I just got the Epson TW-600 (European VErsion of the cinma 800) und tried it 1 H last night. I am rebuilding my house and I wanted to have a pj of latest generation to learn as this is my first pj ever. I was especially interest to learn:
- how subjectively bright or dimm is the picture at which screen sizes
- what is the preference of myself and my wife on screen size
- how bad is the picture quality with a cheapo LCD-pj (less than 2000 $), so how much more is needed from the upcoming 1080p generation
So, here we go:
Negatives:
- OUt of the box I don't get a picture from my HTPC at 720p connected with a DVI-cable and a HDMI-adapter to the Epson (works currently only with VGA)
- Picture could be sharper when using VGA, but this is true only when you choose a very big screen
- too loud at normal mode
Positives:
- As my cinema room is not there yet, I simply projected on a yellow-painted wall in my current living room. The picture is even at 4,1m width (not diagonale)and 1,75m height very nice and not dimm. COuld be brighter, but what gain might a yellow (not a bright yellow, but with some red in it)painted wall have ? 0,7?
- Bigger is better. We will definetly go for the 4,1m*1,75m Format in the real room with a seating distance of 5 m, most probably using Goo with a gain of 2. My wife is blown away and loves it.
- Surprise: She loves the picture so much, that she declared that the room needs to be light-controlled to improve pq - this was my biggest worry how to sell her that we will sit in the dark on our evenings.
Screen-Door-effect: That is what I hated always about LCDs. It is still visible, but at a distance of 5m hardly noticeable, at 6m you can't see it anymore. Plus: when watching movies with motion in it, you will not see it really anyhow.
- Picture quality: Hard to tell with a yellow wall, but already very good, at least that I can live with it for 6 months before I pick a 1080p unit, hopefully for less than 10000$ and brighter than the ruby. The 6th generation LCDs will be simply astonishing as Epson forecasted to increase their contrast bei the factor 4-5. I think that many people will get bigger screens in the next years as the resolution goes up as this gives real cinemascope-feeling at home. I will now re-arrange my room-plans to get this big scrren into my room. It's a must have for me now.
Any hints how to get the DVI-HDMI-thing to work are highly appreciated, as the pq should increase even higher.
Upcoming tests:
- Get HDMI to work
- Try HTPC with ffdshow and resize so that a Isco II can utilize the full resolution in 2.35:1 format. Let's see what this does to brightness and resolution.
