LG PA70G LED 1280x800 700 Lumens. - Page 9

Thanks for the review. I have had the PA70G for several days. One thing I found as some others have reported, with my projector located a distance from the screen to provide a 100" diagonal image, the focus ring is near the end of its travel range. So I wonder if I were to move the projector even farther back (I plan to test this weekend), will it lose the ability to focus. If you have a chance, I wonder if your PA70G focus ring has the same range issue, maxing out in travel near the 10 foot or so distance from the screen?

Originally Posted by fbunn View Post

Another subjective update on the PA70G.
I'm not a videophile, but I have owned a Panasonic AE900U 720p for 5 years, so that is my comparison point.
Out of the box, the picture was a bit cartoonish and grainy. However, the 'Settings' menu had enough adjustments to rectify the situation. I adjusted the black level and contrast on a known difficult bdark scene, then adjusted for normal flesh tones.
The picture is very good now. Black levels are decent without losing much detail.
I have a decent movie collection, and would be glad to snap some pics of your fav scenes if requested.
My wife and daughters commented the Pa70g was brighter than the AE900U it replaced. It confirmed my first impression. Keep in mind the ae900u was only rated at 1100 lumens, but that was quite enough in a light controlled room.
This projector won't match a modern bulb projector with 2000+ lumens in a bright room, but that's just basic physics. It works great in a dark room on my 96" projector screen.
Goodnight, all!
P.S. my opinions are completely subjective. YMMV.

Hi fbunn , Thanks a lot for the review. I just want to know if this LG PA70G pj can beat the performance of your Panasonic AE900U ?

In a nutshell:

- the LG seems brighter (more lumens) than the AE900U
- the colors on th LG have more 'pop'
- the picture on the AE900U is a bit smoother

I think these two projectors are similar in performance.
I can't wait to fix my AE900u so I can do a side by side comparison!

I'll probably be permanently mounting the PA70G soon, and will check the focus ability past 10 feet then.

Your future side by side comparison between LG PA70G & AE900u will be a great help for me to decide to pull a trigger on LG PA70G.

I decided not to buy one of the new 1080P Led projector since I can not find any reason that would justify spending $ 2,500 - $ 3,000 for one at this time until the price comes down in about 2 or 3 years around $ 1,500.
So ? I decided I can live with a 720P projector.
What's the good, the bad, and the ugly with this projector ?
I bought the LG HX300 2 years ago and was not happy with it, would I find any more performance with the resolution from 1024 x 768 to 1280 x 800 ? the lumens for the LG HX300 was about 300 lumens.
Yes, I can live with watching movie on the LG since there is nothing wrong with it, unless I can sell it for $ 250 to $ 300 ? maybe ?
I only got about 30 hours of use on it.

How enter to service menu lg pa70g? (To know the time of use)

Someone had asked about gaming with the PA70G. I have had an Xbox connected to the projector (via my Denon A/V receiver) for a few days, and my kids are enjoying the big screen gaming experience. Previously they were using our 47" LCD TV (LG 47LD450 which is supposedly good in terms of low gaming lag). I asked my kids to look out for any lag using the projector compared to the TV. So far playing some of the Call Of Duty games and a game called Battlefield, they are not noticing any problems with lag. I also tried a few rounds, and while I am not good at these games, I didn't notice any issues with movement or firing in terms of lag. Given my skill level and my kids being 10 and 12, keep that in mind we are not hard core gamers. But I think if there was some kind of bad lag they would have noticed.

One issue we are having though, is the screen edge is cut off a bit. For example, the little square display in Call Of Duty that shows you where the other players are (when they shoot you see the little triangles), that display is slightly cut off from view. I have been playing around with different resolution and aspect ratio settings on both the Xbox and PA70G, but so far can't find a solution. As you guys know, the projector is not native 16:9, rather it is 16:10. So I have been looking for the correct setting to best play nice with both my HTPC and Xbox. Also I have played with some contrast related settings, and found some improvements. When there is some time, I will report back with the details of what I have found so far experimenting with the various settings.

Thanks,
Looking forward to see if it can focus at 12 feet

The PA70G is rated at 700 lumens vs. the 300 lumens of the HX300, so I assume it's quite a bit brighter.

The advantage of 1280 x 800 is you can get a true 720p picture with less transcoding artifacts.

I suggest you try it out. You can get one from Frys and return it if you don't like it (minus the 15% restocking fee).

I'll try to do that test tonight and post the results.

What do you mean about the transcoding thing and benefit of 1280x800? I confess the resolution options between my HTPC, Xbox and the projector with my 16x9 screen have got me confused.

Sorry. I used the wrong term. What I should have said was 'scaling', or 'autoscaling'.
The native HD picture is either 720p or 1080i.
If the projector has 720p 'pixels' (the native resolution), it can transmit the picture exactly like it appears in the source material.
If it has more or less pixels, the projector has to 'scale' the picture to fit the available pixels. Any scaling will change the picture. Scaling 'down' to fewer pixels will negatively affect the picture.
Upscaling will make the picture look better, but still can introduce undesired artifacts.

Most modern scaling engines handle the 1080i downscaling to 720p pretty well. The non-standard pixel sizes will look a little less nice.

The bottom line: The PA70G projector has enough pixels to show the picture in 720p mode 'natively' without any scaling. That's what is meant by 'native resolution'.

Does that help?

A little update.

I am Still having this PJ because the store only wanted to take it back if I agreed to only get 60% of the purchase money back. This gave me some time do more testing and found out something interesting.

The LG PB70G supports 1280x720 @ 120Hz over HDMI. This is probably good news for people who want to use this PJ for 3D viewing. Tried it with making a custom resolution in the Nvidia control and panel and it also works with my Lumagen video processor with the output set to 120Hz. I even managed to get 1080p@48Hz. Also no more focus shift when the PJ is warming up.. Yey.

The only thing that still bothers me is not getting a sharp picture with this PJ. With the LG HW300Y and Acer K330 I clearly could see the diamond shaped pixels when focussed correclty.. with the PG70G I can not. So there's definitely something not right. Going to contact LG about this problem and about the focus ring already at max at only 2 meters.

If I get the focus problem solved I would definitely sell my K330 and keep this one.

From what retailer did you purchase the projector? Sometimes projectors come with a 15 day/15% restocking fee if the projector has been opened. But I had not heard of a 40% hit that you mentioned - that is steep!

Regarding the focus ring limit - with a 100" diagonal screen size I am just about at the limit of the focus ring turning. The slight additional amount it can be turned causes the screen text to just blur a little, so fortunately, I am not out of focus range. But I do wonder, what would happen if the projector were moved further away from the screen, such as if I wanted a 110" or 120" diagonal image. Either the projector is at infinite focus by that point and there is no need to adjust, or the projector is not designed to be that far away from the screen.

About the focus, I can get sharp focus on text enough to see the diamond shaped pixels you mention. But I can't get every part of the screen to be completely sharp at the same time, because there is some uneven focus. I don't notice it watching movies or playing games.

I jumped on the recent Fry's deal and just got this PJ on Monday. I'm coming from an Optoma H27 that has been good to me. I use my PJs as my only tv (single guy, small apartment) and I project directly on a white wall. Due to windows / walls, the absolute max I can get is about 78" diagonal screen size, though I usually used the Optoma around 42-50" range... going too big was more distracting as a wall is then right at the edge of the projected image and it's white and noticeable. With the PA70G, I get about a 60-67" image from the same location (coffee table in front of couch). The only downside is that there is no offset on this PJ, so I have to place it on a stack of books 7" high and tilt it up a bit to clear the small entertainment center in front of it (the H27 has a large offset so this was not a factor).

I'm still in the early stages of playing with it, I haven't even broken out my calibration disc yet, but my initial thoughts:

Pros:
- Quiet! I'm very noise sensitive (I'm a regular at silentpcreview.com), and this thing is great in it's lowest 2 modes. The highest mode is noticeable during movies and I probably wouldn't use it unless I also had a window fan on at the same time to mask it. I think lack of color wheel helps (only noise source is the fan). I got the H27 because it was supposed to be quiet, but the PA70G is quieter. I think the H27's color wheel is kind of whiney.
- Bright enough... to my eyes, it looks the same as my H27 (with a pretty old bulb), I played the same video file to each PJ to compare (simultaneously on top of each)... H27 at 42", PA70G at 60" and the brightness looked the same. Colors (even uncalibrated) looked slightly better on the LG. Black levels seemed the same (note that I haven't calibrated it yet).
- Power consumption - I measured it at 60W in Medium power saving, 80W in minimum, 40W in maximum. I got it up to 100W when I plugged in a USB drive (fan also went louder), guess there is another video processing card that gets activated when using the USB drive or something. My H27 uses around 250W I think. Standy power is <1W... my H27 was 10W (yikes).

Cons
- no zoom. Placement is harder for me, I'm thinking of building some sort of translating mount on my coffee table to so I can have different image sizes
- no offset (100% offset) - need to tilt and /or raise it up to reach my "screen" (aka "wall"), may make a mount to raise it up during viewing that collapses when not in use (any ideas on this?)
- the inactive pixels seem more noticeable than on my H27 (meaning the pixels in the bars above / below the image seem less black, more gray, so i see them more easily). I find this distracting but maybe I'll get used to it.
- wish it had s-video input, i used that a lot with my old PJ, but I knew this going in and it's probably time for me to update some things anyway.

All in all I am very impressed with this little guy... I know it has some comprosmises, but for my uses it's probably going to work out well (if i sort out the mounting issue). I love not thinking about bulb life especially when setting it up and turning it on and off several times.

For what it's worth... Just got off the phone with LG to ask about 3D.
Yes... 3D (via blu-ray and PC) is officially supported!
I can't try it myself yet since my blu-ray player isn't 3d, and I won't upgrade until I can replace the receiver (to handle the HDMI 1.4 signals).

It's great knowing the PJ is 3D capable!

Not sure about the official 3D Blu-ray support.

The PA70G officially supports 1024X768 @ 120Hz and is not HDMI 1.4 (from the manual). And that's the only resolution you can select the 3D mode in the settings. Feeding it 1280X720 @ 120Hz the 3D option is ghosted so the only way to get the shutter glasses working/syncing with this resolution is with a PC.

Also another problem can be getting a 120Hz signal from the Blu-ray player. Because the PA70G doesn't officialy supports 1280X720 @ 120Hz its also not in its EDID. So it would only work if you can force 120Hz like I did with my Lumage Radiance. But then again no selectable 3D option.

The remote has a 3D button on it. The manual tells you what 3D compatible signals it can use.
I just got off the phone with support, and they said I would need an HDMI 1.4 compliant source.
The support rep said it would work with a blu ray 3D player.
(But I suppose he could be wrong)


Unfortunately, I can't test it until I get a 3D blu ray player.

PS3 supports 3D. i want to know what glasses would work with it

Is there a way to send data to this projector wireless ?, I mean sending a movie from my computer to this projector

Is anyone here not happy with theirs and want to sell it? I just saw a friends' PA70G and didn't get in on the sale in time.

I would check fry's sales online on fridays, they will have it back on sale for sure, nobody is buying it full price, so I would just keep an eye on the specials on fridays and the 1-day and 2-day sales during the week sometimes

Hello.
We are [all the furom readers], appreciate your review.

I wonder if you can play the 3D video file through the USB. If you don't have you can download a sample file.
About the fan noise in the brightest mode: Since you are sensitive to noise, Do you think you can live with the noise level in brightest mode?
Brightest mode must be used for 3D. since you will get about 35% from the total PJ brightness.

Thanks in advanced

If the PS3 supports HDMI 1.4 at 120 Hz, then it should work.

The glasses must match the video source, so for the PA70G, you'll need DLP-Link glasses.
See the 3D forum here for recommendations

I'm assuming you meant the PA70G since that is what you stated you purchased earlier?

While the projector may or may not support hdmi 1.4a (I tend to think not, as that is something they don't usually leave out of specs) is there any reason to believe this would not work with with a viewsonic 3d box between a 3d bluray player and the pa70g?

No. Only via VGA, HDMI, or USB memory stick

The manual says 3d is supported via HDMI or PC (VGA).

I prefer to use medium brightness because the unit is really quiet in that mode.
BUT... I wouldn't hesitate to use full power for 3D. It's not THAT loud, especially with the receiver cranking.

Yes... Sorry for the typo! I have the PA70G.

Unfortunately, I can't answer your question. If the 3d box passes the HDMI 1.4 signal at 120Hz it might work. The PA70g REQUIRES 120 Hz rate to enter 3D mode.

Latest update on image quality between my Panasonic AE900U and the LG PA70G.

I am surprised to report I the following: My entire family prefers the 700 lumen LG picture over the 1100 (rated) lumen Panasonic AE900U picture.

The Panny has a slight edge picture wise with its 'smoothing' technology, and may have *slightly* better blacks, but the added punch and brightness of the LG overshadows all that. The LG can match the AE900 with proper calibration.

Bottom line?: I'm keeping the LG and putting the AE900U up for sale on EBay.