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ne of the more exciting announcements at the last
Consumer Electronics Show was the introduction of
the Runco DTV-930, which significantly altered the
price-performance curve for CRT projectors. The DTV-930
was cloned from one of Runco’s most successful products,
the widely acclaimed IDP-980 Ultra. Conservatively built and
highly reliable, the IDP-980 Ultra has been a favorite in pre-
mium home-theaters for its excellent picture quality and easy
to use features. A year ago, it was priced at $23,000. The DTV-
930 with point convergence option is now $16,195. To sweet-
en the deal even further, Runco offers a DTV-933 package that
adds an external line-tripler for another four large. I haven’t
evaluated the tripler yet, but I’ll review it separately in a
future issue.
You are probably asking what you give up, other than
cash, for nearly a 30 percent reduction in price. The answer is
very little for home-theater applications.
Specifications
The DTV-930 was created by limiting the maximum horizontal
scan-rate of the IDP-980 Ultra from 100 kHz to 50 kHz. This
positions the DTV-930 to handle nearly all video applications,
but leaves a little room at the top-end for Runco’s higher
priced CRT projectors. The DTV-930 is fully compatible with
line doublers, triplers, and any of the ATSC HDTV standards
including 1080i or 720p. Its 50 kHz scan rate will accept a
maximum computer display resolution of 1024x768 at 60 Hz.
The DTV-930 has a bandwidth of 80 MHz, while the IDP-
980 Ultra bandwidth was specified as 100
MHz, but this difference was only significant
for the higher resolution computer
graphic display capabilities of the IDP-
980 Ultra. It doesn’t affect video perfor-
mance, where the highest bandwidth
requirement is a flat response to 30 MHz
for HDTV. The only other change from
the IDP-980 Ultra is the deletion of a
scan-line dithering board, a feature I
never used anyway.
Curiously, the DTV-930 is listed as an
8-inch CRT projector, which Runco
quickly volunteers really uses liquid-
cooled, 7-inch electromagnetic focus
(EMF) CRTs. The decision to list it as an
8-inch CRT projector dates back to the
introduction of the IDP-980, apparently
as a way to differentiate it from inferior
projectors that used 7-inch electrostatic focus (ESF) CRTs.
Runco says they intend to revise their specifications in the
future. Electromagnetic focus CRTs mean smaller spot size
and higher resolution, so they hope this distinction will be
understood by buyers comparing projectors by CRT size
alone.
The DTV-930 uses the same (USPL HD-144) color-correct-
ed, air-coupled lens assemblies that have been used for sever-
al years on the IDP-980 Ultra. (Runco’s webpage is outdated
on this point.) Light output is specified as 1100 Lumens peak
and 225 ANSI Lumens. The former spec is more descriptive of
video performance, which has relatively low average lumi-
nance levels, while the latter better describes computer
graphic display capabilities.
Description
The DTV-930 is available in black or white, 24 inches wide and
30 inches long, weighing about 124 pounds.
The case is about 12 inches high at the front
G R E G R O G E R S
Runco DTV-930 Multiscan Projector