£2000 for a projector.. Help!!!

[AV Geeza]

Ive got a budget of £2000 and want some recommendations for a projector. My viewing distance is a max of 15ft.
Also what is the general life span of projector bulbs?

[Timh]

Do a search for Toshiba and Sanyo. Theres plent been said about these projectors, at about 2K

[analogueaddict]

Hi,

£2k for a projector. Are you in a hurry?

The reason I ask is that there is a projector coming to market just before Xmas from a UK company who will be selling a DLP projector with 1024 X 768 native resolution, S-VHS, composite & RGB inputs (it will also work with your HTPC) and a 1200 lumen output for under £2k. Oh, it also weighs less that 3 KG and is about A4 size.

I would love to tell you who it is, who makes it and it's name, but I promised the people who gave me this information that I wouldn't name names or give too much in the way of specifics about who is going to upset the whole of the UK projector market.

This is not vapourware, I have actually seen the unit and I've seen it working. It is incredibly good value for money.

Regards and best wishes,

Dave

[Jase]

Hmmm!

Interesting!!

Should put the cat amongst the pigeons!!

[AV Geeza]

Dave "analogueaddict",
I can wait, especially if this projector is as good as you say it is!
Is there a date set yet? Is it a quiet model?
Cheers m8

[Timh]

Sounds interesting, I wonder how bad the rainbow effect is with this unit.

Come on Dave, give us a clue! Lets narrow it down...

Is it one of these?

1. Optoma (these ones do look the muts nuts)
2. Toshiba
3. Infocus
4. Plus

You don't have to say which one, just yes or no. Then you aren't breaking your promise!

PS How do I get a cool logo like Jase?

[Mr.D]

I bet its a clone of the NEC LT150

[Grubert]

Mi own guess is the Dreamvision CineXone, presented at CEDIA in September.

You can have a look at it on their website (www.dreamvision.net)

[analogueaddict]

Hi,

AV Geeza:

The date is not fixed in stone, but it's going into production next week so I'm figuring second week of December before it hit's the shops, but that's only a guestimate. It was confirmed that pre Christmas was the target and there was a very strong chance it would be achieved. This unit is quiet. The setting where I saw it made it too noisy to judge it's actual volume level, but I certainly couldn't hear it from about 1M away.

TimH:

The 'rainbow' effect was noticeable, but I don't think it would put me off buying it. I currently use a CRT projector (video resolution only sadly) and given the pros (higher resolution, ability to take a scaler, higher light output, size, portability, ease of use) against the cons (black level not brilliant, but nothing a Stewart Greyhawk won't cure and a noticeable 'rainbow' effect) I would certainly be in the market for one of these units. I can tell you it's not as bad as what I've seen on the In Focus and Proxima units which do seem rather bad with this effect to my eyes. The NEC just doesn't seem to suffer as badly. If you know you are sensitive to 'rainbow' (my wife can't see what I'm talking about) then you really need to check out one of these projectors before buying.

Meat:

I'm safe to say it's none of the above.

Mr. D:

You're on the same road I was on. I was wrong! It is not an LT-150 clone, but I did think that the engine inside was out of an LT-150. I was told categorically that it wasn't.

Well I'm glad the makers of this projector have managed to find a niche here. I was really blown away by what this little unit was doing.

Regards and very best wishes,

David

To be honest, <£2K isn't cheap enough!

The 2K barrier has been broken for a while now by some very good HC capable models and I have even seen half decent projectors going for £1500incVAT, so what I would like to see is a <£1250incVAT model that really cuts the mustard.

If someone can do that then I, and my wife, would be very happy bunnies (well I would, she would still tell me it's too much money).

[analogueaddict]

Hello,

Following the interest shown in this discussion over the last few days I had a chat with the Importer / Distributor of this unit and asked him if he would allow me to start naming names and giving out specifics. He graciously told me that I could spill the beans here on this new projector.

The Projector I've been talking about is a DreamVision CineXOne. It will be available over here for under £2000 inc. VAT and it WILL be available before Christmas (though not by much).

The importer of the dream Vision line in the UK is Lenbrook Uk Ltd who import NAD and PSB. I understand that not every dealer that handles NAD will be carrying the Dreamvision, so I'd check with the folks at Lenbrook to see who near you will be carrying this unit.

As some of you here who hang out at the AV Science Forum will probably know the cyurrent king of the low cost projector circuit is the NEC LT-150. Well from the short demo I saw this is the first unit I've seen that can be considered a serious competitor to the LT-150 that is not a clone.

OK gentlemen, start your engines. The cat is now in amongst the pigeons.

Regards and best wishes,

Dave

[ReTrO]

Just for everyones info the optoma DLp's are to be distributed by the Loewe branch of Linn distribution in the UK.

So I was told.

The cheaper one will be around £4k, too much if you ask me, and the better one around £5.5k.

[Nic Rhodes]

Just my 2p to add to AV Geeza original question (how did yesterday go?)

I played with >12 cheapo panel projectors in my quest for a projector and this is what i learned:

Most are crap at films in comparison to AV targetted projectors. No or poor 3:2 pull down etc

The de-interlacing a scaling left MUCH to be desired. I therefore recommend either getting a very cheap projector and doing pixel mapping with a HCPC. I.E the computer directly addressing the exact pixel resolution (ideally XGA or higher) like Jeff is doing

or

buy a projector geared towards home cinema like the PLV 30 which at least does a credible attempt at de-interlacing and scaling for HC.

People generally don't want to use these panel projectors with external scalers

What would be really good was a cheapo XGA DLP with just a RGB input for £1200 that we can drive from a HCPC.

I still think the ideal HC projectorpanel projector doesn't exist but the SIM2 300 looks great. Even the Sim2 range sufferes from, IMHO poor de-interlacing, you only have to connect an external scaler to the Sim range to see what they are capable of (awesome). Once you do this they really shine. However this is not what panel projectors are all a bout. the 200, 250 and 300 should just be about picking the required DLP resolution WITH good elctronics front end, only the (currently vapourware 300) potentially does this and at what cost?

I'm really looking forward to this new DreamVision Unit, here are already a few pics i've just found:

http://www.dreamvision.net/main_cedia.htm

I was about to consider a PLUS Piano, but i think i'll consider waiting a while longer and see what the competition will do :-)