sony VPL VW10HT projector

With this projector, or any other for that matter, my priority would first be to properly calibrate for DVD and/or LD and Tv viewing would come way down the list for me. You are correct that with cable TV, every station has a different "colour scheme" and based on that it is impossible to calibrate properly for every station. Question, how much TV viewing do you do on your 10HT?

 

the non-hd output from my dtc-100 is a very significant improvement over a regular composite cable signal into my pj. However, keep in mind that SD cable/satellite is never going to look as good as HD/DVD.
I would definitely recommend a directTV HD satellite box. HD-Net is simply awesome, HBO is decent, and now they have showtimeHD. If you have a HD capable display, you should definitely be using it to its full potential with the HD programming that is out there. At some point I will probably get a box that will output 720p, but the DTC was such a good deal that I could not pass it up.
one other thing that you might want to consider is Dscaler. With a capture card, Radeon video card, and this free program you can turn a PC into a high quality scaler. I use Dscaler for LD/games/some tv viewing - output quality is similar/better compared to the DTC depending on source quality.
good luck
-jeff

 

kevin,
I am using a modded DPL projector with anamorphic lens - not exactly apples to apples to the sony, but pq differences related to sources should be relatively close. this might be a silly question, but do you see the same color shift from channel to channel if you plug that cable box into a regular tv?
there are a number of DirectTV boxes that are HD capable on the market - the DTC-100 is an older model made by RCA. as far as I know, all DirectTV HD boxes will also bring in OTA HD broadcasts as well which is nice - some NCAA tourney games were broadcast in HD last season.
I dont have cable now, but from memory, I dont think that there was that much variability from channel to channel. if you are that dissatisfied with cable, I would really suggest directtv - HD really is great stuff. the only down side is once you start watching HD dvd is just not going to look that good.
you might want to look around www.avsforum.com for a little more detail on the latest info on HD hardware or digital projector info in general.
-jeff

 

If the source is only available to you via composite then it will never be good blown up to 92 inches, period.

If you can go to s-video output from your cable box it would be better... but there will still be light level and color level differences from channel to channel.

 

Having an S-Video output wouldn't improve things at all. It would most likely make it look worse, except for the digital channels. If it had S-Video out it would likely just have a notch filter.

Your analog channels are composite it in nature (as are laserdiscs.) Perhaps the Sony doesn't have the greatest comb filter, or maybe the tuner in the cable box is not very good.

Try a different tuner. Try an outboard comb filter (I use the Crystal Vision VPS). One solution some folks has used is a high-ish end JVC SVHS VCR (The 7xxx or 9xxx line) which have pretty good comb filters and very good tuners.

You could also just use the SVHS VCR's comb filter by routing your cable box composite out to the VCR and then output the S-Video to your projector.

I never got cable to look great in my setup (just a 40" set) and satellitle at least eliminates all the analog noise, but the resolution is pretty pathetic.

 

Kevin,

I have a 10HT and a 110" Grayhawk and I would suspect all of your problems lie with your cable company. The 10HT has very good composite video performance.

My cable company is Time Warner here in Houston and their digital channels are pretty good on my 10HT via composite or S-Video. The analog channels via the cable box are much more variable. With alot of them the flesh tones look way too green. I also get HDTV service via cable which looks outstanding. Time Warner uses all Motorola equipment. On balance, my cable picture quality is very good. Sounds like you aren't so lucky however.

I would suggest you go the DirecTV route. I used to be on DirecTV but switched back to cable when Time Warner started offering HDTV for $4 a month with no equipment to buy. I would have had to upgrade my hardware to go HD.

In your case, I would probably look at a Hughes (or Toshiba/Mitsubishi made by Hughes) receiver. The RCA works good with the 10HT on HD material but on standard definition (SD) material it wants to convert everything to 540p which the 10HT does not support without having to go into the setup menu everytime you go from HD to SD. The Hughes based receivers will output standard definition in 1080i which the 10HT handles fine. An alternative is to use the S-Video input for SD material and RGB input for HD on the RCA.

Bob

 

Considering Bob's comments on the quality of the internal comb filter, an external one might not be the best thing for you, but...
You feed it a composite connection and it outputs S-Video (which has chrominance/luminance separated.) I got my VPS-1 off of eBay for ~$100. It originally listed @ $549. I've seen them on audiogon.com from $150-$200 a few times.
DBS might be a good way to for you. I save about $15/month and get 2 extra HD channels. I paid ~$400 for my dish and receiver, which also gets local over-the-air stations with a cheap (indoor) antenna.
And rofl. No.. she was our waitress the first night. I finagled her onto my lap and Dana Filhart had his camera.

 

Kevin,

In order to go the satelite route you will have to spend approximately $500-$700 on equipment. This would include an elipitical dish and HD receiver that will decode everything (Off the air analog, Off the air HD, Normal digital satelite channels , and satelite HD channels). You would also need a HD capable antenna for the Off the air stuff.

The green tint that I see on some of the analog channels in not really correctable. The 10HT is not near as forgiving as a normal television when the colors are off due to its accuracy. Normal TV's tend to make everything look more red due to improprer red push on most models which tends to cancel out these green casts you see on your 10HT.

My local channels are broadcasted in analog and also are upconverted by the local affiliate to HD when no original HD material is present. The channels that are upcomverted to HD look much better.

I purchased my projector from Medical Video Systems (medicalvideosystems.com). I believe they sell bulbs for about $450.

Also, if you don't know, there is a great 10HT dedicated forum at thebigpicturedvd.com. Look under hardware forums and you will find it.

Bob

 

You can get an HD setup with a Hughes E86 decoder box (same as the current Sony/Toshiba decoder boxes) and an eliptical dish for $430 (including shipping) if you install it yourself, and I believe you have to commit to a minimum service. That's from Minidishes.tv, where I bought my setup from. No affiliation with them, just always seem to have good prices, and seemed easy to deal with and friendly...

And Kevin, this year the HTF meet is the HTF/AVS cruise. The last few years folks went out to Hollywood and we got some private tours of studios, including spending all day at Fox. Very fun.