Somewhere over the rainbow...
Written: Feb 25 '05
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Pros: PRICE above all, brightness and picture quality, inputs, size, low noise
Cons: Rainbow effect is noticeable, and to mitigate you must degrade overall picture quality
The Bottom Line: If this is the only DLP projector in your budget - buy it. You'll like it. If you can afford one with a 4x color wheel - get one.
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| Andyman's Full Review: InFocus X1 Multimedia Projector |
I've really enjoyed this projector since I bought it. I have it hooked up to a home entertainment PC, by the VGA cable, and DVDs, movie files, even web browsing and everything else look great on it. I just hooked up my wireless keyboard and mouse. All that remains is to ceiling-mount the thing, and I'll be in home entertainment nirvana.
Well, for the most part.
Everything good has been said about this projector. The noise level is noticeable but fine. The brightness is good. The picture quality is good. Size and weight are suitable for portability. The Faroudja magic is nice to have at this price. Ah... the PRICE. The price is the best part.
But let me offer some negatives.
I have found the RAINBOW EFFECT quite noticeable. To paraphrase what others have said, it's as if the projector is projecting the red, blue, and green component of the image a split second apart. Flap your hand around in front of the lens while it's on, and your hand will dance bright red, green, and blue, as if under different colored strobe lights.
Now, this only translates to viewing displeasure because of the movement of your eye. The larger you set the picture on your wall, the farther and faster your eye will move around the picture as you watch. Every time your eye darts around on the screen, high contrast areas where a black area meets a white area will appear to have red/green/blue tracers. You get used to it after a while, but guests who notice it might find their eyes tired or the picture quality annoying. It's not terribly bad, but I really wonder about people who say they've owned it for months without noticing. I noticed it immediately.
I intend to try a polarizing filter to minimize this, but haven't gotten around to it yet. For now, I'm minimizing it by keeping the picture a little smaller than max size, and dialing down the brightness/contrast a bit. It's worst when the brightness is way up, and tends to affect areas of the screen where white meets black.
So therein is the dilema.
You have a new projector. It's bright. It's got a big picture. But to eliminate this one viewing artifact, you've got to shrink and darken the picture.
This is okay. No big deal. Still good enough. But if you can afford a projector with a faster color wheel (4x) then you should buy another product. This product is great because it extends DLP technology to mere mortals who can only afford a sub-$1000 unit. I'm happy with it. But someday I hope to upgrade to something better.
Recommended:
Yes
Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 750
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Epinions.com ID:
Andyman
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Member: Andy Hilal
Location: Oakland, CA
Reviews written: 131
Trusted by: 177 members
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