WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.907 You are looking at something you're not supposed to see. 00:00:04.514 --> 00:00:07.118 Well, at least not like this. 00:00:07.118 --> 00:00:12.990 The image on your screen is coming from one third of the  business end of a video projector. 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:17.545 This image is the second third. And this one is the third  third. 00:00:17.545 --> 00:00:19.447 That's right. It's our old friends 00:00:19.447 --> 00:00:21.180 red, green, and blue. 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:25.321 The primary colors of almost all  modern display technologies. 00:00:25.321 --> 00:00:29.080 But for some reason, they've been separated. 00:00:29.080 --> 00:00:34.386 If we zoom out a bit, we'll find that we've been looking through the lenses of this device: 00:00:34.386 --> 00:00:38.803 a Sony VPH-D50HT Mark II. 00:00:38.803 --> 00:00:45.883 And for many years, when we needed a large full color video screen, this is how we did it. 00:00:45.883 --> 00:00:51.530 If you're my age or older, you might remember seeing these triclopses out in the wild. 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:57.033 I have a particularly burned-in memory of one of these in a party room at a local entertainment center. 00:00:57.033 --> 00:01:00.082 And I also remember seeing one on an airplane. 00:01:00.082 --> 00:01:06.479 By the turn of the millennium, these were starting to go out of fashion for reasons which will become very obvious. 00:01:06.479 --> 00:01:12.821 But because of the technology inside of here, this device produces a shockingly good projected image, 00:01:12.821 --> 00:01:15.443 especially considering its age. 00:01:15.443 --> 00:01:22.357 It has fantastic color rendering, and it doesn't struggle in dark scenes like so many projectors do. 00:01:22.357 --> 00:01:28.010 In fact, when displaying a black video signal, the screen is truly black. 00:01:28.010 --> 00:01:32.677 And these support much higher video resolutions than you might expect. 00:01:32.677 --> 00:01:39.810 This model originally came out in 1998,  yet it natively supports 1080i component video 00:01:39.810 --> 00:01:43.343 and can even go a little higher with an RGB input. 00:01:43.343 --> 00:01:48.319 In fact, the technology itself has a theoretically unlimited resolution. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:53.723 That's because behind each of its three lenses is a cathode ray tube. 00:01:53.723 --> 00:01:57.405 That's right. This is a CRT projector. 00:01:57.405 --> 00:02:02.908 But rather than use a single color CRT like you'd find in an ordinary television set, 00:02:02.908 --> 00:02:09.000 this uses three monochrome CRTs: one red, one green, and one blue. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:15.208 Then the three images each tube  produces are merged into one on the projection surface, 00:02:15.208 --> 00:02:17.860 and that produces a full color image. 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:25.751 This technique has lots of advantages, but it also requires an astounding level of complexity and precision. 00:02:25.751 --> 00:02:30.120 This is a red CRT from a similar model of projector. 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:34.148 And you may notice there's some  very odd stuff going on here. 00:02:34.148 --> 00:02:40.640 For one, there's quite the lens strapped to the front of it, and it appears to be filled with some kind of liquid. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.292 Yeah, this is higher tech than it looks at first glance. 00:02:44.292 --> 00:02:51.862 But, the basic idea of projecting an image from a small CRT like this is much older than this device 00:02:51.862 --> 00:02:56.131 and in fact dates back to the earliest days of television. 00:02:56.131 --> 00:02:59.985 These are the guts of a  television set from 1950something. 00:02:59.985 --> 00:03:02.888 And these are socks! 00:03:02.888 --> 00:03:06.966 The technology connection socks I let you know  about in my previous video. 00:03:06.966 --> 00:03:11.081 Now, if you didn't see that, I'm not just telling you about these socks to make a quick buck. \In fact, these are a collaboration between myself and the folks at  Goodtore. That means that all the profit that's generated from the sale of these socks is donated  to charity. These socks will help partners in 00:03:11.081 --> 00:03:15.269 In fact, these are a collaboration between myself and the folks at Good Store. 00:03:15.269 --> 00:03:20.707 That means that all the profit that's generated from the sale of these socks is donated to charity. 00:03:20.707 --> 00:03:26.359 These socks will help Partners in Health operate the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone. 00:03:26.359 --> 00:03:32.077 We're coming into the final days of orders being open for these, so I'm letting you know this is your last chance to get them. 00:03:32.077 --> 00:03:39.257 The Good Store team worked with independent artists and myself to design 12 Technology Connections-inspired socks. 00:03:39.257 --> 00:03:43.695 We are selling them as a prepaid subscription, meaning you only pay once. 00:03:43.695 --> 00:03:50.606 And if you choose to purchase it, you'll have a full year of delightful sock surprises arriving at your door each month starting in January. 00:03:50.606 --> 00:03:53.266 And we have a six-month option, too. 00:03:53.266 --> 00:03:59.321 The socks are shipped in flat compostable envelopes that  go through the mail as if they are a letter. 00:03:59.321 --> 00:04:01.907 I've been a member of the Awesome Socks Club for years. 00:04:01.907 --> 00:04:06.832 And let me tell you, a monthly sock surprise is just so much fun. 00:04:06.832 --> 00:04:10.024 You can buy it for yourself or for someone else as a gift. 00:04:10.024 --> 00:04:14.025 Orders are going to be closing October 12th  and then they will never be available again! 00:04:14.025 --> 00:04:19.619 So, if you want to warm your feet with socks that highlight my particular flavor of eccentricity - 00:04:19.619 --> 00:04:25.081 and help mothers and children in a region of the world  with one of the highest infant mortality rates, 00:04:25.081 --> 00:04:28.054 well, you'll find links to get these in all the places. 00:04:28.054 --> 00:04:29.092 Thank you so much. 00:04:29.092 --> 00:04:31.665 And now, back to this thing. 00:04:31.665 --> 00:04:36.359 This black and white television receiver is actually not that complex. 00:04:36.359 --> 00:04:40.136 It looks like a jumbled mess of hands soldered parts... 00:04:40.136 --> 00:04:44.666 because that's what it is, but there really aren't that many parts in here. 00:04:44.666 --> 00:04:47.294 This is the schematic diagram for the whole thing. 00:04:47.294 --> 00:04:55.987 It's mostly the same bunch of capacitors, resistors, vacuum tubes, coils, and potentiometers you'd find in any radio receiver. 00:04:55.987 --> 00:04:59.522 Sure, there are many more of them than a typical radio, 00:04:59.522 --> 00:05:04.394 but there's not much to this which isn't just radio parts. 00:05:04.394 --> 00:05:07.023 That is, except for three key things: 00:05:07.023 --> 00:05:12.087 The deflection yoke, which steers the electron beam that draws images on the picture tube, 00:05:12.087 --> 00:05:18.641 the flyback transformer, which generates the roughly 15,000 volts needed to make the picture tube  function, 00:05:18.641 --> 00:05:21.648 and of course, the picture tube itself. 00:05:21.648 --> 00:05:26.070 Now, you might have caught a little thing about 15,000 volts. 00:05:26.070 --> 00:05:30.823 Yeah, here's the part where I say playing with CRTs is dangerous. 00:05:30.823 --> 00:05:34.633 Not only do the drive electronics produce extremely high voltage, 00:05:34.633 --> 00:05:39.279 but the aquadag coating on the inside and outside of the glass picture tube 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:47.184 turns it into a giant capacitor which is able to store a lethal charge long after the TV has been switched off. 00:05:47.184 --> 00:05:49.141 So, don't screw around with these. 00:05:49.141 --> 00:05:57.049 But especially don't screw around with really old ones because electric shock is not the only danger here. 00:05:57.049 --> 00:06:04.690 This picture tube does not have integrated implosion protection, which makes handling it rather risky. 00:06:04.690 --> 00:06:10.824 If you've ever wondered why very old TVs had a flat sheet of glass in front of the actual picture tube, 00:06:10.824 --> 00:06:14.461 that was safety glass put there to protect it from you 00:06:14.461 --> 00:06:21.366 and to protect you from it should it one day violently implode into flying shards of glass. 00:06:21.366 --> 00:06:22.654 Yay! 00:06:22.654 --> 00:06:29.156 Anywho, I brought this out because  the picture tube is the part that made televisions so expensive. 00:06:29.156 --> 00:06:34.394 Electronically, it's not really any  more complicated than the other vacuum tubes in here, 00:06:34.394 --> 00:06:36.753 but it's still a vacuum tube. 00:06:36.753 --> 00:06:40.708 It cannot have any air inside of it or it won't work. 00:06:40.708 --> 00:06:47.610 And that made them very difficult to manufacture in large sizes because the bigger you make the viewing screen, 00:06:47.610 --> 00:06:52.847 the more area the atmosphere has  to work with to try and crush the tube. 00:06:52.847 --> 00:06:59.960 That is made worse by the fact that a larger screen also requires the electron gun to be farther away from the front of the tube, 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:06.326 which means the sides of the tube also have to get bigger and also become more vulnerable to atmospheric crushing. 00:07:06.326 --> 00:07:12.538 Now, obviously, we did eventually figure out how to make picture tubes with large viewing screens. 00:07:12.538 --> 00:07:14.413 Here is one of them. 00:07:14.413 --> 00:07:18.585 But before we did, people were experimenting with optical trickery. 00:07:18.585 --> 00:07:22.086 Rather than try and make a fragile bigger tube, 00:07:22.086 --> 00:07:28.243 you could use a small picture tube like this and  make it much brighter. 00:07:28.243 --> 00:07:36.325 Then you could use lenses to magnify and project an image of this small screen onto a larger viewing surface. 00:07:36.325 --> 00:07:41.149 This was surprisingly common in the early post-war  television sets of the 1940s. 00:07:41.149 --> 00:07:46.473 And in fact, some of the earliest television receivers  which were sold were basically what today 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.873 we would call video projectors. 00:07:48.873 --> 00:07:57.101 They weren't that different from this much newer device, though they had a single black and white picture tube and a single projecting lens. 00:07:57.101 --> 00:08:03.050 This technique worked to make a larger viewing screen, but it came with significant downsides. 00:08:03.050 --> 00:08:08.396 First, I don't want to mislead you: the viewing screens were not actually that big. 00:08:08.396 --> 00:08:15.944 Those early projection systems should really be thought of as a way to make normalsized TV screens cheaper. 00:08:15.944 --> 00:08:21.007 And in the spirit of cheap, the image quality wasn't that great. 00:08:21.007 --> 00:08:28.971 Rear projection systems where the CRT was behind a translucent screen tended to have poor contrast in the best of cases 00:08:28.971 --> 00:08:31.088 with a somewhat fuzzy image. 00:08:31.088 --> 00:08:37.093 And front projection systems required  the room to be absolutely dark to see anything at all. 00:08:37.093 --> 00:08:45.123 And in both cases, the CRT needed to be driven really hard in order to produce a bright enough image to be projected, 00:08:45.123 --> 00:08:51.401 and that meant they wore out quickly and needed frequent replacement, which negated much of the savings. 00:08:51.401 --> 00:08:58.307 These downsides combined meant that once large direct view picture tubes could be economically manufactured, 00:08:58.307 --> 00:09:04.667 they would immediately take over the market, and projection systems became a strange curiosity of the past. 00:09:04.667 --> 00:09:07.519 That is until the 1970s. 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:11.158 By then, lots had changed in the realm of television, 00:09:11.158 --> 00:09:14.130 such as color television broadcasts. Ooh! 00:09:14.130 --> 00:09:20.239 And we had gotten quite good at manufacturing large CRTs for  use in television sets. 00:09:20.239 --> 00:09:25.356 But consumer demand for even bigger TV sets was starting to swell. 00:09:25.356 --> 00:09:30.170 And now those nasty physics came back to bite us. 00:09:30.170 --> 00:09:33.290 We knew how to make big CRTs. 00:09:33.290 --> 00:09:39.886 But the larger you make the screen of a CRT, the stronger the tube has to be to resist implosion. 00:09:39.886 --> 00:09:46.319 This means the glass has to get thicker as size scales up, and thus the tube becomes heavier and heavier, 00:09:46.319 --> 00:09:50.663 which presents a practical limit to the size of a television screen. 00:09:50.663 --> 00:09:56.367 And so, as often happens in 30-year cycles, what was old was suddenly new again. 00:09:56.367 --> 00:10:02.288 Video projectors and projection televisions  were about to become the hot new thing. 00:10:02.288 --> 00:10:10.081 Now, unfortunately, it's not easy to trace a clean line through the history of this concept coming back into vogue. 00:10:10.081 --> 00:10:19.447 Mainly, that's because the earliest devices weren't exactly projectors, but they also weren't exactly televisions. 00:10:19.447 --> 00:10:27.886 The first company to commercialize this basic idea was called Advent and they released the Videobeam in 1972. 00:10:27.886 --> 00:10:33.976 It was a very similar device to this projector with the main difference being the arrangement of the lenses. 00:10:33.976 --> 00:10:39.543 Here they're in a single row of three and the Videobeam arranged them in a triangle. 00:10:39.543 --> 00:10:50.207 But the Videobeam, while it was technically a projector, required  the use of a dedicated screen placed at a fixed distance from the projection unit. 00:10:50.207 --> 00:10:54.942 You could not simply plop it somewhere, point it at a wall, and focus the lenses. 00:10:54.942 --> 00:11:01.287 You needed to use its dedicated  84in curved monster of a projection screen. 00:11:01.287 --> 00:11:06.104 Why? Well, the images being produced by its three CRTs 00:11:06.104 --> 00:11:12.243 need to converge with one another in order to look like a normal full color image on the screen. 00:11:12.243 --> 00:11:14.901 They need to perfectly overlap. 00:11:14.901 --> 00:11:18.152 And that is really hard to accomplish. 00:11:18.152 --> 00:11:25.646 Videobeam's approach was to simply calibrate their projectors in the factory and sell you the screen they did it with. 00:11:25.646 --> 00:11:30.061 No need to worry about convergence issues when you know all the variables. 00:11:30.061 --> 00:11:37.268 Eventually, other manufacturers would  sell video projectors with integrated screens as extra-large televisions. 00:11:37.268 --> 00:11:40.709 You may remember the days  of so-called big screen TVs. 00:11:40.709 --> 00:11:47.651 Those enormous blocky televisions which had flat plastic screens with a large base below them. 00:11:47.651 --> 00:11:51.540 That base essentially had one of these in it pointing up at a mirror 00:11:51.540 --> 00:11:57.211 which then reflected the images from the three CRTs onto the translucent viewing screen. 00:11:57.211 --> 00:12:02.012 Much like the projection TV sets of the 1940s, but with color! 00:12:02.012 --> 00:12:04.966 But this video is about a projector. 00:12:04.966 --> 00:12:13.953 This thing wasn't sold with a dedicated screen and supports screen sizes from 60 all the way up to 250 in. 00:12:13.953 --> 00:12:19.470 That means the calibration and convergence process has to be done on site. 00:12:19.470 --> 00:12:22.121 And would you like to see that process? 00:12:22.121 --> 00:12:24.765 Well, I hope so, cuz that's what I'm about to show you. 00:12:24.765 --> 00:12:31.345 And you're going to quickly learn why these projectors got replaced as soon as decent alternatives arrived. 00:12:31.345 --> 00:12:36.632 If you look closely, you'll notice that the center green lens is pointing straight ahead, 00:12:36.632 --> 00:12:41.097 but the red and blue lenses are pointing slightly inward. 00:12:41.097 --> 00:12:44.086 This is the very first thing that you'll be adjusting. 00:12:44.086 --> 00:12:53.943 You actually have to manually change the angle of these two lenses to make the center of the red and blue images line up with the green image. 00:12:53.943 --> 00:12:56.883 Except no, that's not actually the first step. 00:12:56.883 --> 00:13:04.941 The first step is to consult these convoluted charts to figure out just where exactly this thing needs to go in relation to your screen. 00:13:04.941 --> 00:13:08.159 I'm not using a projection screen here, I'm just pointing it at a wall. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:13.073 So I can skip all that, but I promise it doesn't help very much. 00:13:13.073 --> 00:13:19.819 Once it's in position, you can remove the cover to make all the things you're about to have to adjust accessible and power it on. 00:13:19.819 --> 00:13:23.491 Since these are CRTs, they only take a few moments to produce light, 00:13:23.491 --> 00:13:30.203 but then you'll discover that the projector would like to do a 20inut warm-up where it shows nothing but a white screen. 00:13:30.203 --> 00:13:34.008 It does this every time you switch it on, and it lets you skip it, 00:13:34.008 --> 00:13:38.386 but it's very important to let that warm-up happen before making adjustments 00:13:38.386 --> 00:13:43.981 because the geometry of the CRTs and lenses will actually be affected by temperature, 00:13:43.981 --> 00:13:47.620 and you don't want to fiddle with anything before it's all warmed up. 00:13:47.620 --> 00:13:53.701 Actually, remember when I showed you this naked tube and pointed out there's what appears to be liquid in there? 00:13:53.701 --> 00:13:56.322 Well, that's because there is. 00:13:56.322 --> 00:14:05.870 The CRTs in projectors like this and those old school big screen TVs are being driven very hard in order to get as bright as they do. 00:14:05.870 --> 00:14:10.062 And as all those electrons slam into the phosphors at the front, 00:14:10.062 --> 00:14:13.308 the faces of the tubes get quite warm. 00:14:13.308 --> 00:14:20.696 To deal with that heat, the gap between this lens and the face of the picture tube is filled with a glycol solution. 00:14:20.696 --> 00:14:28.128 The glycol carries that heat away from the face  and with the help of these fins here dissipates it to the air. 00:14:28.128 --> 00:14:30.393 Now, it's not like these get very hot. 00:14:30.393 --> 00:14:34.347 The entire projector consumes about 450 watts. 00:14:34.347 --> 00:14:39.878 But keeping the phosphor cool during  operation prolongs their life significantly. 00:14:39.878 --> 00:14:45.822 This cooling is basically what was required to make projection with CRTs possible. 00:14:45.822 --> 00:14:51.323 Unfortunately, some manufacturers weren't too careful with the preparation of this solution, 00:14:51.323 --> 00:14:59.283 and lots of these projectors suffer from mold growth in the coolant which pretty much destroys their ability to produce a clear picture. 00:14:59.283 --> 00:15:02.377 This one though, luckily, is perfect. 00:15:02.377 --> 00:15:04.310 And by the way, speaking of cooling, 00:15:04.310 --> 00:15:09.161 this does use cooling fans to pull air through it and cool down the tubes. 00:15:09.161 --> 00:15:14.560 And I've done a bit of movie magic on you because this has not actually been switched on while I've been filming. 00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:16.444 But I will switch it on now. 00:15:16.444 --> 00:15:19.310 [click of button, then CLONK of CRTs coming to life] 00:15:19.310 --> 00:15:23.665 You might have heard those classic CRT noises,  and depending on how sensitive your hearing is, 00:15:23.760 --> 00:15:28.672 you might also hear some whining from this thing,  but you will definitely hear the fans. 00:15:28.672 --> 00:15:33.115 [fans drone softly in background] This is much quieter than many projectors out there, but honestly, 00:15:33.115 --> 00:15:35.574 it's a little louder than I expected. 00:15:36.002 --> 00:15:41.400 Anyway, once it's warmed up, you need to whip out this absolutely gnarly remote control, 00:15:41.400 --> 00:15:44.951 hook it up to the projector with this incredibly long cable. 00:15:44.951 --> 00:15:49.648 Hit the key sequence enter, enter, up, down, enter to open up the service menu, 00:15:49.648 --> 00:15:53.556 and then you need to reset all of the video memory entries. 00:15:53.556 --> 00:15:58.420 This will make sure it's ready for a completely fresh calibration sequence. 00:15:58.420 --> 00:16:04.151 And by the way, this instruction manual is one which will really make you want to scream. 00:16:04.151 --> 00:16:08.297 It will tell you how to do those things... but not in order! 00:16:08.297 --> 00:16:12.024 This is page 23,  adjusting the CRT conversion angle. 00:16:12.024 --> 00:16:16.998 And step three basically says, "do this thing, which is on page 35." 00:16:16.998 --> 00:16:21.351 And then step four says "do this thing, which is on page 99." 00:16:21.351 --> 00:16:23.919 That is awful, and I hate it. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:29.003 And once you've made your way through all that, you need to have it display this crosshair pattern. 00:16:29.003 --> 00:16:36.763 This will allow you to see how far off the red and blue lenses are compared to green by looking at the central vertical line. 00:16:36.763 --> 00:16:41.165 In this projector, the green tube can be thought of as the king tube, 00:16:41.165 --> 00:16:44.907 and you don't adjust anything on it except focus. 00:16:44.907 --> 00:16:50.436 Now, the crosshair should be white, but right now it's a mess of red, green, and blue. 00:16:50.436 --> 00:16:56.224 By loosening these screws, I can move the red and blue lenses side to side. 00:16:56.224 --> 00:17:05.320 The goal here is to have the vertical lines drawn by each tube perfectly line up with one another so it appears as a single white line. 00:17:05.320 --> 00:17:09.351 The remote allows you to switch off each tube with the press of a button, 00:17:09.351 --> 00:17:14.618 and it's often much easier to, say, disable the blue tube when adjusting the red one, 00:17:14.618 --> 00:17:18.190 which makes the crosshair appear yellow when perfectly aligned. 00:17:18.190 --> 00:17:21.054 And then do the opposite when adjusting the blue tube. 00:17:21.054 --> 00:17:25.215 Disabling the red tube causes the crosshair to appear cyan. 00:17:25.215 --> 00:17:29.143 Okay, and once you've gotten the vertical line as close to perfect as you can, 00:17:29.143 --> 00:17:33.373 you can tighten those adjustment screws back down and move on to focusing. 00:17:33.373 --> 00:17:37.371 Which is much, much more involved than you would think. 00:17:37.371 --> 00:17:40.044 First, we got to get it into service mode again. 00:17:40.044 --> 00:17:45.007 And then we have to make sure  we set it to internal oscillator pattern P2. 00:17:45.007 --> 00:17:47.228 Why? No idea. 00:17:47.228 --> 00:17:50.448 Then we have to reset some more data for some reason. 00:17:50.448 --> 00:17:53.340 I continue to be very annoyed at this manual. 00:17:53.340 --> 00:17:57.402 Then we have it display this H pattern which is helpful for focusing. 00:17:57.402 --> 00:18:03.040 And we're going to disable the red and blue tubes so all we see is a sea of green. 00:18:03.040 --> 00:18:07.628 And now, finally, we can adjust the focus 00:18:07.628 --> 00:18:10.689 of one of its three lenses. 00:18:10.689 --> 00:18:14.152 And how many focus adjustments are there for each lens? 00:18:14.152 --> 00:18:15.737 Four. 00:18:15.737 --> 00:18:19.350 Technically there are just two focus adjustments per lens. 00:18:19.350 --> 00:18:23.139 But there are also two flapping adjustments. 00:18:23.139 --> 00:18:25.116 Flapping? 00:18:25.116 --> 00:18:30.080 Okay, so I should point out that as interesting as this concept is on its face, 00:18:30.080 --> 00:18:34.087 the optics of this system are quite impressive. 00:18:34.087 --> 00:18:37.223 Each of the CRTs has a 7 inch screen. 00:18:37.223 --> 00:18:39.638 That's not a large display size by any means, 00:18:39.638 --> 00:18:45.341 but projecting an image of something that large - and doing it with near-perfect optical clarity - 00:18:45.341 --> 00:18:47.016 is nuts! 00:18:47.016 --> 00:18:53.487 There's so much room for error when trying to make an image of such a large flat surface on another flat surface. 00:18:53.487 --> 00:18:56.164 And this has to do it three times. 00:18:56.164 --> 00:19:01.916 Each lens has a separate adjustment for the center focus and the corner focus. 00:19:01.916 --> 00:19:10.607 You start by loosening the wing nut closer to the rear of the projector  and then you turn the barrel of the lens until the center of the screen is tack sharp. 00:19:10.607 --> 00:19:12.517 Then you lock it back down. 00:19:12.517 --> 00:19:18.915 Next, you loosen the farther wing nut and turn the barrel of the lens until the corners are tack sharp. 00:19:18.915 --> 00:19:23.138 And if you discover at this point that you can't make all the corners sharp, 00:19:23.138 --> 00:19:27.396 you get them as sharp as you can and then adjust the flapping. 00:19:27.396 --> 00:19:35.397 This actually moves the CRTs behind the lenses a little bit to adjust how parallel their faces are compared to the lens. 00:19:35.397 --> 00:19:41.364 And it may be necessary to move, say, the right side of the tube just a tad bit away from the glass 00:19:41.364 --> 00:19:45.119 in order to get the entire image in focus. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:46.360 It's a lot of work. 00:19:46.360 --> 00:19:50.948 And once you're done, you get to do it two more times! 00:19:50.948 --> 00:19:57.943 And then you'll discover, wow, it's really hard to see that H pattern with just the red or just the blue tubes. 00:19:57.943 --> 00:20:03.354 But you're going to try your best and get each of  the three lenses as sharp as you possibly can. 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:07.683 And once you're finished with the focus, you'll  turn all the tubes on again and cry 00:20:07.683 --> 00:20:09.731 because you're nowhere near done. 00:20:09.731 --> 00:20:12.406 In fact, you've barely started. 00:20:12.406 --> 00:20:15.449 You now have the lenses situated correctly. 00:20:15.449 --> 00:20:19.072 But you'll notice the image doesn't look that great. 00:20:19.072 --> 00:20:26.048 That's because the images that are actually being drawn on each tube aren't lining up quite perfectly on the screen, 00:20:26.048 --> 00:20:29.758 which means you now have to adjust the registration. 00:20:29.758 --> 00:20:34.979 Any of you out there remember playing with the geometry settings on a CRT computer monitor? 00:20:34.979 --> 00:20:39.445 Things like centering, skew, keystone, pin, cushion, and all that? 00:20:39.445 --> 00:20:45.997 Well, strap in because you're about to do that a whole awful lot using a very confusing remote. 00:20:45.997 --> 00:20:53.053 I want to call out the keystone adjustment because it's a great  example of what makes these projectors so unique. 00:20:53.053 --> 00:20:58.639 Keystoning is what happens when the projection surface isn't parallel with the projector. 00:20:58.639 --> 00:21:03.008 If, for example, you point a projector slightly up at a screen, 00:21:03.008 --> 00:21:09.783 the image it projects will start to appear trapezoidal with the top of the image wider than the bottom. 00:21:09.783 --> 00:21:17.520 And you may notice that in this standard configuration, the lenses of the CRT projector are definitely angled upward. 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:25.126 Modern digital projectors will compensate for  that keystoning by simply cropping away parts of the image, 00:21:25.126 --> 00:21:30.428 but that forces it to lose active  pixels and thus lose image resolution. 00:21:30.428 --> 00:21:38.404 This though can correct for keystoning simply by scanning the CRTs with a counteracting keystone shape. 00:21:38.404 --> 00:21:42.508 This is what's really cool about having monochrome CRTs. 00:21:42.508 --> 00:21:51.560 You can tell just by looking through the lens that the sides of the image that it's drawing aren't parallel with the sides of the actual picture tube. 00:21:51.560 --> 00:21:54.651 It's not forced to use a rigid grid of  pixels. 00:21:54.651 --> 00:21:58.591 It can simply steer the scanning beam a little differently. 00:21:58.591 --> 00:22:03.005 That means no resolution is lost in the keystone correction. 00:22:03.005 --> 00:22:06.478 The shape of the image was simply changed. 00:22:06.478 --> 00:22:10.165 This is essentially what all the registration adjustments are doing. 00:22:10.165 --> 00:22:14.843 They affect the geometry of the scanning beam for each of the three picture tubes. 00:22:14.843 --> 00:22:22.998 And when you set this thing up, it's your job to make sure they are perfectly scanning on top of each other throughout the whole screen. 00:22:22.998 --> 00:22:27.524 There's really no sense showing  you just how convoluted the entire process is, 00:22:27.524 --> 00:22:35.422 but I promise you'll have endless fun going through the different test patterns and turning on different combinations of the three tubes, 00:22:35.422 --> 00:22:38.735 trying to get them all to line up perfectly with one another. 00:22:38.735 --> 00:22:41.373 I didn't have to deal with the borders  of a screen. 00:22:41.373 --> 00:22:42.973 I was just pointing this at a wall. 00:22:42.973 --> 00:22:49.372 But even still, this process was among the most fiddly and annoying things I've ever done. 00:22:49.372 --> 00:22:53.906 Now, as much as I truly despise this manual for how it's organized, 00:22:53.906 --> 00:22:58.939 it does have a very thorough and detailed explanation of the process. 00:22:58.939 --> 00:23:03.227 The order in which it chooses to say certain things remains baffling and infuriating, 00:23:03.227 --> 00:23:06.842 but at least it gives you a step-by-step guide on how to do all this. 00:23:06.842 --> 00:23:10.225 And once you've gotten everything to be as good  as you can reasonably make it, 00:23:10.225 --> 00:23:12.170 congratulations! 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:14.140 You're still not done. 00:23:14.140 --> 00:23:19.545 All of that registration  tinkering was just for its baseline registration settings. 00:23:19.545 --> 00:23:24.741 Once you've saved them into memory,  you'll discover that each individual video input 00:23:24.741 --> 00:23:30.653 has its own memory to make fine adjustments on  top of the baseline registration. 00:23:30.653 --> 00:23:35.927 And if you want a perfect image from this thing, you're going to need to do more fiddling, 00:23:35.927 --> 00:23:38.680 especially because of this thing's key feature. 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:45.165 This is a multi-scan projector, meaning it will accept pretty much any resolution you throw at it. 00:23:45.165 --> 00:23:50.002 And that means the actual raster that it's scanning on each of the three tubes 00:23:50.002 --> 00:23:53.945 will change depending on what signals it's receiving. 00:23:53.945 --> 00:24:00.837 The baseline registration assumes a standard definition video signal made of 525 lines per frame. 00:24:00.837 --> 00:24:07.008 But since this can also accept HD video in the form of 1,080 lines per frame, 00:24:07.008 --> 00:24:12.087 things aren't necessarily going to line up quite right when you switch to input two. 00:24:12.087 --> 00:24:17.391 But, once you've finally made your way through this incredibly frustrating process, 00:24:17.391 --> 00:24:20.814 you will be blown away by the results. 00:24:20.814 --> 00:24:25.451 I don't have that much experience with home cinema projectors, but I have a little 00:24:25.451 --> 00:24:29.590 and I've also seen plenty of other projectors in school and office settings. 00:24:29.590 --> 00:24:36.768 And this produces by far the best projected image I have ever seen outside of a movie theater. 00:24:36.768 --> 00:24:41.322 And in some ways, this is better than what's in theaters today. 00:24:41.322 --> 00:24:47.053 However, this is nowhere near as bright as anything you'd be used to now. 00:24:47.053 --> 00:24:53.994 These need to be in a completely dark room for it to really be a good experience, and it will still be kind of dim. 00:24:53.994 --> 00:24:57.673 There are some other things about it which leave something to be desired, too. 00:24:57.673 --> 00:25:02.088 But once dialed in, holy cow, is this an experience. 00:25:02.088 --> 00:25:09.343 It simply doesn't make sense that a device this old can project an image which looks that good. 00:25:09.343 --> 00:25:13.028 Now, I don't think I could ever  really convey what this looks like over video, 00:25:13.028 --> 00:25:17.157 but watching a Blu-ray disc through this projector is almost mindbending. 00:25:17.157 --> 00:25:19.113 Colors are phenomenal. 00:25:19.113 --> 00:25:26.163 Dark scenes are actually dark with none of the purply-grey blacks you so often find with projectors. 00:25:26.163 --> 00:25:28.008 And the screen door effect? 00:25:28.008 --> 00:25:32.548 Oh, that doesn't happen here because it doesn't even know what pixels are! 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:36.400 You can sometimes make out the scanlines depending on what's on the screen, 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:41.120 but especially with 1080i video, they almost  seamlessly blend together, creating the 00:25:41.120 --> 00:25:43.988 illusion that there's no structure to the image at all. 00:25:43.988 --> 00:25:46.993 It's just there somehow. 00:25:46.993 --> 00:25:50.427 All that said, it's still not perfect. 00:25:50.427 --> 00:25:53.335 While it handles dark scenes excellently, 00:25:53.335 --> 00:25:57.620 if there's an even moderately bright spot anywhere in the image, 00:25:57.620 --> 00:26:01.360 you'll discover that its contrast leaves something to be desired. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:08.182 Bright objects, I think due to internal reflection, manage to illuminate the face of the tube enough 00:26:08.182 --> 00:26:11.047 to elevate the baseline black level. 00:26:11.047 --> 00:26:17.018 You can actually start to make out the entire face of the tubes when projected like this on a wall. 00:26:17.018 --> 00:26:23.910 With a properly matted screen you wouldn't notice that, but you will still notice a limited contrast ratio. 00:26:23.910 --> 00:26:28.025 It's still well above average for a projector, at least in my experience, 00:26:28.025 --> 00:26:32.808 but it's not the CRT perfection you might be expecting. 00:26:32.808 --> 00:26:36.968 Black and white content can also be slightly odd. 00:26:36.968 --> 00:26:41.807 You'll notice some color fringing at the edges between bright and dark spots. 00:26:41.807 --> 00:26:48.609 I suspect this never truly goes away even if you have the convergence and registration set perfectly 00:26:48.609 --> 00:26:53.047 due to the blooming which naturally occurs on the CRTs. 00:26:53.047 --> 00:26:56.481 With three different tubes producing slightly different levels of blooming, 00:26:56.481 --> 00:27:00.858 hard edges tend to get a little burst of color when they shouldn't. 00:27:00.858 --> 00:27:07.354 This also happens with color video, of course, but it's a lot less noticeable in that case. 00:27:07.354 --> 00:27:14.531 Editor's note, while filming some of the B-roll, I noticed that the registration was uh, drifting a little bit, 00:27:14.531 --> 00:27:17.187 particularly with the red tube. 00:27:17.187 --> 00:27:23.787 When I powered it on the next day, it was very off and you can actually see it moving in this footage here. 00:27:23.787 --> 00:27:29.853 This seems to be affected by the overall image brightness, which is why I described this as a side effect of blooming. 00:27:29.853 --> 00:27:35.782 But given that it seems to mainly affect just the red tube, I'm less sure than I was. 00:27:35.782 --> 00:27:41.690 This projector was never used before I got my hands on it, so the tubes are as fresh as they'll ever be. 00:27:41.690 --> 00:27:47.551 But this is a 25-year-old electronic device now, and it could be something is starting to fail. 00:27:47.551 --> 00:27:52.505 I suspect even when new, you could never get these to have rock solid registration, 00:27:52.505 --> 00:27:59.847 but I think it's likely this particular projector has some sort of problem making this seem worse than was typically the case. 00:27:59.847 --> 00:28:05.075 And then there's the really big weakness of this technology, burn-in. 00:28:05.075 --> 00:28:08.853 Those phosphor will wear out even with the help of cooling. 00:28:08.853 --> 00:28:16.384 And that means if the projector is showing a static image for very long, the image can be burned into the tubes. 00:28:16.384 --> 00:28:24.060 That makes these a rather poor choice for gaming, especially retro gaming where there are bright static elements always on the screen. 00:28:24.060 --> 00:28:26.568 And yes, I know everyone wants to know: 00:28:26.568 --> 00:28:31.101 unfortunately, you cannot play Duck Hunt with this particular projector. 00:28:31.101 --> 00:28:37.353 It's modern enough that it's doing quite a lot of signal processing, no doubt to help with convergence and registration, 00:28:37.353 --> 00:28:40.444 which introduces too much lag. 00:28:40.444 --> 00:28:45.414 I'm relatively sure it would be possible with older models of CRT projectors, 00:28:45.414 --> 00:28:50.638 but this here is pretty much the end of the line for the tech, and it's as advanced as it ever got. 00:28:50.638 --> 00:28:55.454 And for this projector,  which can natively handle widescreen content, 00:28:55.454 --> 00:28:59.628 well, when installing it, you have a pretty big choice to make. 00:28:59.628 --> 00:29:04.031 These tubes have a native aspect ratio of 4:3. 00:29:04.031 --> 00:29:12.393 So when displaying 16:9 widescreen video, the projector simply stops scanning the top and bottom of the tubes. 00:29:12.393 --> 00:29:18.804 That's great because it means you aren't losing image resolution, but you are losing quite a lot of height 00:29:18.804 --> 00:29:21.420 and thus total screen size. 00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:24.458 The throw of these projectors is quite impressive. 00:29:24.458 --> 00:29:29.260 You get a huge screen with the projector relatively close to the projection surface. 00:29:29.260 --> 00:29:31.505 So, it's not really a big deal. 00:29:31.505 --> 00:29:39.635 But if you decide to mat your screen to 16x9 and then always use the projector as if it's a modern widescreen display, 00:29:39.635 --> 00:29:49.651 in a sense, you are wasting some of the projector's potential and even more if you end up pillar boxing 4:3 content within the 16:9 frame. 00:29:49.651 --> 00:29:54.896 I personally think this is fine, but it means only the central parts of the tubes will be getting used 00:29:54.896 --> 00:29:57.477 and burn-in will definitely happen. 00:29:57.477 --> 00:30:06.201 So, should you want to switch to a 4:3 screen later on, the central portion of the image will be unusually dark. 00:30:06.201 --> 00:30:12.687 If you actually committed to using one of these today, I wouldn't think that would be too much of a problem. 00:30:12.687 --> 00:30:20.430 Personally, I would use it as a 16:9 display and just accept that the tubes are going to wear kind of weirdly. 00:30:20.430 --> 00:30:25.706 But, well, you've probably noticed  that this really is a commitment. 00:30:25.706 --> 00:30:28.127 For one, it's kinda big. 00:30:28.127 --> 00:30:34.175 It's also quite heavy. This weighs nearly 120 pounds, about 54 kilograms. 00:30:34.175 --> 00:30:36.238 It's not fun to move. 00:30:36.238 --> 00:30:39.336 And of course, once you get it set up, you can't move it 00:30:39.336 --> 00:30:46.400 because if you do, that means you'll have to go through the entire focus, convergence, and registration procedure again. 00:30:48.166 --> 00:30:48.666 [screams] 00:30:48.666 --> 00:30:50.473 Yeah, as cool as these are, 00:30:50.473 --> 00:30:57.122 it doesn't take too much imagination to figure out why they were replaced almost the instant alternatives appeared. 00:30:57.122 --> 00:31:03.566 If your only concern is image quality, these were and remain quite good. 00:31:03.566 --> 00:31:07.653 But if you care about brightness, these aren't great. 00:31:07.653 --> 00:31:10.005 If you care about portability, 00:31:10.005 --> 00:31:12.682 these are very not great. 00:31:12.682 --> 00:31:18.337 And if you care about ease of setup, these are extremely not great. 00:31:18.337 --> 00:31:25.243 While early LCD and DLP projectors certainly couldn't hold a candle to this thing when it comes to a cinematic experience, 00:31:25.243 --> 00:31:29.097 for almost every other use case, they were obviously superior. 00:31:29.097 --> 00:31:31.542 They were brighter.  They were actually portable, 00:31:31.542 --> 00:31:34.001 so you could just bring one into a conference room. 00:31:34.001 --> 00:31:37.316 And they needed little more setup than basic focusing. 00:31:37.316 --> 00:31:41.743 And a single lens meant you could do things like zoom. 00:31:41.743 --> 00:31:45.771 Whoa! Change the screen size without moving the projector? 00:31:45.771 --> 00:31:47.419 Sorcery! 00:31:47.419 --> 00:31:48.777 But you know what? 00:31:48.777 --> 00:31:50.991 This is sorcery, too. 00:31:50.991 --> 00:31:54.230 And I think a much cooler form. 00:31:54.230 --> 00:31:59.011 It's almost magical that this even works, let alone works so well. 00:31:59.011 --> 00:32:06.340 This thing literally is three cathode ray tube televisions somehow producing three separate images so precisely 00:32:06.340 --> 00:32:11.274 that they can line up on a projection screen nearly flawlessly. 00:32:11.274 --> 00:32:12.434 I don't know about you, 00:32:12.434 --> 00:32:19.326 but I find that much more impressive than a tiny little chip covered in tiny little mirrors that flip back and forth really, really fast. 00:32:20.433 --> 00:32:24.496 Okay, actually DLP is really cool  tech, and one day I'm definitely going to cover it. 00:32:24.496 --> 00:32:29.499 But I will forever hold a special place in my heart for these old triclopses. 00:32:29.499 --> 00:32:32.345 I mean, this just looks so cool! 00:32:32.345 --> 00:32:38.216 and you get some trippy effects on the screen when you stand in front of it or walk in front of the projector. 00:32:38.216 --> 00:32:41.476 I mean, that's got to be worth at least some of the hassle. 00:32:41.476 --> 00:32:46.892 Now, I am definitely going to keep this thing, but I don't have a dedicated spot for it at home, 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:50.733 so it's going to remain in storage for who knows how long. 00:32:50.733 --> 00:32:57.557 Perhaps one day I'll find a good place to set it up, but it will always be something of a pain to use. 00:32:57.557 --> 00:33:05.680 It's only got analog video inputs, which means adapters and perhaps HDCP nightmares are always going to be in its future. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:11.460 And honestly, in 2025, projectors just don't have much of an appeal anyway. 00:33:11.460 --> 00:33:18.673 You can get really big TVs for not a lot of money these days, which look great even in brightly lit rooms. 00:33:18.673 --> 00:33:23.037 And now that I'm used to an OLED TV at home... 00:33:23.037 --> 00:33:27.190 well, it's hard to imagine actually wanting to fire this sucker up very often, 00:33:27.190 --> 00:33:33.670 but it is certainly a lot cooler than  a big black rectangle hanging on the wall. 00:33:34.455 --> 00:33:37.240 ♫ convergently smooth jazz ♫ 00:33:39.040 --> 00:33:42.095 I forgot about the tube, so I'm going to get it. 00:33:42.095 --> 00:33:44.416 This is heavier than you would think. 00:33:44.416 --> 00:33:48.079 But keeping the phosphor cool prolongs their... 00:33:48.079 --> 00:33:48.817 [bleep] 00:33:48.817 --> 00:33:50.216 that could have been bad! 00:33:50.216 --> 00:33:56.258 This means the glass has to get thicker as scott... skies sails up. 00:33:56.258 --> 00:33:58.763 [sigh] roonerspisms 00:33:58.763 --> 00:34:02.795 ...temperature. And you don't want to fiddlewidanything before it's all warmed up. 00:34:02.795 --> 00:34:04.927 I... that was a weird flub. 00:34:04.927 --> 00:34:05.813 But you know what? 00:34:05.813 --> 00:34:06.817 But you know what? 00:34:06.817 --> 00:34:07.689 But you know what? 00:34:07.689 --> 00:34:08.609 But you know what? 00:34:08.609 --> 00:34:09.424 But you know what? 00:34:09.424 --> 00:34:10.099 But you know what? 00:34:10.099 --> 00:34:11.010 But you know what? 00:34:11.010 --> 00:34:11.794 Buchya know what? 00:34:11.794 --> 00:34:12.767 Buchya know what? 00:34:12.767 --> 00:34:14.920 [laughs] I've said this too many times. 00:34:14.920 --> 00:34:16.703 Now it's breaking my brain. 00:34:16.703 --> 00:34:21.466 This process was among the most fiddly annannnoying things [speech falls apart into mumbles]. 00:34:21.466 --> 00:34:24.045 Well, that fell apart. 00:34:25.473 --> 00:34:29.437 So, are the captions-gag-reading members of the audience looking for any... socks? 00:34:29.437 --> 00:34:33.703 'cuz I heard about a pretty cool way to purchase socks where the profit goes to help build a hospital rather than just go to some guy. 00:34:33.703 --> 00:34:36.364 I mean you're gonna need socks before too long... 00:34:36.364 --> 00:34:39.677 anyway the projector's rad, huh