CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

wildchild22 · Joined: 16 Aug 2008 Posts: 185

Well I have had a infocus x1 and sp4805 dlp's then a benq w500 lcd. Now I have a nec xg 1352LC with a moome internal 1.3 card. I am using a vp50 not pro and have a few resolutions set up. Today I turned on Quantum of Solace a James Bond flick running at 1920X800p @ 72hz active area scanning on my home made black out cloth screen. I have my contrast at 43 and brightness at 50 and OMG it is perfect. ( I do not have the brighness or contrast touched in the vp or source)

I always wanted a crt and I see no reason to ever go digital. It took me a few weeks of moving the nec and redoing setups in between watching to get it good looking. If I turn on the avshd 709 test disk I cannot see the 1 on/off patterns only something faintly on the screen. But I can see 2 on 2 off patterns perfect. All I can say is my 110" blackout cloth screen looks awesome, and even a newbie doing it all on my own was not that hard. I could care less about test patterns as bluray is awesome.

Do anyone find bell HDTV extremely soft? I found it fine on my digitals but on crt stuff like csi miami looks awful like it is all de-focused. However sports look great.

I cannot see how digitals could look any better. The 1352 with the acat for convergence makes it a snap. Even If you have to do it before every flick (I havn't had to touch it yet though) only takes a mater of 2 mins tops.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

Cloth screens are usually very lossy (light shines through them instead of being reflected back to the audience) unless you've painted it over with a suitably high reflectance paint.

People are dumping many CRT projectors because these days, if the tubes are worn out, it's getting harder and harder to find GOOD
condition tubes at GOOD prices. This kind of leaves you in a spot where in order to retube that old XG, your only option for new quality
tubes may be to buy new tubes for about a grand each.

This, combined with the continuing improvements in digital projection quality even as their prices get lower and lower, means that fewer
and fewer people will refurbish their trusty CRT projector and opt to buy digitals instead.

I do predict that when digital projectors come standard with long life LED lamp modules, it'll be the final piece of the puzzle which causes
projector sales to climb to levels never seen before. Eliminate that expensive lamp that needs to be replaced fairly often and changes
output and color as it ages, and suddenly you have a pretty convenient and compelling product that will sell well.

I hear you, though. I just refurbished one Marquee 9500LC (it gets reinstalled this weekend with any luck) and I'm building up a second
one with brand new (old stock) CRTs, too. From where I stand, I've got 50 years of tube service life remaining and either machine
will take 1080 and rattle it! I can handle HDMI inputs and 3D is just one upgrade away, I think. I have NO reason to switch to a digital
for my home theater needs, and many very good reasons to stay with my CRTs. Picture quality being first and foremost.

CJ

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

wildchild22 · Joined: 16 Aug 2008 Posts: 185

Well I Paid approx 600.00 for my XGLC 1352 , came with moome internal card and I paid 400.00 for the vp50. So I have approx 1000.00 sunk into it plus my time.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

Yes and that isn't a bad price for the performance that you get. On the flip side, I paid I think $450 for a Marantz VP4001 and it will smoke the digitals you listed above. Is it as good as your NEC? Depends on what you value most, but I would still prefer to watch a CRT. I could see where others would prefer the Marantz though.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:15 pm Post subject:

Boy Wildchild, there's a bunch of other threads here you should post in. Wink

I don't know the BenQ model, but have had the other two here, and yeah, the XG will smoke the two entry level sets. It's exactly why I was selling a CRT a day back in 2000-2003, even though the X1 was cheaper than a 1352 at the time.

I tell anyone I'm talking to over the last 3-4 years or so that a CRT is like the guy that drives and tweaks a 1965 Mustang. Sure, a 2010 Accord will drive nicer, but there's something to be said for the guy that can tear down his carb and completely rebuild it for $35 in parts vs the Accord guy that needs to spend $300-400+ at the shop to get a tuneup.

At this point if you're not a DIYer, CRT is not for you, but as I posted elsewhere yesterday, there's still a number of ex digital owners that come over to CRT, and love it.

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

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

It was my BO screen that Dragan saw. Smile

It certainly doesn't leak light -- BO is specifically designed as an opaque fabric to place behind curtains. It may absorb some light but it doesn't leak.

I recently replaced it with a Wilsonart Designer White screen, which is measured at 1.26 gain and which many people here say is a superior top-notch screen surface. And I was quite disappointed that I hardly saw any difference at all. If I'm right in the sweet spot, it is a bit brighter. And certainly if I hang a piece of BO on the front, it looks darker. But without a side-by-side comparison, it's not that big a difference. If you had swapped out my BO screen for DW and didn't tell me, I'm not sure I would have noticed.

So IMO BO is not a great answer for a screen. But it's not horrible either.

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I had unpainted BOC for a year or so and finally got around to painting it. Never again! It isn't that is was difficult, but it was frustrating as a DIY-er trying to find a good paint recipe and getting the finish right. There was no way in hell I was going to dump a ton of money into Goo or Mudd for something that cost less than $80 to build.

I still don't think I have it right but I'm not lugging that 4x8 bitch up the stairs from the basement, through the house, and out to the garage again...unless it's to donate it as a canvas to a local art school. The plan is to cover it with GatorFoam or WilsonArt DW and glue it to it with wood laminate contact cement.

I used Behr UPW, some pearlescent, an electric HVLP sprayer, multiple coats, and even while laying coats I tried to find SOMEBODY to tell me what the final damn texture should be, with no luck. I got some pictures of what it should look like but they don't do squat when it comes to displaying how glossy the finish should be. It isn't glossy at all, which may have something to do with it's low reflectivity and resulting lack of punch. BTW, painting the back of the BOC with a reflective coating did absoultely nothing from what I could tell. I don't have a probe yet but I'm guessing if there were any improvement it would have been insignificant.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

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

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

He measured a lot of screen materials and then some non-screen materials (materials meant for other applications). I like how the Seymour lit up with the JVC, even when zoomed in for 'scope movies. Being from CRT it meant that on normal lamp mode and zoomed in was just fine with the wife and me.

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

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

OK. So if he measured my DW screen in my HT, he might get 1.22 instead of 1.26 (actually 1.29 according to his website). So quoting it to 3 digits of precision might be overkill -- but on the other hand it gives us a relative comparison to the other surfaces he measured. And that should be accurate.

DW still comes off looking pretty darn good. It has just about the same gain as Stewart StudioTek 130 -- which costs just a teensy bit more. Wink

It doesn't have quite as much off-axis gain, but its color fidelity is actually better than the Stewart. Better, in fact, than ALL the other tested screens except the Screen Research MultiPix 1.3. Not bad for something you can build for $100-150.

I wish he had measured BO. Would have been very interesting to see how BO compared to DW.

cmjohnson · Joined: 03 Apr 2006 Posts: 5180 Location: Buried under G90s

You do not want the slightest of trace of gloss to your screen. Gloss = specular reflection. You'll start to see three colored circles on the
screen...one red, one green, and one blue. Those would be your CRTs.

My DIY screen is pure Behr ultra flat ultra white paint, applied with a conventional HPLV (Not HVLP) sprayer. The final texture feels like
a chalkboard.

I have always been completely satisfied with this screen.

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

Gloss or "sparkle" are common (I believe fundamentally required) in higher-gain screens. That's *how* they deliver their gain.

DW has a bit of gloss to it, but not enough to see reflections of the CRTs. There may be a slight bit of color shift due to the separate reflections of the tubes, but you'd have to look really carefully to see it.

A flat "chalky" 1.0-gain screen is ideal, IF you have enough light. If you want a brighter image, you have the choices of switching to a higher-lumen projector, cranking your contrast, going to a smaller screen, or using a higher-gain surface. I didn't want a smaller screen or a different projector and I've already got my contrast higher than it "should" be, so higher gain was the best choice for me.

seong6788 · Joined: 17 Dec 2010 Posts: 17

halo wildchild22, i'm leong here i"m new in crt user,may i ask u,are u still use moome?i just buy from frns i need u help is, what code i need to set in moome they i'm use XG1100 non LC,and wich is better for XG 1100 i have HD fury and moome too?

stefuel · Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:42 am Post subject:

416ray4538 · Joined: 14 Jul 2009 Posts: 517 Location: near Toronto Ont

How do you feel about "high hide drywall sealer"? It's flat finish and as white as any paint.