Summary: Sun output on big screen TV or projection systems

From: Aditya Talwar (aditya@criterion.com)
Date: Mon Nov 11 1996 - 12:29:29 CST


Hello Sun-Gurus:

My original Query was:>
:I am seeking recommendations for a good way to take a sun output and
:display it on big screen sony TV or get some other kind of equipment
:to give a good & clear presentation.
:
:Presently, I have taken our Sun output to a Hyperconverter 1280 and piped it
:to a Sony TV. I do get a output, however, the characters do not appear sharp
:(TV is big remember) or as if the picture is fuzzy. We have tried to tune
:the TV, but to no avail. It seems that Hyperconverter cannot do any better
:with the 1280x1024 resolution. I have seen an old Sun managers answer, which
:suggests to use a lower resolution card like 640x480, i would like to know
:how you feel about this output?. Are there other ways i can project the Sun
:output for good presentation? please email me your valuable insights.
===============================================================================
Since this is A/V need it took some demo research to settle on a product.
I am thankful to the following managers to have sent in their answers...
Don Catey: catey@wren.geg.mot.com
Dan Pritts <danno@us.itd.umich.edu>
nobroin@esoc.esa.de (Niall O Broin - Gray Wizard)
prijoto@jakarta.geoquest.slb.com (I. Prijoto - GeoQuest Jakarta)
Martin Espinoza <drink@sei.com>
Bob Hoffman <hoffman@cs.pitt.edu>
===============================================================================

>From my research it became clear that no projector/LCD panel for the
money I was ready to pay would give me a 1280x1024 resolution from a Sun.
Currently, High resolution TV's - 37"/40" above are available which
can handle the 1280x1024 resolution for approx 9K$'s. This is cheaper
than projectors, comparable to a LCD panel, needs no extra lighting, etc.
Disadvantages - its good only for small groups of 15-20 people, the heavy
TV has to be rolled from one room to another, output cannot be bigger that
37". However, the H. R. TV gives a clear & crisp output, which was my main
consideration.

Thanks...
Aditya
*******************************************************************************
I remember reading somewhere about a sun compatible color LCD panel that
can be projected on overhead slide projectors. I really wish I could
remember the manufacturer, I think it was Proxima. Look them up because
their stuff is usually impressive.

Otherwise, I think its pretty expensive to get all the needed converters.
-----
Using a lower resolution would probably make output appear sharper since
the tv's resolution is the limiting factor here.

the other option is to buy a projector or LCD plate that is designed
for use with a Sun. Not from a Sparc, but from a PC.
Actual TV resolution is something like 600x200 or something odd...
You can't do much better than 640x480 on a TV.
I've seen a PC do 640x480 through composite video
and have it look good on a projector (8' diagonal) so
it should look fine on a big screen TV.
-----
It's not to do with the TV's size only - the tubes are just not as sharp as
computer monitor tubes (hence the price differential between a 14" TV and a
14" minitor). Tuning the TV won't help - the TV just can't resolve the level
of detail you're throwing at it.

This would be better with the Hyperconverter, I'd imagine. However, you'd need
to buy a special card for the Sun to do this (though they're cheap). You'd end
up rinning X at 640x480 - yuck ! It might well be better (and quicker AND
cheaper - who was it said - Good : Fast : Cheap - pick any two ?) to just
configure your app. to use larger fonts which will have the same end effect in
how your app. will look on screen.

> Are there other ways i can project the Sun output for good presentation ?

Yes - you can buy projection monitors and LCD panels - these are available
in resolutions up to what you require. I've used a projector up to 1152 x 900
and it worked OK but it would not have been as sharp as a very sharp thing :-)

----
 had tried projection made by ASK model Impression-960
It has single lense and you can project to a huge screen
It work fine for Sun creator and SGI system . The connection as follows:
CPU - ASK Impression-960 - Monitor. T connection done by ASK.
----
Your problem is that the highest resolution projector
is 800x600, and the highest you can reasonably get out
of a television is 640x400.

You'll need to find a lower res video card to gets you have already experienced, a television set, regardless of size, has insufficient bandwidth to display much more than 640x480. You will need to buy either a large-screen computer monitor, such as Mitsubishi's MegaView series, or a video projector with high-res capability. We chose the latter route, buying an Apollo QX575 Explorer projector. You can find out more about this unit from their web page, http://apollo.pb.net. This projector has a "native" resolution of 1024x768 but it can accept a 1280x1024 signal and either give you a 1024x768 window that you can position anywhere in the 1280x1024 display, or it will compress the signal (by throwing away one out of seven pixels, or something like that) to fit the 1280x1024 into 1024x768. The compressed image is less than satisfactory for small text but it looks OK otherwise. The 1024x768 window method looks outstanding and for our purposes, we seldom need to see the entire workstation screen at one time. The QX575 lists for US$18,995.

Other companies that make 1024x768 LCD projectors are Boxlight, Sayett and ASK. All of these will accept a 1280x1024 signal and either window or compress it. ----

reasonably crisp output. ----



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