I Bought a Movie Theater Projector… Turns Out They’re SUPER Dangerous

As someone who works in the projection space this video is the best piece of content I've seen on LTT this year. That being said, I visibly cringed and gasped when Linus started batting the lamp housing with the bottom of the screw driver... That's a Xenon lamp, if you want to lose fingers and get xenon dust in your eyes you're welcome to play around like that but for the love of god please don't tempt fate. The door is secured by key for a reason, it's not security, it's safety. Please read the manual atleast a little bit more before just opening stuff up like that. Whoever loaded these on pallets clearly had very little background hardware knowledge because frankly it's a miracle that lamp survived the trip, which is what makes it even riskier opening up the housing without any PPE. I've been on the receiving end of lamp failures, even with PPE it's incredibly dangerous, please don't do that again purely for your own safety. (This is also one spicy piece of glassware that you absolutely don't want to drop). Moaning aside, love the video, please make more projection videos! (Oh I just saw the rest of the video and see you guys realizing it's basically lethal haha, at least you now know) Also the AES-out cable will be for audio transfer between the IMB (integrated media board)/Content server and the sound processor, some of the bidspotter listings showed the CP650 and the slightly more modern CP750, the AES cable would go from the content server to these processors to be decoded and processed out to individual amplifiers/channels, in this case the IMB (typically mounted in the projector housing itself) is functioning as a pass through but in many cases the content server underneath the projector has its own AES out and handles it independently of the IMB, this Christie seems to be a little nicer than most as the majority of projectors I've worked with force you to get underneath the server to plug in the AES which is a royal PITA. Also those processors are still in high demand today as newer Dolby processors are harder to come by due to demand and the failure rate of CP750s in particular makes them quite valuable. Regarding brightness, there's a good chance that they simply had a low power lamp installed. Xenon lamps with lower power are perfectly fine for smaller auditoriums in a well light controlled environment, as these older second generation units entered obsoletion they were relegated to smaller auditoriums (read smaller canvas volume and throw distance as opposed to raw seat count). Lower wattage lamps are easier to come by, cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and have sometimes 2-3x the operating lifespan in terms of lamp hours. The CP2230 could only reach 33000 lumens (on a good day) with a 6kW lamp. Judging by the final output of your lamp, you're likely operating a near EOL 3kW unit which in all best cases would top out at approximately 16,000 lumens or thereabouts. I'm sure you could find some use for these units, even if just in a demonstration of how 3D gaming could work in projection, as noted in the video the input latency really isn't as bad as you'd initially assume. There isn't much in the way of additional processing happening onboard these projectors and many of the older second generation digitals (such as the CP2230) actually had extremely competitive input latency that was a decade ahead of the consumer and enthusiast industry.

Linus on his sidequest of collecting random ultra expensive stuff

9:04 PLEASE let me come in and refurbish that thing! I'd redo the interlocks (for safety), the lamp ductwork, and do a proper recalibration for color gamut! 😊

OMG!!! I work for Christie and I train people on that projector series to this day! Absolute G.O.A.T. of a projector.

We have a 4K 3D Christie projector similar to this one in the outdoor cinema I operate during the summer. We connect the pipe at the top with an extension directly to an outside window and blast the projector sideways with an air conditioning unit rated for 120 square meter. One time, a new staff member forgot to switch on the AC, and the projector shut down during the pre-film advertisements. It heats up very quickly. If you peek through some of the vents on the projector while it’s running, it honestly looks like a volcano in action. If you need assistance with setting that up, I believe I can help. However, we use our own programmed servers and such, which likely have a completely different interface than what you use, but I'm sure I can assist.

I know a person who enjoys connecting technologies and would appreciate the magic of buying two of them

5:56 “I wasted me money!” Is the realest thing Linus is doing recently 😭

Legend has it Linus and Elijah are still in that room unable to turn around

I love it when they buy old professional gear and find all the oddities that consumer gear just doesn't have

16:45 you need an exhaust fan! The xenon bulb needs the cooling, this flap sensor that your taped checks if the exhaust fan is running! And you don’t want that thing to overheat. It’s a explosion hazard and destroys your projector! And don’t touch the xenon bulb, finger prints and dust burn in and in matter of minutes the bulb will explode! The xenon bulb creates around 4kW of heat so you need a decent exhaust fan.

Linus is really going for the ultimate theatre experience

Well I wish I lived closer to you guys, I could help get these going for you. I work on them every single day and have for over 40 years now. I even have these projectors in about 4 of my sites, the 3D units I used to use way in the past. An you really don't need the automation with all them glorified switches, you can run the projectors and servers on your network. An yes it does run on win 98 and so on. Server runs on Linux. You don't go blind you will see spots and you should have an exhaust fan on the top but these machines are awesome.. Lens isn't really seated correctly but yeah awesome job guys.

You really need to replace the buld and add a extraction fan. The internal fan is not enough for the lamp airflow that's why the sensor is not working correctly. This is a current cinema projector lots of cinema's are still using these projectors.

I guess it's LTT projector week, and I'm all up for it

As someone who used to work at a movie theater and did a bulb replacement or two, do NOT fuck around with these things they are evil. I had to wear a welding mask and gloves each time we did internal maintenance.

I like how Linus said in the latest projector video about the 200k Christie ”we are not buying one” and here we are :D

Never ever ever touch the bulb or reflector. They will blow up and glass will end up places you didnt know it could. Also these things run hot so you need to duct the hot air with a fan out of the room, or you will cook. These lamps run at 385 degrees. I used to support and service these machines professionally. We used the real 3d filters. Also who's going to tell them about having to bore sight the projectors.

I guess it’s LTT projector week and I’m all here for it

I think i’ll stick to my 200$ TV

1:41 flashbang 💥 was a nice touch