Quote:
Originally Posted by
plasmaowner /forum/post/21114241
I want to start off by saying that I am in no way an expert at any of this stuff. At best, I'm just your average audio/video enthusiast in search of the best projector for my setup and hard earned money. I just wanted to share my honest opinion of this projector from the perspective of a DLP owner who has been enjoying 3D for the past year. FWIW, this post is meant only to provide input to other DLP owners who are on the fence about this projector.
I currently own two DLP projectors, the Infocus X10 (3 years now), the Acer H5360 (1 year) and a 159 HP screen. I'm also using a HTPC with Nvidia 3D Vision/3DTV Play and TMT 5. I'm upgrading because I wanted a one projector solution and have been keeping up with this thread and Mits7800, among a few others. I was holding out for the Mits but decided to try out the Panny due to the raving reviews and it's much better placement flexibility.
Setup:
I didn't have too much trouble getting the Panny setup in my environment. The lens shift knob is indeed cumbersome but it only took me about 25 minutes. I was able to fill my screen with the lens about 15.7 feet away. I used the controls on the side and later in the menu for final touchups. I didn't have any trouble getting it to work with my HTPC either. Just had to run the setup wizard again in the Nvidia control panel and I was good to go.
First thing I noticed was how much softer everything looked on my HTPC compared to my X10. I knew this going in but wow I didn't think and/or expect it would be that big of a difference. The colors were also off, just not near as deep, faded even. I started thinking that maybe I was just remembering incorrectly so I plugged my X10 back in and WOW, the image is a 1000 times sharper with MUCH more detail. And colors have much more contrast, depth, pop and seem to literally jump off the screen compared to the AE7000 (I have 1800 hours on my X10 bulb). I connected the Panny back and made some adjustments in the menu, but no matter what I did I just couldn't duplicate the same image as the X10. Simply put, everything on my HTPC look MUCH better and sharper on my X10 (browser, windows, text, background wallpaper, games, well everything). Also the colors are much deeper, have more contrast and POP. Also worth mentioning is the mouse lag on the Panny. It's not too bad but definitely noticeable at 60Hz. There is absolutely NONE with my X10 at 60Hz or Acer at 120/60Hz.
A little bit discouraged, I moved on to some 3D. I started off with Avatar in 3D. I'm very familiar with it and it's my first choice to demo when I have guest. If I'm to judge by the out of the box settings of the Panny, the Acer wins hands down. The Panny OOTB settings are WAY to dark, even on my HP screen (project is shelf mounted). So my first impressions were underwhelming to say the least. So after about 30 minutes of tweaking the settings, I found that setting the picture to dynamic mode and glasses to light provided the brightest image, even rivaling the Acer (400 hours on the bulb). In this mode the 3D has tons contrast, colors are very punchy, and it's very sharp. The image is very clear and motion is good, especially with FI set to 2/3. Unfortunately there is a cost to the overall image quality when using these settings. Dynamic mode on the Panny = torch mode, and inherently has the same problems known to all displays using this setting: crushed blacks, over saturated colors, edge to edge sharpness distortion, etc. I personally have never like using dynamic mode on any display. It just doesn't look good to my eyes, even in 3D, and I would never want to be forced to use dynamic mode just to get a brighter image. Please keep in mind that I'm using the 2nd gen glasses. The 3rd gen are suppose to be 10% brighter I believe.
The most pleasant settings for 3D I found was normal mode, light, and frame interpolation set to 1. With these settings the image rivals the Acers in terms of clarity and sharpness do to the resolution bump. It's still just a tad too dark IMHO. Comparing the Acer in 3D, it is damn near as sharp as the Panny, just not as clear. The contrast also is a 1000 times better on the Panny and puts the black level on the Acer to shame in 3D. It also has very good detail. I tried Bolt, Despicable Me, Coraline, and Legend of the Guardians. They all looked fantastic. Overall, I think the Panny offers a good jump in 3D picture quality over the Acer and would be a decent upgrade for owners, but I honestly was expecting lot more. If anyone has seen the Acer in action, its 3d is much better then it's 2d performance. So to sum up 3D on the Panny, if I had never seen 3D on the Acer before and the Panny, and it was my first 3D projector I would probably be blown away, but that's just not the case.
Crosstalk: I honestly didn't notice any crosstalk on any of the titles I saw in normal mode with glasses set to light. I did see some when I was on dynamic mode, but most of the time it never was distracting.
Last but not least I viewed several 2D movies: Let The Right On In (original Swedish movie), Transformers 3, The Dark Knight, Hanna, 300 and a few episodes of the first season of True Blood (all on Bluray). I was a bit concerned with the 2D after my initial impressions of the image quality within the HTPC itself, I'm happy to report that in all of the titles I demo'd looked fantastic! The sharpness, contrast, depth, pop, everything was much better. I can't comment with regular DVDs since I don't own any. I found that I liked the 709 mode best and cinema 2 second best. With the HP screen all of the modes look good honestly. Normal mode is a tad too bright on my HP screen for Bluray, even when set to ECO mode. For cable TV or games I find it just fine. When comparing Bluray playback to my X10, it's a much closer fight. What I absolutely love able the Panny are the blacks and shadow detail. They are excellent and miles ahead when compared directly to my X10. The X10 suffers greatly when it comes to dark screens, especially when there is not much white on the screen. Its looks mudded compared to the Panny. Other than that both are very good with colors and contrast but sharpness and detail and overall punch there is just no comparison. Don't get me wrong the Panny has pretty good sharpness and detail but it just can no way no how compare to my X10. In this regard, the X10 is in a league of its own. It's just something you have to see I guess.
Before getting the Panny I never considered myself a fanboy to any tech (DLP, LCOS, LCD). How could I be really, I've never owned LCOS or LCD and I believe you can't really make judgment on anything unless you've tried it first hand ... right? Well now that I have, I'm can without a doubt announce that I'm officially a DLP FANBOY!!!
Needless to say, the Panny is back in the box and is going back to PP. Here some much needed pics this thread seems to not have!