Runco Client Experience: CRT to LED

Posted March 10, 2010 by Bob Brown

I had a long talk with my Runco CRT DTV-933 projector and I concluded retirement party was near. I purchased my first Runco projector new in May 1999. I've been eye-balling several replacement models and absolutely love Runco products because quality is their first priority. The Samsung SP-A900B projector was on the top of my short list of DLP projectors. After careful consideration of my DLP™ options, Runco's LED QuantumColor Q-750i was the winner.  No moving parts, pure colors, black and whites much better than a CRT, off the scale contrast, very bright (light dedicated room recommended), thousands of hours without a lamp, quiet and awesome specs across the board.

I bought the Q-750i from my favorite local home theater and lighting control center, Advanced Audio Design in Naples, Florida. The gentleman who assisted with this project was Jon Guenther of Advanced Audio Design. Jon is my go-to man for all of my tougher technical questions. Jon's extremely familiar with Runco, along with most home theater, lighting and home automation related products. He's been in the business forever - give or take a week.

I needed Jon’s assistance to mount the projector on the bracket. He also helped me configure the Runco Q-750i to the screen.  He also helped with the setup of the internal menus for my application and preference (Personal Color Equalizer™ allows color adjustment that includes those exactly defined by the cinematographer and the color preferences of each individual viewer for each source).  I did go through the manual later on because I enjoy knowing everything about my home theater equipment. Jon saved me a lot of time so I didn’t have to read through the setup manual myself. From the moment I started the projector, and saw the out-of -box projected image, I knew I had something special. The image was astounding and the projector was very quiet. My old CRT was directly above my seating area and sounded like a harrier jet hovering overhead. I mounted the Q-750i about 6 feet behind.  The Q-750i makes little sound.

Without hesitation, my first film on the Q-750i was the new Star Trek movie. Besides being a huge fan of Star Trek, I knew the picture was going to be stellar – and I wasn't disappointed. The colors were dead-on, the image was sharp as a thumbtack, and there were no motion artifacts— not even during explosions and intense light bursts. No rain-bowing (no color wheel in the Q-750i), the contrast and black levels were astounding. The white areas (high frequencies) were not blown-out like you can see with an LCD and it maintained fine detail. Simply put, it's the best projector I've seen to date.  And by the way, I have seen a lot of projectors.

I also own a PlayStation 3 (PS3). I often play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 online (warning: If you want to stay married, try to play when your wife isn't home).  I connected the PS3 in my theater via HDMI and modem ( modem to the router, router to a switcher, switcher to the PS3) Wow! The streaming image was indescribable - color, sharpness and detail were beyond my wildest dreams. Proprietary Runco Smart Color (RSC™) provides a hue compensation curve and gamut mapping that allows for lifelike, accurate flesh tones.  Speaking of, you'll have to excuse me I need to return to my theater for another game of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Runco client, Bob Brown has been a Traffic Homicide Investigator for the state of Florida for the past 21 years.  Bob studied photography at Florida International University, film and script writing at the University Of Miami.  Bob created his website http://www.amateurhometheater.com/ in 1999.