1080p Projectors...

[akadkins]

Anyone have a good recommendation for a 1080p projector? Since I already have a 720p/1080i Sony Grand Wega, I've been thinking that I'd go with a projector for my upgrade to 1080p....saw a positive review on an OPTOMA HD81 in PSM this month.

[Matt X]

...I'm in the same situation (although likely much further away from affording it), but I believe there was a model mentioned in the forums on an Epson Powerlite being 1080p and dirt cheap (relatively). other posters correct me if I'm wrong.

[McBain]

Originally Posted by Matt X

...I'm in the same situation (although likely much further away from affording it), but I believe there was a model mentioned in the forums on an Epson Powerlite being 1080p and dirt cheap (relatively). other posters correct me if I'm wrong.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=7090

[TheOmegaSoldier]

There are 2 awesome ones right now at awesome price points, the epson powerlite 1080, and a panasonic one which is or was going for the same price. Iv'e heard it's permanently at $3,000 and i've heard it's actually $4,000 with a one thousand dollar rebate to compete with the epson. I can't recall the model of the panasonic one sorry.

If you look for reviews they both come across awesome, but they don't seem to be in stock at many places.

Silly me but i've been going to *gasp* retail stores, and the only one out of about ten that had a 1080p projector was best buy, and he mentioned it being about $5,000 last time he checked. (typical best buy).

Be careful when searching for the epson one. Many online stores are mislabeling the pro model. Epson Powerlite 1080 pro retails for about 5 grand, while the more basic model retails for about 3 grand. You can tell which one it is by the price point.

[AlaskaDon]

I was also considering a projector, and was going to ask for some advice here. I've done a little research on it already. The Panasonic projector that was mentioned is the PT-AE1000U probably, and all the reviews that I've looked at so far have said that it's a great buy for the price. You can get this right now for approx $3800 and it has a $1000 rebate. This model is at the top of my list for now.

The projector carried by Best Buy is a Sony model that everybody refers to as the "Pearl". It's pricey but I've heard that it's an awesome projector and gets great reviews. Not sure what, if anything, it offers over the Panasonic.

Would appreciate any info/advice that the gurus here can offer

[ra1024]

I just bought the Panasonic PT-AE1000u when they offered that rebate a few weeks back and I'm very pleased. I bought it from ProjectorPeople.com and they also threw in an Oppo upscalling dvd player which sells for about $200. I figure I really got the Panasonic for about $2600 after rebate and it also gets a 3 year warranty instead of a 1 year.

Before the rebate I had about decided to go for the Epson. All the reviews I read seemed to indicate the Epson was a very good projector but not quite in the same league as the Panasonic. The upside to the Epson is that it's HDMI 1.3 while the other isn't. The Epson also has a max image size of about 150" ( going off memory ) while the Panasonic goes up to 200".

With the price being as low as it is, I can't see any reason to go for anything else at this point. Bill Hunt also did a review on it over at the Digital Bits.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviewshd/ptae1000u.html

[Jolted]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

I was also considering a projector, and was going to ask for some advice here. I've done a little research on it already. The Panasonic projector that was mentioned is the PT-AE1000U probably, and all the reviews that I've looked at so far have said that it's a great buy for the price. You can get this right now for approx $3800 and it has a $1000 rebate. This model is at the top of my list for now.

The projector carried by Best Buy is a Sony model that everybody refers to as the "Pearl". It's pricey but I've heard that it's an awesome projector and gets great reviews. Not sure what, if anything, it offers over the Panasonic.

Would appreciate any info/advice that the gurus here can offer

I have the Sony VPLVW50 and I absolutely love it. Yes it was a little bit pricier than a few of the others but of all the projectors I looked at I had never seen one as clear as the Sony. I tend to look first for the flyscreen effect and can see it in most of the other projectors from some distance. But with the Sony I can stand 2-4 inches from my 115" screen and only make out the smallest of squares. It is absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Not sure however on the price difference from Australian dollars - I think it was about $7,000 AUD.

Good Luck

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

Originally Posted by Jolted

I have the Sony VPLVW50 and I absolutely love it. Yes it was a little bit pricier than a few of the others but of all the projectors I looked at I had never seen one as clear as the Sony. I tend to look first for the flyscreen effect and can see it in most of the other projectors from some distance. But with the Sony I can stand 2-4 inches from my 115" screen and only make out the smallest of squares. It is absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Not sure however on the price difference from Australian dollars - I think it was about $7,000 AUD.

Good Luck

I am looking mostly at the Sony as well, but I research the other 2.

[Blue]

I'm sitting back and waiting for at least another 6 months. I have a 720p and I would imagine the 2nd gen (for consumer consumption) will be much better than the first gen. The JVC Lcos sounds interesting, but a bit on the low lumens output, the new Panny sounds interesting, but Panasonic has announced new projectors every year about September, so if you have a projector or good TV it maybe worth waiting a few months more to at least see what is about to come out.

[Matt X]

...or if you're poor like me, THAT decision is kinda made for you

[drummerboy]

Dont forget about yamaha, they make 3 fine projectors and i have viewed them all and they really have improved to a top class level. The 1300s is probably the best i have seen. I havn't seen the Sony's so i cant comment. But i am happy with my yammy and havn't even thought about changing companies. Do some research on the yammys and find out for your self and see how you go.

[ra1024]

Originally Posted by drummerboy

Dont forget about yamaha, they make 3 fine projectors and i have viewed them all and they really have improved to a top class level. The 1300s is probably the best i have seen. I havn't seen the Sony's so i cant comment. But i am happy with my yammy and havn't even thought about changing companies. Do some research on the yammys and find out for your self and see how you go.

I went to the Yamaha site to see what I may have missed out on as I hadn't seen anything on the Yamaha line. I saw 4 projectors listed but none were 1080P models and 2 were over 10k and with the cheapest about $4500. The only other downside I saw besides the 768 resolution was the contrast ratios were around 5000:1 where the Panasonic was 11,000:1.

I'm not trying to put down the Yamahas but for the price, it really sounds like the Panasonic is still a better value. The ones I saw were the DPX 830, 1200, & 1300 along with the LPX 510. Let me know if there are other models I'm missing as I'd be interested to see if they have a line of 1080 models.

[drummerboy]

Originally Posted by ra1024

I went to the Yamaha site to see what I may have missed out on as I hadn't seen anything on the Yamaha line. I saw 4 projectors listed but none were 1080P models and 2 were over 10k and with the cheapest about $4500. The only other downside I saw besides the 768 resolution was the contrast ratios were around 5000:1 where the Panasonic was 11,000:1.

I'm not trying to put down the Yamahas but for the price, it really sounds like the Panasonic is still a better value. The ones I saw were the DPX 830, 1200, & 1300 along with the LPX 510. Let me know if there are other models I'm missing as I'd be interested to see if they have a line of 1080 models.

Yea, Yamaha can be a little pricey and there is always something cheaper than something else. So i tend to believe that after testing out a lot of projectors and reading about resolution and comparing the resolutions to other projectors, i have found that it gets to a stage where resoulution does not matter a great deal at a certain level of standard. After that, to me it is what goes into the projector and how it is built and especially the cooling system. If you have a good cooling system in your projector your lamp life can be greater. So this is where Yamaha and the money comes into play. After it gets to a certain standard, the resolution are just numbers to me. Dont forget, there are projectors on the market for $200.000 and maybe more, so i ask the question to myself all the time. Are these projectors worth the money and i am sure we could get better value for our money. Or could we. But i do see your point very clearly and do agree with you, but only so far. After that i would have to try one for myself Regards Grassy

[gandley]

JVC DLA RS1(HD1 if you live in europe) if you suffer rainbows.

top choice if you cant stand DLP projectors.


Sharp 21000 (20000 usa model) for a impressive DLP or if you got the loot the sim2 D80 has a very sharp image with mind blowing clarity due to quality optics

for a budget the Epson 1080p is reasonable but for a little saving the Sony VW50 (pearl) would be my second choice to the JVC which i own (and use to own the pearl)


the JVC has the highest on/off contrast ratio of any projector and does not use a dynamic iris (DI) to achieve this high number. has goodish ANSI contrast ie black level when full white is present, think star field.

A DI will give a high contrast ratio but for scences of mixed brightness it becomes near useless and so the prjector will tend to default to its native contrast ratio which for an LCD is still very low. A DI also clips white to show a deep black so again in a star field you will loose some stars and white detail tends to get clipped, or is called brightness compression. A DI is good to drop black level but its more of a band aid fix. DLP have the highest ANSI contrast which means mixed scenes tend to have a more 3d feel to them with great deph of image which is a result of high ANSI CR.

JVC and the sharp are best all rounders, with the sharp having mind blowing ANSI CR 800:1 with good on/off CR. approx 7000:1. and excellent sharpness.

JVC has average ANSI contrast of about 300:1 (pearl is 250:1) but a whopping on/off CR of 15-20,000:1 but being a LiCos projector the sharpness is good but could do with being sharper
(similar with SXRD)

also a thing to keep an eye on is calibrated brightness as even though a projector may claim say 1100 ansi lumens, once you calibrate for colour (D65) etc it will drop as low as 200 ansi lumens which is not very bright.

Again the JVC scores good here as though its 700 ansi lumens rated thats pretty much accurate to what it will do so its actually brighter than many other 1080p projectors.

Dont get to hung on LCD projectors claiming say 11000:1 on/off CR etc. as there ANSI CR tends to just scape above 200:1 which is well behind good DLP. so its a trade off but ANSI CR for many scenes is much more important. PQ your poison really

Actually dont get too hung on claimed CR ratios full stop as very few actually are able to meet the claim in there best preffered watching mode. they can do say 11000:1 but it might be with white level maxed out or in a dynamic preset which while will do 11000:1 you really would not enjoy watching such a nasty image so again a calibrated contrast ration would fall much lower, with the exception of the JVC and pearl which many have meassured better than claimed figures.

some info if you need it can be found here

http://www.projectorreviews.com/Best...2007/index.php

[gandley]

Originally Posted by Blue

I'm sitting back and waiting for at least another 6 months. I have a 720p and I would imagine the 2nd gen (for consumer consumption) will be much better than the first gen. The JVC Lcos sounds interesting, but a bit on the low lumens output, the new Panny sounds interesting, but Panasonic has announced new projectors every year about September, so if you have a projector or good TV it maybe worth waiting a few months more to at least see what is about to come out.

the JVC is actually very bright as it will actually put out 700 "calibrated" lumens, and so is one of the brightest 1080p projectors in its best mode. Many projector list there most "brightest" image mode in the specs which would give an awfull picture, but once calibrated the brightness will drop one hell of alot, this is called best mode by many and is the "calibrated ANSI lumen mode" for movies etc.

for instance the JVC puts say 700 "calibrated lumens" while the new panasonic 1080p puts out
"280 calibrated lumens", far lower then its spec sheet sugests

its best to demo as specs are very misleading, as some quote calibrated figures and some dont.

[AlaskaDon]

Thanks for all the advice here. Now I'm thinking that I will probably take Blue's advice and see what comes out in the next few months. The guy that I trust over at BB/Magnolia also suggested waiting as there are some nice HDMI 1.3 compliant projectors due out very soon. I guess that also means some price cuts on the non-1.3 models as well. He did mention that he just recently upgraded from a Sony 720p model to the 1080p that BB carries, and says that it's worth the pricetag if you just can't wait.

It will take me a good while to get the room ready that I plan to put this in, so I guess I'll be waiting and see what unfolds on the market.

[gandley]

Sony will have there VPL VW60. with 120hz panels, and some tweaks here and there over the VW50. i would be amazed if it wasnt HDMI 1.3 enabled.

[rmatt]

Marantz VP12S4

-1-chip DLP™ Projector
-.8 720p DarkChip3™ DMD
-4500 : 1 Contrast ratio
-GENNUM GF9350 VXP™ video Processing
-Custom Optics by Konica-Minolta
-Wider vertical Lens Shift Range


Oh, I almost forgot, it's $11,000.

[gandley]

the VP12S4 is now discontinued. the current model is the
The Marantz VP-11S1 1080p DLP Projector. It has now also been upgraded with HDMI 1.3.

UK price is almost £10K, (close to $20k)

http://www.avland.co.uk/marantz/vp11s1/vp-11s1.htm

[TJandBLU-RAY]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

Thanks for all the advice here. Now I'm thinking that I will probably take Blue's advice and see what comes out in the next few months. The guy that I trust over at BB/Magnolia also suggested waiting as there are some nice HDMI 1.3 compliant projectors due out very soon. I guess that also means some price cuts on the non-1.3 models as well. He did mention that he just recently upgraded from a Sony 720p model to the 1080p that BB carries, and says that it's worth the pricetag if you just can't wait.

It will take me a good while to get the room ready that I plan to put this in, so I guess I'll be waiting and see what unfolds on the market.

I may not wait. But what would I do with my 720p OPTOMA then? Bedroom? Or is that too much?