Sony Discover the Ultimate Performance of G90 and VPH-G90 Projectors

Page 75

Runco DTV-930 Multiscan Projector

ne of the more exciting announcements at the last

Consumer Electronics Show was the introduction of

the Runco DTV-930, which significantly altered the

price-performance curve for CRT projectors. The DTV-930

was cloned from one of Runco’s most successful products,

the widely acclaimed IDP-980 Ultra. Conservatively built and

highly reliable, the IDP-980 Ultra has been a favorite in pre-

mium home-theaters for its excellent picture quality and easy

to use features. A year ago, it was priced at $23,000. The DTV-

930 with point convergence option is now $16,195. To sweet-

en the deal even further, Runco offers a DTV-933 package that

adds an external line-tripler for another four large. I haven’t

evaluated the tripler yet, but I’ll review it separately in a

future issue.

You are probably asking what you give up, other than

cash, for nearly a 30 percent reduction in price. The answer is

very little for home-theater applications.

Specifications

The DTV-930 was created by limiting the maximum horizontal

scan-rate of the IDP-980 Ultra from 100 kHz to 50 kHz. This

positions the DTV-930 to handle nearly all video applications,

but leaves a little room at the top-end for Runco’s higher

priced CRT projectors. The DTV-930 is fully compatible with

line doublers, triplers, and any of the ATSC HDTV standards

including 1080i or 720p. Its 50 kHz scan rate will accept a

maximum computer display resolution of 1024x768 at 60 Hz.

The DTV-930 has a bandwidth of 80 MHz, while the IDP-

980 Ultra bandwidth was specified as 100

MHz, but this difference was only significant

for the higher resolution computer

graphic display capabilities of the IDP-

980 Ultra. It doesn’t affect video perfor-

mance, where the highest bandwidth

requirement is a flat response to 30 MHz

for HDTV. The only other change from

the IDP-980 Ultra is the deletion of a

scan-line dithering board, a feature I

never used anyway.

Curiously, the DTV-930 is listed as an

8-inch CRT projector, which Runco

quickly volunteers really uses liquid-

cooled, 7-inch electromagnetic focus

(EMF) CRTs. The decision to list it as an

8-inch CRT projector dates back to the

introduction of the IDP-980, apparently

as a way to differentiate it from inferior

projectors that used 7-inch electrostatic focus (ESF) CRTs.

Runco says they intend to revise their specifications in the

future. Electromagnetic focus CRTs mean smaller spot size

and higher resolution, so they hope this distinction will be

understood by buyers comparing projectors by CRT size

alone.

The DTV-930 uses the same (USPL HD-144) color-correct-

ed, air-coupled lens assemblies that have been used for sever-

al years on the IDP-980 Ultra. (Runco’s webpage is outdated

on this point.) Light output is specified as 1100 Lumens peak

and 225 ANSI Lumens. The former spec is more descriptive of

video performance, which has relatively low average lumi-

nance levels, while the latter better describes computer

graphic display capabilities.

Description

The DTV-930 is available in black or white, 24 inches wide and

30 inches long, weighing about 124 pounds.

The case is about 12 inches high at the front

G R E G R O G E R S

Image 75
Contents Sony G90 Size Does Matter Sound and vision at the same time every time Ingly just beyond reachThan ever we needed in strange, dark caves Experience before he finds a little of ItBergman’s The Seventh Seal DVD Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut HPBarco Vision Watch Follies & FrolicsEditor Editors will respond next issueCan All That Counts Be Counted? a Forum Begins II Janet’s IndexProblem with DVD Digital Artifacts Targeting 14-Year-Old Boys?If The Perfect Vision is to push Down Primrose Path Toward Perfect Vision Forever? At all. So it doesn’t take Hdtv orAzine Widescreen Review perhaps? TV Is TV What Not To See on DVDDigital Cinema The Good Bad of It John Eargle Lossy Data Compression & DVD SoundSeries such as Star Trek The Next Generation . Each I L L E RMovie Trivia DVDs Gaining MomentumE G E G S a N D O W S I C & M U L T I M E D I aPanasonic DVD-L50D PalmTheater ViaTV VC 105 VideophoneM M a R T I N Encountered R R Y R a W L I N S O NInfocomm Significant New Products and Trends World of displaysReport Tunately, there are trade-offs for the small size of ultra To recreate the theater experience in the homeOgy near its limit and its days are numbered. The display Light projected on the screen. These considerations haveAn Ideal Cinema? Leges, its perks, as it were. If you’re the script super Real movie where there was none before, or at leastOmetimes I think that every position on a Moviemaking crew comes with its special priviFootage One way or another when it comes to working withIty between when they are and when Assistant directors, service people,Directors seem to trust me to use my Into any trouble Certainly a serviceable way to editMovies Likely to get youEnjoy prelaps to pull the narrative Allowing for camera setups, lighting, and rigTakes and setups meaning the master It’s a funny thing about matching in editing. Most laySion? In Understanding Media, McCluhan Lexicon MC-1 Controller Sonic Flavors To Slake Every ThirstR L E Y Logic 7 Digital Signal Processing for Movies and Music Lexicon’s Music Surround ModesListening to Movies Listening To Music Surround Ing the Denon Anechoic Orchestral Music Recording CD ConclusionControllers Two-Channel Bypass Mode Surround Decoding and Digital Signal Processing DSPDSP and the Future-Proof Controller Bass Management THX-Certified ControllersFuture… High-Resolution Digital Audio…the controller represents Radical new path toInterFacing the User After DSP Digital to Analog ConversionM M I I L L E R Revel Ultima Speakers From 2 to 7.1 ChannelsEpisode One The Ancient Enemy Meet My Enemy59 by Deploying the Troops RPG Room Optimizer SoftwareTion coefficient for the surfaces that is comparable to Revel Ultima Salon Noble WarriorStart and go get a beer, or two You wanted to cross over your subwoofer at 40 HzResearch effort to quantify in-room speaker behavior Our noble warrior against the ancient enemyLikewise for the 15-inch woofer in the Sub-15 Essary to achieve the Revel design team’s led by KevinSpeaker? Removing the bottom octave from the Salon’s Direct radiator to bloated. The Salon’s soundstage comBy Keith Johnson for Reference Recordings Nal processing in controllers hadn’t made subwooferWoofer, when it is well integrated with your main speakers Cians often use emphasis in the intensityFormance. Orchestral music, for example, is performed Get that the fight for the lowlands was far from over Cy, phase, and time. It then develops adaptive filters thatBattle Summary Stand-off Episode Two a War On Two FrontsSearch of the Mythical Beast LINN-AV5103 Aktiv Multi-Channel SystemQuest Begins Company of the BeastRemote Interface Working the EnvironmentI L G a D E R NAD T770 Audio-Video ReceiverJust the Basics, Done Well Summing UpGaines’ Stormy Monday I’ve Got the T-Bone Walker Das Boot, The Director’s Cut Wolfgang Peterson, directorDesigns go, the NAD T770 is all steak Steering in DD mode is precise and smoothManufacturer’s Corner RPG Diffuser Systems Inc., Room OptimizerWant My DVD Major Labels’ Plans for Classical Music on DVDI D I W a L E S O N Tan Opera Guide to Opera on Video and executive direc Have been considered typical indeed, good for a Audience, he says. We fed that information to the rearTion from the main mikes as well as the spot mikes From the two main mikes and brought it to the rear onesComputer and TV combined See review, this issueQuering technology issues, Moorhead says. Most of our Fall was so high. This was an elaborate jointMade for DVD Original, so they’re not going to fake it for DVDStars. God, was I skeptical Ple either turning cynical, or lusting for more blood Dramatic confrontation, in the second scene of Act TwoMust answer three riddles. If his answers are correct, she To Turandot’s collection the Chinese nation, ruled by anMoon onstage we see a corps of Chinese dancers, wearing Turandot. And why would there be? Yes, Puccini conscienPreoccupation like that made more sense, but Tucks into a tiny corner of the staging. Hordes of ChineseDVD-ness Classical DVD SamplerPerformances Ment of that, and when I listened, I found I’d chooseWith the sound either way, or with the sound of the Scala Full of pomp and circumstance, but much less lifelikeThat’s simply ravishing This performance is broad Role mostly as a force of nature, powerful but blankStart of each one, there’s Karajan on screen, his face Like institutional persona, Herr Music Director of AllExperiment in a New Medium Roger Reynolds Watershed Mode 70, DVDSurrounded JargonAreas of music rhythm, loudness, and tone color, for Are so new that we all need orientationThough, is that Reynolds is way too impressed with Yes, theorists can find all sorts of relationships amongThat, while Otto is allegedly creating syntax by moving Musical scoreMaybe, succeeded by metallic effects But in rhythms he himself creates. In practice, these, toPerformance we see on DVD begins with a film Pop With a TwistB G E N D R O N Ments of a Clockwork Orange What Ever Happened to BabyHorizon, probably to his death. It is a scene that demands Perfect timing and careful choreographyBelow-average vocal performance Son’s Dead to the World. NopeLy slurs the tune’s climactic line,What DVD, with its digitally clear resolutionTabloid, because of its sensational pur Insignificance of the media and with aGodzilla, Armageddon, Instrument is better than Dent films Gods and Monsters, Cookie’s Fortune thatWith 1991’s In on the Kill Close Encounter Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan of ArcD R E W Q U I N T Special presentation of Voices of Light/The Passion of Joan By much of the sound reinforcement heard in Broadway Obvious. The movie is about as complete as it can be.Other instances, were not merely happy coincidences, nor Each other. Seen together, they seemed inseparable yetHuman Color Perception An Introduction to Digital VideoPart 2 Video Color Concepts Physics of ColorHue and Saturation ColorblindnessColor Concepts for Video Additive Color LuminanceDisplay Color Accuracy RGB Primaries The Color Triangle CIE Chromaticity DiagramWhite Reference Color Temperature Grayscale Color TemperatureColor Measurement Color Bars Instrument known as a color analyzer or a spectro Other color signals will alsoColor errors. Are used in some circumstancesAdjustments Color and HueAvia Guide to Home Theater pro Sony VPH-G90U Multiscan Projector PhysicalE G R O G E R S Operating Functions Installation and Set-upConnections Scan RatesSummary PerformanceSpecifications Runco DTV-930 Multiscan ProjectorDescription Inputs/Outputs Formats can be selected directly from the remote Convergence Labs Test Report Greg RogersCombination is about the reasonable limit to achieve an Horizontal and vertical scan frequencies and other sourceBe noticed RangeRemote Control IEV Turboscan 1500 Line DoublerLine Doubling = Deinterlacing 3Dfusion do each in different ways. The Turboscan Video outputs. As a progressive video reference, I used aCreates progressive video without deinterlacing artifacts Ics-grade front projectorPioneer Elite DVL-91 Combination CD/LD/DVD Player Look and FeelL L C R U C E Meaning clear Up menus allow you to configure such things as onscreen lanWrong one in the dark DVD PerformanceLD Performance Ly, the remote of the DVL-91, like thatDvdo iScan Plus Line Doubler Celebrate Film L M & M O V I E S Classic Comedy’s Second Coming Roberto BenigniQuently escape was Benigni’s first American and English Though a number of films in which BenigniRoberto on the Internet Original Pink Panther film go figure. Sad to say Cute cameo which perhaps hints at a sequelAspect ratio and running time incorrectly SoundSet consists of Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001 a Special Editions Kubrick and The Space MonstersFirst wave of anger and incredulity. The DVD set was No thanks to Warner’s folks Small wonderBoth Clockwork and Full Metal Jacket exhibited pinkish What Dreams May Come Special Editions Few Weird ThoughtsNavigator a Medieval Odyssey, the other is Map Human Heart Worth a Look Relatively Recent ArrivalsSmooth as could be and given the importance How beautiful she was when she was married to RogerMovie would have had the solid foundation it needed To say that the film is developing a cult following someLove.1 As Biopics Three British RoyalsOtranto Old Dark House 1932, The Invisible Man Man in the Iron Mask 1939. But it is hisHP Comments Food-storage room Ic in this context in cloud cuckooland, with theirYou have an idea of what’s really going on in the film Mon with The Shining than with any other Kubrick opusN a T H a N V a L I N From Art to CultFace the questions that vexed and haunted Only later goes on to give them human dimensions. EvenSuch blatant symbolism can sustain an entire movie Not content to present us with an allegory of the eternalIssues 111 Editorial Submissions Back Issues Website Change of AddressQuestions About Your Subscription Letters to the EditorName Company Address CITY, State , ZIP A S S I F I E D a D O R D E R F O R MVision Watch