[Review] LCD projector for home cinema

Hi Wolfgang,

I've been looking around for quite a while, but the best help was the reviews on www.projectorcentral.com. I have seen some poor demonstrations locally too. I was thinking about BenQ, Infocus and Optoma models also. For me, the things that decided in favour of the Panny were, in order of importance:
* absence of screen door and rainbow effects (for DLP I could have got a fast colour wheel with more segments, but that would push the price up - my SO is sensitive to these effects)
* acceptable contrast given my conditions
* very good zoom range on lens, allowing me to make the final decision on positioning after I received it
* very low and unintrusive fan noise, especially with low lamp setting
* horizontal and vertical lens-shift also give more flexibility with positioning
* DVI/HDMI input (quite normal these days)
* Price low enough to treat it as a 'for experience' item

I have a cinema and hi-fi room in a large basement room - ordinary furnishings, but good ability to control internal and external light. Friends say I have a better picture than they have seen in local demos. If contrast and black levels were of ultimate importance, together with poorer light-environment , then I would have accepted that I would have to buy a model two or three times more in price. (Compared with hi-fi, I could treat the panny almost like pocket-money price and I was ready to change it later if it was not satisfactory.) The lens shift and zoom let me put it behind the seating, on the back wall, where noise is less noticeable, and rays are more parallel to the screen.

It was a big audio improvement to throw out a 32" TV, which also allows better placement of my centre speaker - so a hi-fi upgrade was included free of charge

I think I will also get a DVDO video scaler too, also a satellite feed, because ordinary TV quality is obviously poor next to DVD.

Hope this helps

 

Sounds like you need a new aerial!
Analogue transmissions are uncompressed full 625 line PAL - should be no artefacts or edge problems you'll occasionally get on a DVD, compressed as it is!
Digital transmissions are another matter!

 

Yup, Projetor Central is a fantastic resource, as are the various AV forums littered about the net, from the American AVS Forum, to the home grown AV Forums and AV Talk.

If you really want to see some examples firsthand here in Edinburgh, I can recommend Sevenoaks and Loud & Clear as having decent demo facilities and a reasonable selection of projectors (including the not-so-exhorbitantly-priced variety). Hifi Corner on Rose Street also hal projectors for demo but IME their demo facilities are a bit poor. You could also try James-Morrow Hifi in Tollcross - they have a decent dem room, but I've never had a projector demo there, so couldn't say for sure.

Dunc

 

Projectors and Picture Quality...

OK, as a new member of the forum, but a long-term (four years +) user of a Toshiba LCD projector, I'd like to add my voice in support of the video scalers referred to here.
I bought a "Progressive Scan TV Tuner" about three years back: you simply plug your RF cable into it and send it searching... This unit also has PC pass-through and composite/S video inputs, plus analogue audio output.
I've run my VCR into it: I don't see why Sky couldn't also be sent in from it's RF output, if so desired.
There are later versions now available which give NICAM sound, teletext support and I believe also have RGB inputs, so could cope with what most people would want to use.
Whilst not as good as the DVDO scalers referred to here, these cost £150-ish, IIRC, so would be a low-cost experiment (although trust me, they really do uprade the quality of the TV picture, as well as making video tapes very watchable again).
The output is from computer-style 15 pin VGA terminal, which most projectors have. What these DON'T do, AFAIK, is accept digital picture inputs, so all you DVI/HDMI people will need to look elsewhere...
Hope this helps...

 

I bought a Sanyo Z2 just after it came out about 18 months ago. I love it and so do the kids.

It's very similar to the Panasonic AE500 but has the advantage of an excellent optical lens shift facility, which means that as long as it is square on to the screen you can make the image central even if the projector is actually pointing at one corner of the screen. So you don't have to tilt the projector and use digital keystoning to keep it rectangular, which would degrade the image. Hope that makes some sense. It means that I can just plonk it down on the sideboard behind the sofa when I want to use it and then turn a wheel next to the lens to centre the image perfectly. When not in use the projector lives on top of a high bookcase.

The difference between a projector and plasma is that a projector image can have that cinematic sense of scale which a plasma never really gets to unless you are sitting 2 feet from the screen, which is uncomfortable. I have mine set up so that I have the THX recommended viewing angle of 37 degrees (IIRC) with a 96" diagonal screen about 11 feet from the viewing position. It's great!

At this screen size, source image quality and cables make a big difference. TV or video through a normal composite connection (let alone an RF one - UGH!) is pretty poor. I bought a Freeview box so that I could at least connect via S-video which is much better quality. I believe some Sky boxes have S-video outputs (but I don't have Sky). Most of the time I watch DVDs via a component RGB cable which was bought from Mark Grant cables over at www.avforums.com

It produces an excellent quality image, even from a cheap progressive scan DVD player.

If you are interested in projectors you should spend a couple of weeks reading the forum there. Lots of helpful people.

Andrew

 

I was hoping someone would give a Sanyo review, I was at the Bristol Hifi show looking at projectors, they had some nice ones there, I really like the Sanyo Z3 (I think, latest one anwyay) they where deming there. It was whiper quiet, the picture was really good.
I want to replace my 28" bulky, heavy and frankly waste of space, TV with a Projector, I don't watch much daytime TV and if it needs to be on in the day, I'll get black out blinds, job done, but the one I saw at the show seemed to work quite will in daylight, I was surprised. So why didn't I buy it, ya good question, cso the salesman didn't do his job, didn't tell me they had it on offer with a screen for £1k, if he had, it would be at home right now, grr, anyway there is always next year, any new models due out?
I was offered a Sony HS1 peojector for £270 but after reading some bad reviews, it only doing 2000 hours on a bulb, the bulb costing £300 and its 4:3 I decided not to bother.

(ya and after a day of writing this broke my collar bone and found myself watching quite a lot of day time TV, d'oh, let that be a lesson! ).

 

The comparative review at www.projectorcentral.com is the best, IMO. e.g you see the relative strengths of the Z3, AE700, etc. I would trust that more than one individual opinion you might get here.

 

Second www.projectorcentral.com - they really know what they're talking about. Really, really useful.

Dunc

 

I'm well on my way to establishing "retirement hifi" but AV is faster moving and I'm willing to make some changes in the next few years. So, on the subject of projectors I have a few Q's for you. (One day I'll sell my big telly, partly so that when it comes to a movie there is some novelty instead of being the same screen I see the news on).1) At 10-11ft am I going to be able to project high def images? 2) How am I supposed to cope with cable distances between projector and player i.e. sound sytem and player in corner together but projector on another wall 5m cable length away. A problem or not at all? 3) For regular tv viewing I plan to have a widescreen 20-22"LCD for this and to double up as PC monitor. Q: Can I get one with dual inputs so I can run it from a tv tuner without powering up the pc ( I also intend to use self powered av speakers for tv and computer sound) and also, would an LCD monitor be fast enough for online frag games ? 4) Given that there will be a mix of old and hi-def source material would a scaler be esential to use? (Of course for MOVIE av sound I'd use my expanding system I'm working on presently.)

 

1) Yes, you just need to check the image size vs distance charts for the specific projector (often shown on projectorcentral.com)

2) You will only need to send a video signal to the cable. Both component and DVI will be fine over a 5m distance provided you use reasonably good quality cables.

3) Some modern LCDs are fine for gaming. I don't know about dual inputs.

4) You don't need to use a scaler since there will be one built into the projector and LCD screen. Some DVD players also provide (up)scaling and may be better quality than the scaler in your projector. LCD screens like to be run at their native resolutions so you will need to check what the quality of the scaling inside your LCD TV is like.

Andrew

 

Anyone brought the Sanyo Z4 yet, from what I can tell from other reviews its just as good / better, roll on Feb 24,25th. See Owl are not signed up, so does anyone know any other company that might be bringing this model to the show?

 

No, but I've had some longer term burn-in-type problems with my AE700 so I'm thinking either the AE900, Z4 or Optoma H79. Or the final choice is to wait a bit until spring and see what comes out.