Epson Home Cinema 705HD Projector Announcement - Review to come Later

OK, it’s Sept. 17, 2009, and someone has just announced a new 720p projector.  That’s the first one in quite a while, and the pricing is rather nice.  MAP pricing is $749.

The new model, of course, is the Epson Home Cinema 705HD home theater projector.

OK, it’s inexpensive, but perhaps more importantly, it really is designed as a low cost multi-use room projector. Read the rest of this entry »

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CEDIA 2009 - New Home Theater Projectors - Part 2 Epson, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Sony, more…

I’m back with Part 2. Sorry for the delay, had to run to the Apple store due to my MacBook overheating. Life is good again.  And I had to finalize and post two biz projector reviews.

Below:  (note, I’ve already blogged on a couple of these, having seen them before the CEDIA show).
Epson Home Cinema 8100, Home Cinema 8500UB, Pro Cinema 9100, Pro Cinema 9500UB projectors
Mitsubishi HC3800 and HC6800 Projectors
Sharp XV-Z15000 Projector
Optoma HD20 and HD8600 Projectors
Sony VPL-VW85
JVC DLA-RS15, DLA-RS25, DLA-RS35, DLA-HD550, DLA-HD950, and DLA-HD990 Read the rest of this entry »

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CEDIA 2009 - New Home Theater Projectors - Part 1

Greetings all,

Well, I survived CEDIA, once again.  I hate east coast trade shows (ok, I know the east coast people probably think the same about west coast shows).   It means an extra day, and while Atlanta was just fine, Denver was more fun, and, geez, what would it take to get the CEDIA folks to do Las Vegas, where hotel rooms would be dirt cheap (in Sept), and the partying, even better.

But, to business - or should I say home theater projectors:

T’was an interesting CEDIA show in terms of home theater projectors.  Not so much because of all the new projectors Read the rest of this entry »

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BenQ W6000 Home Theater Projector “First Look” Review

UPDATE: The BenQ W6000 projector review has been posted.

The BenQ W6000 is one of 3 new 1080p projector offerings from BenQ.

Front view of the $2799 BenQ W6000 DLP projector

There’s a lower cost - $999 - W1000, which should also be shipping shortly, and a very expensive LED lightsource top of the line, due out in January/February ‘10 timeframe.  (Should be most interesting!!!)

But let me try to keep my focus - this blog is about the BenQ W6000 projector.

What’s the scoop?

The BenQ W6000 s a DLP home theater projector, with 1080p native resolution, and a street price that should be based on MAP pricing, of $2799. Since the BenQ is one of the first fall projectors to ship this year, it likely will hold pretty close to that price for the immediate future.

The most notable “spec” is the W6000’s brightness.  Even in the W6000’s best mode we measured over Read the rest of this entry »

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Epson Home Cinema 8500UB and Pro Cinema 9500UB Projectors - Details

UPDATE: The Epson Home Cinema 8500UB and Pro Cinema 9500UB Review has been posted.

Greetings all,

Time to share some info about the four new Epson 1080p projectors.  Not long ago, I got a briefing on them at Epson’s facility in Long Beach, CA (only 40 miles from here). I got a decent look at the Home Cinema 8500UB in action.  It will be replacing the 6500UB, in a couple of months or less.

I’ll start with the Home Cinema 8500UB, and then touch on the Pro Cinema 9500UB, it’s almost identical sibling.  The Pro is sold only by authorized local installing dealers, while the Home Cinema 8500UB is available through authorized online dealers as well as local ones.
These new projectors represent the 3rd generation of Epson’s “ultra-high” contrast projectors. That started with the original 1080 UB, which was replaced by the 6500UB and 7500UB, which, in turn will be replaced in couple of months by the new Home Cinema 8500UB and Pro Cinema 9500UB respectively.

The new Epson projectors physically look like the old ones.

The pricing, while not set yet, should be similar to the older models, and the official word Read the rest of this entry »

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Mitsubishi HC3800 Home Theater Projector “First Look”

UPDATE: The Mitsubishi HC3800 projector review has been posted.

Oh, I like this one!

And I’ve been working with an engineering sample of the Mitsubishi HC3800.

Angle photo of Mitsubishi HC3800 home theater projector

With an engineering sample,  that means it’s so early, that many things don’t even work.  Case in point, only HDMI works on this projector, not composite video, component video, etc.  The color tables (while close), I’m told are also not quite finished.

That said, the one I had here (just shipped it back to Mitsubishi, yesterday) so those of you at CEDIA later this week can see it), is really impressive for the $$$.  Let me start with a comment relating to the Mitsubishi HC3800 compared to the just reviewed HD20 from Optoma.

OK, the HC3800 MAPs at $1499 (or is it $1495?), so it’s $500 more than the Optoma HD20. Read the rest of this entry »

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Optoma HD20 Projector “First Look” - 1080p for under $1000!

UPDATE: The Optoma HD20 Review has been posted.

The Optoma HD20 home theater projector is one of three announced 1080p projectors with a price tag under $1000!

That alone is cause for some celebration, however, the big question is, how good a projector will your $999 buy, and should you spend more?   Read the rest of this entry »

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Samsung SP-A600 Projector - A “First Look”

UPDATE: The Samsung SP-A600 Review has been posted.

Greetings all,

I’m a little late with getting this out, as I’m pretty much done with the Samung SP-A600, except for the writing of the review.

Here’s the scoop.

The Samsung is geared to be an under $2000 projector.  I’m still waiting for the final MSRP.  As of two weeks ago, it was likely to be priced at Read the rest of this entry »

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Samsung SP-A600 1080P Projector - Round 2

UPDATE: The Samsung SP-A600 Review has been posted.

OK, the first SP-A600 which arrived a couple of weeks ago, was an early engineering sample.  After much debate, Mike and I decided not to review it.  My initial impression was that the color tables were not “finished”, and some minor communications issues with the HDMI port (only on occasion).  If we did the review based on that unit, I feared all of our calibration settings would be worthless to folks buying production units.

Now for the good news.  A replacement A600 (actually two Read the rest of this entry »

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Epson Ensemble HD 6500UB, 6100, and new pricing

UPDATE: The Ensemble HD Review has been posted.

Greetings all,

This blog will be short (well, short for something I write)!  I’ve already posted an article on the new configurations of the Ensemble HD, and the new pricing.

The long and short of it is this:  The Ensemble HD continues to be the only fully integrated projector based home theater system on the market.  And one designed for a quick and easy installation!  As such, what are now three different models, have no direct competition.  They do, however, “compete” with systems put together by folks piece by piece, making separate decisions on projector, AV receiver, Read the rest of this entry »

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