[Steve Wylie]

Hi David,

I use the ScreenPRO II and GV Indigo regularly, and in my opinion, the Indigo is best if most of your inputs are cameras or video-level sources, but I find the ScreenPRO II superior if most of your content runs at data level.

One issue to be aware of with the Indigo is that by the time you route the SD bus to the HD bus, you add a fairly significant delay – more than that of the ScreenPRO II.

The down side of the ScreenPRO II is that without the external controller, the ability to configure, store, and recall PIPs and such is very limited – but with the controller, it’s a great option.

Also, keep in mind that the Indigo only has two DVI inputs – and those are somewhat limited – the sizing/scaling/configuration is fairly basic and more oriented towards HDTV-style sources rather than the unusual demands of presentation AV.

Best regards,
Steve

[Steve Wylie]

Hi Mike,

Nice to see someone found my blog (Serial Digital)!

I’m interested to know if you had any success with this – I’ve used a TH2GO on an older MacBook Pro with DVI output as a background to Encore successfully – I’m guessing you would need Apple’s Mini DisplayPort to Dual-link DVI rather than the standard single link one?

Hope you had some success!

cheers,
Steve Wylie

[Steve Wylie]

Not knowing what you’re using the projectors for, I would say, as a general rule, that a 3-chip DLP projector will give you a better image –

Typically, a 3-chip DLP will give you more accurate colour reproduction, and less of a “pixel mesh” effect (i.e. very sharp individual pixels in the image, which is undesirable particularly for video applications).

I’ve used the Christie HD8K which is very similar to the DW8K, and I can say that it is indeed a good projector. You will notice the greatest benefits from DLP (compared with LCD) if you are edge-blending the two projectors to create a widescreen image – 3-chip DLP is generally much better at this.

Also, you will probably find that the lamps used in the Christie are better, and yes, the quality of the lenses will provide a truer light output… just not (close to) twice the ANSI lumens worth…

The question is whether or not you need projectors that bright – true 8,000ANSI lumens are likely to be suitable for most indoor venues with reasonably controlled lighting conditions for screen sizes up to, say 20ft wide per projector. Perhaps the ANSI lumens drop is worth the increase in image quality.

Also, consider other LCD projector offerings if they are available to you – Sanyo, Panasonic, and indeed Christie make comparable LCD projectors to the Eike projectors you’re considering, and differences between the models such as price, weight, power consumption, lamp life/cost, lens range and lens quality, lumens output, and panel resolution might be considerations for you.

Hope this helps!

[Steve Wylie]

Hi,

I don’t think the GV TURBO is the best device for dedicated recording purposes – I use the unit for playback of SD and HD video, which it does well, but in terms of recording, it is limited to MPEG2 format, which it can then export to another format fairly primitively afterwards…

The TURBO also won’t support splitting the files up during recording, and it’s a relatively expensive device with a lot of neat features centred around playback which you probably wouldn’t use.

I’ve found the nNovia QuickCapture to be my preferred device for recording, as it will natively record to AVI, QuickTime, and other formats, and can also split up the clips every 20 mins or so in FAT32 mode.

The QuickCapture A2D model has analog ins and outs, as well as FireWire, which you can connect to your workstation and copy across the recorded files as though it was an external HDD.

Another option might be the FireStore range from Focus Enhancements, which are designed to directly record from cameras, but these are a little more expensive, and not having used them, I can’t really comment much more on them…

Hope this helps,
Steve