between an air-coupled 8500 and the G70, Gary? Really? Was any of the material like I mentioned, or were you just watching some random scenes? Also, did you have both machines connected simultaneously and A-B, or do you watch one, then watch the other?

SC