I have a chance to buy this PJ from work for 3k. It may have 4 days use, new out of the box last Sept.
How does it stack up with what is avalible today and at the $ I can get it for?
My 2 year old 4805 still does it's job, but I have the upgrade bug, tired of SDE on 106" 1 gain.
Comcast HD DVR, Oppo 971 to feed with.
BTW, I have read all the old posts on the 1200 including the WSR # 95 and this looked like a great PJ even at it's msrp back 2 years ago.

Anyone still have one in use?
I want this bad, just wondering what others that still have it think of it today.

I don't post much here, but read it everyday, great forum.

This was top of the line a when it first came out but its a bit dated now. It also has a color wheel which may be a concern if rainbows bother you. Personally, I would not buy that projector for $3M when, for a similar or slightly higher price, there are a number of 1080P projectors available with better processing and contrast ratio. If it were the 1300 it might be worth it.

I have a chance to buy this PJ from work for 3k. It may have 4 days use, new out of the box last Sept.
How does it stack up with what is avalible today and at the $ I can get it for?
My 2 year old 4805 still does it's job, but I have the upgrade bug, tired of SDE on 106" 1 gain.
Comcast HD DVR, Oppo 971 to feed with.
BTW, I have read all the old posts on the 1200 including the WSR # 95 and this looked like a great PJ even at it's msrp back 2 years ago.

Anyone still have one in use?
I want this bad, just wondering what others that still have it think of it today.

I don't post much here, but read it everyday, great forum.

The Pj itself is fine. However, there are so many 720p options available today at much lower price points it's hard to justify the Yamaha. For the same outlay you can equip yourself handsomely with PJ (new with warranty), 1080 DVD source, and enough left over for several HD movie titles or a surround system.

Example: Excellent 720p PJ $1500 (or less), HDDVD player $400, 25 HDDVD Movies.

If it doesn't have an auto iris then it is not as good as the current crop of Hitachi TX200/300, Sanyo Z5, Panasonic AE900/AX100 and the equivalent Epson TW-xxx. All can be had for much less than the Yamaha 1200.

EDIT - opps. I was thinking of the Yamaha LCD projector.

Pretty awesome projector that certainly could hold its own. It is a tough call though.

If it doesn't have an auto iris then it is not as good as the current crop of Hitachi TX200/300, Sanyo Z5, Panasonic AE900/AX100 and the equivalent Epson TW-xxx. All can be had for much less than the Yamaha 1200.

None of these LCD's comes close to the Yamaha. A good PJ does not need a DI to make up for low native contrast. I might be tempted at that price. Decent 1080p is still some 2K more expensive ...

I think a lot of people would say the Pearl is decent. Street price is much less than $2K difference. Check with AVS.

thanks for the thoughts so far.
Makes since to go new, bummer I missed the Sharp 1080p at cost#@, btw the 4805 came from there.......so no loss.
But the DT-500 sharp is still avalible
The 1200 does have a 6 month parts/ labor warranty as it's B stock
One thing I left out, I can get it with 26 weeks of payments and no intrest. And I can swing that at the moment.
That may make a bit sweeter deal. It has so many "kool" factors, hard to pass
I may hit the local AV store today and see if they have any "killer" deals at the moment. But it's 5 outside :eek:

EDIT nevermind...wrong projector

I think a lot of people would say the Pearl is decent. Street price is much less than $2K. Check with AVS.

Is it that low now? I admit I did not know that. I have never seen that one,, but as you say a lot of people think it's decent.
However I wasn't too fond of the ruby and misconvergence is one of the worst things a PJ can have for me, I find it highly annoying, like rainbows might be for someone else. I myself don't really see rainbows on recent PJs and I like the 'sharp' look of DLP.

None of these LCD's comes close to the Yamaha. A good PJ does not need a DI to make up for low native contrast. I might be tempted at that price. Decent 1080p is still some 2K more expensive ...

I guess I wasn't clear, so I edited my post. I was answering your above post and talking about much less than 2K difference.

If any misconvergence is a problem, then you may want to stay with single chip DLP. The Yamaha is a very good projector, just a bit dated. If you were to pair it with an XA2 HD DVD player, you could get the HQV processing for SD DVDs. Before you choose, check the under $3K forum and see what is available with single chip DLP at that price level.

Just an update.
I talked my loving wife into it and it's up and running.
We bought a 56" 1080p JVC HD-ILA for the bedroom about a month ago and the picture had me in bad wants to step up a bit down in my favorite room. :D
I would say it was a very nice step up from the Infocus 4805.
Single gain 106" old Stewart in a very well, light controlled basement.

It came with a year warranty, not 6 months and 3 months on the bulb.
It came with the factory $300 mount, so it was up last night. Already watched 4 movies on DVD feed by the 971 through HDMI/DVI adapter and many hours of HD programs off of Comcast through component. Looks good on SD, but great on HD and DVD....
It snowed us out of work today, so it's been running since last night.

I don't post much as I research and read a lot. I'm on here almost everyday.
This is a great forum, even though I did not listen to you guys this time, but I am happy with the 1200, my wife is too.......
So if snow keeps me outa work Wenesday DVE will go in and I will spend some time going through all it's settings. It's got a ton of adjustments. I like it a lot and I have owned a lot of PJ's since 1995 starting with an old JVC CRT used at a school. Took me a few days to get that thing to display something watchable.