Hey all,

I have finally bought something I can use as an HD source, and plugged it into my old Sharp XV-Z90E.

I thought this projector may do 720p as I saw that in a menu. To my surprise it even accepted 1080i input.

I am assuming it is accepting the signal and dumbing it down to something it can display.

So I then looked in the manual, and saw the following - I am hoping someone can confirm what I think its saying: the projector can only actually display the equivalent of 600, which I imagine means (for home theatre use) that the max is 576p or whatever it is.

Specs below - the last line I think is the key one.

Projector
XV-Z90E
PAL/PAL 60/PAL-M/PAL-N/SECAM/NTSC 3.58/NTSC 4.43
DTV 480I/480P/720P/1080I
DLP chip, RGB optical shutter method
Panel size: 0.55_
Display method: Single Panel Digital Micromirror Device (DMD™) by Texas Instruments
Drive method: Digital Light Processing (DLP™)
No. of dots: 480,000 dots (800 [H] _ 600 [V])

So if indeed it doesnt even do real (native) 720p, then its all the excuse I need to do an upgrade to a 1080p projector!

Your help in interpreting the above would be greatly appreciated

Richard

Hey all,

I have finally bought something I can use as an HD source, and plugged it into my old Sharp XV-Z90E.

I thought this projector may do 720p as I saw that in a menu. To my surprise it even accepted 1080i input.

I am assuming it is accepting the signal and dumbing it down to something it can display.

So I then looked in the manual, and saw the following - I am hoping someone can confirm what I think its saying: the projector can only actually display the equivalent of 600, which I imagine means (for home theatre use) that the max is 576p or whatever it is.

Specs below - the last line I think is the key one.

Projector
XV-Z90E
PAL/PAL 60/PAL-M/PAL-N/SECAM/NTSC 3.58/NTSC 4.43
DTV 480I/480P/720P/1080I
DLP chip, RGB optical shutter method
Panel size: 0.55_
Display method: Single Panel Digital Micromirror Device (DMD™) by Texas Instruments
Drive method: Digital Light Processing (DLP™)
No. of dots: 480,000 dots (800 [H] _ 600 [V])

So if indeed it doesnt even do real (native) 720p, then its all the excuse I need to do an upgrade to a 1080p projector!

Your help in interpreting the above would be greatly appreciated

Richard

The projector will accept the following sources: 480i/480p/720p/1080i. The projector (just like all digital projectors) is a fixed pixel display. In your case the projector is 800 x 600. This means when 720p and 1080i is sent to the projector it is reduced to 800 x 600.

480i = 704 x 480
720p = 1280 x 720
1080i = 1920 x 1080

Hope this answers your question.

I bought the Sharp Z90 loved it, it was great on my 120" 4.3 high power screen. Terrific for DVD's new ones and old classics in 4.3. When I got it the hot movie out was Star Wars attack of the clones and I remember the droid factory scene looked amazing on it.
1080i HDTV looked grades better than DVD, it was bright and colorful.

But yes a 720p machine will look any times better with HDTV, you like Sharps, hawk ebay. I bought a zero hours Sharp DT-400 / Z2000 for $300. :)

Thanks guys - thought so...especially since I bought it quite a few years ago.

I live in Australia, so less likely to find such bargains on ebay unless its shipped from the US!

I amlooking at 1080p projectors now, to see whats out there.

Here is a question for you though: some DVD's and a fair bit of TV comes in full 4:3 format and fills up my big almost square screen.

Other DVDs and some TV is in 16:9 format and fills up a strip of my big square-ish screen (ie big black bars at top or bottom).

When I buy a new projector I will likely buy a screen. These days, are people just bying 16:9 screen? And if so, what happens if watching something on TV in 4:3 format? Does it appear as a small almost-square on the 16:9 screen with black borders all around it, or get stretched...or....?

Not sure which screen I should be buying aspect-ratio wise.

Havent ruled out any projectors yet. I may be able to get a good price on JVC JVC HD D-ILA Projector and
JVC DLA-HD100 Projector

so am currently looking at them, but could end up anywhere.

It won't be bad, 4.3 will display correctly in the center filling the top and bottom of the screen, there will be black bars on the sides, still the image will have good size to enjoy. The big plus is HDTV and 1.85 widscreen movies will totally fill the screen borders.