Crystal View CV-2 CRT Projector
Reviewed in Issue 68 by Terry Paullin
February 2003

Searching For Dale Earnhardt
On the Winston Cup stock car racing circuit, the competition is as tough as it gets. Car owners gamble millions of dollars when they place an upcoming rookie driver behind the wheel, in the hope of regular Top Ten finishes. Yet, when the checkered flags fly and the big checks are handed out, it often has more to do with the car than the driver. This leads to an axiom and its twisted corollary that’s been known to be true in NASCAR garages for decades…you’ll never know how good a driver is until you put him in a consistently good car (followers of the sport need only look at Michael Waltrip’s recent performance change to verify that truth). Conversely, you may never know how good your car is, until it is piloted by a top gun for a few hundred laps.

“What on Earth does any of this have to do with a video product for home theatres?” you may (understandably) demand. Hang on; I’m almost there.

When the folks at Crystal View offered their CV-2, a $45,000 8-inch CRT front projector for review, they also graciously offered a $75,000 Panasonic D-5 professional studio tape deck to go with it. Incredibly, I (initially) declined. That might be cheating, I thought. After all, I had JVC D-VHS® D-Theater™ and off-air HD in my test facility to put the CV-2 through its paces. Then I got to thinking about the “lore” of the D-5 and never having experienced one first hand, I reconsidered, called them back and said, “O.K., send that too”… and am I glad I did. You see, (and finally to the point of this little side trip) in the rarified air of high-end CRT projectors, it’s difficult to find media sources that really stretch/show-off anything close to their maximum capability. The CV-2 might not have looked that much better than a lesser 7-inch CRT product if it was reviewed solely on the basis of 480i material up-converted through some video processor. Only when you have a great car/driver combo (CV-2/D-5 deck) do you realize how good things can be. The good news is that I was treated to the best images, by far, that have ever graced my theatre’s screen. The bad news is, I am now becoming increasingly critical of my (relatively) low-end CRT projector. Once you’ve tasted a 1974 Cabernet, the White Zin from Albertson’s that used to taste pretty good, begins to have a bitter taint.

Background

Crystal View is a brand new company with seasoned, road-tested leadership. Formed in June of 2002 by high-end monitor veterans Gary Guidi and David Wolff, the company offers a 9-inch CRT projector (CV-1) and two 8-inch sisters (CV-2 and CV-3). The CV-2, at $45,000 is the subject of this review. The CV-1 and CV-3 are offered at $60,000 and $36,000 respectively. The CV-1 features fluid coupled lenses, while the CV-2 and CV-3 are air coupled. Although the chassis lineage can be traced back through Electro-Home, Vidikron, and most recently Madrigal (see “From The Editor’s Couch”), Crystal View brings their own value added content to the party, not the least of which is a determination to do high-end right—more on that later.

Wow!

Before I brought any test equipment into the room, I couldn’t wait to get my first viewing impressions from the D-5 professional deck. Provided with the unit were tape clips from our favorite demo movies (The Fifth Element, et. al.) and a very interesting montage from ABC Broadcasting recorded in the 720p high-definition format. I’m in the (probable) minority camp that believes, all else equal, 720p looks better than 1080i, so I popped in the ABC tape. WOW!… I mean, really, WOW! This readership has undoubtedly noticed how the slightly broader ATSC color palette and higher chroma bandwidth of HD has benefited the HDNet broadcasts. Those fortunate enough to own a JVC HM-DH30000U HD VCR machine have seen the same phenomena to an even greater degree. In addition to all of the above, the 4:2:2 color resolution of the D-5 (vs. the 4:2:0 consumer format) and less compression coupled with the very high resolution of the CV-2, yielded images far better than anything I had seen before. The reds and yellows popped like an Andy Warhol poster, and coupled with the 3-D quality that is inherent in almost any high-definition image, this, I thought, is as good as it gets. Tests later revealed that the color accuracy (x, y co-ordinates of the ATSC color space on a CIE chart) was spot on, near perfect. This is due to the carefully selected (read that, expensive) lens filters and a bit of a trade-off with brightness. Although other 8-inch projectors offer higher light output (when calibrated at 6500K), the 7.1 foot-Lamberts (fL) delivered by the CV-2 to my 1.3 gain 88-inch-wide StudioTek Stewart Filmscreen is perfectly adequate in a properly blacked-out dedicated theatre. I’m betting purchasers of this projector, or anything like it, aren’t planning an installation in the Sunroom.

Suffice it to say that my initial introduction to this product from the ABC tapes played back on the Panasonic D-5 machine have forever elevated my standards for World Class video reproduction. The only thing I have ever seen in the same league was in the Faroudja booth at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) shows, and I know that display was front-ended by $100,000 in video processing. Wow!

Setup

Arguably a tick unfair to the CV-2, all testing/viewing impressions were made at a screen width of 88 inches (a little over 7 feet wide). This was as small as I could get the image, given the constraints of my demo room and the step the projector had to straddle. A more typical 6-foot wide screen would have improved light output and possibly improved focus and “snap,” although, given the accounting in the previous paragraphs, improvement is hard to imagine.

High-definition images and test patterns were provided by the aforementioned Panasonic D-5 professional studio tape deck, an RCA DTC-100 HD satellite feed, a JVC D-VHS D-Theater HM-DH3000U tape deck, and the AccuPel HD test pattern generator, respectively. All NTSC material was switched through a Lexicon MC-12 into a Faroudja DVP-2200 video processor and displayed as 600 progressively scanned lines per frame. Viewing impressions of DVD movies, originating on a Denon 3800, came from segments of Spider-Man, North By Northwest, Moulin Rouge, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Star Wars: Episode II—Attack Of The Clones. NTSC test material was provided by the usual sources, Video Essentials and the AVIA: Guide To Home Theater test discs (when you upconvert everything to 600p, you have really left the NTSC world, but certain patterns are still very useful geometry checks).

A Lot More Setup

The first thing I always do before “data gathering” for a review is to make doubly sure that I am looking at a calibrated monitor. The CV-2 came with a calibration sheet that showed it had been calibrated at D65 (6500K), but it looked a little warm to me, so I donned my ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) hat, got out the Philips color analyzer, put up some gray scale windows on screen and—whoops—we were flat alright—at 5100K. Subsequent discussions with Crystal View engineers confirmed that they were victims of a (different) color analyzer gone south. It’s one thing to tweak a gray scale here and there, but quite another to move it all 1,400K north. As any good installer will tell you, you learn CRT front projectors one chassis at a time, and since I had not seen any variation of this one, I now had to roll up my sleeves and get intimate with the remote, the manual, the menus, the peculiarities of the gamma correction, the sensitivity to contrast of each of the red, green, and blue guns and the first names of all of the technical staff at Crystal View. In short, touch everything that a reviewer should touch in order to do a thorough review of the product. That, I did.

The Mundane And The Sha-Zam

Anyone investing the loot to own one of these is almost certain to have a professional install it and transfer every important IR burst from the remote control to a central controlling device, a la AMX, Crestron, Pronto Pro, etc. Indeed, Crystal View will do the back half of the set-up for you—more on that later. For the record, the manual is probably the best I have ever seen. It’s comprehensive, well written, and full of useful illustrations. It even carefully walks you through initial installation, step by numbered step. It’s so good in fact, a junior installer in Bumdeal, Wyoming would have a fighting chance even without the installation professional, but let the folks at Crystal View do the heavy lifting anyway. The remote is nothing special to look at but is logically laid out and the buttons are amply spaced for large fingers. Mercifully, for installers, it is also backlit. I view the menus as an extension of the remote design. Great news here. The firmware that controls all of the adjustments on this and I’m sure, on the companion projectors as well, have obviously had the benefit of several iterations of enhancements/ updates. During the process of the Great Gray scale move, I spent lots of time moving and copying memories, converging, running contrast and brightness all over the map, converging, performing electronic focus at various points on the screen, converging, tweaking the geometry, and did I mention, re-converging the trio of CRTs. Everything worked flawlessly, intuitively and in some cases (gray scale adjustment) handy shortcuts were provided as if the firmware was designed by an installer himself. If you should find yourself confused on almost any page, a comprehensive “Help” screen was but a button push away. I even found one case of a “Help” screen on how to use the “Help” screen. This is the rare instance of the correct application of the term “user friendly.”

The Sha-Zam reference applies to the “skins” of this product line. Although redesigned, they are remindful of the sculpted, Italian look of the now defunct Vidikron products. Indeed, they come in standard high gloss Ferrari colors of red, yellow, silver, black, or white. Optionally, they will paint them any color you’d like.

More Viewing Impressions

All non-HD material was run through my Faroudja video processor and displayed at 600p. This 8-inch projector deserved better (higher resolution), but hey, that’s all I had at the time. It was hard to tell from the images on screen that the CV-2 was being short changed. The rich colors of Moulin Rouge were even more saturated than I’d seen them before. I watched the intentionally brown-toned O Brother, Where Art Thou? to see if I had accomplished the gray scale shift with any success, and it looked great, the way it was intended. I watched the highly digital Star Wars: Episode II, to look for new detail revealed by the CV-2’s superior spot size and I found it! In general, watching familiar material turned out to be a new discovery experience. Watching any material in any format on Crystal View’s CV-2 gives one ammunition when asked the question “Why shouldn’t I just buy a $10,000 DLP”? It’s good to know we still (usually) get what we pay for.

More Technical Notes

This review sample came with an Auto-Convergence option. Crystal View’s Gary Guidi said, “Try it, you’ll like it.” I didn’t. I’m a firm believer in using and teaching the end user how to use manual convergence. In the case of the CV-2, I’m even more sure it’s the right strategy, with its very easy to use, 45 point convergence screen. One of the big “raps” on CRT projectors in general, is the prospect of regular maintenance issues. In truth, the only thing that needs periodic attention is convergence, due to the fact that not all three CRTs “drift” at the same rate/direction. Even the most techno-phobic customers can be shown how to converge the CV-2, thereby eliminating costly tune-ups. (Have you seen the cost of a plane ticket to Bumdeal lately?!) Yes, they could buy the Auto-Converge option, but that would rob them of the tremendous satisfaction of becoming a “video tweak.”

All Crystal View projectors have a feature they call “adjustable zone contrast modulation”. Gary also said “Try it, you’ll like it.” He might well have been right. I simply ran out of time, and left it off. In the “off” position, the projector still had reasonably good white field uniformity, with the left side of the screen having about 2/3 of the brightness of the center and the right side about half, typical of all three gun front projectors.

The Significant Differentiator

Finally, to what in my opinion, may be the best “feature” of the CV-2 offering. The experienced management at Crystal View obviously knows what every other seasoned installer knows—in the world of high-end CRT front projection, setup and calibration are everything. Consequently, every Crystal View projector comes with an ISF-certified installer to do the final set-up. He’s not there to hang the projector on the ceiling or install the screen, but he’ll stay there until your projector is displaying the best images it is capable of. If you are new to this ilk of display monitor, and/or are considering purchasing one, I can’t stress enough how important this “feature” is. I have seen even more expensive projectors than this look terrible because someone unfamiliar with the chassis was “guessing.” For all we like about these big beasts, they are complex animals with their own personalities. In the hands of someone who knows their idiosyncrasies, they can deliver pictures far superior to any other technology. Leave the setup to Sparky from the same dealer that installed your home alarm system, and you’ll wish you’d bought a Sony XBR and banked the other forty thousand. My hat is off to the management team that has recognized up front what will ensure their customer’s, and therefore their own, success.

Summary

Initial color calibration aside, the CV-2 is the best engineered and best looking (power on or off) front projector I have ever had my hands on. The aforementioned hiccup was peculiar to this review sample, and while, yes, it’s possible this could have happened to you, the ISF technician sent by Crystal View would have found it and fixed it faster than you could say “adjustable astigmatism.” That’s the whole point. All the features and functionality that make the CV-2 as good as it is come with a degree of complexity. Any CRT projector of this quality can have a bad day out of the box. Whether it does or not, it can’t be as good as it can be without someone steeped in the knowledge of that chassis and imaging science to set it up. Crystal View has taken that variable out of the equation by “packaging” the right guy with an outstanding projector.

Not one usually prone to sweeping generalizations, it seems that in the case of the CV-2, Crystal View won’t let you go wrong.

Internet Contacts:
http://www.crystalviewinc.com

Product Specifications

Crystal View CV-2 8-Inch CRT Projector

-Recommended Screen Size: 60-180 Inches, 80-120 Inches Regardless Of Format
-Projector-To-Screen Distance: 1.3x Screen Width
-Image Aspect Ratios: 1:1, 4:3 (1.33:1), 16:9 (1.78:1), 1.85:1, 2.35:1 (Adjustable And Held In Each Setup Memory)
-Standard Inputs: RGBHV, Stereo Audio, RS232 Control, External Switcher, Remote
-Optional Inputs: Second RGBHV, Multi-Standard Video Decoder, DVI, SDI
-Compatible With All RGB Output HDTV Sources With Separate H And V Sync
-Compatible With Computer Displays, Standard Or Non-Standard Resolution, Up To 2048 x 1536
-Horizontal Scan Rates: 15 To 152 kHz
-Vertical Scan Rates: 38 To 180 Hz
-Frequency Response: To 150 Mhz (-3 dB)
-Resolution: 2048 x 1536 At Normal Brightness And Contrast Settings
-Peak Brightness: 1000 Lumens/28 foot-Lamberts
-Vertical Keystone Correction: ±15° Standard, Optionally Higher If Required

Cabinet Finish: Choice Of Ferrari™ High-Gloss Color Including, But Not Limited To: Red, Yellow, Silver, Black, And White
Projector/Carton Size (WHD In Inches): 29 x 21 x 38/38 x 29 x 48
Projector/Shipping Weight (In Pounds): 145/195