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I got into home theater towards the end of high school, in getting my first surround sound system, a 5.1 channel Sony receiver with Dolby Digital decoder, allowing for DVDs to be enjoyed in ways never possible on VHS, especially from a sound standpoint. In those days I was rockin' a 27" Zenith TV I bought in 1996, in lieu of spending any money I received for a trip to Washington DC. A wise move, I'd say. Though later in high school I got a taste of how cool front projectors are. I had been considering saving up for one. Though they were pretty expensive back then, especially for a high school student. It waws freshmen year in college, I think in the year 2000, that I finally pulled the trigger on a projector. What did I get? I got a CRT projector!
I wasn't really keen on what they were, but in doing research they seemed to offer good bang for the buck, at the cost of being big, not very bright, and requiring lots of tinkering to get the image right. I bought a Sony VPH-1031Q on eBay from a guy in IL, in the area of some family in the Chicago area. I ended-up getting it with my dad. The owner of it show it to me and gave me a quick intro, plus the manual, and off I went back home to try it out! In those days I think I was feeding it composite video. Though I think I then bought an S-Video to RGBHV decoder for a slightly better image.
After doing more research, joining the CRT club of owners on AVSForum, I ended-up putting together a HTPC for feeding my 1031Q a 720x480p RGBHV image, with the help of an Extron VGA to RGBHV converter box. This was a little tricky as if one messes-up and feed the projector too high of a resolution and refresh rate one can mess it up. That actually did happen, resulting in a road trip up to CRT Cinema in Weston, WI where Eric Lang, a CRT electronics guru, fixed it. I think it was also then that I had him also replace the blue tube, as it was also pretty worn. The VPH-1031Q was a cool little projector. Little for a CRT projector, that is. I think it was still like 80 lbs! I'd haul it to my apartment in college on a friggin' Radio Flyer! I'm sure people were wondering what the hell it was! Made for many fun movie nights in college.
After college I upgraded to a Sony VPH-1271Q. I think this was June 2004, as I remember Reagan just died. This time the projector I bought was at auction, from UW SWAP, the University of Wisconsin's "Surplus with a Purpose". Yeah, that purpose was me buying commercial video projectors for pennies on the dollar. The VPH-1271Q was nice in that no more worries about feeding the projector more than it could handle, as it seemed Sony put safeguards in for too high of scan rate sources. I recall feeding that projector with the same HTPC I has with my 1031Q. I think I thne had the 1031Q setup in my bedroom and had the 1271Q in a semi-recently finished basement room at my folks' place that because the home theater room. Nice, large screen from the large, white drywall. Though the issue was the image would reflect back on itself with the other white walls. Didn't exactly talk my folks into blacking out the walls! Not only was move night lots of fun, but I also remember playing a fair amount of Grand Theft Auto Vice City and San Andreas for PC in that setup. Quite the experience playing that game on a gigantic screen back when everyone else was playing it in low resolution on less capable game consoles.
I guess fast-forward to after college, finally landing a grown-up job, and buying my own house. By this time I was rockin' a Sony VPH-D50Q, which is kind of like a modernized 1031Q. It wasn't long after that when the Holy Grail of CRT projectors came on the auction block, a Sony VPH-1292Q! Well, okay, the Sony VPH-G90U is the Holy Grail, but the 1292Q was it's predecessor, and with 9" CRT tubes, it could fully resolve 1080p! I ended-up winning the auction. I think I paid $500 for it. I remember one of the guys helping me load it up wondered where it was going. I explained it was going into my living room! He seemed baffled by that. It is a very large, heavy, and loud projector, that's for sure! In addition to the projector I needed to blow a sizable chunk of change on a video scaler so that I could take 1080i @ 60Hz HD DVDs (yeah, just before Blu-ray) to 1080p @ 48Hz for display on the 1292Q. I ended-up getting a Lumagen VisionHDP. Yeah, that scaler was like double what the projector set me back! Also, I bought it from some guy on Craigslist in cash, making the transaction in a mall parking lot. That was pretty sketchy, but it worked out. No sweet commission for eBay! So even after all of that the 1292Q did have some issues. I was finding out that the red gun was having issues. In consulting with the knowledgeable people online they thought it was a bad red tube neckboard. I ended-up buying a neckboard from a guy in Australia and some how managed to get it installed! That was extremely tense, taking it apart, the threat of touching the wrong thing and getting a zap of high voltage, or messing it up! I actually almost did mess it up! I bent some pins on the red CRT tube trying to get it into the neckboard! I was able to bend the pins back and all was well. Though not I get some issues with the green tube flickering at times and wonder if the green neckboard might need replacement. Alas, not worrying about it at this point.
I've also had a secondary CRT projector setup in my basement home theater, a setup that I properly blacked out and built a nice, large, Wilsonart, while countertop laminate screen for. In that setup I was running my D50Q for a bit, then I found a Runco projector that was I think a rebadged NEC 6PG+. The NEC CRT projectors were known for their great colors from nice lenses, though they were also tricker to setup than the Sony CRT projectors. Ultimately the Runco CRT projector had issues, I replaced it with a NEC projector somewhat like it, but that too has some issues. Right now I just have a cheapo Vankyo V600 1080p LCD LED projector in both the basement home theater setup, as well as my living room setup, set atop my 1292Q. I still use the 1292Q for watching Blu-rays, when I want that extra cinematic 48Hz flicker, amazing black levels, great colors, and punchy contrast, even with 1292Q specific image issues, like horizontal streaking and the occasional green color drop-out from what I think is a flaky green neckboard.
I have been pondering upgrading to a more serious digital projector. For a little bit, before the cheap, but impressive for the money, Vankyo V600 LCD projectors I bought, I had purchased a small LG PB63U, which is a DLP LED projector. It was an interesting little projector. Super tiny, yet it put out 500 ANSI lumens! Well, it used to. Years after regular use for watching TV on it the image got super dim. Not sure how feasible replacing the LED light source is on it. Plus, one can kind of see pixels on it, so not the best projector for critical movie watching. I think the thing had diamond shaped pixels though. Kinda weird! It was a nifty little projector while it lasted. I first took it out on a bachelor party camping trip. Good times watching Pulp Fiction in the great outdoors! That brings me back to the notion of getting a nicer digital projector. LG seems to make some nice laser projectors now, and even ones that are 4K. I'm not eager to rebuy movies in 4K, but a 4K projector playing 1080p content should certainly make seeing pixels a thing of the past on digital projectors. I think I'm still waiting for 4K laser projector technology to mature more and come down in price. In the meantime, the Vankyo V600 is a shockingly decent projector for the money. I use mine often in my living room, and the basement one got trotted out to the backyard several times in 2020 for socially distanced movie nights.
Right, well that was quite the history lesson. I guess onto some pictures of my previous setups, as well as my current setups and some various videos I whipped-up having to do with home theater. I'd say enjoy, but I think I'm enjoying writing about this more than anyone would enjoy reading about it.