Projector Recommendations

£4.5k for a three chip DLP projector ? Incredible, they were about £20k twelve months ago.

About 18 months ago I replaced my LCD projector with a DLP projector of roughly the same value and actually lower resolution. The vertical banding, muddy colours and lack of contrast finally got to me with LCD.

I don't suffer from rainbow problems with DLP but I have noticed occasionaly that the DLP image can be a bit fatiguing if I'm feeling a bit tired, leaving me with slightly sore eyes by the end of a film. I think it's probably down to the subliminal flickering of alternating red, green and blue images. I'm slightly aware of it even when looking at DLP rear projection TV's. In that respect LCD has a more relaxing image.

Another problem I've noticed with both LCD and DLP projectors is false contouring. My DLP projector cured most problems I had with projected images but for me, now, this is easily the most objectionable artifact I have. It's starting to drive me potty. You can spot this most obviously on a persons face when the image of the face is moving across the screen. Its not just confined to projectors, I see this clearly in plasmas and if I look closely at a CRT TV image I can see it there as well so its probably related to digital image processing at any point in the signal path. I do think that DLP projectors suffer from this problem most of all though due to the method of image generation that DLP uses. I've not seen a three-chip DLP yet but I'm sure this problem will be there although somewhat reduced compared to single chip.

Allan

Allan/Richard

I do apologise but the Infocus 7210 is not a three chip machine, but it uses the new dark chip, to enhance black levels

Regards

Trevor

The new BenQ PE7700 is attracting a great deal of attention, as it's an HD capable DLP proj for around £1400. Most of the early reviews are encouraging. For rainbow sufferers the Sony HS50 is LCD but with a 6000:1 contrat ratio!

Trev

The other interesting thing about the 7210 is it uses a 7-colour wheel which is meant to give much better fine contrast than the typical 6-colour item. I haven't tried it myself but it would be interesting to see what it's like.

So far no-one has mentioned D-ILA technology developed by JVC Professional and the US military for high tech flight simulators (originally)

The domestic versions of their projectors are truly stunning, eg 1400 lines resolution, a real 1000 lumens, contrast ratio of 2000:1 and the most natural and seamless colours and shading I've ever seen.

At around £4000 the HX-1 is a bargain, blowing away some £20K + DLP devices. It has a DVI input, 3 D-ILA panels (No rainbows or in fact any visible artifacts), YUV / RGB inputs and looks stunning on a DVD5

You can see one at HiFi Cinema's open day (see top of this forum for details)

I thought that D-ILA projectors were not coming to Europe because of enviromnental concerns over End of Life disposal?

quote:

Originally posted by BLT:
I thought that D-ILA projectors were not coming to Europe because of enviromnental concerns over End of Life disposal?

As far as I know the new D-ILA chips do not have this concern, and anyway JVC / HiFiCinema will have in place a returns procedure for the new WEEE regulations that are rapidly approaching !
(Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment)

You can certainly buy them with no problem and they're all CE approved !

JVC/HiFiCinema

I called in to their open day today and was impresses with their JVC projector onto an eight foot wide screen.

Not "micky mouse" bright or garish. but real focus, depth and colour. No artifacts. Drew you right into the story on screen.

Naim system feeding it (dvd5/AV2/552/500/175/sl2s/N-sats/axis and a Revel B15 sub)

Cd and dvd soundtrack was excellent

Will fill in more details if any interest

JohnR was also there

I can definitely recomend a visit (by appointment I think)

Cheers

Don

Yes, I was indeed there, and in fact was the only visitor for a while! Got talking to Jason Gould of Naim who is always great company as well as Alan and Bill who run the shop.

Good to see you Don! I concur totally with your sentiments, it was a top-notch system and it turned in a stunning performance with CD and DVD-Audio and video. Have to confess I only saw/heard the DVD5 playing DVD video and DVD-A - Don, I believe you heard it playing CD too.

I have been unsure up to today whether, with all the format "wars" going on, there was much of a future with DVD-A (or SACD for that matter). Well, according to Alan there are plenty of DVD-As available (he gave me a web site but can't remember what it is) but the thing is the surround sound reproduction of the DVD5/AV2 into the SL2s, Revel sub and the N-Sats was very impressive indeed.

All in all an excellent day - thanks to everyone for their company and hospitality!

Cheers,

Jon

Thanks Don and Jon, it's nice to get some positive feedback from our open days. We were a bit worried when we first set the system up as it sounded really bright and harsh, so we left the whole system running overnight and pounded the SL2's the following morning, result - much nicer ! The SL2's hadn't had time to run in, but by the end of the second day they were really singing. I was so imressed by the kit, I persuaded Jason to let me take the 552 pre amp home to try against my old 82. Now I'm gutted - there's no going back ! Help !! Regards Alan. ps. keep your eyes peeled for the next event in about 6 weeks time. pps. the website you want is play.com - great for cheap CDs, DVD,s DVDA and SACD.

quote:

Originally posted by HiFiCinema:
pps. the website you want is play.com - great for cheap CDs, DVD,s DVDA and SACD.

Thanks Alan!

Cheers,

Jon

Well I finally got everything attached to the cieling and set up my surround sound system and I've got cabling running everywhere so there is another day of work to get the place look ok again.

I'm very happy with the pic quality and you can watch it with some ambient light. The only real drawback I've found so far is the fan noise, not too disturbing though since the sound of cars etc is more annoying.

I suppose I now need to chase down an avia (or whatever it was) disc to try and set the thing up correctly.

And another question concerning Projektor....

Has anybody heard or is using Projektors from optoma? As i am in the market for a combined data and video projektor these brand crossed my way.

here the svga EP738 and the xga EP739 H seems
to be good machines?

a little worried i am about the circumstance that in the manual they write that after expiring time the lamp goes off with a bang...
do you think such behavior is normal?

what are the experiences with lamp use over the
expiring date?

best/mathias