OT - CRT projectors

[xcortes]

Thanks Doc,

All is good now (except for the noise that I'll address later). The card connector is flimsy indeed but I also has to select a different input. Don't know why the input changed but i tried input02 and voila.

Thanks

[xcortes]

Ready for prime time.

[Grainger49]

Xavier,

You continue to amaze me!  You 'da Man!

[Doc B.]

Here's where I'm at. Blank screen photo is with the screen set to the full 16:9 96" diagonal format. The Hobbit screen shot is with the masks set to 2.35:1. The camera always struggles with this kind of shot, the image is much better in person. Still need to install all the speakers and finish cable routing. And I see I need to do quite a bit of touch up to the 10 year old paint job (doesn't show in the dark...). With the kids off to college we are really enjoying having a two seat theater.

[xcortes]

This is awesome!

Thanks for the tip Doc.

[Doc B.]

He's hooked! There is nothing like the big screen.

[xcortes]

Who me? Should've seen the kids faces!

[Doc B.]

A little update - after some conversation with Curt Palme I decided to go from my ten year old slightly pearlescent screen to a matte white screen. Of course it had to be another DIY screen. So I went back to the AVS forum thread on DIY screens. Happily there has been a some balance struck on that forum between a few large personalities dominating the place with their seat of the pants designs and a few thoughtful people who have come along and actually taken measurements of many of the more popular DIY screen choices. What floated to the top was Glidden GLN-9000. It's a $10 quart of paint from Home Depot that was measured as the most neutral screen white the measurer had ever come across.

Down came the screen, off came the velvet frame, and on rolled nearly a quart of the GLN-9000 in two coats. Even before I had the painting done I was getting stoked as the new white was positively dazzling compared to the old yellowish pearlescent coat. Reassembled and back on the wall the image is just a knockout. Having gotten the yellowish tint out of the screen required a bit of tweaking of the color levels, and once I had it close - wow. My concern that the blacks might be a little less black was 180 out. The blacks are even more black than from the old screen. I may actually have to up the brightness (which is actually the black level control) a bit.

So if you have a light controlled front projection HT that can handle a white screen, this movie screen for a sawbuck paint is da' bomb.

[Doc B.]

While we were slogging through the epic battle of putting up a new website I was distracting myself during the 'hurry up and wait' moments by ordering some blu rays for the newly revamped theater. Trying to build a modest collection of well remastered classics, like 2001, Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, etc. I also picked up a fave that is a lot newer - Sin City. It was the first to arrive and we watched it last night. This high contrast film noir is just amazing coming from a CRT projector.

"Kill him for me, Marv. Kill him good."

[Doc B.]

Watched Casablanca night before last. It is as good a blu ray remaster as the reviews suggest, really clean but still having the look of film. Watched Forbidden Planet last night, and once again it is a really nice remaster with a great deal of subtle color and clarity, but without taking away from the film feel. Sound is not yet up to the quality of the picture. I've been using a crummy Extigy-TOSLINKed-to-Samsung BDP-1500 lashup to simulate surround on the all Blumenstein speaker setup, through two Stereomours and a S.E.X. amp. Bought a used Panasonic DMP-BD80 player on ebay last night for cheap. It is one of the few players besides the Oppos that has analog 7.1 outputs and handles DTS-HD Master Audio, so I can run directly into the amps. That should get me another step towards the finished system I have in mind. For those who might wonder - with five Orcas and three subs in the room it can get surprisingly loud.

[xcortes]

My Draper permanently tensioned screen that Curt recommended arrived yesterday. Now the fun begins: installing the screen in front of the TV and the projector to the back wall. When all is said and done I promise to watch Casablanca.

[Doc B.]

From the description on the Draper site - matte white, gain of 1.0 - that screen should be very similar to my painted one and work great.

[xcortes]

Today is projector mounting day. I had an l shaped support to attach to the back wall and to hang the projector from it. Unfortunately we went overboard and the base weighs almost as much as the projector. I was ready to abort as i was affraid the six expansion screws could not be safe enough but one of the helping guys had an awesome idea, to use threaded steel bars. The wall is a double one, bricks, space and concrete. I have some amazing stainless steel bars from a diy audio rack project. Two will support the structure. Absolutely safe. Pics and more to follow.

[xcortes]

Support

[xcortes]

Here we go