Projectors for Symbolics consoles

[starnet!bass!lakin@apple.com (Fred Lakin)]

  What's the latest and greatest projector capable of handling Symbolics
  monochrome output?  We are currently using a Sony VPH-1270Q projector,
  which is not too bad, but we're wondering if there's anything out there
  with even better image clarity.

We bought a Hughes Light Valve monochrome projector (around $35K new, $20K
refurbished). It was pretty crisp. Much better than ElectroHome [sic] and
Barco color projectors I have seen pressed into service for monochrome.

The Hughes unit uses an arc lamp for the light source, then modulated by
the valve to produce the image. Good strategy, get brightness and
crispness.  The thing weighs 80lb. Requires an interface box sitting
between the console and the projector to un phase-encode the video (around
$800).

I hear Hughes also has a color light valve now, but I have not seen it.  As
a rule I always prefer b&w over color -- they never seem to be able to get
all three dots in the same place. However sooner or later they will I
guess.  When I was in Japan I saw a light-valve type (i think) color video
projector from Sharp that looked very good. I don't know if it's available in
the US or can handle megapixel resolutions.

-f