I ordered the unit from nexnix.co.uk
They will perform a dead pixel check for you for £20 to ensure that the unit has no dead pixels.

The box arrived today.

First impressions are of a quality product. It is well packaged and comes with a bag containing the manuals, remote & batteries, the PJ 'multi' lead (which plugs into the back of the unit into the 'multi' connector and gives you component video , S video and composite video inputs), a spare air filter and an optional filter.

Connecting the unit up and starting it was very easy. Initially I was shocked by the noise which seemed loud on startup but it got quieter once the unit had warmed up and you can reduce the fan noise by using 'cinema' mode.

Once the unit was operational and I was actually watching something, the noise was not something I was aware of.

I projected onto my viewing room wall (which was red) and then when I got the picture the right size I quickly masked off the edges using masking tape and painted the wall white using emulsion inside the frame. My other half will not be impressed when she gets in from work this evening... but it's cheaper than a screen for the time being!

The picture out of the box was very bright in the supplied 'dynamic' mode. This would be the mode to use to extract every inch of brightness from the unit for high ambient light conditions. But colour balance does suffer and blacks don't look too fantastic at all - not helped by the high ambient light at the time (mid day with the curtains open) and projecting onto a white wall.

Selecting 'cinema' mode and altering the colour temperature from 'low' to medium gave a better picture. I think with this unit you will need to fiddle about with the settings quite a lot in order to get the best picture.

One thing I was surprised by was the massive difference in quality between the 'S' video output of my DVD player and the component output of the player. Component looked FAR better.

I'll keep you posted..

Next stages are to mess around with the DVI input and try some more expensive leads... And I've yet to buy a screen of course...

[museumsteve]

nice one mate.
wonder how the missus took it..

After spending some time watching it last night the verdict is:

Fantastic. BUT it does look a LOT better if you turn all the lights off in your viewing room. We were watching it with a table lamp on and I was asking if this was a dark programme (we were watching TV over composite video). Turning the lights off made a big difference.

At the moment the projector is set up in a very non-ideal manner since it is projecting onto a white wall, using both horizontal AND vertical keystone correction.

However - the image is still very very good. Obviously the image on a good DVD over component video bears no resemblance to broadcast telly over composite but the telly signal is still very watchable.

I watched parts of "The fifth element" , "Monsters Inc" , "Attack of the clones" and a robbie williams concert and all of them looked very very good on DVD. The colours were rich and saturated and the black levels were fine in my opinion - no they weren't CRT jet black but black enough to be believable.

Does anyone know whether the feed from a sky box is WORSE than the feed I currently get from my video recorder for broadcast TV? (I have a good aerial and generally get a very good picture on a normal TV).

On the subject of the missus... Well she didn't react all that badly really. Besides I had to get my own back because she put my shoes in the bin over the weekend and filled them with beans so I was forced to go shoe shopping ....

I was just about to place an order with Nexnix for an HS10 when I read your note. I dont want beans in my shoes so I am going to wait until we have eaten all the beans in the house and then order it.

Thinking about the Owl Electric screen but also prices frm Direckt2u look very good and they are just down the road from me. The Vu tech screens also look good but are a bit more expensive. What are you thinking over going for and can you wash it? (just in case your wife puts something on it)

I could use some help on the screen.

Currently projecting onto white painted rectangle on the wall - having ruined the decor in the TV room.

Would like a screen but obviously don't want to spend a massive pile of cash.

So far I've seen projecta screens (www.projecta.nl) supplied
by these people (http://www.projectors-online.co.uk/p...es/screens.cfm).

They supply the manual projecta slimscreen in the size I need (180cm * 102cm) for £90+VAT which I think is amazingly cheap.

I've just seen draper luma screens criticised (and these were about £250 I think) so is this going to be a pile of rubbish? or is the supplier just cheap?

Thanks for the links...I am prepared to spend a bit more as it is going in a dedicated room and will be there quite a while.

But not too much more and certainly not Stewart territory...hence looking at Direckt2u screens. I think Owl and Vu tec are top of my list for value for money. Not cheap by any means but who wants a screen with ripples in it unless they are raspberry ones.

Try here ...http://www.direkt2u.co..uk

I have also emailed Gordon at Convergence to ask for his advice and costings.

The final peice of the jigsaw is finally being put into place. All I need to do now is get a mortgage and place the orders

Have you found a supplier for Vutec? I noticed that they do the 'silverStar' with a gain of 4, 6 and 9 I think. I haven't seen one in action but someone over at AVS said that it was better than they expected, given such a high gain..

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

It has a gain of 6 and is effective if you want to watch in high ambient light conditions. At CES they had one split in to 3 sections. Greydove,1.5gain (or 1.3 not sure) or the 6 gain section. The 1.5/1.3 looked best...even in the relatively high light area.....

Draper are no better or worse than nay other cheap manual pulldown screen supplier. The thing which costs in a screen is not the material so much as the mechanical design and build. You get what you pay for.

Gordon

Thanks. I've decided that I don't need a high gain screen after realising that the projector was actually too bright and it made it more watchable by cutting the output by putting the cinema filter in the way! I'm now looking for grey screens in the uk with little success.

After living with my HS10 for a week now I'm still very happy with it. I went through a phase of hating the fan noise but I've got over it once I turned the "dynamic range compression" of my amp on and therefore managed to get the dialogue to mask the fan noise without the loud bits lifting off the roof.

It does look better although dimmer with the cinema filter on. I managed to see more detail in the dark scenes at the start of 'aliens' and I thought the contrast looked better. Even though the picture is dimmer (and I'm currently using a white wall) the image is just as watchable with the lights out and actually more comfortable because before it was a bit too bright.

Overall I still think that for the money, this device is very good value and anyone spending about 2 grand on a projector should consider it very seriously indeed. In fact I would say that anyone spending £1200 should seriously think about saving up and buying it!