Epson Ensemble - 1080p projector system - the First easy to install projector based home theater

When Epson initially announced the Epson Ensemble back at CEDIA almost a year ago, I was blown away by the concept.  Now I’ve have the chance to review it, and that means, the whole system, including the installation!

The Epson Ensemble is being installed in my home, as I write.  It is actually in my testing room/office.  I’ll be doing a full review, in addition to this blog and a follow up one in the next 24-48 hours.  The review will include the entire process of installing the Epson Ensemble, as well as the final results.

I better start out by describing the Epson Ensemble, so everyone understands the concept. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Viewsonic Pro8100 redux: A second look coming

Greetings all!

About two and a half weeks ago I published a full review of the Viewsonic Pro8100 1080 3LCD Home Theater Projector.  Overall, it was very impressive, but had one glaring (ok, not so glaring) flaw.  I found the dynamic iris to have problems.  It was often visible in its operation, to the point of occasionally being distracting.  It didn’t just adjust from scene to scene, but seemed to overshoot where it was heading (opening or closing) before settling back to where it should be.

This resulted in making its action more visible than if it simply adjusted to exactly where it should go.   Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | No Comments »

Upcoming Projector Reviews for July and August - InFocus, Epson, BenQ

Greetings everyone!

This is just a quick piece to let you know what is planned for home theater projector reviews over the next two months.   Of course, summer is a bit slow for new home theater projectors, but there are a few, I’m hoping to get my hands on.  I’ve got confirmations from the manufacturers for most of these.  Here’s the scoop: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 3 Comments »

InFocus IN83 Projector with 1080p Darkchip4, OMG! First Look

Greetings all, 

I can tell you right now, InFocus has released a first class projector.  I already liked the IN82, and here comes it’s Darkchip4 “version”, called the IN83.  So far, I’m pretty much “blown away”.  

Remember, please, this is a very preliminary “first look” based on a couple of hours of untouched, “out of the box” settings, and then some minor tweaking, and more watching but without calibrating the IN83.  In fact, I’m normally not that good at “tweaking” by eye, without software or gear. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 4 Comments »

Viewsonic Pro8100 home theater projector - review is now online

Finally, done, except for some minor editing, and perhaps an image or two. 

The first unit we received had an issue, so we received a second one, and it performed beautifully, give or take a minor issue or two.  In a nutshell, the Pro8100 is definitely brighter than the average 1080p projector for the home, especially in its best mode, and it is one of the sharpest projectors I’ve seen.

The Pro8100 was found to have great color management, decent but not great out of the box color (but it calibrates beautifully), and an overall dynamic image with rich colors - lots of wow and pop!  We also found a flaw or two, notably with its dynamic iris.  For most considering the Pro8100, the “issues” are not deal breakers, and the strengths are multiple.

Check out the full Pro8100 projector review.  -art

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | No Comments »

InFocus Darkchip4 IN83 Projector - Can InFocus raise the bar?

6-24-08:  Our next home theater projector review is the 1080p resolution, InFocus IN83.

I just received tracking information from InFocus for my IN83 review projector.  The IN83 is perhaps the first big name Darkchip4 DLP projector to ship.

UPS advises that it will arrive tomorrow.  Thursday night it will get fired up, in the theater, and I’ll check out it’s out of the box performance.   With luck, it will be calibrated by Friday night, and I can spend the weekend doing extensive viewing.  Look for the review to post around 7/8, sooner if I can (don’t forget - there’s the 4th of July, between now and then.

Not much else to say, other than the IN83 should be almost identical to the IN82 we reviewed earlier this year, with some minor improvements, and one major one - the switch from the Darkchip3 DLP chip, to the newer, higher contrast Darkchip4.  This allows even better black level performance. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 1 Comment »

Viewsonic Pro8100 1080p Home Theater Projector - First Look

Greetings all,

Things haven’t worked out as well as I had hoped with this review, and I am now waiting for a replacement review projector from Viewsonic.  As a result, the review will now likely be posted around June 25th.  There have been some very interesting results.  To quote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” however, “DONT PANIC”.

Let’s start at the beginning.  TheViewsonic Pro8100 is Viewsonic’s first serious entry into the 1080p home theater projector market.  It is a 3LCD projector, however, it is unusually large for an LCD projector.  It’s pretty, in shiny black, and slightly sculpted.  Physicially, it looks worth the price tag ($4999 list price).

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 3 Comments »

Optoma HD65 Projector Review coming along nicely!

Ahh, where to begin?

As many of you have read, I was really impressed with the Optoma HD71.  It’s a really bright 720p home theater projector, who’s review posted earlier this month.  Being a big fan of having some lumens to spare, I really looked forward to the HD71 review, and considered the less expensive, physically tiny, and less bright HD65, to be of secondary interest, compared to the HD71.

Having said all that, I’ve been working with the HD65 for more than a week now (interrupted by a nice weekend out to the desert for the Joshua Tree Music Festival), and find it to be a rather formidable projector in its own right.

I’m already starting to write up the review and hope to post Wed. night, (May 21), but probably you’ll have to settle for Thursday evening.  Projector reviews rarely manage to get finished right on schedule.

Here’s some tasty tidbits about the HD65 that hopefully will hold you over until the full review posts:

It really is tiny for a home theater projector!

The HD65 actually has very good “out of the box” performance, I was most impressed with the color balance.  This is one of the few projectors Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 5 Comments »

BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector - Revisited

Greetings all,

As all of you who read my W5000 review, I found the projector to be overall, one of the best affordable 1080p projectors out there, in terms of picture quality, except for one significant failing.

That issue is high levels of image noise. I’ve been keeping in touch with the folks at BenQ, with the hopes that a new version will solve the problem sufficiently. Here’s where things stand:

The W5000 I reviewed was one of the first to have firmware version 1.08. Since then, BenQ has released 1.12.

I asked the nice people at BenQ if 1.12 solved the problem. They report a small improvement in noise levels, but are hoping to have an even better version (in the not too distant future - we hope). In fact, here’s what one of my contacts sent to me specifically:

“What’s shipping from BenQ are 1.12, and we are working on the next version which I thought will be a more significant improvement.
The one you tested it was 1.08. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Opinion, Products | 6 Comments »

Projector Reviews Japan 3LCD, Epson Tour, part 2

OK, time to pick up where I left off. We’ve already discussed a bit about 3LCD’s strengths in terms of more color per lumen, and in color accuracy at full power. There are, however other issues which came up in our discussions. One of those was the cost of maintenance.The guys on the other side of the isle - those DLP proponents at Texas Instruments, claim a big advantage in terms of cost of maintenance. So, let’s investigate. This isn’t about reliability, but about routine maintenance. The DLP folks point out that that most DLP projectors do not require dust filters, because DLP projectors use a sealed light path. 3LCD projectors require filters, and therefore, frequent changing of them, because dust can be a problem, and can even mar the image with what are called (aptly) dust blobs.

The 3LCD folks counter, that many of today’s 3LCD projectors don’t need filters cleaned any more frequently than they need lamp changing. If that were the case, they would have a strong case. As I said to the 3LCD folks, hey, you don’t have to be better at everything. I said that, because I do think DLP has the advantage here.There are basically two scenarios. Projectors that are placed on a table top, and those that are permanently mounted. Since cleaning or replacing a filter is a very quick thing, if you have easy access to the projector, using your projector on a table top, negates any real advantage of projectors that don’t need filters changed frequently. Ceiling mounting is a whole different story. Often, accessing a ceiling mounting projector requires at least a ladder. And it can be a real challenge if you have really high ceilings. In some commercial applications, reaching the projector can be daunting, consider many church sanctuaries, where the projector could be 50 feet up in the air, or perhaps a small auditorium, large multipurpose room, or hotel ballroom. not only a pain, but expensive timewise, especially if you contract out, or have a support department run as a profit center. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Industry, Opinion, Products, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »