I visited the Home Entertainment Expo today (seems like this was the unpopular day to go) and I figured more people would have been talking the new stuff Faroujda had there...
I was annoying the salesman, who pulls off the "I'm full of myself" like the other Faroujda person I've talked to very well.
I asked if they had the combo DVD / scaler:
"We've got the DCS" and beckons at something that looks like my NRS from 10 feet away. I walk over since I have no clue what the DCS is.
"Thats what I was talking about."
"Oh well yea."
"I didn't know it was out."
"Of course, its been out since last week!"
A few minutes later as I was waiting for the show to start, I looked over and took a proper look at what I thought was the D-ILA projector next to me. I realized it had Faroujda badging and I decided to ask him what they did (besides the obvious Panamorph on it.)
"Hah, I can't tell you that, its trade secret! JVC saw it and wanted to partner with us."
Gee thanks for the information. Basically I wanted to know if they just did tweaking or if they had put Faroujda chips on the D-ILA which didn't make sense to me because they were driving it for a $10k! scaler. I compared it to the Infocus and he said that unit was junk and abruptly turned away.
It probably has something to do with me not looking like a typical customer but they didn't seem very helpful.
Anyway before they played some movies, the Faroujda guy, a Krell person and someone from Stewart got up. The Krell guy didn't have much in the way of content but bragged about some funny things (we get 120w at 8 ohms in our system and wait for it....240w at 4 ohms!) Wow I couldn't have guessed that
Anyway, the other things I didn't like during the Faroujda presentation: "We're the first to line double 1080i with this unit." Uhh...your several year old unit already did it, and I can name 4 other scalers that do it, plus all the other D-ILA projectors do it.
Then he bragged about with their new DVI inputs and outputs coupled with the plasma outside, they were the (cough) first to have a full digital path from DVD to display. How about you guys were the LAST to the game? I chuckled when he said that but was ignored. Finally he bragged about having a "custom anamorphic lens, another innovation we pioneered" on it. Looked like a Panamorph to me that I read about people doing a year ago.
As for the video material...I wasn't really impressed. Of course it looked great, but nothing new. I've seen a calibrated G15 on the exact same size Stewart Firehawk powered by an HTPC (with no panamorph) and I honestly didn't see much of an improvement. The detail was nice but the color seemed a little washed out (this was is in a light-controlled room.) I'm thinking even with their "enhancments" their customized projector wasn't as good as the one I saw calibrated with DILARD. At least they've finally caught up to everyone else, but the price...oy!
I was annoying the salesman, who pulls off the "I'm full of myself" like the other Faroujda person I've talked to very well.
I asked if they had the combo DVD / scaler:
"We've got the DCS" and beckons at something that looks like my NRS from 10 feet away. I walk over since I have no clue what the DCS is.
"Thats what I was talking about."
"Oh well yea."
"I didn't know it was out."
"Of course, its been out since last week!"
A few minutes later as I was waiting for the show to start, I looked over and took a proper look at what I thought was the D-ILA projector next to me. I realized it had Faroujda badging and I decided to ask him what they did (besides the obvious Panamorph on it.)
"Hah, I can't tell you that, its trade secret! JVC saw it and wanted to partner with us."
Gee thanks for the information. Basically I wanted to know if they just did tweaking or if they had put Faroujda chips on the D-ILA which didn't make sense to me because they were driving it for a $10k! scaler. I compared it to the Infocus and he said that unit was junk and abruptly turned away.
It probably has something to do with me not looking like a typical customer but they didn't seem very helpful.
Anyway before they played some movies, the Faroujda guy, a Krell person and someone from Stewart got up. The Krell guy didn't have much in the way of content but bragged about some funny things (we get 120w at 8 ohms in our system and wait for it....240w at 4 ohms!) Wow I couldn't have guessed that
Anyway, the other things I didn't like during the Faroujda presentation: "We're the first to line double 1080i with this unit." Uhh...your several year old unit already did it, and I can name 4 other scalers that do it, plus all the other D-ILA projectors do it.
Then he bragged about with their new DVI inputs and outputs coupled with the plasma outside, they were the (cough) first to have a full digital path from DVD to display. How about you guys were the LAST to the game? I chuckled when he said that but was ignored. Finally he bragged about having a "custom anamorphic lens, another innovation we pioneered" on it. Looked like a Panamorph to me that I read about people doing a year ago.
As for the video material...I wasn't really impressed. Of course it looked great, but nothing new. I've seen a calibrated G15 on the exact same size Stewart Firehawk powered by an HTPC (with no panamorph) and I honestly didn't see much of an improvement. The detail was nice but the color seemed a little washed out (this was is in a light-controlled room.) I'm thinking even with their "enhancments" their customized projector wasn't as good as the one I saw calibrated with DILARD. At least they've finally caught up to everyone else, but the price...oy!
