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worth the effort?

EricBall

Entry posted by EricBall

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The head honcho of my department has decided he no longer wants to fund the public area meeting room he inheritted. In the room are a pair of 15 year old ceiling mounted Electrohome ECP-4101 front projection CRTs. There's a high probability that I could take them myself if I asked nicely. (Otherwise they will probably be scrapped.)

 

Now, in spite of their age, they probably have been used very little. So I doubt the 7" tubes have been used up. They were also high-end data projectors for their day with 1280x1024 resolution, which translates into (almost) full HDTV capabilites.

 

So why haven't I jumped at the chance?

1. The dang things are big, heavy & ceiling mounted. So I'd need to somehow rope in 2-3 other people to unbolt them from their ceiling mounts and get them out to the car.

2. They only have RGB BNC inputs which will make it more difficult to interface with source equipment. (Although it should be possible to connect a PC via a VGA to BNC cable.)

3. Although I've found the service manual online, and having two means I might be able to swap out failed parts, I'm not sure I have the time or ability to do my own repairs.

4. Did I mention they are big & heavy? And it's not like I have the space to put them in the house.

 

But dang, free HDTV displays!

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4 Comments

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potatohead

Do you have room to store them? If so, I would make the effort. Sometimes one gets a chance at something that does not make sense right then. After a time, some project or other always seems to come up. Seems a shame to let them get scrapped.

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Nathan Strum

I wouldn't bother with them, personally. We've had old video projectors like that around work. They end up sitting in a store room, and eventually get scrapped. Odds are they're pretty noisy, and likely wouldn't make for a good home theater projector.

 

Even if you did find a way to mount them, they're not going to be nearly as bright as anything currently on the market, and those three-beam projectors are a royal pain to calibrate. Plus you have to have the lenses shimmed properly for the size and distance of your screen, and on and on.

 

They're boat anchors. Unless you could turn 'em around at a swap meet, let them take up space in someone else's garage.

 

But that's just my opinion. :)

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batari
They have their fans out there. If it doesn't work out, I'd put them on ebay.

Maybe, if you don't mind shipping a 120lb item...

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