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General discussion

Cadillac stew

Sep 8, 2005 2:12AM PDT

I got your message but got a mailler daemon failure notice when I tried to contact you.

Your system sounds good although some mention of ancillary equipment for the projector to enhance performance was mentioned so will that 4 grand deal get bigger in cost and become less of a deal ? Here's the link I'm talking about...

http://www.projectorcentral.com/sony_vpl-hs51.htm

Also a few other tidbits... make sure your HVAC system doesn't blow on your 96" screen... even a little bit of air will result in a big annoying waving screen. Dust control can also be an issue... for a dedicated AV room you could put in a air filter along with a dehumidifier (if it's in the basement) If it is a dedicated AV room then a dedicated electric feed meant only for your AV equipment is in order as well.

Lighting... you might want to consider putting a couple of wall sconce with dimmer switches behind your screen. A very mild ambient light to the sides of your screen will actually make for less eye strain rather than a totally dark room. As an example Phillips was doing this with their "ambi-light" plasma sets.

Lastly... can you not hook up your laser disc player to the projector ? Many laser discs had fantastic quality transfers... much better than many second rate digital transfers you see on many dvds. You could always see about feeding the signal through a farouda or other brand up-converter for better performance as well. BTW... many laser disc players also had a digital audio output that you may be able to hook up to your 5.1 sound system.

Good luck !

grim

Discussion is locked

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Laser disk
Sep 8, 2005 4:24AM PDT

Grim, Nice link.
I just recently got a laser disk player on ebay that has S-video and digtal sound out. I agree that a good laserdisk will beat a poor DVD transfer. John

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stew...here is the original email i sent to you
Sep 9, 2005 11:45AM PDT

but first I need to say a couple things...

Don't compare any digital source to 70 mm film. The comment I made about the quality of digital transfers as to a great analog print is still valid. then trying to compare DLP with it's common moire' aka screen door effect will make you doubt yourself even more. The LCD projector you've picked out is a great value.

Remember that once you get it home and set up... you won't have all the other sets in the show room to compare it to so don't fall into the "grass is always greener" syndrome.

Finally... half the fun is setting it up and calibrating it. Take your time and do it right. Pay attention to all the tweaks and you will be happy in the end.

grim

""I assume that the sony projector wont take the DVI connection so thats why you have the HDMI adapter (I'm not familiar with the model). I'm not familiar with the 811 dish system as everyone around here gets their HD from Adelphia... I always preferred directv but I suppose it's a question of what you started out with. Make sure that your ventilation system wont blow air onto your screen as 96" is a lot of fabric and the wave effects would be annoying. Also watch out for dust... run an air filter when your not watching the screen or roll it up when not in use to avoid losing reflectivity as time goes by. I would also consider putting up a couple of wall sconce lights on dimmer switches behind the screen. The dim ambient light can take some of the strain off your eyes as opposed to watching in a totally dark room. Phillips was building that very feature into a few of their plasma sets (the "ambi-light" option) this past year. It may also be worth having an electrician run a separate electrical circuit for the projector if you don't already have one

I just did a quick google on the projector and the do state "DVDO iScan HD+ front end video processor for optimum performance results."

see link http://www.projectorcentral.com/sony_vpl-hs51.htm

The Denon is a great receiver but refer to dolby labs web site for detailed instructions on speaker placement... they have some great advice and a few helpful programs. I also use sound and vision's home theater test disc to calibrate both sound and video... It's cheap and always a comfort to run a test tone to confirm your settings are correct. Does your laser disc player have dolby digital out puts? a few of the newer models had that feature before dvd took over... If you can hook it up to your projector it might be worth it (depending on how big your library of discs are) Laser discs often had the advantage of using a master print when made so some of the old discs are better than a bad digital transfer you see on some dvd's. I'd kill to get a copy of the first three Star Wars on laser disc... those are the best prints you will find of the original movies before Lucas "improved" them with his added footage. I really wish he had taken the ALIEN movie series approach and put out both the original and "new, improved" versions. I would have gladly paid for the added discs.

Are your seats going to be 22 feet away from the 27" TV? if so your gonna need binoculars to watch it. LOL

Car stereo in the 60's huh ? I remember in the 70's how kraco and audivox ruled the roads... I still have an old pair of Jensen Triax speakers in the garage... I bet they still work.
""