CYRUStheVIRUS
Prominent Member
In the last few weeks i have tried to demo as many dlp's as possible and thought i would share my findings.
First one i got to demo was Infocus 5700 which had a superb picture and was very bright even with some room lighting, i could easily live with this, the only downside was no lens shift and not a very good zoom, the dealer had to mess about a lot to fit picture to the screen. I put on MI2 and in the latin dance scene was the only time i really noticed rainbows.
Next dealer i visited had sharp z200e, z91 and optoma h30.
The Z91 was already playing Bond (Die another day i think) and the colours were so bold and bright that i had to ask if it was the z200e being used. I then had the z200e setup which has new matterhorn chip and is 16/9 something which the older z91 wasn't, the projectors look very similar and when it was fired up my immediate impression was it looked no better and at twice the price i was a little disappointed.
Now we came to the h30 which i had high hopes for, could i get a good picture for silly money?, the answer im afraid is NO the little h30 which suited my throw distance and could be put on a shelf was awful, even my girlfriend who was secretly hoping i would pick the h30 said i don't think that looks very good. The dealer argued that they had just got it and it needed calibration but i was not impressed, the z200e was just thrown up their and switched on as well.
I then asked him to switch all 3 projectors on at the same time and we used a book to block two out, the h30 looked like LCD the black was grey and red was dim and flitting between h30 and z91 was embarassing. I then asked him to switch off h30 and concentrated on the difference between z91 and z200.
The z200 i then noticed was richer in colour and maybe a tad brighter than the z91 and the more we watched the easier it became to see the improvement in the z200, blue water and the green grass were more vivid.
The prices were h30 £1200 z91 £1800 and z200 £3495 (i know these can be bought cheaper elsewhere)
And finally today i viewed the infocus 5700 again and the sim20 and sim30 and also asked for a look at h30 again.
Infocus still looked good and i don't think anybody would be disappointed with buying one (if the positioning is not a problem).
The sim20 when they first hooked it up seemed very dull and going from the infocus needed the room darkened completely but after a few seconds of my eyes adjusting, i could see why so many people have bought this model, it was slightly sharper than the infocus but i would say no more than 20% better overall.
Lastly he pursuaded me to have a look at sim30 using a DVHS player and a high defination tape of Bikini babes.
The only thing i can say is wow wow WOW (and the picture was'nt bad either )
No seriously i could not believe the difference and i don't think i am someone to exaggerate, its the first time i am going to use the phrase night and day, it was so clear, even better than my 32" tv.
So my conclusion is either do not see what hi-def can do or get saving to be apart of it.
sorry if this post is not very technical and too long, all the projectors were viewed in prog-scan and by decent dvd players Denon 2900 twice and Arcam dv89, any questions i will try and answer. cheers
First one i got to demo was Infocus 5700 which had a superb picture and was very bright even with some room lighting, i could easily live with this, the only downside was no lens shift and not a very good zoom, the dealer had to mess about a lot to fit picture to the screen. I put on MI2 and in the latin dance scene was the only time i really noticed rainbows.
Next dealer i visited had sharp z200e, z91 and optoma h30.
The Z91 was already playing Bond (Die another day i think) and the colours were so bold and bright that i had to ask if it was the z200e being used. I then had the z200e setup which has new matterhorn chip and is 16/9 something which the older z91 wasn't, the projectors look very similar and when it was fired up my immediate impression was it looked no better and at twice the price i was a little disappointed.
Now we came to the h30 which i had high hopes for, could i get a good picture for silly money?, the answer im afraid is NO the little h30 which suited my throw distance and could be put on a shelf was awful, even my girlfriend who was secretly hoping i would pick the h30 said i don't think that looks very good. The dealer argued that they had just got it and it needed calibration but i was not impressed, the z200e was just thrown up their and switched on as well.
I then asked him to switch all 3 projectors on at the same time and we used a book to block two out, the h30 looked like LCD the black was grey and red was dim and flitting between h30 and z91 was embarassing. I then asked him to switch off h30 and concentrated on the difference between z91 and z200.
The z200 i then noticed was richer in colour and maybe a tad brighter than the z91 and the more we watched the easier it became to see the improvement in the z200, blue water and the green grass were more vivid.
The prices were h30 £1200 z91 £1800 and z200 £3495 (i know these can be bought cheaper elsewhere)
And finally today i viewed the infocus 5700 again and the sim20 and sim30 and also asked for a look at h30 again.
Infocus still looked good and i don't think anybody would be disappointed with buying one (if the positioning is not a problem).
The sim20 when they first hooked it up seemed very dull and going from the infocus needed the room darkened completely but after a few seconds of my eyes adjusting, i could see why so many people have bought this model, it was slightly sharper than the infocus but i would say no more than 20% better overall.
Lastly he pursuaded me to have a look at sim30 using a DVHS player and a high defination tape of Bikini babes.
The only thing i can say is wow wow WOW (and the picture was'nt bad either )
No seriously i could not believe the difference and i don't think i am someone to exaggerate, its the first time i am going to use the phrase night and day, it was so clear, even better than my 32" tv.
So my conclusion is either do not see what hi-def can do or get saving to be apart of it.
sorry if this post is not very technical and too long, all the projectors were viewed in prog-scan and by decent dvd players Denon 2900 twice and Arcam dv89, any questions i will try and answer. cheers