The thinklogical DVI extenders are absolutely brilliant. They have several advantages over SDI or RGB-HV, they cost more than Geffen but they are worth it.
The advantages are that they only need a single line of fiber to run to the other side of the extender (no Cat5e, no multiline fiber), however, they now have 2 fiber line outs just in case you want to A. have a backup line, or B. run one output to either two stacked projectors or one active and one spare.
They don't require any Cat5e, just fiber which is very cheap now, just buy a spool and lamp kit. It is so cheap that you can literally throw it away at the end of the gig if you wish.
They have an additional DVI-D monitor out for viewing so that you don't need any DA's, especially if you are using a dual outputted machine.
They cost heaps cheaper than an Imagepro HD.
You can run, if you so desire and have the resources in your machines, 4:2:2 TO 4:4:4 colorspace codecs and HD progressive easily and for a lot cheaper.
The fiber is impervious to Hum or EMI of any kind.
Thinkogical also has a relatively inexpensive DVI-D or Fiber routing system that can be routed via a web interface, Serial, or normally, by hand.
Apart from the aforementioned points of DVI and the TDMS transport technology that handles it (full frame buffering), it makes no sense monetarily or for quality to either convert your pure DVI-D digital signal technology into SDI using a very expensive HD Imagepro or for many Catalyst owners, Down converting to analogue (RGB-HV) and then up converting to an SD Imagepro unless you own them yourself or occasionally rent them.
Many LED processors will only take DVI-D.
The quality of running pure DVI-D from your Mac straight to your source is noticeably outstanding.
In the end, It's all subjective to each persons needs, if you are running a single screen relatively close to your machine without any TV politics or scrutiny, and you have a good handle on things, by all means go with RGB-HV, I used to run straight RGB-HV to multiple projectors and it looked fine, even on TV.
If you already own a bunch of Imagepros, or have a vested intrest in them, stick with that route and try to get your clients to stick with you, but if you are on the brink of deciding whether or not to purchase a bunch of ImageproHDs, router, and package or go straight DVI all the way through a DVI or fiber routing system to the projector/LEDproccessor for your company, seriously reconsider and visit Thinklogical first, save yourself a lot of money for far superior technology that isn't on the brink of becoming redundant, at least not for a while.
After seeing the Thinklogical products in action now for two shows, knowing how much savings it is, and how easy it was to get fiber feeds plugged in, having a build in DA for a preview monitor plus a spare fiber out where that in itself would take an additional ImagePro, if I had to choose between specing Imagepros or a Thinklogical system, I would go with Thinklogical except where I would need an Imagepro to convert to an analogue signal, though if I were specing the gig and were going Thinlogical, everything I would spec down the line would be DVI-D anyway.
If I were doing things on the cheap and had a very supportive and cooperative team that wouldn't throw me under the bus if they saw a slight hum in the projector(s) and would be able to live with Humbucking RGB-HV without getting deep into politics and try to ruin my credibility afterwards, I would go straight RGB-HV to the projectors and save even more money.
The bottom line is how much quality you need for the amount of money that you have and how much polotics you are dealing with afterwards because let's face it, Catalyst and all lighting based Media Servers can become very political in the TV industry or where their used to be someone who ran the decks/watchout system, or whatever.
If you are a company who owns a bunch of Catalysts, yet pays for Imagepro rentals on nearly every output of your system for every gig and you do a lot of gigs, spend the money and purchase a Thinklogical system instead of renting ImageproHDs all the time. What you'll save on Imagepro rentals will pay off your system within a year if you do regular events. It's the difference between renting an house and owning one, only the house you are buying is brand new and has a pool, jacuzzi, and sauna, the house you are renting which is ok, but it is old, used, and doesn't even have a Jacuzzi.
If you hardly rent Imagepros but every once in a while, stick with them unless you are able to charge extra for DVI-D extenders to amortize the cost of purchasing Thinklogical or Gefen DVI-D Extenders.
If it ain't broke at all, don't fix it but what do I know anyways...
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Originally Posted by litemover
TODD SCRUTCHFIELD 