OK. I'll start this off.
I purchased the Vango in September 2010. The projector was calibrated was Jason Turk in my home. The Vango is ceiling mounted ~11 feet from a 100 inch diagonal 1:78:1 Stewart Firehawk G3 screen. I’m using the short-throw lens. I did not purchase the color box.
Observations:
Size - The Vango was surprisingly smaller than expected (especially compared to other LED projectors I have seen). It looks like a little tank!
Menu navigation – Navigation through the projector menu is easier although a little ‘buggy’. For example, when I push the ‘menu’ button, the menu window opens and closes if no action is made in ~5 seconds.
Picture Quality
Sharpness – Excellent. Coming from an Epson 9500, this projector is light years ahead in sharpness. I can actually see pixel squares upon close examination of a projected image!
Black Level – Pretty good. The black bars (on 2:35:1 material) seem to be somewhat blacker compared to my Epson. However, I noticed the black bars much less during movie watching (perhaps due to much higher ANSI contrast?).
Image motion – Excellent. I have never seen smoother motion.
Colors – Great. It’s LED, of course!
Picture artifacts – I purchased this picture with the understanding that there would be no RBE due to absence of a color wheel (the lack of RBE has been stated by a number of persons). Unfortunately, I am seeing some RBE type artifacts, especially when in mixed contrast scenes (bright objects moving quickly across black background). The following website provides a good illustration of what I am experiencing - which leads me to identify it as RBE.
http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/what-doe...rbe-look-like/ . I am not sure if this is a product line issue or an issue inherent with the projector that I purchased. Nevertheless, I reported this observation and it is my understanding that it is my investigated. Is anyone else with a Vango experiencing this?
Noise Level – This is a mixed bag. To start this off, the projector is placed directly over my seating position. Compared with the Epson, this projector is overall somewhat louder. What is interesting is that noise level on the Vango varies greatly! For example, when I am watching a movie with dim scenes (with no bright areas), the projector is very quiet. However, when I the scene changes and a scene is displayed with some level of bright area, the noise level gets noticeably higher – this is a higher pitch ‘whine’ which may be distracting to some individuals depending on hearing sensitivity, seating position relative to projector placement, etc. I would be happy to post an audio/video file of this phenomenon if anyone is interested. Based on the little bit of research that I have done on this topic, this may be due to the generated noise that results from the LEDs being driven ‘harder’ during bright scenes. Is anyone else with a Vango experiencing this?
Well folks, that’s all for now. I hope that the above is helpful. I look forward to receiving feedback.
Allen