Hey, I didn’t name it, it’s been the “rainbow effect” for a long time. That said, one does not have to “dart” with ones eyes, or move them at all, if the bright object is moving across a a dark background. Best I can tell, there are two different issues that result in RBE. One relates to the eye itself, and is helped, some say, by processing at faster speeds - frame interpolation. Just repeating the frame (as opposed to creative frame interpolation). Thus, going to 48hz instead of 24, or getting up to 96 or 120hz seems to help some with the one type. I think that may be the type more related to moving your eyes quickly (which I can do, and force rainbows). I apparently am mostly bothered by the more “traditional” RBE. I’m likely to see the same amount of RBE whether watching at 24fps, or 96fps. -art

With regard to DLP’s rainbow effect, I’d more correctly call it ’strobing’. What’s going on is that when the frame is predominantly dark, and there’s a small area of white in frame, if your eye happens to dart to one side, you’ll see a strobe effect, much like you will with neon lights running on AC line power–the light will created a dotted streak that your retina’s persistence will record for a second or so before it fades.
Now with the DLP color wheel, instead of 120 lamp on/off cycles as with the neon nightlight plugged into a wall socket, the color wheel is changing the color of the light beam at some fixed rate. If you view it statically, it sums to white light and shows the true colors of the signal presented. But if the eye darts rapidly about, the color wheel’s sequence of RGB lenses will be laid out in a streak, trailing the eye’s motion.
Try it. Just shift your gaze left and right as rapidly as you can while watching a space scene or something with dark frame and a small area of light. You should be able to see the color rainbow after images.

Speakers and receivers - a whole separate game. Receivers in the same general price range will be similar (in general) in terms of sonic capabilities, though some will sound slightly better than others, and they will have different features. Still there are plenty of reviews out there. Far more important are the speakers you choose - that’s where the real difference in sound quality will come from. Speakers are a whole different world, and I strongly suggest you go out and listen to them. Depending on your budget - a home theater shop, or a best buy type place. Take some CD’s etc. with you of the type of music you will be listening to.

REmember, for those concerned with music, accuracy is important. For those just looking to “rock the house” while watching Transformers, it’s more about power and sub-woofers. Of course any excellent sound system will sound good on movie action, but the higher quality more accurate speakers will sound better on music. One place where there’s a difference to note. For action movie stuff, most people want extra bass, what would be “over the top” for music listening. So choose that subwoofer carefully, if you can. If “rock the house” is your thing, but music is too, try for a subwoofer that is powerful, yet clean - not “boomy”. A boomy bass will better shake your walls, but it will tend to muddy up a lot of music. If you’re not a critical listener of music, though, or don’t plan much of it, probably not to worry too much about it. -art

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Hi!

My best recommendation: Give InFocus a call. I believe the IN82 is filter free, but even (or especially) if that’s the case, it will accumulate dust inside the box, and that will tend to have it run hotter. A cleaning may be in order. -art

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Hi Mike, First, you will have plenty of lumens for “some” ambient light - this is one of the brightest home theater projectors around, and your screen size is very moderate. As to using it for general viewing. Well, yes, but you most certainly will like HDTV signals one heck of a lot more than standard definition TV. The difference there, is greater than between standard DVD and Blu-ray. If you can enjoy standard TV when you watch it, then the answer to your question is a definite YES.

Just remember, no one ever intended standard TV definition to be viewed on a 100″ screen at 10-18 feet. It’s just low res. Hey, even a 32 Sony conventional (non-HD) TV from 15 years ago, looks razor sharp when viewed at 20 feet. -art

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Pricing notwithstanding, I’d have to go with the IN83.

I’ve always been a BenQ fan, and have owned two 720p BenQ’s in the past. I really liked the W20000, but I never got it to look as good (natural) as the IN83. With a more in-depth calibration (which we don’t do) of dealing with each individual primary and secondary color’s properties, might make them really comparable, but there’s always the brightness difference as well.

I’m going by memory now, so I might be wrong on this, but I believe the BenQ uses the usual 200 watt lamp, typical of DLP projectors, while the InFocus has a 300 watt lamp so it has a chunk more lumens (never a bad thing), especially since both have manual irises. -a

what is the color wheel speed for the Infocus IN83? I can’t find a concrete answer anyway. Is it 5x like you say in your review? 3x like you say here on this blog? 2x like projectorcentral says? And if it’s really 3x or even 4x doesn’t that mean it’s disastrous in terms of rainbow effects?

Please get back to me here on this site because I don’t know where else I’d check. Thank you so much!

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Hi Max the telepath!

The IN83 has a 4x wheel, as confirmed by InFocus. I thought I had corrected that on my site, but will double check and do so shortly.

BTW, the number and color of segments on a color wheel, does impact the sensitivity for people seeing rainbows, but I’ve never been able to get a good handle on the trade-offs. I found the IN83 to be very reasonable - I’m rainbow sensitive, and do see them occasionally while viewing (on the right type of material). I didn’t find it to be any worse, say than the two BenQ projectors I owned previously (both with 5x wheels, but different number of segments). Only the Optoma HD81-LV (I think) with its claimed 6x wheel, reduced my seeing rainbows to a point where it was rare, rather than occasional. -art