RE: Dome Auction

["White, Peter" <peter.white@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the info, even if it's not good news!  I was just trying to work
out a good excuse to get out of a meeting in Ireland next Thursday (when
th=
e
auction is on), but now it looks I don't need to worry!

I did go along there today, and for anyone managing a theatre it must be a
treasure mine - piles and piles of lights and control equipement.

The plasma monitors were graded 1,2 or 3, 1 being AOK, 2 showing some burn
and 3 being knackered.  12 of the screens were still boxed and unused. I'd
be using it as a TV, and to be honest I'd pay =A31-1.5k for one of them,
bu=
t
none of the staff had the faintest idea of what they'd be going for.  They
were certainly attracting a lot of interest, though overall it was still
very quiet.

For anyone looking for PCs, they had upwards of 200 Compaq PII/350's - not
leading edge but good for HA.  Lots of UPS and 15" LCD screens too.

They also had what must have been about 300 Palm Pilot V's all boxed and
unused - nice to see the money wasn't wasted!

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: MIME:ukha.diyha@xxxxxxx at INTERNET
To: White, Peter; ukha_d@xxxxxxx at Internet
Sent: 24/02/01 16:00
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Dome Auction

We looked at the 50" plasma and ruled it out.

The manufacturers claim "True XGA" but that is not the case
Panel is 16:9 and is 1280x768 pixels.
If you run XGA (1024x768) you get black bars at the sides unless you
stretch
to fill which distorts the image. If you run at 1280x1024 then it
compressed
the vertical resolution down to 768 again distorting the image.

What I wanted to find and no-one made was a 50" 4:3 plasma @1024x768.

Widescreen is great for Movies but no good for PC's at the moment
because
everything is designed for a 4:3 ratio PC monitor.

One further point of worry about plasma is that many DVD's are 18:9 or
21:9
and show black bars even on a widescreen TV. with plasma this means that
the
area covered by black bars would be worked less than the centre area of
the
screen and after time full screen material would have brighter stripes
top
and bottom.

I got called out to a local pub beause their projector had a bright
green
band at the top of the picture. I looked at it and thought that
something
really dire had happened to the CRT projector as it was the same on all
channels with the top 6 inches of the picture looking bright and the
rest
being dull and generally "yucky". It was then that I realised the
bottom
of
the picture was 6 inches above the bottom of the screen.

The screen was a pull down type and someone had pulled it down another 6
inches. The "normal" viewing area of the screen was stained brown
from
all
the nicotine but the top 6" was still white where it had been rolled
up
in
the housing. That is the effect you would get on a plasma after the
centre
was more heavily used.

We have also just replaced a Barco 808 CRT data projector after 20,000
hours
with a brand new Barco Cine CRT. That is the beast I would love but it
was
13500 + vat !!!

The guns on the old Barco had weakened after all that time which is not
surprising. The area of the tubes used to show the picture was grey
compared
to the unused area of phospor. You still cant beat a CRT in my opinion.

As you said initial impact is something you have to overcome. LCD looks
brilliant when you see it briefly but you soon spot all the faults with
the
picture and the running costs are horrendous. That Barco may seem
expensive
but 16K to watch at least 10000 movies its under =A31 per hour. Other
CRT's
start at aroung 3 grand and are even better value for money but I was
talking about the Rolls Royce of projectors :-)

Also LCD projectors are noisy because of high speed fans to get rid of
all
the heat.

Keith



-----Original Message-----
From: Phillip Harris [mailto:phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 24 February 2001 14:42
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Dome Auction


Cheers Keith.

I've actually been *VERY* disappointed with plasma screens to date ...
they
really do seem to be the perfect solution to the old problem of big
screen
TV in a typical UK sized house.

However, I looked into the plasma screen market fairly carefully about
18
months ago when my employer was looking for something to give a bit of
wow
factor to the boardroom and the only one that was in any way suitable
for
what we needed (video plus graphics) was the 50" Pioneer. When I
looked
about 6 - 8 months ago for myself I started at the 50" Pioneer (then
=A310.5k)
but even that wasn't up to what I considered to be a good enough
standard.
The contrast wasn't great, it leaked charge between pixels giving a
glowing
edge to film credits and - well, there was a whole list at the time
which
I've forgotten by now.

It's like anything that you see ... you have to get past the immediate
impressiveness of a 50" screen in a package that you can hang on the
wall
and actually look at the resultant performance.

I would say that we're still a few years away from the ideal plasma
screen.

Oh yeah ... one other thing about the plasmas that I disliked. THE FAN
NOISE! If anyone has left the 40" plasma running in the boardroom then
I
can
hear it as I pass the boardroom door.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Keith Doxey [mailto:ukha.diyha@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 24 February 2001 13:13
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Dome Auction
>
>
> Thanks for the confirmation Phil.
>
> One other thing I forgot to mention.... the screens we were
> offered had been
> fitted with high contrast anti glare screens to improve the visibility
> (smoked glass screen) and if you have ever tried an anti glare screen
on
> your PC monitor you will realise just how much light gets absorbed by
the
> anti-glare screen meaning you have to drive the monitor/plasma even
harder
> :-(
>
> Keith
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phillip Harris [mailto:phillip.harris1@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 24 February 2001 12:00
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Dome Auction
>
>
>
> Just to confirm what Keith's saying...
>
> At the moment we have a Pioneer 40" 4:3 plasma at work and we've
probably
> had it no more than 18 months. It doesn't show the same things
> all day, it's
> not even showing things all day but it does usually get left on
> all day (9 -
> 6) - even though people are told to power it down after use. It is
> *definitely* getting greyer as time goes on ... it's certainly
> not as bright
> or contrasty as it used to be.
>
> I'd be very wary of buying a plasma at the moment - especially a
> second hand
> one. I've been and looked at several that were current six months ago
> (including the Pioneer 50" XGA) and I really didn't think that
> they were at
> a point where they were suitable for long term domestic use.
>
> Phil
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>





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