LG CF181D, New SXRD-projector from LG - Page 38

Baird,
Thanks for the response. To muddy things a little bit more, here are the updated Black Friday deals that are driving my decision.
Projector People -
Epson 8350 - $999
lg cf181d + lamp - $1499
Epson 8700ub + lamp - $1849
Vapex -
Epson 8350 - $999
Epson 8700ub + lamp + IR Emitter - $1859

My budget does not exclude any of these projectors. However, I don't want to waste money on a difference only noticable to videophiles

Hadn't really paid much attention to this one...coming up on my 4th lamp for original Sony Ruby, Had been looking at all the other suspects, Epson 8700, new 5010, Sony HW30 and even the 95ES. Price is certainley appealing.

My god that is a great price. Mine came from Projector People. They organised it to be send out to NZ for me. They were great to deal with.

I can't really comment on the other projectors. Not user experience.
Price wasn't really the key driver for me I actually expected to be paying a lot more for my first 1080p projector. What drove the purchase decision for me was the LG offered tons of lumens compared to any other option that
I could find. What did worry me was it just seemed to cheap and I worried about that until I had the thing mounted and switched on. Then the worries evaporated.

I am no videophile but the LG does sit in a room that with the speaker system and general fitout cost somewhere north of USD 100,000. To my mind the LG doesn't let the room down.

And just so show some balance there are things I don't particularly like about it. Its certainly not as beautiful as the likes of a Sony and the adjustment mechanisms for the likes of focus, vert shift and zoom are pretty tinny compared to previous projectors I have owned but the only time your are aware of that is during the initial setup. After that the only thing I use on it is the on/off button on the remote.

Anyone know how to reset the lamp timer?
Thanks in advance.

Just got my cf181d from Projector People. Powered it up and ran it through its paces for bout 30 min. Turned it off to redo some cables and tried to power it back up after about 5 min. The ring on the top lights blue and the bulb begins to come onbut then the bulb shuts off and the unit enters flashing orange stage where it powers down the unit. Any ideas???

I do have a spare bulb - should I try changing it?? This is a brand new unit. What gives??

Well changed the bulb to see if that would help...but same issue occurs..

Try unplug, and reset. If this still persists, you might need to replace it. I had a power issue 2 times with mine and I need to send it back to repair....the good thing for me is that after the 3rd time, the policy is to give you a new one, which they have no more stock and so they give me a refund....

How do you reset it?

I forgot. I think it is just unplug power and then wait for like 5 mins. In any case, call the tech and this is likely the first thing they ask you to try. Good luck.

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for any replies. I'm looking to buy my first projector. It will be used for pretty much equal amounts gaming/sports/movies. I will be going with a white 92 or 100inch 1.0 gain screen. The room will have some ambient light coming from a table lamp and track lighting in the back of the room, so im looking for something with a lot of lumens in a decent picture mode. The projectors that i have on my short list are the LG CF181d, Epson 8350, and Benq W600.

My questions are

1)Has anyone measured the input lag of the CF181d? I wanted to make sure it was pretty low for when i game. I know the Epson 8350 has been measured around 20ms...

2) How do the black levels compare on the CF181D to the Epson 8350 and Benq W6000

unpluged power doesn't works.....sure that anyone don't remember the procedure to reset the lamp timer?

I've been struggling with a similar choice, slightly different...looks like the LG is not a super common projector. I have a bigger screen 120" and WOW I love the light this guy puts out. Didn't even know it existed till yesterday.

It looks like there is NOT a ton of advice for this projector...although some ratings have it close to perfect. I honestly think the blacks will be pretty darn good for 99% of us...both the Benq and Epson MIGHT be have a bit more black, but then again most scenes are not black so for 95% of the movie you want amazing color and nice brightness, which is what this LG has.

Not sure I helped...but what I know after HOURS and HOURS of research.

I'm close to pulling the trigger on this, the only thing holding me back is possible gaming input lag issues with this unit. I cant seem to find any information regarding this. I game a lot so this is very important.

I've ruled out the Benq w6000 because of the limited vertical lens shift.

So really its between this and the Epson 8350.

does not have HORIZONTAL lens shift

Anyone know why the TruMotion Demo option would be grayed out on the Adv Picture menu? Also in the Advanced Control menu the TruMotion is grayed out as well.

I am using HDMI and have my LG Blu-ray player set to 1080p/60Hz.

I have tried bypassing my Denon receiver and going straight from the player to the projector.

The CF181D was manufactured Nov 2011 and has software rev 4.03 on it. The info screen says I am running 1080p 67.6KHz/60Hz.

Any know what might be up?

Does this projector store picture/iris/enhancement settings separately per input?

I was hoping i could have the 1st input used for movies/tv with the real cinema enabled and the iris set to auto 1 etc. Then have the 2nd input used for games with real cinema/true motion off and the iris set to one of the manual modes in order to minimize lag. This way i could have my Harmony remote change inputs when i select one of my game systems, and change the input back on the projector when watching movies or tv.

This suddenly started working. The only thing I can attribute it to is unplugging it from the wall and back in again for an unrelated thing I was doing.

I ended up ordering this projector from PP. I received it on Friday 1/6. So far im really impressed, even with it projecting onto a white sheet pinned to my textured wall. The color out of the box on all of the presets is very good. The light output is amazing as well. I played the Star Wars Episode 1 BD with my LG bd-550 set to 24p along with Trumotion off and Real Cinema enabled on the CF181d. This looked really good, and i saw no artificats or motion issues.

I ordered a 92" fixed frame screen from VA, so that should be here Friday 1/13. I really expect an even brighter image, and much better colors with the screen.

I answered a few of my own questions. First off this unit does store picture settings, including iris and trumotion options separately per hdmi input. Also, gaming seems to be fine. I played some Street Fighter 4 with Trumotion of and i didnt notice any difference in lag between the CF181d and my Panasonic 42S1 plasma upstairs.

When/If i have any more information i will post again.

Did you resolve the problem? I'm having the same problem with my 20 months old unit. I wonder if there is anything I should try before send the unit in.

Thanks,

I hope I am not scaring you guys, but I have the flashing orange 2 times with 20 months, and I send it in to repair. I have try reseting, unplug power, change socket etc and no use... I thought I am the unlucky one but I guess this seems more common. Good luck.

Thanks. I guess I will just have to call the service Monday then. Did they tell you what was the problem?

No...

How is the pic quality on this projector compared to an 8700ub. I'm considering this projector with a 100" jamestown gray screen.

Just ordered from PP. Looking forward to checking it out. Quite a deal.

What screen do you guys think for this projector? Art says grey HC. We have a pretty good light controlled room and want 120" screen sitting about 13' back. 8' ceilings and off white walls and ceilings lighter carpet. Primary use is gaming, HDTV and movies about evenly split between them all. We have been told even 2.2 gain white screen this is a wide area and bright projector so thought that was strange and 2 others recommended HC grey.

Thoughts?

Just got the LG. I'm trying to figure out an HDMI sync problem. I'm using high quality cables from Monoprice, I think all 22AWG, and their current rev 3 4x1 switch, no HDMI receiver/pre. My Panny BD55 will sync at 1080p24, but not anything else. So I can watch movies once they load up since virtually all are 24p and the player switches to it, but I can't see the player's menus. I also can't seem to load the AVS calibration disc, so I assume it starts in 30 or 60Hz mode. I've tried auto mode on the player, and specifying both 720 & 1080. This all worked fine with my old AE900 PJ. I tried the long cable direct to the PJ, and it almost synced, but not quite. I'm not exactly sure which cable it is, I think it is 25', 22AWG.

I've read the issues some have had earlier in this thread, and the solutions seemed kinda random. So, I'm trying to figure out what to try. Switch? Cable? I'd like to upgrade my player and receiver, but that's a wallet issue after getting the PJ already this year.

what do you mean you can only watch 1080p24?? That's strange...
In LG, there is a "film mode" that accept 24p. Have you turned it on?

The player can output 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p24 over HDMI. I can either choose one of these or use Auto. Pretty standard, some other players probably have additional options.

But its own menus and the standard blue screen do NOT output in 24p, just the others. Meanwhile, the LG and player will only handshake/sync to 24p. Since it won't sync, it just keeps trying and failing, never showing a picture from the player, until it gets a 24p source from an actual disc. Let's see if I can explain it.

When first syncing to a signal, the PJ's status bar shows on top of the screen. It shows the input name, resolution, and both hor/vert scan rates. With my standard setup with the HDMI switcher, this display never shows a res or scan rate, just the white box. With only one wire, I can begin to see it say 60Hz vert, but it doesn't actually finish syncing. (until it has a 24p source)

I'm thinking another cable, first attempt.

it could point to the cable issue, as 1080p60 do require more BW than 1080p24. Also, I assume you had try different HDMI input. Also, try turn deep color OFF.

Just wanted to chime in with my (by my account) non-professional opinion.

Ordered this due to the great deal (and service) by PP. My trusty old Sony hs10 finally died (well, it's blue chip burnt away just enough to make everything yellow )

Was considering the Epson 8350 and the Panasonic 4000 (with, unfortunately, limited availability to view either for very long). Was then considering the more expensive 8700B

The was purchased for a room painted black, light controllable (although it pulls double duty and sometimes has a small /moderate amount of lamp/ambient light) with a painted screen; a HINT of neutral-ish grey.. maybe n8.5 at most

Projector is about 10.5 feet from the screen, set to 104 inches (pulled back a smudge from it's full capacity).


So far: VERY pleased. It honestly has surpassed my expectations. The only negative I've read about... 'blacks aren't deep enough'... is really not fair. Perhaps on paper or to someone who is absolutely beyond anal about their Black Levels it might not be 'perfect', but after reading about the blacks levels I was shocked at just how good they really were. The hint of grey on the screen helps even more, but even on a white wall, they were MORE than decent. With the lights out, as Spinal Tap would say, there was 'none more black'.

More importantly, the levels of black to grey to white are outstanding. Let's say that the reviews are to be believed and the black level does not match projector x or y, when there are scenes where there are shadows, a cave, etc, details on the 181 are EASILY seen, even when the projectors settings are skewed towards cinema/darker levels. Bottom line: even if you feel that the 'scene out in space' is not black (again, not really fair... they looked wonderfully black to me), the other, more important scenes with shadows, lights, etc look great.

As many reviews noted, the projector has a wonderfully warm, almost 3d quality to the image. it really 'feels' like a movie theater image. Getting back to the blacks, I loaded up the bluray of the 'gold standard' fifth element. The black berets were stunning... you could literally make out the threads and material, shadows were easy to see through, the black outfits were stellar looking, space was BLACK, and everything look vibrant yet believable.

When you're NOT shooting for the blackest blacks possible, this thing is BRIGHT. Im talking two lamps on in the room and it's as bright as a flat panel tv bright. When you first take it out of the box, and it hits you with it's Dynamic mode, it's practically blinding.
I picked up one of those Sony Google Tv Thingees; When you load a blank white google page at 104 inches, you literally have to hold your hand in front of your eyes.

When dropping it down to cinema mode and getting it to GREAT black levels, It was still more than bright enough to handle moderate ambient light; Yesterday while my wife was reading, I realized how bright the image was with lights on in the room; I had to do a double take when I realized that I had set the projector lamp to LOW. Bottom line: For MOST of your viewing you can probably set the lamp to low thus extending your hours.

On the negative side, I have noticed 1-2 seconds of stuttering once or twice in the five days I've had it. Nothing deal breaking, and nothing that last longer or repeated itself; I can't even swear it wasn't my receiver, but thats the only 'complaint' so far.

Trumotion seems to work well, but the 'Soap Opera Effect' drives me NUTS, so I honestly have no interest in using it. I'm so glad I found the phrase 'Soap Opera Effect' and it's meaning; I had assumed I was going insane when I noticed it on my brother's TV ;-)

Hope I didn't bore anyone! I had spent weeks on this board doing research, and wanted to give back a bit.