CRT projection for color grading

[N_Villers]

Hi everyone,

I was recently offered an older Barco 1209 crt projector and would very much appreciate your opinions on the relative merits of this particular model and crt projectors in general. Research on the net seems to indicate it can be very high quality if properly refurbished and set up but I would love to hear any real life experience you might have. There seems to be quite a community keeping the tech alive but is it really suitable for professional work that would include both film and broadcast.

Thanks as always,

noel

 

[Randall Nott]

I was actually looking at these a few years ago as I had an opportunity to get one that needed restoring. If you don't know already, there's a lot of people into these at the CurtPalme.com and AVSForum.com forums. Someone there might be able to give a better response.

They're no RedRay, but if the tubes are still in good shape, or you can get newish ones, and you've got a good scaler, they can give most home theatre projectors a run for their money. I'm pretty sure they can scale up to 2k.

For grading I would expect color fidelity to be excellent, but contrast and lumens might be an issue.

Remember these were $30-40k a dozen years ago.

 

[Dave Blackham]

Hi everyone,

I was recently offered an older Barco 1209 crt projector and would very much appreciate your opinions on the relative merits of this particular model and crt projectors in general. Research on the net seems to indicate it can be very high quality if properly refurbished and set up but I would love to hear any real life experience you might have. There seems to be quite a community keeping the tech alive but is it really suitable for professional work that would include both film and broadcast.

Thanks as always,

noel

I don't know about Barco's but we used Sony V90 HD CRT projectors they were very good for grading and match D24's quite well when properly lined up. The down side is they needed almost constant tweaking to hold convergence. We had a screen about 12 feet diagonal At the time there wernt any other technologies available and affordable. I think the line up issue may be an issue given there are other projectors about. Dont even think about using any burnt in TC or your burn the tubes very quickly.

 

[N_Villers]

I've been looking at those sources you mentioned and am getting more and more intrigued. Thankyou. The Barco is supposed to support up to 2500x2000 resolution and ran new over 100k. It looks like I would need to replace/rebuild the tubes in the worse case scenario and they can run a few thousand each. I would need a good A/D converter but beyond that it looks as if the color management workflow wouldn't be all that different if I was running a 3chip dlp or lcos projector. Or is there an issue that I'm missing. All of the post houses I've worked with run digital systems and I'm feeling there must be a reason for this.

Do any reputable facilities still use them?

-noel

 

[N_Villers]

Dont even think about using any burnt in TC or your burn the tubes very quickly.

A definite consideration.

Thanks