Upgrade options - opinions please

[audimushroom]

I currently have a Barco BG808 and I am pleased with it but upgrade options are around and I wondered what the thoughts are of someone better informed or has been down this path.. I'm not looking to spend thousands....
So I don't think a 9" is in the running...

There are several upgrade options from MrMadH including a 1208s/2 or an E

what is the difference between the 1208 models

1208, 1208s, 1208s/E 1208s/2 I know some had SONY tubes and others had NEC but what else.

A further alternative is a guy in the US is selling a NEC 1352 which is in VGC only 3000 hrs Good tubes etc and he wants $2500 inc shipping to uk which is a good price I'm sure considering this is thought to be one of the the best 8" CRT out there and it is LC... I know there would be VAT etc when it hits the UK but does anyone know how much? Would it be just VAT or duty aswell and at what rate? Has anyone imported one and know from experience?
I guess the downside to the NEC is the noise and complex setup?

Or just to complicate things..

Should I stick with my BG 808 which has the HD-144 lens conversion and buy a new Green tube,my green is about a 7 on Curts scale and then go for the Mike Parker mods...

 

[mrking]

Well, if you can live with the larger size of the 1208 I would get one of those.

If not I would stick with the 808 and convert it into an 808LC.
I just finished an conversion of an BD808s and it looks absolutely awesome.
I put P16 and PT18 tubes with LC-chambers in it and replaced the lenses with HD117-24's.

Regardless if you pick the 1208 or stick to the 808 you can still make it an LC unit which is the biggest benefit the NEC XG1352 has over the regular 808 or 1208 units.

The downside of the NEC XG-series are the tricky servicing and the loud noise level and the setup is a lot harder.

Never seen a comparison of the MP mods before and after so can't really say anything about that.
Before going down that route I would have the projector professionally calibrated to see just how good your regular non modded BG808 can look.

 

[Tom.W]

If you run into a 1208s with MEC tubes that would be a better than a 1208 .

 

[Alaric]

Hi There,

From what i gather the 1208 is very similar to the 808, as it is 8" air coupled, however it is the same chasis and the 9" 1209 and as such is bigger, more spacious and has a little extra bandwidth. In some cases its an older model depending on the varient (s, /2 etc) of the compaired PJ.

cya,
Lee

 

[audimushroom]

Hi all

thanks for the responses, I had not realised that the 1208 was that much bigger so at the moment thats not an option, I think the NEC is a very nice machine but noise and complexity I think eliminate it at least for now.
So other options are to improve my BG 808 which should be fun although I need to get it better 1st see my other post...

 

[Alaric]

Hi There,

Well for me i'm more or less stuck with the BG808s (oh woe is me ) as i've hit the limitations of my room. I've got about a 8" gap between the PJ and the back wall and the screen is about 2' from the front wall, but being an acousticaly transparent set-up and with the size of my speakers behind, this is more or less the minimum there too, which gives me a maximum distance for focusing on my 101" screen....I could go smaller, but i'd then need to move the seats and re-design the room (they are on a platform etc).

So the BG808s with the HD145 mod ive done (before that i had about 1" between it and the back wall ).

I guess i could squeeze in different/sharper tubes (as i think Mr King was tempting me at curts), but doubt i could go LC as this would do another lens swap changing the focal distance.

Mike or Gregs mods are certainly an option, and i'd probably head Mikes way first as its less initial cash outlay, unless Mad creates some form of installments for Gregs as he threatened too....I can usualy spare the odd £100-200 here and there, but £500ish in one hit is much harder.

Personaly i think my next biggest upgrade will be HD as this will certainly increase my picture quality, maybe the 8" tube can't quite do 1080p, but when i tried upscalling to that it seemed fine....Though the DVD resoloution let it down looking quite grainy (Babylon5 season 1 ).

Curently i want to set aside some time to tweak the current set-up as i know my lens flapping is out and after watching the Sony Set-up DVD from curts site i think i can improve things a fair bit with the current set-up, particularly setting up for 1080p.

Cya,
Lee

 

[audimushroom]

Hi There,

Well for me i'm more or less stuck with the BG808s (oh woe is me ) as i've hit the limitations of my room. I've got about a 8" gap between the PJ and the back wall and the screen is about 2' from the front wall, but being an acousticaly transparent set-up and with the size of my speakers behind, this is more or less the minimum there too, which gives me a maximum distance for focusing on my 101" screen....I could go smaller, but i'd then need to move the seats and re-design the room (they are on a platform etc).

So the BG808s with the HD145 mod ive done (before that i had about 1" between it and the back wall ).

I guess i could squeeze in different/sharper tubes (as i think Mr King was tempting me at curts), but doubt i could go LC as this would do another lens swap changing the focal distance.

Mike or Gregs mods are certainly an option, and i'd probably head Mikes way first as its less initial cash outlay, unless Mad creates some form of installments for Gregs as he threatened too....I can usualy spare the odd £100-200 here and there, but £500ish in one hit is much harder.

Personaly i think my next biggest upgrade will be HD as this will certainly increase my picture quality, maybe the 8" tube can't quite do 1080p, but when i tried upscalling to that it seemed fine....Though the DVD resoloution let it down looking quite grainy (Babylon5 season 1 ).

Curently i want to set aside some time to tweak the current set-up as i know my lens flapping is out and after watching the Sony Set-up DVD from curts site i think i can improve things a fair bit with the current set-up, particularly setting up for 1080p.

Cya,
Lee

Hi Lee

Interesting Gregs mods what are they? I've only heard of the MP mods.

I can say on my 808 that 720p from a HD DVD does look good, not tried any higher yet, some say on the forums that say 840p or 960p is more realistic than 1080p. Upscaled DVD really does show a good DVD from an average or bad one when projected, I've been quite surprised how poor some are, grainy, soft, artifacts etc...

How big a difference have you found from the 808 to the 808s ?

 

[Alaric]

Hi,

Wow you've not seen any of the infamous Greg Vs Mike 'discusions' about the place

Greg has/had a habit of putting large %% against mods, like 200% better which were a little on the outlandish side, on the flip Mike would rarely if ever qualify how much better things would be...Two different sides of the coin in my op... There also tended to be supporters and ditractors of each cause, very much like HD-DVD vs Blueray...search avs, though they have a habit of deleting things once people get too pasionate

Have a look here for details of Gregs products.

I agree that some DVD's look poor and some look amazing...Pixars Cars i almost belive would look great if projected into a dustbin full of rubish from a magic latern, its that good a transfer....And some, particularly older and TV stuff can look so trashy its hardly better than VHS at 100". Its probably this fact which will stop me buying a lot of back catalogue stuff again....How great is a 10-20+yr old film gonna look in HD ???

As for the BG808 vs my BG808s....Well i had the 808 set-up remarkably well and haven't yet achived that with my S, also while the tubes are much better for my set-up due to the wear/distance issues, the chasis is probably 10,000hrs older and has some start-up drift issues....The 808 i could turn on and watch within 2mins, the S is more like 15mins and therefore i tend to use the warm up patern.

I also have a slight candle type flicker in dark scenes that i haven't solved and a slight geometry kick on B/R in the top left that gets more exagerated with the higher the scan rate....But i know my lens flapping is out and i could do with checking the tube rotation & astigs.

However with the new software chip on the S, i've got memory banks which are certainly useful. Seagul correction is almost useless and i did notice that you have direct access to Green in the colour balence settings (the 808 has it as a function of R/B which is less flexable and takes more time).

The biggy was the tubes/distance problem as with my set-up i had an irritating wear patern.

I must admit i wouldn't mind picking up a BG808s chasis with trashed tubes for spares/swaps/extras as another upgrade idea.

Cya,
Lee

 

[audimushroom]

Hi Lee

Wow you've not seen any of the infamous Greg Vs Mike 'discusions' about the place

Yep somehow missed the Greg mods and have only seen info and as you say difficult to quantify MP mods, although I guess both would show a significant improvement...

Have a look here for details of Gregs products.

Wow thats all quite interesting and another if more expensive option than Mike's and even with the current $/£ rate its still quite a bit... I wonder if there is an option without Port 3 because I only use port 5...

Its probably this fact which will stop me buying a lot of back catalogue stuff again....How great is a 10-20+yr old film gonna look in HD ???

Well I can squash this one because I bought that old film Forbidden Planet on HD-DVD and it blows away any other version and its in widescreen format for the first time.. Detail and colour are amazing especially for such an old film..

As for the BG808 vs my BG808s....Well i had the 808 set-up remarkably well and haven't yet achived that with my S, also while the tubes are much better for my set-up due to the wear/distance issues, the chasis is probably 10,000hrs older and has some start-up drift issues....The 808 i could turn on and watch within 2mins, the S is more like 15mins and therefore i tend to use the warm up patern.

I also have a slight candle type flicker in dark scenes that i haven't solved and a slight geometry kick on B/R in the top left that gets more exagerated with the higher the scan rate....But i know my lens flapping is out and i could do with checking the tube rotation & astigs.

However with the new software chip on the S, i've got memory banks which are certainly useful. Seagul correction is almost useless and i did notice that you have direct access to Green in the colour balence settings (the 808 has it as a function of R/B which is less flexable and takes more time).

The biggy was the tubes/distance problem as with my set-up i had an irritating wear patern.

I must admit i wouldn't mind picking up a BG808s chasis with trashed tubes for spares/swaps/extras as another upgrade idea.

Interesting to hear about your comparison, sorry to hear about the problems hope you get them sorted...

Rather than a parts 808s there is a BD808s on a certain auction site that has taken my eye, rather lacking in info, so i have asked some questions, and the seller is very close to me..
The BD808s I take it has no stepless flapping or is there anything else?

 

[Alaric]

Hi There,

The BD808s in releation to the BG808s ?

Well the Graphics range has stepless flapping as mentioned, however they typicaly have a higher potential scan rate and sometimes higher bandwidth.

However in the BG808s its quite a different beastie as it has Sony tubes, in apose to the MEC ones in the BD808, BG808 & BD808s...So you'd have a spare set of tubes and a lot of other cards in common.

I certainly know the PSU is different in my S, and i think the neck boards are, which have the higher bandwidth.

Sony Vs MEC tubes...The Mecs are more common and in theory able to be rephosphored, however i have heard doubts about the end results here, i think one is suposed to be slightly sharper but less good at colour or something !

cya,
Lee

 

[audimushroom]

Hi There,

The BD808s in releation to the BG808s ?

Well the Graphics range has stepless flapping as mentioned, however they typicaly have a higher potential scan rate and sometimes higher bandwidth.

However in the BG808s its quite a different beastie as it has Sony tubes, in apose to the MEC ones in the BD808, BG808 & BD808s...So you'd have a spare set of tubes and a lot of other cards in common.

I certainly know the PSU is different in my S, and i think the neck boards are, which have the higher bandwidth.

Sony Vs MEC tubes...The Mecs are more common and in theory able to be rephosphored, however i have heard doubts about the end results here, i think one is suposed to be slightly sharper but less good at colour or something !

cya,
Lee

Thanks Lee, its interesting they have the same tubes, could be a good deal for a parts PJ....
I have also read that re-built tubes are not as good as new for sharpness...

 

[Mad Mr H]

Thanks Lee, its interesting they have the same tubes, could be a good deal for a parts PJ....
I have also read that re-built tubes are not as good as new for sharpness...

Some time ago VDC had some issues with rebuilt tubes - as always people seem to remember the bad times more than the good.

As I understand that is long in the past, when you order a "rebuilt" tube you can order it with "new glass" , My understanding is that as these undergo personal inspection of every rebuilt tube that these style of rebuilt tube are often better than the original versions.


A rebuilt tube that has an issue can be returned to VDC for replacement.

Remember these guys build for the MOD simulator market place (and similar) - so standards are VERY high.


The 1208s is a step up from the 808s range, the good news is that the 1208s and 1209s share the SAME electronics. (1208 same as 1209, 1208/2 same as 1209/2)


Some years ago there were around 20 1209s units that became available to the UK domestic market place - these were Data units and sold by two well known UK CRT resellers.


Most of my 1209s machines have been shipped in from the USA and are the higher spec'd Graphics versions, most of mine also have additional options fitted.