Projector Resolutions

[Clydesdale]

Hi all

At the risk of being shot down in flames, I'm gonig to ask what may appear to be a daft Q.

I was always under the impression that the higher the resolution of the PJ the better for the very reason that there will be more pixels to relate the signal its being fed, onto the screen. I've seen a number of threads saying here and there that resolution should be used as a major tool in that some of the lower res ones may be better. Now is this a case of if you look at the projected image as a whole (hues and tints, black colour, saturation, halo effects etc etc) that some of the lower res ones, on a whole, outperform the higher res ones or have I missed the point ?

-M

[sbowler]

Higher res, equals more detail in the picture. I fail to see how a low res can give a better picture. It may in certain areas, ie brighter more contrast, but to me a better picture initially begins with a higher res. Particularly when your talking HD, more pixels better picture? or is there something I am missing?

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by Mythicsteed

Now is this a case of if you look at the projected image as a whole (hues and tints, black colour, saturation, halo effects etc etc) that some of the lower res ones, on a whole, outperform the higher res ones

Those particular items are not resolution dependant, in the past 'cheaper' high res pj's might have suffered from inadequacies in those areas. Resolution is all about detail, those other items are related to how well the overall projector package (or model) has been developed etc.

[sniffer66]

Surely its all going to depend on your source also ?

If you are only using a PAL SD source - SD-DVD or SKY - then using a 1024x576 native PJ MAY be preferable (I used to own the Sharp Z200 so have seen this demo'd). An HD PJ is not going to add any extra detail in this scenario as it doesnt exist in the first place. In fact it may soften the picture. If you sit far enough away not to see any visible pixel structure then why not ? Upscaling can also introduce unwanted artefacts.

[martin greaves]

I guess there are two issues.

Firstly at a given price a good quality SD projector may outperform a lower quality HD projector (especially at the lower end where there seem to be a number of good quality SD DLP projectors available).

Secondly there is the issue of matching source resolution to display resolution. If you are only displaying HD signals then clearly a HD projector will give the best results. However most people may be watching SD TV/DVDs and unless you have a good video processor (or are using a PC) to upconvert to the HD resolution an SD projector may give better results. (If you look at LCD TVs the PAL-optimised Sharp products often give the best SD performance compared to HD products - their resolution is lower but it is matched to the source and hence less processing to upconvert/deinterlace the source signal is required)

[cyberheater]

Resolution is not the most critical element of a projector in my opinion. The ability of the projector to project accurate colours / grayscale as well as black level and contrast have much more impact to the viewer then resolution.