Testing projectors: DVD's, ambient light etc

[Stinja]

G'day everyone,

I have been lurking for a while, and since my ponderings over a projector seem to be going ahead, i wondered how people test projectors? Say if you go into a specialist store, what selection of DVD's would you use, light levels you would consider normal for usage and so on.

The local store to me is Chew and Osborne (sp? they are in Saffron Walden, near Cambridge) and they said they dont mind if i drag my PS2 along also. So any PS2 games recommended to stress-test a potential candidate?

Hopefully this will inspire some debate, as it's not a topic i have seen discussed (i think) and most newbies seem to start off with "how's projector X vs Y?".

Cheers

[JUS]

iZed,

Welcome aboard.

I take as much of my own stuff as possible. My local store showed me a £1.5k projector linked up to a £2,500 dvd player! I wasn't happy with that and took my own one in.

I have a CD wallet thing I stick a load of discs into. The ones I currently use are:-

LOTR - Light hobitron scenes. Loads of grass and intricate detail and scene panning. Dark scenes to see blacks and check I can see the shadowy detail.

Ice Age - Loads of whites and solid colours. I'm looking for banding in the solid colours and checking whites look natural.

The man who wasn't there - New film in B&W. Make sure B&W is displayed correctly. This disc has shown up faults I didn't see when viewing the other discs.

SWII - When Anakin kills all the tuskan raiders - very dark scene see how much detail I can see.

Life of Brian - Old print quite grainy.

I have a GC and Xbox. I didn't bother taking those in. I guess it's nice to see it works but I've never really seen a PQ problem playing a game. Much easier to spot with a few choice film demos.

I'm also carrying cd's and audio discs for audio demos....

Morcheeba (their first album)- Light clear female voice.

Chemical Bros (Surrender) - Dance music

Marylyn Maison (Coma) - heavy rock.

Police Greatest hits DTS

Metallica DVD-A

I haven't found a satelitte system that can handle all of those sufficiently yet

Never used to like demoing. Love it now
Jus.

[Stinja]

Good call on the B&W movie, i hadnt thought of that myself. I'm not too well-endowed in the DVD department, so it's intresting to see what and why you use. I seem to recall that Kramer uses Shrek and Fifth Element. So there's no definitive "one movie tests all", or just about all?

Originally posted by JUS

Never used to like demoing. Love it now

What? So you go along to stores and taunt the staff with demo model after demo model?! Sounds like a fun way to spend an afternoon. "Ahh i like this speaker set, but do you have it in crimson?"

[JUS]

The definitive disc would be the one that the Zinwell bloke brought round my house. It was a German disc. It had loads of test patterns...it covered all the tests I mentioned and many more. I did ask them to send me the url so I could buy a copy. Haven't received it yet...Might have to chase them. Although I'm only looking to upgrade dvd player, speakers and amp at the mo.

I'm not that bad One of my friends is a bit like that. When we go to the off licence he'll spend all his time tapping the door mat to set off the door bell in the hope of winding up the shop keeper and everyone in the shop.