The 1st Official Infocus 4805 Thread - Page 2  

Martin,

Don't be afraid, but on the other hand shouldn't you email Jason or AVS about this? From what I hear they also do a very good price.


Back on track, I'd be curious how the poster above who did the X1 comparison found the 4805 blacks. I'm still waiting, as we all are, for a side by side H30 comparison, but I used to have an X1 before my now sold H30 so that would give me an idea.

Cheers

Steve

1) I'll PM you the Cdn retail.

2) NO, as soon as it comes across the border, the warranty is no longer in effect. I was wondering this also because I have a US friend who was going to get it for me. In order to warranty I would have to send it to him so he could send it to InFocus. If I was to buy it from US myself, I would have no warranty. An authorized Cdn IF dealer gave me this info.

Tony, my advice (and I think many others would agree), is to cancel the order if you can and wait until you get the projector. Use a bedsheet or a wall to get a feel for the size image you like and then use screen samples to determine what looks best to you.

Martin and UnknownShadow, you got pm.

Mark

As JeffKB said what looks best to you is going to be different from the next person.

All I can add is I have had my 4805 for 2 days now and I am using a Da-Lite High Contrast Matte White screen (106" diag) it has a 1.1 gain and the grey material. I find it works well in my ambient light situation, that is a 50 watt bulb. I feel it is pretty watchable, I can of course mess with the contrast/birghtness settings or the many pre-sets the 4805 comes with (CRT, Film, Bright Room 1, Bright Room 2, Video, and one more I think) and be pleased with the results. But what looks good to me may not look good to you, I only hope this helps you out a little.

I would be very interested to here how the dithering compares with an X1? Anyone?

vae_victus: Clarifications please.

- You mentioned that you have a "Matte White" screen but that it's the 'gray material"?

- When you state that it's pretty watchable with the 50w light on. Do you notice a significant improvement in picture quality when that light is off?

Thanks.

Yes it is grey; here is the description from Da-Lites website:
High Contrast Matte White

Designed for moderate output DLP and LCD projectors, this screen surface is a great choice when video images are the main source of information being projected and where ambient light is moderately controlled. With its specially designed gray base material and reflective top surface, this screen material is able to provide very good black levels without sacrificing the white level output. Screen surface can be cleaned with mild soap and water. Flame retardant and mildew resistant.

Viewing Angle: 45°
Gain: 1.1

I do notice a great improvement with the lights off. HDTV is watchable and PS2/Gamecube is playable with my ambient light. DVD's look perfect in darkness (IMHO); but I have always watched DVD's in darkness when possible even on my old 27" Zenith SDTV.

Can anyone comment on in/outs of using projector off of a speaker stand or small table as a PJ mount?

For the size screen I want and my ceiling height in current projection location, this is my best option. I am wondering if there is neat way to hide cables both near the projector and on the floor. Anyone used PJs like this? Did it work out?

I can see why the Sanyo with lens shift gets so much praise...when you need it ...you really need it.

Also the DVI input for 4805 is through an M1 port. Is an adapter ok here (IF offers 6" DVI to M1) or should I get a cable that does DVI to M1....since this is digital signal I am thinking the adapter isn't going to interfere that much as if it were analog.

Suggestions?

kfc2 - It seems people use this term to describe 2 separate artifacts. One is "mosquito noise" in blacks and the other is motion induced issues caused by medium to fast pans. As far as I'm concerned, the 4805 does not have issues with either of these at the distance you want to be viewing this PJ from. Of course I didn't have an issue with the X1 and I assume since you're asking that dithering bugs you on it, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask. If you want to clarify what it is that bothers you I can analyze further. Of course, if you teach me to see a new artifact I'm not going to forgive you. :D

You are missing one thing though, advertisers pay to have thier adds on this site. It's not just being supported by the sales of AVS. Moderators will not allow us to discuss prices and availability of products from the actual sponsers of this site. The ones that pay for us to use it. I don't understand this myself.

When I initally preordered the projector I asked several AVS reps if they sold the projector, they said they don't carry low end stuff. Now they do, great, so what am I supposed to do? Cancel my preorder and get further back in line? NO.

Also, these forums are a great place with great people. The rules do seem fair, however with all the complaning and off topic discussion that I've experienced yet so far, I think I'll probally be better off spending less time here.

Post #1 on June 17

I got the SP4805 last nite and watched it for 5 hours.

My viewing distance is 14' and SP4805 ceiling mount above my head.

Under my eyes here is my though:

HDTV: connected to my digital cable timewarner via component. The picture was soft and the color is not vivid, it seem like it was missing something. I loved the HD picture on the Z2. (I like the sharpness and vivid color). Plus I have the dalite high power 106" screen so for HD viewing, the image rather suffer on the sp4805.

DVD: I've tried to calibrated the picture using DVE but I could only adjusted the contrast and brightness but not the hue/saturation due to the weird color offset setting on the sp4805. Therefore, I have using the film mode during the whole time. The SP4805 make viewing movies a nice experienced but I was getting headache after one hour of watching it even I didn’t' see any rainbow at all. Again, under my eyes contrast looked good but not better compare to the Z2 tweaked/CCR25 filter.

DVI: I can't connect my dvi-d cable to the dvi port -> need more research on this.

Remote: Its the same as the remote for SP4800, I wish it has short cut for picture mode.

Fan noise was loud for high lamp mode. Even on low lamp mode, it couldn't compare to the quieter Z2.

Anyhow, I need more time on this puppy and will update you all later.

For now, I don't have the wow factor yet, not like when I was switched from the SP4800, Z90 -> H30 -> Z2.

As of today, I have figured out two things:
First, the DVI port on SP4805 was not a real DVI port. Its called M1 so I’ll need an adapter from M1 -> DVI. (Infocus supplied the M1 -> VGA cable in the package)
Second, if you’re using the component input (Green, Blue, Red), you will not be able to adjust the color and tint level (ex. trying to adjust picture images using DVE).

More later…

HD

Wrong screen for the 4805. A ND filter might help. What's this about headaches? You didn't get a headache with the other DLP projectors? What happened to the Z2? you could be a candidate for LCD technology.

One thought the 4805 being a bright projector on a 2.8gain screen, the brightness may be giving you the headache.

"Second, if you’re using the component input (Green, Blue, Red), you will not be able to adjust the color and tint level"

Tint I understand but Color should always be available.

Try sending a component DVD interlaced signal, pick up the onboard farouja and probably Tint also.

The actual "color" adjustment may not be there, but you should be able to adjust red, green, and blue individually.

Well, lets me try to show you whats look like under color level adju. under component input:
-Hit the color level you will see this screen:
- Red level # 50
- Green level # 50
- Blue level # 50
- Red offset # not sure
- Green offset #
- Blue offset #

Its kind of differences from the past.
So thats why I’m stucked.


You’re standing corrected. Under S-Video input, I was be able to adjust the color and tint level.

But you are running your dvd player in progressive right?

RGB Level will be the RGB-contrast

RGB offset will be the RGB-brightness

On CRT's they call them cuts and drives, drives being contrast the the upper end of the grayscale/higher IRE's.

Cuts being the lower or brightness levels/ lower IRE's of grayscale..

Probably you don't have to mess with the RGB since IF says they tuned to 6500k.

I asked Bob WIlliams here how many or what are the input signals that are tuned to 6500k. Probably the interlaced component signal I guess. It would be nice if Bob chimed in on this one.

Here is a newbie question
How does offset work if you DON"T ceiling mount the projector?

Does that mean the image will be 27%Height inches above the center of the projector?

Sorry. I have never owned a projector before and it seems to me a lot of people are having trouble with the large offset of the 4805 yet no one seems to be table mounting the projector. Just wondering how that would work out.

You are correct, if you put it on a table the offset will be 27% above the center of the projector.

With the 4805 on order, this is something that I will need to get straight.
My dvi cable from my receiver will need an adapter to fit into the 4805 and this adapter is available (only?) from InFocus? So, what is the deal with all of this? TIA

Too bad you didn't know about the M1/DVI port, that has been discussed several times in these threads. But it is good to hear that the VGA adapter cable is included. I think that's the first time someone has mentioned that and it should save some other people some concern/hassle. Does that adapter cable also include a USB port connector?

It sounds like the progressive inputs are similar to the SP4800/X1 in that you have to modify the RGB levels individually rather than having a tint/color control.

I was more refering to the artifact where a color gradient is actualy broken down in to seperate bars of color. Sometimes it has the effect of making a smooth transition from black to grey look more like a grey scale. It is also often seen in the sky too. I will try and see if I can recall a example from a common movie to compare.

The USB connector is included, it is part of the VGA cable.

Other than that it comes with a S-Video and standard A/V cable. The power cord is longer than I expected too probably about 8 feet.

So it's the SP-DVI-A-F cable. Well that's good news, at least people will be able to do firmware updates without having to buy any other adapter from InFocus.

From angilasaurus:

I'm guessing because of the M1 port therefore "angilasaurus
" was fumbling with the D-2 using DVI connection.

just a though ;)

Yes it is but is probably about 4 feet long, I haven't opened the bag it came in yet but it is definately a few feet long.

Hmm... so maybe it's the SP-DVI-A cable instead? What gender is the VGA connector on your cable, if you don't mind checking.

The SP-DVI-A has a male DB15 and the SP-DVI-A-F has a female DB15. And the USB connectors are different too. (if you click on the picture at the InFocus store you get a larger view)

Thanks.

Its the SP-DVI-A cable, so I gather we can't do firmware upgrades with this one?