Up grading the NEC

[kgveteran]

Any thoughts on what digital front projector that would do a better job than my NEC 6PGXTRA.I scale with a Dwin Transcanner.

I'm not sure who would purchase the NEC/Dwin setup but I was thinking about 2,000.00 would be the most I could come up with.

I was at a friends house looking at his now RP Hitachi DLP and the Non-convergence issue was a relief to watch.

I view at about 10ft.The room is dedicated and pitch black (light wise),it's painted gray.

I have a draper screen that is 40"x80", it's a gray plastic material and I think its a 1.3gain.It is snapped on an aluminum frame.

[Kevin P]

At 10' from a 80" wide screen, you'll probably see screen-door from a LCD projector. DLP isn't as bad as far as SDE is concerned but you may see "rainbows", motion artifacts and dithering artifacts in dark scenes. Also, none of the digital PJs can give you the true black that CRT can. The expense of replacing the bulb every 1500-2000 hours can be a factor too. You may want to check out the LCOS projectors. The Sony Ruby is supposed to come close to CRT in picture quality, but it's a pricey unit.

Your screen should be fine. Lower gain is better to get better blacks from digitals.

Do you have convergence issues with your CRT? Once I get mine dialed in, it's pretty solid. I have a 9PG Xtra.

[JonMarsh]

Most of the "gray" looking screens are for digitals, and actually have a gain less than 1. You might want to look into that more closely, as a good white screen will produce better results. I use a Carada model with 1.3 gain, about the same size as yours; have had very good results with my NEC9PG+. It's driven at 1080i by an Oppo Digital player with Faroudja deinterlacing and scaling, through a DVI to RGBHV converter. No SDE at 7-10 feet.

You could effectively convert your PG to a 9 by getting a point convergence card; you might check with Curt Palme or some of the other vendors, and check on Videogon and eBay. The latter has been a good source for NEC stuff for me, like the video switchers. Between buying a couple of units with different cards, I've now got a very complete selection of I/O- VGA style, RGBHV, etc, and recently found a GE Imager switcher, which is the same thing but black. (made by NEC for GE) So all my NEC cards will go in it.

If you do go digital under $2K, be sure to spend time viewing/auditioning your self, so you don't wind up with something that bugs you, but not the friend that made the recommendation in good faith. Kevin's highlighted the main issues to be concerned about. The dithering and rainbows just happen to bug me a lot (too perceptive?), and the least expensive digital projectors I've seen that I can watch without headaches are LCD (Panny, Sanyo). But the least expensive one I think really looks fairly good, apart from contrast and black levels, is the Canon SX50. I'm trying to figure out how to get one for work for presentations.

[draganm]

I have a draper screen that is 40"x80", it's a gray plastic material and I think its a 1.3gain.It is snapped on an aluminum frame.

yeah that is defientely the wrong screen for CRT, your color balance can't be very good. IF your going to try a digital, then keep the screen, but make sure it's a model you can preview and return if you don't like it. However, to get to another point of your post, why are you having convergence issues? I only touch-up my Electrohome Marquee once every 6 months.

[JonMarsh]

As I'm sure you know Draganm, the key to stable convergence is a good mechanical setup and calling on the electronics a minimum amount, and staying away from the point board if the projector has one. KG's doesn't, my plus does, but I usually can get pretty much there without it. The Tinman and Feathers guide at AVS was a big help for me sorting that stuff out, as well as the factory service guide from NEC.

~Jon