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Author Topic: New projectors in...now I want the manual. Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 05-20-2004 03:34 AM                        See, that`s what I have been saying all the time.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-20-2004 03:37 AM                     Don't turn my words around now Michael. I know where you're going to try and take this. I still don't like Kinoton's platters due to simple design faults that could be easily corrected, but haven't been. Their projectors are magnificent though. That's what I am praising.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 05-20-2004 03:45 AM                        I just couldn`t resist!!! I don`t have any major problems with Strong projector heads, but I have suffered a lot recently (and increasingly often it seems) from the obvious complete lack of quality control at the factory. Incomplete part shipments (but not listed as backorder on the invoice, no - they simply forgot to put all the parts in), wrong parts, switchers completely dead out of the box. In one case they even managed to send us 3 (in words: three) wrong switchers in a series. I don`t understand why they do this. It would be much simpler to just send an email "please don`t buy our products anymore in the future".  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 07:53 AM                     I most certainly agree with Brad about the Century stuff being made today but not about the Simplex. I have prety much zero trouble with new Simplex's. I also can't kock the P35GP too much excepf to its constant shedding problem... The new P35 is much better in all aspects. However if this is one of Brads customers then he should take it on himself when doing servcie to replace the worn cam pins which are usually the cause of the noise! Its but a 15 min. job to change one and the pin is less than 10 dollars. I've even removed then turned them around and used the other end..... Alot of the Century's problem is cause of poor quality parts and poor maintainance during use. Synthetic oil will drastically extend the life of a Century movement.. Which by the way is only rated at 5 years by LaVezzi if runs 10 hours a day. Amazingly Phillips had advertised tolerances of 1 micron in their manufactured intermittent parts which is nothing short of amazing. Now 1 micron equals 1/25,000 of an inch! The best that the U.S. manufacturers could ever get to was .001". So the Phillips folks did almost three tmes better in the tolerance department than we've ever done. Here is an interesting comparison chart.... Postage Stamp, 1 inch high 25,400 microns Eye of a Needle 1,230 microns Human Hair 40 to 300 microns Oil Smoke 0.03 to 1 micron Fertilizer 10 to 1000 microns Tobacco Smoke 0.01 to 1 microns Coal Dust 1 to 100 microns Beach Sand 100 to 2000 microns Mold Spores 10 to 30 microns Pollens 10 to 1000 microns Typical Atmospheric Dust 0.001 to 30 microns Mark  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 05-20-2004 09:09 AM                     I had a former customer convert to an all Strong package for new locations which now equal 20% of their circuit...their head tech tells me he spends 75% of his time repairing this 20%.  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 05-20-2004 09:24 AM                        Is this their new stuff, or are you guys down on the whole line? I have Century and Strong stuff all over the place. All of it looks great, works great and is very reliable. I've had more trouble lately with DA20 power supplies and scratchy amplifier pots than I've had with Century and Strong projectors over the past (@#$*) years! It's not mine, so I don't take credit (or blame!), but there's a "C" setup in the town I grew up in. It was installed in 1947. As far as I know, the owner has always used 30wt non-detergent automotive oil in the intermittents, both of which run quiet & cool, and have never been rebuilt. Aside from cleaning, nobody digs into these machines much because the screen image is rock solid. So there!  |  IP: Logged Josh Jones Redhat Posts: 1207 From: Plano, TX Registered: Apr 2000 posted 05-20-2004 01:14 PM                        Oh its the modern stuff I dont like. their old stuff was built like a brick, good stuff. Josh  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-20-2004 02:31 PM                     Mark, you should know better. The reason why people buy Strong packages these days more often than not is price. It's cheap, and you get what you pay for. With that in mind, if the owners bought Strong in the first place to save every penny they could, you must be dreaming if you think they will pay for any part that isn't absolutely, absolutely necessary to throw some kind of image on the screen. That's not how it works. Jack, yeah the old stuff is reliable. It's the product over the last several years that is  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 02:44 PM                        When did Strong's quality control start going to hell? The newest Simplex that I have used was built in 1998 and the newest Century was built in 1995. Both are fine (though the Century has a steadier picture). Maybe not up to the standards of the 1940s through the 1960s, but still perfectly good machines. As for Kinoton, I was under the impression that the PK-60 was price competitive with Strong's offerings. Has this changed recently?  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-20-2004 02:52 PM                        We've been very satisfied with Century projectors that have been running in our screening rooms, one pair from 1973, and another from 1992. Another room has a pair of Simplex Studio projectors from 1996 that delivers excellent image quality. Our Digital Cinema development group recently purchased Kinoton.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 05-20-2004 03:16 PM                  Strong's cinema products QC started to go South about 1997-ish when they thought making chicken fryers was more profitable than film equipment. I agree with most here, their last several years of film "equipment" is pure crap. And it hasn't improved. Too bad the "powers" in Omaha don't clean house. I LUV my 1986 Simplex! >>> Phil  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 05:54 PM                     Personally I have always liekd the Kinoton platter as it stands and those who have them never have complained Also the Kinoton parts are not very over priced but quiet reasonable and not requireing all that frequent replacement  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 07:32 PM                     "Mark, you should know better." _________________________________________________ Brad, Believe me I do not and never have sold a Strong, Christie, or any other single manufacturer package nor would I ever. In fact there were magazine articles written about my old company BECAUSE WE DIDN'T sell packages from any one vendor.... many thought that was odd! Just carefully engineered booths from an array of vendors equipment offerings. I can honestly say too that CLACO has also never sold a one source package to anyone. I do however like the Simplex Projector,and the Storng/Eprad automation.... No problems with any of them at all. Ditto with Christies projectors if our customers follow my reccomended maintainance on them. Phil.... You're right on! Storng does need to clean house big time in the engineering division at least and get in some fresh new minds and bodies just like Christie did. You shoulda been at Showest to see the Apogee. All I can say is that its Rube Goldberg's Apogee in achievement... So many important things left out that could have been included to set some precedence, and a cluster f#&k of a sound head on the dam thing, the machine also has the smallest-tightest loop in the universe comming out of the intermittent sprocket. The biggest deal in projectors at Showest was really the new Christie which is very, very well done! Mark  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 08:58 PM                     Kinoton , Ernamann and Cinemecanica all produce vastly superior and cost effective machines than any of the north american builders do and all strong and christie have done has try to catch up  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-20-2004 09:08 PM                     Gord, I won't argue with the "vastly superior" part but I will with the cost effectiveness part........ Conversion shown at todays exchange rate...... 100.00 Canada Dollars = 61.0094 EUR If you think this is cost effective then you need to go refigure!! Its actually a tiny bit more cost effective, by about 23.00, to buy the Euro with the U.S. dollar... but I still wouldn't call this very cost effective either..... 100.00 United States Dollars = 83.5736 EUR No matter what you're paying ALOT MORE when bying European products with either the Canadian or the U.S. dollar. Of course there are still import dutys and transport costs on top of the money you loose just by purchasing these goods..... Thats why that Ernamann motor costs 1000.00 U.S. Mark  |  IP: Logged

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