Great mid-range projector TV
Written: Feb 27 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Reliability: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Display Quality: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Great picture, manual zoom adjustment.
Cons: Price, use of M1-DA input instead of HDMI requires separate adapter, fan noise.
The Bottom Line: Impressive image quality out of the box. Use of M1-DA input instead of HDMI is an annoyance requiring the purchase of a separate adapter if you want digital video input.
|
|
|
| slimtae's Full Review: InFocus ScreenPlay 7205 DLP Projector |
Based on research I've done over the internet, it seemed you could get a very good front projector TV for about $1500 or so. I was in the market for a front projector TV for a home theater in my basement. I was initially going to spend less than $2000 for a TV, but all the reviews I've read about the Infocus SP 7205 were very positive. And considering that my basement job was running disturbingly over-budget, I figured what's a few thousand more going to do? I therefore opted for the Infocus SP 7205 for just under $5000 from Crutchfield.
Basic vital stats for the projector are as follows:
-HDTV-ready DLP projector
-signal display at 720p (accepts signals up to 1080i)
-can switch between 4:3 and 16:9
-Texas Instrument HD2+ "Mustang" chip for 1280x720 resolution
-Faroudja FL12310 DCDi de-interlacer with 3-2 pulldown
-Max contrast ration 2200:1
1100ANSI light output
-up to 20 degree keystone correction
-adjustable 1.3X manual zoom lense
-lamp life rated up to 3000 hours at low setting
-has composite, s-video, component, M1-DA (digital), HD15,D5, and RS-232 ports.
-12 volt mini-jack trigger ports
Much of these numbers mean little to me. I've seen cheaper models that put out more light but the reviews I've read on them were not as good as the Infocus model. I don't think light output and contrast ratios alone determines the quality of a projector. What I do know is that the picture quality was spectacular when I turned it on. I am not going to lie and say that it was just as good as hi-def images you see on a plasma display at the local Circuit City store. But the images from HD channels from may cable company looked amazing nonetheless, and the picture quality from an "upconverting" HDMI DVD player was amazing, almost but not quite comparable to true hi-def. Unfortunately, being just an individual consumer with limited resources, I cannot afford to purchase many different brands of projection TV's for comparison. I cannot comment on how this projector compares with other projectors in this class, or other in any other class for that matter. But I have owned 2 other HD TV's (rear projection) in the past and I can say that the picture quality on the Infocus 7205 was impressive, and much better than I expected from a front projector TV. Ambient lighting can be an issue in general with front projectors, but since mine is in the basement, this is not a problem.
Setting up the projector is easy because of the manual zoom lense which you can use to adjust the picture size. This gives you fairly wide margin of throw distance. Keystone correction is also useful in case you can't physically place the projectore at the center point of the screen, although most sources say to minimize or avoid use of keystoning if at all possible since this can degrade image quality.
A peculiarity of the projector is the presence of the M1-DA input, which is the digital video signal input. Most components nowadays that put out digital video signal uses HDMI or DVI. Why Infocus went with this relatively obscure M1-DA input, I don't know. I do not know of any other major manufacturer that uses this specification. Fortunately, there are adapters that can be used to connect HDMI or DVI cables to the projector. I purchased mine directly through the Infocus web site for about $40, an unnecessary and irritating added expense.
I have to be honest, I projected DVD movies first onto a blank wall in my bedroom. The wall was painted with regular construction grade white paint. When I actually had the projector installed in my home theater, I had a $1500 Dalite high contrast 106" widescreen installed. I wouldn't be able to judge which setup gave the better image quality if my life depended on it. Still, I felt compelled to get the screen since I already spent $5000 on the TV. I have read that black tones can be a problem with many projector TV's. I have yet to notice any problems in this regard on my TV.
There are a myriad of adjustments you can make to the projector to fine tune the picture quality. I found the factory default setting adequate, although I did dial up the brightness a little bit. Most of the other setting are beyond me, and I haven't touch them at all. So far, I do not have the enthusiasm to research and play around with these setting. The documentation that came with the unit does not go into much detail about many of these settings.
The only thing I do not like about the unit is the fan noise. It is not so loud that it is distracting, but you definitely know it's on when you switch it on. Fortunately, because it is in the basement, I will be able turn up the volume loud enough to drown the fan noise out.
Recommended:
Yes
Purchase Price (if leased, monthly payment): 4999
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
slimtae
|
|
Reviews written: 95
Trusted by: 11 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.