LG PA70G LED 1280x800 700 Lumens. - Page 57

Fry's has a 15% restock fee once opened (unless defective and then they exchange for same item).

They will allow exchange if not happy with current unit (I did 3x).

Jason

Has anybody brought one of these into Canada, if so where did you purchase from. I am looking to upgrade my Lg HS201 projector. Amazon will not ship. Nor will Frys.

Tazz

Try ebay, there's a lot of sellers who can shipped internationally.

I think the pictures looks great with all that room lighting. I may have to try something like that.

Has anyone bought this from Fry's? I'm very interested in it but I'm afraid of the focus issue.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy this. Does anyone know what kind of warranty it comes with? Will they charge me the re stocking fee if it ends up being defective.?

Why did LG decide to pulse the LEDs so slowly?

I'm getting a little annoyed by the rainbows. I didn't see any rainbows on my friend's LG HX300G...
Also it does seem my picture is slightly out of focus on the lower right corner of the screen

What I would like to the manufacturers to focus on from high priority to lower priority:
- Fix uneven focus issues
- Faster pulsing LEDs to get rid of rainbows (or use something different from DLP)
- Non dimaond shaped pixels (or higher resolution)
- Maybe add some zoom

It seems that each model that comes out have the exact same flaws, but they are brighter. Why can't they fix the issues first??
700lumen is really bright enough...if they bring out a brighter LED projector with the same issues I am going to lose my mind....lol

I see there are a lot of new LED/Laser hybrid projectors coming out . I just hope they don't use color wheels like my Casio XJ-A230 does.

Edit: For some strange reason I don't notice any rainbows when setting my resolution to 1024x768@120Hz. Are the LEDs pulsing faster at that mode?
Edited by LeonZA - 2/17/13 at 11:32am

i think they fix all those issues, if you spend alot more money lol

i pulled the trigger on one from frys, pretty sure there is a %15 restock fee some one mentioned. might loose $75 on this gamble if i dont like it. wish they were local to me

Same here. I have been eyeing this for at least the last 9 months and at the 499.00 price I had to buy it, I wish they made one with a Tuner like the 300 or the 350T model but I have an epvisions tuner that I will put in the same travel case.

FYI - I have several hundred new UHP lamps along with several projectors that I use them in but wanting to buy a projector this tiny on has been like a stone in my shoe that had to be dealt with.

Bohanna

I am heavily considering this as my very first projector but am too indecisive, can't wait to hear your feedback!!

A few weeks ago, I started to notice more RBE (Rainbow effect) artifacts on my HW300T projectors. I have one in the family room at 140 inches and until last week only one in my main work area that was set at 80 inches. Two weeks ago, I bought a heavily discounted Onkyo AVX 290. I swapped out the satellites and connected it to my computer through two HDMI switchers. I added a third HW300T to the mix. Due to size restraints that projector is at 55 inches so the output is much brighter. It too, has annoying RBE artifacts. My annoyances with RBE seem more to do with the image temperature and contents. If a warm image appears then I notice the artifacts. For example, I noticed that late night talk shows with the warmer sets seem to generally trigger more of the effect.

To boost the image output of the HW300T so that I can watch it on a 140 inch screen, I have to use the “greener” picture setting, picture level output, varying gamma settings and the medium power setting. The colours are off but as soon as I go to cinema or balance the picture to warmer I head into RBE territory.

When I owned the PA70G, I enjoyed the projector for nearly a full day before I had any problems. The extra lumens made a major perceived improvement in picture. I had two HW300T projectors (for 3d testing), an Epson HC720 and the PA70G set in the same location.

When I first turned on the PA70G I was disappointed because I immediately saw RBE, I had the same problem with the HW300T projectors but the effect went away. I tried watching some dark video clips and I was disappointed that the blacks were totally crushed. I checked on my monitor and lo, the blacks were also crushed. Then I started playing with picture level controls (using FFDSHOW and Daum Potplayer). The image suddenly burst to life and I was a very happy owner. BTW, I believe the best image you will get out of your LG projector will come from using the internal picture playback. The HW300T allows you to use your network but if you have the time I think it would be worth it to recode your favorite video files for the PA70G.

I knew from watching the HW300T that a small boost (from max energy to medium energy savings) in lumen output made a big difference in picture enjoyment on pictures less than 80 inches. The PA70G provided a bigger boost and it was much quieter (if you check the specifications you will be shocked at the rated versus perceived noise levels on LG projectors).

Since the PA70G was brighter, I thought I could have a more balanced (colour accurate) picture. When I adjusted the picture I was blown away by the richly saturated and bright (relative) picture. As I watched more sample video I started to notice more RBE. Eventually, I got a headache. I never had a headache with the HW300T so I wondered what was going on. When I stopped watching clips to investigate (after over a dozen hours of watching), I noticed that the wallpaper grid pattern was fuzzy.

I did not notice any focusing problems because I was blown away by the picture. The RBE was not a problem because I was used to having my video output not as warm. So I turned on the HW300T. It was focused much better (more evenly) than the PA70G. But the picture was duller. I turned on the Epson and it had the best focus of all (and the colour was much, much better). The more I tried to adjust the PA70G the more frustrated I became because it was so close as an upgrade for my HW300T.

I have always preferred the DLP picture. It has always seemed like a more saturated and higher contrast picture. I did not consider buying DLP until I saw an Acer 330 at Fry’s. It was very dim under the bright light but I did not notice RBE artifacts. I reasoned that I could use my high gain screen to over come the output. I can’t use that screen because it is too small (let’s face it brighter is better and so is bigger within reason). And where I see occasional RBE artifacts on my wall, I would see them so frequently on that screen that it is only used for experiments.

I have two points:
First, if I did not have the HW300T or the Epson right beside the PA70G, there is a very good chance that I would still own the PA70G (two for brighter 3D) because I would have thought that the focus was consistent with what other members had complained about. Although I would have been annoyed at the uneven subtitle display but I could have reduced the text until I had no problem.
And two, if you think that you are sensitive to RBE you should test a variety of videos with warm scenes (oranges and reds) with your projector set to the cinema mode as soon as you can.

There are PA70G's out there with sharp focus (down to seeing each individual diamond pixel and even the pivot dimple) as I have one (November 2012 build).

The July 2012 build that I had was very uniform as well but dull and simply would never get sharp (even after taking it apart and fixing the focus wheel for more lens travel).

The July 2012 build was not even close to the performance of the unit that I have now as all aspects of the image suffered due to the poor focal ability.

So once again I will say that if your heart is set on the PA70G be prepared to exchange until you get a solid unit because once you do you are likely to be very happy with it (at around $500 or less).

Best of luck to those of you getting them now due to the current Fry's deal.

Jason

PA70G - No picture via HDMI Port


I've been using this projector for the past 3 months with my vaio using HDMI. But last week while watching a movie, the picture has gone blank a couple of times, resume within a second or so. Then the next day it failed to recognize signal through HDMI. I thought it was due to the 4 yr old HDMI cable i've been using, so i continued using projector via VGA cable. Later I checked the cable with my 32" LCD and VAIO, and it worked without any issues. So i think something is wrong with PA70G's HDMI.

I bought this from Dubai / UAE last october, and the unit is now with me in Kerala / India. When i contacted LG Support (1800-180-9999) India, they were not much of help - as they said this model is not yet available in India. (But the unit is listed in LG India site for 58000 INR) One of the service technician i contacted, said that 'usually such problems will get resolved by reinstalling the firmware.' Another tech i contacted said, the device is out of warranty as it has passed 90 days period (/500 hours usage), and i will be charged for the service. Is this true, that this projector comes with only 90 days warranty? Hope it has International warranty.


Has anyone encountered such problems with PA70G's HDMI connectivity? If so please help me on this.
Is there any LG Global Support Number / Email , that i can get assistance to resolve this problem?


Other Observations:
Projector is able to recognize cable as when i look in the 'inputs' menu, i can see HDMI highlighted. But it is not able to pick up signals from laptop.
I've not yet tried with other HDMI sources/cable, as i don't have any other.


Thanks,
Ausy.

finally we had a price drop in germany on amazon and i took the chance. build date december 2012.
- more than enough focus range for 130'' (can go blurry on both directions)
- good focus/sharpness in general
- lower right corner is a little bit sharper than the rest (which is even), but only visible on special grid pictures and when concentrate on it
- low fan noise even on mid energy saving
- besides the fan noise theres a operation noise
- definitly more rbe than on hw300g or the clones
- much brighter than hw300g
- little bit brighter than clones
- very good contrast and blacks

conclusion:

i think i've found my projector for the next 2-3 years (hopefully till then theres a 1080p with 3d). my main use is movies and a little bit ps3 gaming. for that i think it is the best of the affordable led projectors. the diamond pixels and maybe not so perfect focus (from memory i wouldnt say the hw300g was sharper), has the big advantage that you cant see lines or pixels from close viewing distance. so i am sitting about 9 ft away from my 130'' picture, which is an awesome cinema-like experience. the only distracting thing is the stronger rbe. black and white movies are not easy at the beginning. but as recognized back when i had my first lamp-based dlp projector with a color wheel: i get somehow used to it. on colored material the rbe is not a problem at all. i think the more visible rbe on this projector is based on the much higer contrast. i dont believe the leds are slower pulsed than the other led projectors. caused of the higher contrast i had in a short time much more wow moments when watching than with the projectors used before
all in all i would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a cheap and stable projector for movies and a gaming. you should also consider a 3 year warranty (in germany) and the fact that it is very unlikely that you get dust problems, because the light path is completely capsuled, so you can speak of a near 100% dust protection.

i think you should pay attention to a production date from december 2012 on, because i've had a second unit with a production date of november 2012 which has a smaller focus range, so you cant get blurry on both wheel directions.

I had a SP-F10M before and i wouldnt have sold it if i had known the issues before getting the PA70G. It has advantages to the SP-F10M. Specially blacks and contrast and of course the 16:10 projection but 4:3. But the annoying focus issue is horrible compared to the only 1024x768 perfectly sharp SP-F10M. Now the SP-F10M is double the cost when i bought it a year ago from 499 to 999 Euros and i wont exchange it cause of the price difference it would be considering the trade off for selling a used PA70G.

When i received mine in December 2012 as a November build i tried everything to get it sharp enough even disassembling and trying to play with those 2 screws but without the success people were talking about. It always stays out of focus on either side and never looses the soft/blurry overall look. I also never had a HW300 to compare but i know the Acer K330 from a shop near to me which has a perfectly sharp not blurry picture at the same size i have (110"). Only the blacks and constrast is too low for movies in my opinion and it is a bit too dark.

Watching Full HD material is a big degration compared to my SP-F10M and i will for sure never buy any LG product again. Samsung has way superior QA or whatever is the reason for this mess.
Im using it now anyway cause im afraid of the crap repair service of LG in my country with extreme long waiting times also. When there are more 16:9 LED projectors with decent blacks/contrasts/brightness out i will use this as a present for someone who is not as videophile as iam and definetly not buy a LG projector again.

Stay away from this projector its totally waste of money if you are not fully blind. For some cartoon movies its maybe ok but dont try Full HD real movies it will disappoint you as it did me.

DaGamePimp and me and others have got units that are super sharp. I can see each individual pixel and the focus wheel play is excellent. I have nov 2012 build date.

Sounds like some early july builds are blurry or soft focus, not mine. I can read fonts no problems.


ausyz
I would try a different hdmi cable or a couple of diffferent ones, I have had problems with hdmi's in other devices I use, they can work in other devices but have problems in other devices. At least let's hope for you that that is the problem. Sounds like in your country you only have 90 day warranty, that sucks.

garibay
Maybe stay with your 300 model. You just are not having any luck with the pa70g.

Maybe there is way to figure out the build date by something on the box, serial number or by some other code on box, since on the box I don't see any dates.

Anyone else have eye-strain issues with this PJ? I got mine in August and generally love it... no focus issues or anything like that. But after a few months of using it, I notice that sometimes my eyeballs hurt. It's a strange feeling that I've never had before. I don't think it's an RBE issue... my previous PJ was an Optoma H27 and I never had any eye issues with it. When it first happened I thought it was a weird sinus issue since everyone seemed to be sick around that time. But now I think it's the PJ, though it's weird because it doesn't happen every time. I recently ran the built-in picture wizard and that seems to have helped a little, but it still happens sometimes. I don't want to go back to bulbs, but I don't want to damage my eyes either! Any ideas?

Well I am a serious videophile that has been watching D65/6500K displays for the last 12 years and I disagree as over 50% of my viewing on the LG is 1080p material (Skyfall, Art of Flight and Hugo are fantastic on my PA70G, to name a few non-animated examples).


While the focus issue is very real with these units (all luck of the draw) this unit is far from a waste of money, at around $500 or less, if you get one with solid focus (as we have stated over and over... if you can, keep exchanging until you are satisfied).

LG needs to take notice here and improve their QC, no doubt, but there are solid units out there. I had to exchange 3x and I admit to being frustrated with that procedure as it was a long drive for each exchange. It's too bad we can't all get solid units right out of the gate.

Now nobody here is claiming this to be a reference display but for a front projector that is LED based that can be used as a daily use display with almost no concern of lamp hours it's a good performer, at the current going rate it honestly has little competition at the moment (the Q7 sounds promising).

I will also guess that many people are likely not setting this unit up properly and there by not seeing it reach its potential.

Again I'll say best of luck to the new owners out there.

Jason

I have the same issue and its because of the soft picture / crappy not fully focusing lens. Maybe you have no comparison to other projectors that can focus to a really sharp picture.
Its definetly eyestraining cause of the cripled lens that doesnt fit to the focal lenght of the light path or anything like this. When i disassembled my lens i found it is not possible to put it infront of the lightpath in any way so that the focus is uniform. Either the units people are talking about (dezember+ builds) have a different lenspacket or its not true but with the lens packet i got (also seen in this thread on some pics) you will never get a proper focused picture and the eyestrain results cause of your brain is heavily working to compensate for the soft / not uniform focus which is very fatigueing with time.

My unit is a November build as i already mentioned and i bought it in December. I contradict that there are units with proper focus or they would be not the same model (PA70G). Proof me by showing it has a different lens packet or its hard to believe not to say unbelievable. I heavily doubt LG fixed the focus issue nor that there are better and worse focused units but very different OPINIONS on what is soft / uniform / half focused or not focused at all.

Now, I did get eye strain when using 3D on this PJ. So I will avoid using 3D. I didn't get headaches, just eye strain in 3D mode only . When I would go to Best Buy and try out their 3D stuff on HDTV's , I got headaches. So I am sensitive to 3D stuff. I know this, so I avoid it. If they come up with better way to do 3D that is gentle on my eyes I'll try that in the future.

I don't get eyestrain from 2D on the pa70g. But other people could, I guess it's an individual matter. I don't see RBE with the pa70g, either. But some others could, who knows.

What some of us are saying, if you get a focused model, this is one hell of a deal for 399, and I'm very picky. I understand your frustration if you get a unfocused model, we all do.

LG get your act together! You got a great PJ, hire a new Quality Control manager FAST! So people don't have to return all the unfocused units.

Your assumption is mistaken as there is a sample to sample variance regarding the focal ability, I have owned three different units and all three were different (with the last unit surpassing the previous two by a decent margin).

I have posted a 'pixel' screen shot in this thread previously.

http://www.avsforum.com/content/type/61/id/129653/

Jason

- - - - -
Edited by DaGamePimp - 2/18/13 at 12:21pm

When I go close to screen and can see each pixel, that is sharp, really sharp. I can adjust sharpness in settings too, so, people should just accept that some individual units are AWESOME and some look like crap. So it is a CRAP-shoot whether you get an AWESOME one or a crappy one!

Come on LG, first thing people notice when they get something with a screen , is whether it's in focus or not. You might have to change your assembling line and figure out way to do better checking. Maybe not check every model on line, but maybe every 5 or 10 or whatever, so you get consistent quality.

If you get a unfocused model, maybe call LG and see if you can be put in touch with someone higher in the food chain, who can contact higher management or have some effect on Quality Control.

Anyone know why this sale at Fry's only went down to 499 as opposed to the 399 it was selling for in December?

If they don't sell at 499, and nobody buys them at 499, then maybe it will drop to 399 or even better. But if they sell out at 499, why would they want to sell it at 399. If I was fry's and they sold at 499, I would keep it at 499. But if they were sitting on the shelf at 499, I would drop it to 399 to sell more of them, if I had plenty on hand, and LG gave me a good wholesale price if I bought a ton of them.
Supply and DEMAND!
Now, xmas season is good time to buy stuff, I bought both my PJ's around xmas time, so who knows what will happen or when better sales will come. Also, holidays are good sale events.

I read these forums to get a sense of the experiences of others. Then I try to see if I can use those experiences to help me get what I think I want. In other words, I try to find a solution to any problem that they may describe. I hope that solution might work for my particular situation and budget.

With the PA70G, I had solutions: for the RBE I, could adjust the temperature and contrast levels. For the focus problems, I could go to a lower resolution (EDTV for example), edge enhance the video sent to the projector and reduce the size of my subtitles. (BTW, I could never have the main menu on the left, quick menu on the right or the info menu on the top all in sharp focus but I rarely needed to view all three. The HW300T has a tuner so I needed the top in focus for TV program info.)

But I had no solution for why I felt nauseous when I tried a second time to use the projector. I packed the projector to return but decided to unpack it again to try a solution to the focus. That was when I felt really sick watching the display.

According to the warning in the PA70G’s user manual, I knew that there were restrictions on 3D use for certain members of the general population (I did not get to use 3D on the PA70G). I speculated that it had to do with the strobe timing of the 3D images.

I am not an engineer but I also speculated that to increase the light output efficiency of the LEDs that the timing had to be changed. I think that timing change (from the HW300) is what caused me to have an extremely unpleasant reaction to the projector. I did not have that reaction at the smaller size (80inches). It was when I projected a much larger display in my family room.

That was when I knew that I had to return the projector.

Well the deed is done. I was dead set on buying another PJ until I stumbled upon this forum. Damn you GeekRedneck! haha

obscuro
I have been here , in this room the last 3 months or so, and nobody has been talking about getting sick watching on the pa70g. Now you sounded the alarm in the summer time, and I believe you experienced getting sick. But you sounding the NOTE again, will most likely make other people experience the "sickness" , if they are gullible.

Now, 3D viewing does bother a higher percentage of population, on any device, hdtv, movie theaters, or home theater. We don't disagree on that.

Also, I have not tried the pa70g on screens bigger than 80-100 inches, and I don't get the "sickness".

I'm not saying you should buy a NEW post nov 2012 pa70g model or not, but, maybe a focused model would work for you, maybe not. Others have agreed with you about the earlier dated models, some were good and some were not so good.

You are getting the itch, to jump in again, and maybe you should, or wait for next crop of LED PJ's. If you get a good focused pa70g, it is good experience.
Edited by rgtaa - 2/18/13 at 10:58am

I hope I get a good one.

Does anybody know if there is an RGB component cable that comes with it? If not can you buy one that goes into the VGA port like some of the other projectors have in case you have a non HDMI RGB source ?

Thanks.

Bohanna