Tale of projector frustration

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Hi guys
I'm posting this as a sort of caution note to any who have, or are thinking of getting, projectors.
We have an 808S Barco projector fed by a Barco VSE40 switcher/enhancer. The latter switches between 6 video inputs and gives parameters to alter the video and audio quality, including line doubling and quadrupling facilities. Therein lies the beauty or problem, depending on your outlook.
The beauty is that it is possible to fine tune a quite stunning picture. The problem is that, excluding the options for doubling and quadrupling, there are 15 parameters, some with up to 5 options, to be set up. The number of combinations is mind boggling.
To make it even more interesting, each of the 6 inputs can have the parameters set up independently. This flexibility is necessary faced with both PAL and NTSC standards, composite, s-Video & component inputs, many requiring a different approach.
It was quite awhile before it was set up to be watchable. As you might guess, experts on such an involved system are thin on the ground world wide, let alone in little old remote Tasmania. The dealer from whom it was purchased (now gone :-(, the only hi-end store in town) first of all employed a Sony technician. Nice guy but incapable of getting the fine tuning right. Subsequently a good Barco tech from 60 miles away was called in and the basic set up was quite watchable with excellent backup help from Barco in Melbourne.
But then I knew a better picture was possible. Slowly & painfully with endless tweaking over months it came through. Hardest of all was NTSC laserdisc but finally some of the best software via s-cable yielded results very close to component DVD and better than some. Progress.
However the temptation to fiddle, sorry, tweak, could not be resisted with the allure of an even better picture possible. And, predicably I mucked up one setting -> an unwatchable picture. I will not bore you with the detail but, after suspecting hardware breakdown, I rediscovered some settings I had had enough sense to write down from earlier. Fed in, viola, a great picture again!
Morals to this story:
1. Have your projector set up optimally by a professional
2. If you are going to tweak, keep a clear record of settings before you change them.
3. Do not buy a projector in the first place unless you are prepared for some set up and maintenance hassles.
No, we would not go back to a direct vision TV now and yes, we do nearly all viewing, tapes, free to air, pay satellite, laserdisc & DVD via the Barco. It is a great unit. Maybe not as good as the best Runco etc designs in the USA, but we get heaps of pleasure from it, particularly as backed up by high end 7.1 sound through electrostat speakers (locally & Melbourne made).
John

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Topic - Tale of projector frustration - John C. - Aussie 22:17:25 02/15/01 (1)

Re: Tale of projector frustration - Karl W. 06:00:34 02/17/01 (0)

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