Panasonic PT-200 CRT projector

[Seth=L]

I have located a large higher resolution CRT projector (Panasonic PT-200, circa 1990). I have skimmed through Google long enough to know that there isn't any available information on the web.

So go figure, I have a couple of questions.

1.) Is it worth the asking price of $150 if the thing works?

2.) The unit has BNC connectors for component input, can BNC be converted to RCA?

3.) What is the resale value on this unit. (college student, anytime I see a chance to pay bills, I pounce)


Any detailed information about this projector would be excellent.

Thank you in advance,

Seth=L

 

[no. 5]

2.) The unit has BNC connectors for component input, can BNC be converted to RCA?

I think so, as far as I know the only deference between a component connection with BNC connectors and one with RCA connectors is that the BNC connectors are far sturdier, and will not come apart by accident.

BNC to RCA adapter

Now, if it's a RGB+HV connection on the projector....

 

[Seth=L]

Now, if it's a RGB+HV connection on the projector....

It may be, what would that mean?

 

[no. 5]

It may be, what would that mean?

It would mean that it would be harder to connect the projector to a DVD player.

A RGB+H/V connection has five jacks (usually BNC), for red, green, blue as well as horizontal and vertical sync signals, it's actually the same signal that a VGA connection cares.

I'm not sure how compatible component is with RGB+H/V; I know that you can buy VGA to component adapters, but I don't know of any RGB+H/V to component adapters.

 

[Seth=L]

It would mean that it would be harder to connect the projector to a DVD player.

A RGB+H/V connection has five jacks (usually BNC), for red, green, blue as well as horizontal and vertical sync signals, it's actually the same signal that a VGA connection cares.

I'm not sure how compatible component is with RGB+H/V; I know that you can buy VGA to component adapters, but I don't know of any RGB+H/V to component adapters.

Sounds like a pain really. I could use my computer as the source. Do they make BNC to VGA connections?

 

[no. 5]

Sounds like a pain really. I could use my computer as the source. Do they make BNC to VGA connections?

As matter of fact, yes they do.

Could use three of the BNC to RCA adapters I had a link to in first post with this, or, you can have one custom made from BJC, or from Ram Electronics.

 

[Seth=L]

As matter of fact, yes they do.

Could use three of the BNC to RCA adapters I had a link to in first post with this, or, you can have one custom made from BJC, or from Ram Electronics.

That is expensive, that sucks! I don't think I am going to buy it because I don't think it has a good resale value and I don't know how much it would take to use it for my personal use. The unit has S-Video and Composite inputs, though thinking back it may have had RGB+H/V as well as standard RGB. It is a long drive to look at it again. Lastly it is heavy and I don't wish to struggle with it, unless you guys can convince me otherwise.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I have located a large higher resolution CRT projector (Panasonic PT-200, circa 1990). I have skimmed through Google long enough to know that there isn't any available information on the web.

So go figure, I have a couple of questions.

1.) Is it worth the asking price of $150 if the thing works?

What size are the tubes? 7"? 8"? I've never heard of that model, guess it's pretty old. It could be worth it to mess around with but probably not if you have to pay shipping on it. That could cost $350.

2.) The unit has BNC connectors for component input, can BNC be converted to RCA?

It's more likely that those are RGB connections if it's that old of a PJ. That's not a deal breaker, you'd just need a transcoder. That'll set you back about $200 or so.

3.) What is the resale value on this unit. (college student, anytime I see a chance to pay bills, I pounce)

Resale value would probably be poor, but you might wanna check at Curt Palme's website or AVS.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I have located a large higher resolution CRT projector (Panasonic PT-200, circa 1990). I have skimmed through Google long enough to know that there isn't any available information on the web.

So go figure, I have a couple of questions.

1.) Is it worth the asking price of $150 if the thing works?

2.) The unit has BNC connectors for component input, can BNC be converted to RCA?

3.) What is the resale value on this unit. (college student, anytime I see a chance to pay bills, I pounce)


Any detailed information about this projector would be excellent.

Thank you in advance,

Seth=L

I would stay away from it, old dinosaur.
Can you imagine calibrating that? What if the tubes were manually moved to calibrate at its old home? Convergence, focusing, and on it goes

Most likely it does have that RGB+ H/V but it also should have S-vidoe and composite.

 

[BMXTRIX]

For a newbie with no projection experience and a limited budget then 3-guns are not the way to go. If you dig around enough you could possibly find out that it has decent resale value, but is it really worth the headache?

I had a 3-gun CRT for a little over a year. It was a Eletrohome Marquee 8000 projector. 8" tubes, and sold new for $25K. I picked it up free from a company replacing it with a new CRT projector. After a year of having it, and calibrating it no less than five or six times plus reinforcing my ceiling to hold it, plus buying a $200 mount, plus spending about 8 hours setting it up (very carefully) the first time I ended up selling it. Got $1,000 for it which I used towards a Panasonic LCD projector... which I still use.

Was it worth it? In my case, I think it may have been because my industry is A/V and I had some experienced help in setting everything up. Would I buy or use CRT again? Almost no chance at all.

 

[BMXTRIX]

FYI: These links will not allow a component source to work in a RGBHV environment. They just allow component video to connect to a VGA destination and the VGA destination must be able to see component video colorspace on that connection...

Could use three of the BNC to RCA adapters I had a link to in first post with this, or, you can have one custom made from BJC, or from Ram Electronics.

What you need to connect a PC to a projector like the Panasonic is this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/PREMIUM-6-VGA-HD15-TO-5-BNC-CABLE-6FT_W0QQitemZ120099201659QQcategoryZ41999QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[no. 5]

FYI: These links will not allow a component source to work in a RGBHV environment. They just allow component video to connect to a VGA destination and the VGA destination must be able to see component video colorspace on that connection...

So a VGA/component cable only works one way?

 

[Rob Babcock]

The Marquee is a highly regarded PJ, was something wrong with yours? The 8000's are normally pretty reliable and throw a great image- in fact, I've never heard a bad word about the PQ. Certainly a lot more work than a digital, I'll grant you that.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The Marquee is a highly regarded PJ, was something wrong with yours? The 8000's are normally pretty reliable and throw a great image- in fact, I've never heard a bad word about the PQ. Certainly a lot more work than a digital, I'll grant you that.

It was in the wrong space for my setup...

It had some sync issues which made composite and s-video unusable, so I had to go to RGBHV - got a DVDO to handle scaling, worked well.

The downside, was that HDTV had pretty much gone to component video only and a few years ago, scalers/transcoders to take component to RGBHV were upwards of $1K.

Next, we had 8' ceilings and it was in our family room, not a dedicated theater, so where it was located required anyone over 5'9" to duck or they would hit their head.

Also, since it was a family room, the inherent lack of brightness for the projector was an issue for daytime viewing.

So, it wasn't a single thing, but many things combined that led up to the decision to sell. Maintenance was just one aspect of it, but it was a big part of it. The ability to just turn on my projector and never deal with convergience... to have digital inputs available... To get a boost in lumen output... to have the flexibility to put the projector where I want it in the room...

It all added up to my decision to switch.

 

[BMXTRIX]

So a VGA/component cable only works one way?

A VGA/Component video adapter cable is not an ACTIVE device. That is, there are just wires connecting two different types of ends, the signal that is on the cable remains the same.

An analogy:
You have a car that runs on gasoline only.
You also have diesel fuel.

What you are asking is if you pour the diesel (component), into a container, and write gasoline on the side, it will turn into gasoline (RGBHV). That's not the way it works!

Instead, you must push the diesel (component) through a conversion process that turns it into gasoline (RGBHV) - in our world this is called transcoding.

OR - you must have a car, with only one gas tank, that accepts either gasoline or diesel fuels. (this is common with many displays these days)

WHAT ABOUT USING THE CABLE THE OTHER WAY?
A computer spits out RGBHV video on a VGA connection. See the pinouts below, but it it works out to 5 separate coaxial cables that make up the video from a PC. The VGA/Component cable only has three cables on the component end and they are connected to red, green, blue, red ground, green ground, and blue ground on the VGA end. There is no provision inside to connect, or allow connectivity between H/Sync or V/Sync. OR - to change the video from RGB color space to component color space.

The solution to this is to have a computer with a video card that can be changed to output component video on the VGA port. If this is the case, then the computer is not going to use all 9 pins necessary for a RGBHV connection, but will only be using the 6 pins necessary for component video and will put the video in the component video color space.

Great graphic below shows all the pins and what they are used for on a VGA connector. Of the 15 pins, only 9 are necessary (I believe) for full bandwidth RGBHV. The others are additional PC related data.

Hope at least some of that made sense.

 

[no. 5]

Hope at least some of that made sense.

Yep, made complete sense... you get a green chicklit.

 

[Seth=L]

Back to my original question, what is the resale on one of these things? Is it worth trying to make a profit, or should I pass it on?

Side note: this unit is at a pawn shop, so no shipping. Second it is $150 dollars, so not terribly expensive. If I intended to use it, I would likely use my PC as the source. Also, I have all the time in the world to calibrate the machine, so that is not a factor. I was told it only has 100 hours on it, This coming from a pawn shop is not reliable information.

If I get the projector I would try to sell it locally. The projector is in a smaller town now, and would have a better chance to sell in Fort Wayne were I live.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Back to my original question, what is the resale on one of these things? Is it worth trying to make a profit, or should I pass it on?

Side note: this unit is at a pawn shop, so no shipping. Second it is $150 dollars, so not terribly expensive. If I intended to use it, I would likely use my PC as the source. Also, I have all the time in the world to calibrate the machine, so that is not a factor. I was told it only has 100 hours on it, This coming from a pawn shop is not reliable information.

If I get the projector I would try to sell it locally. The projector is in a smaller town now, and would have a better chance to sell in Fort Wayne were I live.

I can't say for sure, but if properly advertised on eBay with some good cross references, you could get several hundred bucks.

Unfortunately, about the only info I could find online was this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-PT-200-72-f-Color-Video-Data-Projector_W0QQitemZ230010126922QQcmdZViewItem

Which does have some pics and a very brief write up which includes info on it being an eletromagnetically controlled convergience system which is definitely a plus for setup.

There are also a few manuals available online - which you have to pay for - which I would still quite seriously recommend.

150 bucks is nothing... if you have a spot for it to go and don't mind the extra work in setting it up and the near requirement for a dead dark room.

 

[Seth=L]

Now I must ponder. If it is still there in April I just might pick it up. I may even be able to talk them down a little.