TR Forums

Hi All,
After my ancient-era LCD projector bulb finally died (I figured roughly 9000 hours of servce) and seing a replacement costs $350, I think it is time to purchase a new projector with HDTV in mind.

A while ago (last year) someone mentioned a Panasonic LCD projector:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/Panason ... AE700U.htm

But it seems there is a few critical problems with it, one being dust in the lens area (same as my current unit, drives me nuts) and the bulb seems to have defects limiting it's life to 500 hours for many people. I simply don't want to take that chance.


Now I am looking at a NEC DLP projector within my price range:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/nec_ht1100.htm

Which looks too good to be true. Anyone offer up any other suggestions opinions before I shoot the works?

I am trying to stay under $3000, which is what I paid for the original. My screen is 120" diagonal and I have 15' of throw distance available. There is a lot nicer stuff in the mid-range category, but I think it will be diminishing returns there.

Thanks!

-LS

The HT1100 is certainly a respected projector. Is your screen 4:3 or do you have another reason for sticking with that aspect ratio? A lot of the newer projectors with home theater in mind are 16:9. Since you're buying with HD in mind, bear in mind that your effective resolution is going to be 1024x576 unless you have a panamorphic lens.

A projector with the HD2+ chip in it like the Benq PE7700 will give you 1280x720 in 16:9 for native 720p HDTV performance. It is more expensive than the HT1100 (around $2500 vs. $2000-$200 rebate=$1800) but according to my hurried calculations it will give you a 56% increase in HDTV resolution (589824 pixels vs 921600).

Or you could always take the attitude that native 1080 projectors may very well be only a few years away from relative affordability, in which case you'd want to spend as little as possible right now, say $700 on a Screenplay 4805 from woot.com. HD resolution on that one is 409920 pixels.

Finally, do more research than just my opinion-- since I bought my projector, I haven't really kept up with the latest and greatest models.

The latest Maximum PC says if it's not for computer stuff, then DLP is the way to go. They tested the Epson PowerLite Cinema 500 (LCD) vs. Viewsonic PJ755D (DLP). I guess you could check those out.

But don't listen to me. I just use a Daytek 19" T.V. with a fading picture tube.

Yeah, I have a 4:3 screen already, and a lot of my collections are 4:3, but the screen is huge, so I don't give a crap if there is a 16:9 ration image on it. I am looking for the pacakge that includes the 16:9 lens with this projector.

Oh, I fogot to mention the "rainbow effect" annoys the hell out of me, but I think the one that bothered me the most was a 2x. I see the rainbow as my eyes move across the screen. Probably a result of too many fps games.

-LS

Yeah, I'm one of the unfortunates who can see the rainbows as well. Currently I have a Benq PB6100. Benq claimed at one time it was a 3X color wheel, then eventually admitted it was only a 2X. The Screenplay 4805 I referenced earlier has a 4x 6-segment wheel. The HT1100 has a 5x 6-segment wheel.

Personally, I notice the rainbows less now than I used to, I think my eyes are getting accustomed to it somehow. I knew before buying my PB6100 that I could see them, but when I looked at LCD projectors I saw tons of people complaining about vertical banding and all other kinds of LCD problems, while the only consistent DLP complaint was rainbows. Consequently, I decided to just live with it.

As far as the HT1100 16:9 lens goes, I'd advise you to get a 16:9 native projector instead. IIRC the HT1100's panamorph lens attaches onto the front of the projector lens, and such a setup doesn't really lend itself to taking the lens on and off to change aspect ratios without screwing up the projector's alignment every time you do it. So basically you'll wind up with a 16:9 projector if you go this route, but one with less resolution than an HD2+ chip-based projector (1024x768=786432 pixels, 1280x720=921600 pixels). Additionally, using a panamorph lens on a 4:3 projector can lead to some PITA issues in terms of source material, as your source (be it DVD player or HDTV tuner) must stretch the 16:9 image to 4:3 so the panamorph lens can squish it back down to 16:9 with the full 1024x768 resolution. If your source doesn't do this for you, you can't use the panamorph.

Of course choosing a native 16:9 projector means that you can't watch 4:3 material full-screen, but unless you're talking about older 4:3 movies on DVD, this is a blessing. I'm sure you're aware of what standard def TV looks like on a giant screen, and it ain't pretty.

I think this is showing me to wait until later, not enough lower-cost HD projectors in the market yet. Looks like I will be without a projector for a while. I am so dissapointed by the reveiws of the Panasonic since the image quality is excellent, resolution and features, but the dust inside and the short bulb life problems kill it.

If you can't get the dust out yourself, what good is all the resolution when you have speckles? Maybe I will get lucky and a few new models will be introduced before the holidays.

-LS