Richer Sounds - Sony VPLHS1

richkeys · 30-01-2003, 7:05 PM

Currently in Richer Sounds for £999.99

what do you guys think of this projector, does it compare to the Sanyo Z1?

JonMace · 30-01-2003, 8:50 PM

I'v had the HS1 for nearly a year and am very happy with it paid £1700 for mine, so £999 is a fabulous price.

How it compairs to the Z1 i don't know because I have never seen 1 in action, but would imagine the Z1 to be suppieror as it is a lot newer technology in a rapidly developing market

theritz · 30-01-2003, 9:07 PM

If you're in the market for a sub-£1000 projector, you should also consider the Panasonic AE100 - this differs from the HS1 by having a native 16x9 panel, whereas the HS1 is a 4x3 panel - when watching widescreen movies the HS1 will always have grey areas above and below the picture. The HS1 does have a "sideshot" feature, which allows you to place the projector "off axis" - i.e., not directly aimed at the centre line of the screen - this does result in some degrading of picture quality afaik, but could be an important feature depending on your set up. As far as I remember from a demo last year, I though that the HS1 was also quieter than the AE100, but I choose the AE100 because I considered that it had far better picture quality - just a personal choice, mind you, no insult of any kind to HS1 owners! There have been reliability issues with the AE100 - well documented on this forum, but there's still 100 or more peeps with the AE100 here, and I'm very happy with mine.

You could check out Komplwtt.co.uk here for the AE100 at £995.

The Sanyo PLZ1 has to be considered as in a diferent class to both of these at this stage - it has 16x9 native lcd panels with greater resolution that either of the, and has greater flexibility in shifting the image to suit installation. It's also more expensive than either the HS1 or AE100, but by a relatively small amount - for £1300 (or therebouts) it has to be seriously considered as the best entry level projector on the market.

If £1000 or under is your budget - then you should make sure to see a decent demo of both the HS! and the AE100 - at the end of the day, you're spending the money and I would strongly recommend that you see the PJ in action before you buy. If your budget isn't too constrained, then go see the Z1 - and I reckon I know which one you'll buy then !!!

All the best,

Sean G.

JonMace · 30-01-2003, 9:17 PM

It also depends what you want to watch though it, I use mine as a replacement for the TV rather than just watching DVDs this is expensive (lamp life) but I enjoy it amd in this repect a 4:3 pannel is better as most shows on sky/cable are still 4:3 and there fore the PJ is at its natural res. But if you are only going to use it for DVDs deffinatly go for a 16:9 althogth in most DVDs you will still get (smaller) grey bars as a lot of films are 2.35:1