there's a USA based review site, projectorreviews.com, that seems to do very detailed reviews and which I used to base my decision to buy a Sanyo Z700. The Sonys always get a good write up anywhere though so, if you can afford it and house the beast, like the bit-tech review says, I expect you'll be well pleased with the Sony.
Full HD pjs start at a shade under £1k sterling now, but a DLP for that price is likely to suffer from potential rainbow effect. I would certainly recommend auditioning if you can, as unlike pcs, audio-visual stuff can be much more of a subjective experience
Projector >> TV for film watching. I have an Infocus IN76 set up for movies hooked up to a entry level sony av amp and panasonic BD player and omg its awesome. It may only be 720p but its still very sharp despite being 103" (onto a plain white flat wall). I have a 42" panasonic plasma which is great for TV viewing but i would never watch a movie on it again now.
A projector really is a wonderful thing. Both for movies and for thoose beer drinking guitar hero playing saturdays :) I have a mitsubichi HC 5500 sooting on a Kingpin 16:9 131 inch framed screen and its freaking awesome :)
Originally Posted by Spraduke Projector >> TV for film watching. I have an Infocus IN76 set up for movies hooked up to a entry level sony av amp and panasonic BD player and omg its awesome. It may only be 720p but its still very sharp despite being 103" (onto a plain white flat wall). I have a 42" panasonic plasma which is great for TV viewing but i would never watch a movie on it again now.
Sprad, sounds nice :) but you gotta get a screen! ;) Seriously, it makes a real difference.
Wolverine, I hear that the Mitsubishis are very good pieces of kit. That's a big screen!
Good review guys. One thing I would say is that it did seem a bit copy and paste from the magazine, like when referencing the other projectors. Would be nice if it was a bit more rounded and adapted for the site - maybe you could've included the Panasonic as well since it was 2nd place?
@Schizo I think the Sony really needs a dark room, however some of the other projectors in the magazine didn't suffer so much in light. I think the Panasonic one they mentioned in this review was ok, but I'll have to dig out my magazine to check on it. Either way, you're better off making it dark and making sure there's no light shining directly onto the surface you're projecting on - if glare from the sun messes with regular screens you won't stand a chance with any projector!
Originally Posted by Fabou It would be amazing to have six of them witn this graphic card :ati-radeon-hd-5870-eyefinity-6. But you would need one hel of a big wall.
I'd be happy with 3 or 4 side-by-side in portrait or 4 in a 2x2 setup.
3 gives a 1.688 ratio, 2x2 gives 1.778 and the 4 in portrait a 2.25 ratio. Four screens will still give you 8.29MP
If anyone knows of a dual mirror setup that mounts the front of the lens to get a portrait mode, which one can buy, please share. :) Projectors aren't made for standing them on their side. :D
I haven't read the full review in detail, but does it mention bulb cost? It's always been my reason not to go near a projector (50" Samsung in the main room) as tehy tend to cost a few hundred quid? Correct if wrong!
Originally Posted by Leitchy I haven't read the full review in detail, but does it mention bulb cost? It's always been my reason not to go near a projector (50" Samsung in the main room) as tehy tend to cost a few hundred quid? Correct if wrong!
Every Pj review should include the cost of a replacement bulb; and bulb life expectancy at the different brightness levels. If the Pj is great price, and the bulb only lasts a year and costs 1/4 of the price of the Pj, that should be something noted on the review.
But other than that, It did make hit up a couple sites to check prices and availability.
For that much I would go for a really nice LED LCD screen, Im done with the whole replacing of the bulbs, however if I ever get around to building a dedicated theater room then I will go for a nice projector but until then I would use that 3k US for a really nice LED LCD TV instead.
look for features inside the projector, such as digital keystone correction
If you choose to use digital keystone correction you may as well stick with 720p for half the money.
As for the Sony beeing entry-level HD...I disagree. Sony VPL-HW15 (2000euro Bulb 260euro)
Entry level Full-HD is around half that.
DLP ACER H7530D Full-HD (950euro, Bulb <150euro)
Costs lesss than half that of the Sony, and is incredibly bright for daytime use.
Many people claim not to see the "Rainbow" effekt with this one. It was horrible for me, so I sent it back.
LCD EPSON EH-TW2900 Full-HD (1150euro Bulb 270euro) or EH-TW3500 Full HD (1300euro)
Giant case (3 LCD system), but very quiet, excellent lens shift and zoom.
And there's a handfull more.
I use it to project onto a 2,8m (110") screen, sitting about 4 Meters away and it just blows my socks off :D
DLP Optoma HD200x (800euro)
is pretty much identical to the ACER, but has a 2x higher switch in colours, reducing the Rainboweffect. Saw it live in a shop, and I didn't notice the rainboweffect, then again Full-HD they only had a "Tinkerbell" demo, which didn't have any strong contrasts.
Television (PAL) had no visible rainbow effect, but that rus at 50/i and not 24p.
DLP BenQ W1000 (900euro)
haven't tested this one
LCD Sanyo PLV-Z700 (1300euro)
Heared a lot of good about this one, but never saw it in action.
What if I want to also do gaming on a projector? Do they introduce much controller lag during image procesing? And is there any image blur during fast movement/high contrast. Would be nice to point out this in the review.
How much Image blur do you expect from a projectzor made to display fast paced action movies?
Right.
Gaming then, Mass Effect 2 was just TOO big for me...also I can't cope with keyboard and mouse on the sofa.
I do play Lego Star Wars (stop snickering) with the missus with two controllers on the sofa (no seriously, stop snickering) which is an incredible lot of fun. I'm looking forward to Lego Batman (okay so I admit it's funny, snicker all you like):D
My guess is racing games will look great as well.
If I can be bugged i'l install Freespace 2...motion sicknes here I come;)
projector always seemed to be way to go but in order to fully enjoy your home cinema with big screen i'd suggest to invest also in 'big' sound and get a proper AV setup and proper screen (which can remedy low luminance of your projector - read with high gain). I've been selling hi-fi/high-end for almost 4-5 years and large screen w/o good and big sound gives you only half the experience. still remember showcase of sim2multimedia projector and B&W Nautilus 800 series (7.1 with four woofers - each 1kW) connected to Rotel power amps and to McIntosh AV central. that was great experience. but good sound (depending on the size of your room) can be achieved with lot less money. don't worry about floor standing speakers as fronts. go for satellites + center + 1/2 woofers ;)
I got the entire system for about 2,5k euros.
about half for the projector
rest for speakers, Amp, Blurayplayer and screen.
Epson EH-TW2900 Full-HD, Teufel Theater 100 5.1, Yamaha RX-V 565 (over the 765 as it was on a killer sale 30% off normal price) and Sony BDP-S360 (same killer sale, 50% off) 110" screen.
All of this in a 30sq.meter room is plenty of oomph.
Still thinking about upgrading to 7.1 though...my rear sattelites are dipoles, which give great ambient sound but lack direction from behind :D
Comments 1 to 25 of 28
ReplyFull HD pjs start at a shade under £1k sterling now, but a DLP for that price is likely to suffer from potential rainbow effect. I would certainly recommend auditioning if you can, as unlike pcs, audio-visual stuff can be much more of a subjective experience
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2010/05/sony-vpl-hw15/projectordetail3.jpg.jpg
Sprad, sounds nice :) but you gotta get a screen! ;) Seriously, it makes a real difference.
Wolverine, I hear that the Mitsubishis are very good pieces of kit. That's a big screen!
you want it to be as dark as possible when watching stuff
but 100" screen is just awesome :D
@Schizo I think the Sony really needs a dark room, however some of the other projectors in the magazine didn't suffer so much in light. I think the Panasonic one they mentioned in this review was ok, but I'll have to dig out my magazine to check on it. Either way, you're better off making it dark and making sure there's no light shining directly onto the surface you're projecting on - if glare from the sun messes with regular screens you won't stand a chance with any projector!
I'd be happy with 3 or 4 side-by-side in portrait or 4 in a 2x2 setup.
3 gives a 1.688 ratio, 2x2 gives 1.778 and the 4 in portrait a 2.25 ratio. Four screens will still give you 8.29MP
If anyone knows of a dual mirror setup that mounts the front of the lens to get a portrait mode, which one can buy, please share. :) Projectors aren't made for standing them on their side. :D
Every Pj review should include the cost of a replacement bulb; and bulb life expectancy at the different brightness levels. If the Pj is great price, and the bulb only lasts a year and costs 1/4 of the price of the Pj, that should be something noted on the review.
But other than that, It did make hit up a couple sites to check prices and availability.
Replacement lamps are US$295 at Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-LMP-H201-200W-replacement-lamp/dp/B001HG5Y84
As for the Sony beeing entry-level HD...I disagree. Sony VPL-HW15 (2000euro Bulb 260euro)
Entry level Full-HD is around half that.
DLP ACER H7530D Full-HD (950euro, Bulb <150euro)
Costs lesss than half that of the Sony, and is incredibly bright for daytime use.
Many people claim not to see the "Rainbow" effekt with this one. It was horrible for me, so I sent it back.
LCD EPSON EH-TW2900 Full-HD (1150euro Bulb 270euro) or EH-TW3500 Full HD (1300euro)
Giant case (3 LCD system), but very quiet, excellent lens shift and zoom.
And there's a handfull more.
I use it to project onto a 2,8m (110") screen, sitting about 4 Meters away and it just blows my socks off :D
DLP Optoma HD200x (800euro)
is pretty much identical to the ACER, but has a 2x higher switch in colours, reducing the Rainboweffect. Saw it live in a shop, and I didn't notice the rainboweffect, then again Full-HD they only had a "Tinkerbell" demo, which didn't have any strong contrasts.
Television (PAL) had no visible rainbow effect, but that rus at 50/i and not 24p.
DLP BenQ W1000 (900euro)
haven't tested this one
LCD Sanyo PLV-Z700 (1300euro)
Heared a lot of good about this one, but never saw it in action.
Right.
Gaming then, Mass Effect 2 was just TOO big for me...also I can't cope with keyboard and mouse on the sofa.
I do play Lego Star Wars (stop snickering) with the missus with two controllers on the sofa (no seriously, stop snickering) which is an incredible lot of fun. I'm looking forward to Lego Batman (okay so I admit it's funny, snicker all you like):D
My guess is racing games will look great as well.
If I can be bugged i'l install Freespace 2...motion sicknes here I come;)
about half for the projector
rest for speakers, Amp, Blurayplayer and screen.
Epson EH-TW2900 Full-HD, Teufel Theater 100 5.1, Yamaha RX-V 565 (over the 765 as it was on a killer sale 30% off normal price) and Sony BDP-S360 (same killer sale, 50% off) 110" screen.
All of this in a 30sq.meter room is plenty of oomph.
Still thinking about upgrading to 7.1 though...my rear sattelites are dipoles, which give great ambient sound but lack direction from behind :D
-
« Previous
-
1
-
2
-
Next »
Discuss in the forums