Acer H9500 3D projector - $1699 MSRP
Greetings home theater projector fans.
Update 11/22/11 - the bulk of the review is posted, but for the competitors and screen recommendation pages. Some more images (menus) and content to still be added.
Here's the direct link to the
Acer H9500BD home entertainment projector review. Enjoy! -art
I must admit, going into this review, never having seen the projector before, and not knowing too much about it, I didn't have very high expectations. As it turns out I was
right (only kidding) wrong.
The Acer seems to have several rough edges, as many under $2000 projectors do (MSRP is $1699), but it also had a couple of real positive surprises.
And the first of those is that this just might be an ultra high contrast projector. I don't think either the Optoma HD33 or the Epson Home Cinema 3010 are particularly close to the Acer H9500BD in this regard. I took some side by sides, comparing to the
the Epson 3010, and the Acer smoked it at blacks. That alone makes this projector worth reckoning with.
And get this: It's got vertical and horizontal lens shift. The vertical is about 0 offset, so not a match for a typical LCD projector, but that's still a nice touch, since few projectors below the Acer H9500BD's price have lens shift.
The H9500BD is a single chip DLP, claims 2000 lumens. 3D brightness isn't up to the Panasonic or Epson projectors but it seems to be closer to the Epson's Dynamic 3D mode than to it's 600 and change 3D Cinema mode. The Acer H9500BD projector does have a dynamic iris, and CFI - smooth motion. That's more than most projectors under $1995 can claim, and they operate in 3D too.
There are not controls for grayscale calibration - I told you some rough edges. As a result the closest grayscale balance (per Mike) is right around 7000K, not 6500K. OK, that's it for now. I'm still up in the air on this projector. 3D seems to have to be turned on, or off, manually (still playing) a mess sometimes up on the screen until you change the 3D setting. A rough edge. OK, I've got more homework to do.
Look for a good chunk of the review to post Monday late night. I'm doing housekeeping on the Acer - still watching, checking out things, but already shifted much of my viewing to the Epson Home Cinema 5010 Projector which I'm going to try to have up late Wednesday night - well in time for Black Friday decision making. (or Cyber Monday)
I'm going to try to get the Acer H9500 projector over to Scott S, for his take on the H9500BD's gaming skills. The H9500BD is Nvidia 3DTV ready so Scott should be able to do 3D PC based gaming. So far, all the other projectors we hoped would work, were too new, with nVidia not yet having released the drivers.
Happy holidays folks! And good shopping. Look for a few of our advertisers to be launching holiday specials banners, over the next couple of days. Hopefully some really good deals, and your favorite projectors and accessories in stock! -art
