I have the opportunity to get this projector, brand new for $499. I was wondering if it was worth it, or is the Infocus In72 a better deal for the same amount of cash. I know the Sharp is a 720p and the Infocus is only a 480. I do have some ambient light to consider (moderate). I will use it to watch HD television and movies. Has anyone owned this model and/or seen it in action? If so, how are the black levels, brightness and sharpness? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

For $499 the Sharp is a great deal! We have installed both at our company and the only advantage to the IN72 is better processing for standard definition sources, better out of the box performance and 2 digital inputs. But, the screen door effect on the IN72 is pretty noticeable and we don't recommend screens bigger than 84" with it unless your seating distance is pretty far back.

The Sharp has the an adjustable IRIS and high brightness mode for ambient light situations and you can put it in low power mode and close the iris for the best performance at night with the lights off. I wouldn't go bigger than 106" with the Sharp and maybe 92" or so for ambient light situations unless using higher gain screens.

These both have different throws and offsets, so that may be a consideration. For instance for a 92" screen:

The IN72 measured at the lens would need to be between 11'9" to 14'2" from the screen and the lens would need be ~12.5" above the top of the screen.

The Sharp 2000 measured at the lens would need to be between 7'10" to 11'11" from the screen and the lens would need be in line with the top of the screen. Works great for low ceilings like in basements. Otherwise, it will hang a bit into the room if you have a standard 8' or 9' ceiling.

The HD70 doesn't come close to the IN72 in any aspect except resolution obviously and the screen door which I mentioned. Against the 2000 it has better processing but is nowhere near as sharp, it has a softer look. The offset is similar to the IN72 and the throw is 10'7" to 12'8".

I can't comment on the mitsubishi as I haven't used it.

Sorry for the long post. In a nutshell at that price and if placement isn't an issue get the 2000 and a good upscaling DVD player!

Bob

I have the Sharp DT-400 which is the XV-Z2000 clone with a shorter throw. I would agree with the above post. I am an habitual upgrader and all the good posts about the newer sharp DT-500 has ma wanting to upgrade, but the picture from my current sharp is just too good to make it worthwhile. It is very bright even in eco-mode and you can always use the Hi-Bright setting on the Iris to get a little extra pop if you need it. I have to actually turn my contrast and brightness down a little bit. I think the black level is quite good as well. I also compared the xv-z2000/DT-400 against the Optoma HD70 and I am convinced that the optoma is a step down in picture quality, processing notwithstanding as the optoma has a pretty good scaler. The Optoma, or any DC2 unit will give slightly better black level than the sharp but it really is pretty close...but the rest of the picture characteristics are better on the sharp in my opinion....go for it!

Thank you very much! Hopefully I get my tax return in time to get one, they only had 2 left, but they said they weren't selling that quick, being it's an older model. They said they rarely sell a projector at the store. So hopefully in a week, this will be my projector. I can use this, until the price of 1080p drops significantly. Any suggestions on an upconverting dvd player, to use with this projector?