[ruarmani]

Hi Everyone, I am looking at few projectors to buy in Canada. After a lot of reviews reading and price checks I came to the point that I want to buy Epson HC720. I went to the store today, looked at HC 1080, just in case, was not impressed, then the guy turned HC720 and it was great, but the light was almost down. It looked pretty good. Not too much SDE. HC720 has $1,299 price tag, free spare lamp, two years warranty, $100 rebate from Epson, ceiling mount and 15ft. hdmi cable. Then he took me to the other room and showed Mitsubishi HC3000. First, I thought it was a TV, so bright it was with quite some lights on. I started thinking..... wasn't sure what to do. Why Mits with 4000:1 contrast and 1000 brightness looked brighter than Epson with 10,000:1 contrast and 1600 brightness? I know dlp's have better contrast, but what is it, set up, calibration?? I tried to play with Epson set ups, managed to get a close picture to Mits. The only thing - I noticed on Mits was rainbow effect, not too much, PJ has 4 x color wheel, but I could see on credits or subtitles. Mts is discontinued model, price tag is $1,499, 2 years warranty, nothing else. On the way back home I went to another store to check out Panasonic PT-AX200, but they only had 100 and had not have 200 yet. I would say it looked a little brighter than Epson, I liked it very much as well, but the price tag was $1,999 and if I bought 100 they would throw free bulb in. So now I have got really confused. Epson - offers a great deal and in general I like the picture. Mitsubishi - I liked the picture, not sure if I would keep noticing rainbow effects, but the price is too high for discontinued model I guess. Panasonic 200 is quite expensive in Canada and it only comes with one year warranty. Probably, if offers were pretty much the same I would go with Pan 200. I can get Pan 200 on amazon for $1299, but I think the unit would not be covered by warranty in Canada. Your opinions would be appreciated. Thank you!

[dun_buyin]

I'm guessing that one reason you found the Mitsubishi to be brighter was that the Epson adjusts its brightness depending on the picture mode rather than having a normal and eco setting. The Mitsubishi may have been on Normal mode. Check out the reviews on www.projectorreviews.com for a good explanation. The Panasonic PT AX200 seems very popular on here and in the review for the HC720 on the site I have mentioned it does have the edge over the Epson but you may find the warranty, bulb and ceiling mount of higher importance to you.

[ruarmani]

Originally Posted by dun_buyin

I'm guessing that one reason you found the Mitsubishi to be brighter was that the Epson adjusts its brightness depending on the picture mode rather than having a normal and eco setting. The Mitsubishi may have been on Normal mode. Check out the reviews on www.projectorreviews.com for a good explanation. The Panasonic PT AX200 seems very popular on here and in the review for the HC720 on the site I have mentioned it does have the edge over the Epson but you may find the warranty, bulb and ceiling mount of higher importance to you.

Yes, the price and warranty plays a certain role in my decision, but of course picture is more important to me. I could buy Panasonic from Amazon, but one year warranty is a little scary and I might not even get this. How expensive to fix projector if something goes wrong, approximately? I heard Epsons are quite reliable, but Panasonic's have issues sometime, may be that is why they would not go for two year warranty. I really don't undertand their policy, it is a complicated machine, one year is nothing. I would not want to end up paying way more money later.

I did read a lot on projector reviews, it is great source. I think I read that most of the problems occur between half a year and second year (might be mistaken though).

I did try different modes on both projectors and Mits looked brighter. Epson looked the same in dynamic mode, which I did not really enjoy as it looked like contrast was a little too hot. I suppose I can calibrate Epson manually and achieve good picture quality? In review it sounds like a great projector and Panasonic a little brighter, smoother, no SDE.