What good is it if it's broken?
Written: Jun 16 '00 (Updated Sep 01 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Bright picture, anamorphic support
Cons: Video grade only, Very poor service record
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| aaronstein's Full Review: Zenith Front-Projection Television PRO881 |
I'd been looking to set up a theater for my home/work environment for a half-dozen years now, but just hadn't been able to find a projector that would fit the bill. After viewing dozens of LCD projectors, I decided that a CRT machine would be the best way to go, at least until LCD matrixes significantly improved or another technology such as DLP displaced the CRT projector as performance leader. With less than $4000 set aside to buy a front projector, I had assumed that it would be many years before the technology would become cheap or widespread enough before I could buy something that would do the job. On a whim, I stopped into one of the local video dealerships and asked about a front projector. As it turned out, they had one in stock - a PRO-881X which a customer had originally ordered, but couldn't use due to the high light level in his theater room.
The salesman fired up the machine for me, and I could see my hunt was over. The picture was bright and crisp, and almost perfectly converged right out of the box (fine convergence is available through the second of two remotes). Though video only (15KHz), the projector could display anamorphic content in the proper aspect ratio. The projector also accepted video, s-video and RGB (sorry, no component inputs) which, for my purposes was fine. And I could take it home for less than my $4000 price point. I told them to wrap it up.
After installing the projector with a Peerless mount on the ceiling of my office (a MAJOR pain in the a**), everything looked great. Nice bright image. Good convergence. Fine performance. Then, the blue tube of the machine brightened significantly, and finally lost it's vertical sync completely. Powering up and down made no difference. The projector was unusable.
I called the dealership and explained the symptoms. They said it would have to come into the shop, and so I took the unit down (another pain in the a**) and hauled it in. After cleaning the tube and replacing the CRT gun board to no avail, the technician decided a tube replacement was needed. After two weeks waiting for the part, the tube had been replaced and was ready to go.
After re-installing the projector on the ceiling of my office (once again, a pain), everything seemed fine. Then, after two hours of usage, the machine inexplicably shut down and refused to come back on! I once again called the dealership and explained the new symptoms. They said it would (again) need to come into the shop for repairs.
As I write this, the projector is on the blink awaiting repairs. Zenith (now owned by LG) has offered to replace the projector as an alternative to a repair; an offer I have accepted. We shall see how well this new one performs...
I will provide another review once the new unit is installed and running. For those of you who may already own a PRO-881X, could you send me your experience (good or bad) at AaronStein@home.com.
Update (September 1, 2000):
Well, I said I would update you on my projector...
LG/Zenith Canada finally did send me a replacement projector; a refurbished unit with a bad horizontal hold and grime all over the lenses and case. Since I had no idea how many hours were on the tubes (or, for that matter, how it had been used in general) I refused the unit outright and asked them to repair my old one.
As for the original machine - it's now gone from bad to worse. After the last repair, the projector is (once again) sitting at the shop being serviced. It has now developed an intermittent loose connection which cannot be found. So, whenever the machine is so inclined, it refuses to turn on, and back to the shop it goes.
I am attempting to get LG/Zenith to fulfill their commitment to replace the machine with a brand new unit. So far, there's been a lot of talk but no action. I've e-mailed the president of LG Canada to help me with the situation, but so far, nothing's happened.
So folks... take it from me. If you get a working PRO-881x, thank your lucky stars and pray to the almighty that it stays that way. If not, you might just have the most expensive boat anchor known to man.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
aaronstein
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Member: Aaron Stein
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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