The Big Picture

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I remember back when our tv was a 12" Philco B&W set that was missing the channel knob so we used a pair of pliers to change the channel. Upgrading to a 19" color set was an amazing leap - or so I thought. I never suspected the primrose path that fate had waiting for me...

The lunacy began when I was working for Elector USA. They sold a private label version of the Zenith PV800P video projector - the Ultravision. It was one of the first consumer projectors that actually had a half decent picture. This was actually before the term "home theater" had been conjured up and there were virtually no large projection setups in peoples homes.

Well - one day I went over to Marius's house to see what he had set up in his basement. He had a Zenith projector configured for an 8' screen and a nice reciever with decent speakers. He had one of those new-fangled Laserdisc players as well. I was blown away. I must have looked like Mr. Toad after he was run down by the motor car, sitting in the middle of the road with his eyes spinning as he stared at that amazing machine he had just encountered.

The next day I placed my order for a Zenith projector. I called around and found a place in Buffalo that had good deals on a Pioneer reciever and Laserdisc player.

My Zenith (Ultravision) video projector

There was no turning back at that point. After a couple of weeks, I realized that the speakers I was using didn't sound as good as they could, so I replaced them. Then I realized that I "needed" the features on the then top of the line Pioneer Laserdisc player. Month after month, year after year, it was a constant state of upgrade. I can thank (or blame) Kevin for helping hook me up with the both the Barco and Sharp projectors when he was working at those companies. As of this writing, he is working for Christie which makes the massive digital projectors that are used in movie theaters. I wonder what the future might hold...

The current incarnation is a dual projector system consisting of a Barco Graphics 800 with an IRIS autoconvergence unit and a Sharp DLP unit. The screen is a 14 foot Da-Lite Cosmopolitan Electric screen.

Barco Graphics 800

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Sharp PG M20X DLP projector

The room is set up with all of the equipment (and there is a TON of it) upstairs.    Click here to continue