Tested Pauls barco again and with better results. After new colour HD lenses adjustments all over again and adjustments on blue on source. The picture was much better still needs a cms calibration up to Rec 709 D65. But much much better. Specially the punch more sharpness. The contrast on a modified simulation new tubes dont burn out as easy in contrast. The contrast is about 12 20000 1 and the ANSI lumen on screen is max 800-1000 ANSI lumen. But that I impressive normal 808 Max 360 ANSI lumen. And people are different when it comes to what a good picture is. Some like over saturated colours and some like the opposite. I have to say that its the best 808 crt I ever seen. I feel that a original 909 is some sharper but I could be wrong. To do these mods with the simulation tubes and cards if you have and use a barco its a MUST TO DO. Its make the projector almost 3 times better.
Have a nice day
Didrik
Hello Greg Eisemann. I have grounded the tubes with copper plates and it works exelent. The picture on my barco is the best i have ever seen colour and sharpness is world class.
Best regards
Paul
Greg,
I just wanted to drop you a note that the Sony G90 is all back together and in place on the newly engineered ceiling mount. Its been up and running strong for the last few weeks and have now gotten the new tubes broken in and able to truly see how great this new combination really works. The G90 is way more than filling the shoes that the former G70 held in my home theater. Its definitely a WOW compared to the G70 and with the sim grade tubes better than most G90s.... The new tubes are performing very well and the focus and convergence are extremely precise compared to anything I was able to do with the G70.
Im also running the G90 with the new Moome V2 HDMI card and the Lumagen Radiance XS+ 3D Scaler with output to the G90 at 1080P @ 72hz for 2D and 720P @ 120hz for 3D! Picture quality with both 2D and 3D are incredible.
Thanks for helping to make the Rev 2 of my home theater such a success with your Sim Grade tubes and the new green C Element for the G90!
Peter Nohelty
Want A 15-20% performance improvement/Razer sharp focus for your Sony G70 !!!! New Sim Grade Hi-Rez Tubes to suit Sony G70s made available By Greg Eisemann of eisemann-theatre These New Sim Grade "HR" P16s are Based off the Same tech used in Gregs Sim Grade "HR" lugs & are A direct replacement/ drop in solution for G70s that dont require any mods to the G70s neck boards and offer Superior performance over the Stock OEM Panasonic P16-08s tubes used in G70 & NEC LC.. Over the years after reading Numerous reviews about how Good Greg Eisemanns Lug tube perform over the Stock OEM used in G90s.. I contacted Greg inquiring about the availability/possibility of Sim Grade p16 tubes that would allow G70 owners to have the ability to utilize enjoy the Superior performance of the 9" Lugs but in an 8" Package.. After many Emails back and forth and open discussion on AVS Greg was finely able to come up with the Goods, 8" sims with same pinout as P1608s. I was still A little Skeptical.. With Gregs Sim Grade HR Tubes installed, as I had hoped the Green tube is Razor sharp showing no determinable difference between RGB when displaying Int/ External test patterns @ 1920x805p and the Picture is absolutely stunning & now only running contrast at 55 appears to throw close to the same fL as my old tubes at 65.. For non Bias confirmation I asked the Mrs into the theater to hear her opinion, & the first comment was WoW the picture looks sharper more depth than last time.. How much of an improvement would you say the image is over previous times Dear ? The Mrs said id say 20% :-O, So I was defiantly not suffering from Placebo.. Next I threw up the SMPTE 1:1 test pattern to see how well the Sim Tubes where resolving 1920x805p compared to my OEM Panasonics & they blew them out of the water .. My little G70 has A little over 1500 hrs on chassis was running original tubes & showed virtually zero wear (9) before upgrade, Moome V2 Full-HD HDMI int card, external VP is VP50pro running YcBcR 4:2:2 video chain Source is Panasonic BD30 outputing 24p, Screen is Stewarts Lux Deluxe Studio Tek 130 92" 16:9.. Simulation grade guns wear less they are higher grade brighter and sharper. Its a better tube according to how they are made. My Final thoughts: I love my G70 & These new Sim Grade tubes made the single biggest improvement upgrade since my Moome V2 HDMI card, Breathing new life back into why I love CRT.. It was Easy to change out the old OEM tubes with the Sim Grade thanks to JohnHWman well written Guide which makes it possible for just about anyone to accomplish
G70 Tube Install
A Huge Thank you To Greg Eisemann for making this All possible & providing me the opportunity to install these high performance Sim tubes into my G70.. & I cant forget to say A big thanks to Curt Palme for going out of his way to expedite me A Set of OEM G70 HV Leads, thanks CURT.... Cheers...
(View Original Review from www.avsforum.com)
(View Original Review from www.Curtpalme.com)
Dear Greg, I can only say : excellent, perfect. I am extremely happy with the result for my Barco Cine 8. The picture is great,extremely sharp,brighter,deep,excellent color. My Bluray/DVD player (Denon DVD A-1UD) with 1080p resolution in combination with your excellent modifications/improvements and the recommended optic cable is giving a fantastic picture on my screen (2,10 meter x 2,80 meter, 6 feet 10,67 inches x 9 feet 2,23 inches ) with Bluray DVD and also with the standard DVD. My satellite receiver for the television is delivering 1080i (unfortunately not 1080p) giving a very good picture but slightly less than with 1080p. The Octavia switch that I bought unfortunately is decreasing the sharpness of the picture, probably because the "clear eye" design improves the signal that does not need ! I will disconnect this electronic part of the switch. Many, many thanks to you (and to my son who found your firm via internet). It was a pleasure to work with you.
Best regards
Daniel P
I got a new green tube from Greg Eisemann for my G90 recently and finally made time to install it and do a first pass calibration. Wow. The green tube I had been using was relatively low hour and showed no wear, but what I didn’t know before buying the projector was that it was not an LUG tube but rather an LCP. The difference in overall picture quality between the new LUG and old LCP is staggering. When I got the G90 a couple years ago it took me a while to discover that the green tube was not a LUG or LQF. After a lot of effort trying to get the EM focus dialed in I never was able to get the green to focus as tight as the red - close, but never quite as tight. Once it was revealed that it was an LCP it made sense that it wasn’t user error on my part but the larger aperture in the electron gun. The new P19LUG Boeing tube I got from Greg Eisemann is amazing. After letting it wear in and getting the mechanical alignment and optical focus set I made a quick pass at the EM focus. Scan lines, super easily, right away even up in the corners. It brought a tear to my eye. I reset all the registration values and setup the geometry from scratch. Everything fell into place and it was great to see the red and green overlap without the green bleeding out on either side! The new tube also has the more correct green c-element, and doing the HCFR stuff showed that in the CIE chart right away. Getting the grayscale dialed in actually has me using a lower Gain value for green than I had before - which I guess might confirm some of the observations people have made about these tubes being a little brighter. I was expecting to have to bump the green gain up or drop the R/B to compensate for the new c-element but that wasn’t the case. Another thing that was obvious right away doing the color calibration was how smooth the new green was compared to the variation in phosphor grain the old one had. From a distance white fields looked white with the old one, but when you got right up to the screen you could see how much small variation there was in the green phosphor grain. The new one is super consistent and smooth, even when you get right up to the screen. After doing this first pass setup we had some friends over and watched Slumdog Millionaire on Blu-Ray. I’ve seen the movie before, as had my wife but it was new to our guests. Before we watched the movie my wife had teased me a little bit about having put a lot of time and money into replacing a green tube that looked “perfectly fine” and our friends who had been over to see lots of movies also said they never thought there could be that much of an improvement over the way it had looked before. When it was over, they had different things to say… “It looks so much clearer now!” Huge thanks to Greg Eiseman! The projector has always looked very good, and I was hoping the new tube would be an improvement – but my expectations have been significantly exceeded. I’m a very satisfied customer and would encourage anyone thinking of getting a tube to talk to Greg. Kris
(View Orginal Review from AVSForum.com)
Hi Greg,
I owe you an apology and regret late reply as i was hospitalized for three weeks , I have only recently been able to pick myself up to get things moving.. So please accept my apologies for the tardy nature of business. On Receiving the cards sent by you i have had them installed by the Barco technicians and i must complement you on the difference that this makes as compared to an external device.
I am now convinced that i need to get the full MOD Done by you hence i would like you to tell me which are the cards that you want removed and sent to you for the full MOD. Just to refresh your memory i have a CINE 8 Onyx so that you can tell me exactly what you want removed and sent to you.
I await your mail and then i will get the Barco technicians to come by and take out the cards and have them sent across to you by Fed –Ex . Also please advise as to how long you take to ship these cards back to me so that i know the down time that i will have.
Regards Raja
Hi,I have received the card for my 909,the image is very beautiful with more beautiful colors than before You have done a great job!
Thanks carlettole
Even after ten years of fooling with my Bg808, I still rate as an amateur, just wanting to watch movies, sports, on shows in the best looking big screen picture I can jam into my multi-purpose living room. The digital age was beginning to leave me behind, and I had technical and other problems with HDFury and Moome’s box. I began to seriously consider digital projection. But finally I decided to give Greg Eisemann’s v7 mods a try, and WOW! With the cards right back in the projector, no adjustments, my untrained but fussy eye said brighter, sharper, deeper. My PS3 said, okay, now I will give you 1080P! My Toshiba HD-A2 said, okay, now I will actually show a picture again! I am still working on tweaking the picture, no small feat for me, and will be looking for a new screen.
Greg’s service was also great. When I did just the DVI card, he swapped out one of his so I didn’t have to wait. When I went back 3 months later for the full mod, he held the old price. And when he found an existing problem with one of my cards, he swapped it at no charge. He has been responsive and helpful in the setup as well. Very worth the cost, in my opinion, especially since my alternative was a digital projector.
Doug (View Orginal Review from AVSForum.com)
I recently finished the 7 board and dvi mod from greg eisemann for my 1209 and am extremely happy with the results. For those who are considering the mods and can’t find many posts concerning results, I hope this is helpful.
My 1209 was purchased around end of 2000. Since that time I have had no problems. I replaced an aging red tube around 2002 and had the green and red c-element installed at that time - which in my opinion is a must. After 5 years of enjoying the pj, it was time to do some tweeking.
Once I got the boards back from greg and reinstalled them, the results were obvious even after only a couple of hrs of refocusing and converging. There were significant improvements to both spatial and contrast resolution. Playing hd dvds that I was very familiar with, I saw a sharper picture with more fine detail. Just as impressive as the sharp picture was the improvement in blacks and shadow detail. The colors were more saturated and there was much more punch to the picture.
I use a crt is because I prefer the way crt’s render color and texture. The increase in sharpness with these mods erase any temptation for me to consider a digital pj. I would also say that the increased sharpness I have now is more natural and different from a digital’s sharpness. As for the new levels of blacks and colors, well, there was no competition with the stock 1209 to begin with.
My wife loves the new picture. Last sunday she had turned on the system for the colts/ravens game and called to me that I was missing not only a good game (colts fan) but that I was missing how good the ravens black uniforms looked. Yesterday we were watching casino royal (a movie we had watched on the system before the mods) and she says how much easier she can see the grain and how much richer the colors were - qualities in film and movies that we both appreciate.
For those considering the upgrade from greg, I would say do it and you will not regret it. the improvement is not subtle.
And thanks to Greg for a great product and all his help.
Loi V. (View Orginal Review from AVSForum.com)
I think I have tested almost all of the better DVI to VGA converter solutions including the highly applauded and cost effective HD Fury, Spatz boxes, the external Moome and others and I have to say compared to the HDFury which I consider to hold its own against all other solutions in the best possible config (hanging directly at the RGBHV via the short dongle) the DVI input version by Greg still trumps it noticably. I am a lazy person and as I only use 1080p 48 at the most so this is what I tested exclusively. Even better results might be experienced with higher bandwidth feeds. I originally looked especially for better resolution and bandwidth, but two other parameters improved noticably so I will mention them first:
Picture noise: IMO the 1209s is a pretty noisy projector and from my test the DVI mod by Greg has a lower noisefloor and cleaner picture than the HDFury, very visible when someone is closer to the screen and still visible from the seating position I prefer (1.2 screen widths).
Steadyness of the picture: There always was a strange instability of the line structure with the external solutions where one line was a moving and shaking a little in relation to the next and previous line, not much and nothing that rendered the picture unwatchable but it was still there. With Greg’s input board everything was rock steady and that was a very welcome change, too.
Resolution and bandwidth: Funny thing is that this is where I did not notice a difference at all and as luma resolution and bandwidth limitations can also be nicely photographed I did that too and the photos also did not show a difference between both feeds that I could detect.This was tested on a pretty maxed out 1209s with scanlines at 1080p and HD10f lens and only looking at green to just evaluate the raw performance of the DVI card, so the setup was not at fault IMO.
So the good news for HD Fury users is: At least with 1080p 48 the HD Fury looks very nice with regard to resolution and bandwidth.
and for those who want a little extra and are ready to pay for it:
With regard to noise floor and steadiness of the picture the DVI card by Greg improves on all other solutions I have seen and for those who want the best there is it is the right choice. Not the cheapest but the best and that is always a bit more expensive than the rest.
Sorry I di not test higher bandwidths but I just do not believe they are necessary or desirable, maybe my third test would have had a different outcome. Still even for the other improvements I would recommend the product for those who want the best - there is an appreciable difference and it is no snake oil product.
And I might add that Greg seems like a nice person to work with, he sometimes takes a little time for things but in the end everything always worked out fine, I got both the DVI board and P19 LUG tubes from him and will order stuff from him again.
Oliver K. (View Orginal Review from AVSForum.com)
Thanks for your note, the projector is working out great! TV and movies look great, How sharp can CRTs normally get? Your custom made new cable also made a huge difference vs. the previous one, I can’t detect any drop out.
Regards,
Jay
I have tried many so called repair agents or Modification experts in the USA.
To date I have only been impressed with ONE engineer
ALL of our Modification work is sent to Greg Eisemann at Eisemann Theater for both Marquee and Barco machines.
About 50% of our repairs are sent to Greg Eisemann the rest are repaired in the UK, Basic repairs are done in the UK, ALL advanced repairs are sent to Greg.
Greg has visited me here in the UK, and is due to do so again soon.
When I first met Greg I was very impressed with his in depth understanding of Barco machines, I work mainly with Barcos. I watched Greg in a pitch black room remove the cover of my own 1209s unit, lower the tube cover and work on the tube setup, What he did demonstrated his understanding of the machine, Talking with him also highlighted various items that Barco have done with these machines that could only be known about from working on many of these.
When Greg was here my Barco was "setup" with a couple of very minor faults that Greg correctly identified.
I have been very happy with all work Greg has carried out.
All the best,
Andy Halliday.
Greg,
I will be very happy, you have been very fair and I would recommend you to anyone. It is too bad there are so many cynics out there that doubt your results.
I will get the board in the mail tomorrow (Thursday). I would also like you to do your newest port 3 and port 5 mods. Please let me know when you get the new DVI card that is 1080p and I can have you do it all at once. (In the mean time I will return the blu-ray player. I have no other way to check it besides your card. The image with blu-ray is great, but I am not happy with the motion artifacts it has. Hopefully they will improve and also come down in price.) You can send me a Paypal invoice when you figure out what I owe you.
Thank you,
Ken Holtan
Greg:
That sounds like a good idea. Then I could see it in action. Do you think you could schedule a visit during the next month? I have a weekend of visitors coming to see the theater on the weekend of March 24. I sure would like to have my system fully up to speed for that visit. New VIM card, Updated calibration. WOW - My projector would be in top form.
By the way, I have continued to use the projector and find that it operates just fine - no glitches or repeats of prior problems. I think your diligent effort has succeeded. I am most happy.
My new Toshiba HD DVD unit does not seem to output a good 1080P signal - I am using it on 1080i instead. I cannot figure this out.
John S. Roberge
"Your DVI is sharper than the old RGBVH" - Capozio
"The Picture is Great" - Rick Boone
Greg Eisemann did an incredible job doing an extensive repair to the convergence tray on my Runco DTV 1101, 9 inch CRT projector. He special ordered factory replacement parts and tested the boards thoroughly in his test projector before returning. He is a total perfectionist and a total professional. I will trust no one else to do repairs to my very expensive projector. His mods are next on my list. I’m certain they will be super high quality because that’s the way Greg operates. I hope this message reaches other CRT buffs in need of a gifted electronics expert.
Sincerely,
Larry Kasden
"The Projector Looks Amazing" - Lon McPherson
GREG:
So far the new MODS are GREAT my projector has never looked sharper and the color is amazing.
Switched to 720p in the Dishnetwork menu and...
VOILA
The PICTURE is NICE
Print is SHARP!!
Colors are vibrant
WOW!
NICE
AMAZING so far
So far I like it ALOT!!!
TY
Barry Paige
"The New DVI is has an edge over the old RGBVH" - Andy H.
"The Color is really really nice on my 1208 you sold me" - Russell J.
Greg,
My 1208 is installed and setup and the picture so far is quite impressive.
Tyler Perkins
Hi Greg,
I’ve got the 1209 set up and looking good. I’m very pleased with the performance of the unit. However there is one artifact when using the DVI input. There are a series of vertical dark bands on the left side of the picture, most noticeable in bright scenes. They extend to about 1/4 of the screen width. I’ve tried several sources, and they all show it. Port 5 does not. Do you have any ideas for a fix? Thanks.
Dan
Greg,
I will most certainly leave a post on AVS.
I got my PS3 running Sat night.
Looks great @ 1080P !!! However I have difficulty displaying entire image. The left edge of the picture is cut off. @!#@#$@!
What can I do?
Also I still need the picture of the cable routing.
Thanks,
Tim Bollinger
"The New Tubes and mods are great" - Shirawan
Hello Greg,
After installed DVI 4S on my 1209s, the picture is the best ever in my theater. My scan line is sharper when compare to Mike Parker’s picture which using 1080p 72Hz. while I’m using Toshiba HD-A1 (HD-SDI) + Crystalio II @ 1080p 60Hz. If I send you all 6 boards to do further mod., what will I get from the full mod.? What is the additional price? I paid $525 already.
Regards,
Nat S.
I got my hands on a new tube in Barco housing for a good price. Chris Collins came back Friday and installed and recalibrated. New tube has much better emissions and better focusing. However, one of the neck boards appears off, in that no matter what, he couldn’t get correct color levels using all 3 modded boards. Chris had a pulled neck board from another 1208 and used that instead to finish the calibrations. The color balance is now good. He did note that your modded neck board was slightly better in focusing, though. - Geordon Portice
Well, You were one of the first to get V5 but 8>There is a fairly thorough analysis posted on Curts website. I do think the pic is sharper and has more black and color saturation. By the way, there is a guy in the area with a G90 and Dave wants to go see it to see how the picture compares. I still love my picture. - Rock Noil
Hi Greg,
Arrived yesterday, working very good. The picture is extremely sharp
Thanks and good luck,
Rittberg
last night i saw a movie called "descent" on PAL-dvd(Lots of dark scenes.)scaled from 720x576 to 1440x1152 through crystalio scaler. With DVI it looked sharp and with good colours. I tested THXoptimiser and increased brightness out of crystalio i finally got a better lower grayscale and I saw "blacker then black as i could see with analog RGBHV).
I have tested with 1920x1080 a resolution my projector have not locked to before, but now it do.
In what way will the new DVI chip improve the picture? I think about maybe change to colour corrected c-elements, but does not this increase the wear on the phosphor of the tubes? Or is this only minor?.
- J.C.
"Love the 1080p Picture" - Geordon Portice
Hi,Greg
I received boards last day and put them on projector. Everything is perfect.
Thank you very much!
Best Regards
David Dai
"Love the Picture" - Suwendi Hirawan