Before anyone jumps all over me saying this is an unfair comparison, I think the interest generated in the LT150 over the last few weeks warrants a comparison of this little puppy to one of the big boys. Much praise has been showered on this projector, and many buyers are getting into FP's for the first time. Rather than compare it to similarly priced projectors, I thought it would be beneficial to see how it stacks up against a much more expensive digital projector.
So without further ado.
The LT150 had the standard modifications made to it, such as turning off the white segment, setting Gamma to Natural 1, and calibrating brightness and contrast with AVIA. I didn't find any benefit in tweaking any of the other somewhat limited options from the menus. One important factor I discovered is that you really must drive this projector at native resolution (1024x768). Any scaling, or adjustments to a 16:9 resolution (1024x576) produced a much inferior desktop. I also discovered that adjusting the keystoning also has a negative impact. This is seen on the desktop by vertical bands of out of focus text. No amount of pixel adjustment from the LT menus could fix this (for me).
The G11 is pretty much out of the box, calibrated for black level with Dilard and a few other Dilard wizards. No professional calibration.
The screen is a custom made home-brew about 144x54 inches. I like to adopt the constant height variable width approach, which unfortunately does not work with the fixed 4:3 aspect ratio of the LT150. The fabric is pretty much matte off-white, and wouldn't be described as high-gain.
The HTPC is fitted with a Radeon DDR and I used the Cinemaster engine for the decoder.
So here we go:
To avoid the keystone adjustment, I had to drop the projector height to just about a foot off the ground to get a centered image that filled most of my screen width. I would guess the projected width was around 100 inches or so. The projector was about half way between the screen and the DILA.
LT150:
I watched a complete movie on the LT150 last night after basic calibration and was very impressed with the image. However, for a side by side test, I went back to Gladiator and Fifth Element as my reference DVD's.
Gladiator looked better than it did when I quickly viewed it yesterday, probably because of the keystoning. If I hadn't seen anything else, I would think this was a superb projector...
However, having a critical eye, I looked for specific defects in the picture. I chose the scene in Gladiator towards the end where the Emperor stabs Maximus in the back just before their fight. I watched this through to Maximus' death. The entry of the Emperor into the corridor where he meets the hanging Maximus has a good contrast variance and the bright armour he's wearing has very defined edges. On the LT, I thought the armour looked a little lacking in detail and didn't appear very filmlike. When they move into the arena, there's a great long shot to test the resolution. Again I felt the LT was struggling a bit and saw slight halos around small objects. Rainbows were obvious to me if I moved my eyes from side to side quickly. However, I had to jerk my head like an idiot to look for them, and under normal viewing I didn't notice any, nor was I affacted by them.
I then moved on to Fifth Element. I like the intro scene in the cave with the columns and Chapter 9 and 10 where LeeLoo is created. Everything looked pretty good although not outstanding until the ledge scene. Here I felt the detail I'm used to seeing in the buildings was missing and the overall appearance was that I was viewing a lower resolution image than I've been used to. In both Gladiator and Fifth Element I felt that the color, while good, was just not quite there. I can best describe it as comparison of GeForce to Radeon.
So I fired up the G11.
Starting with Gladiator, the difference was night and day. Immediately the image had significantly better saturation and a very definite film-like quality to it. It was more three dimensional and seemed like I was watching HD not DVD. The digital vibes I'd felt every now and then with the LT150 were completely gone. The Emperors white armour was better defined and smoother, but with more detail. The long shot of the arena revealed much more detail and gone were the slight halos around small objects. Interestingly, I felt the black levels were very similar between the two projectors. This is bearing in mind I've run Dilard's black wizard.
Moving on to Fifth Element, the difference was the same. More film-like, more detail, better saturation and just plain better. Not by a small amount, but by a significant amount. The ledge scene was packed with detail. I could make out all the buildings very clearly, and the pans kept the detail, it didn't become a blur.
I don't want this to sound like a slam-dunk for the DILA. It's better yes, but look at the price differential.
As I said at the beginning, if I hadn't seen anything better, then I'd think the LT150 was a fantastic projector. And at it's price point it is. Heck it cost less than half my 65in HDTV. Anyone getting into FP's for the first time should be very satisfied with this little puppy. I just wanted to show you what the extra bucks get you if you go up the chain.
Chivs
So without further ado.
The LT150 had the standard modifications made to it, such as turning off the white segment, setting Gamma to Natural 1, and calibrating brightness and contrast with AVIA. I didn't find any benefit in tweaking any of the other somewhat limited options from the menus. One important factor I discovered is that you really must drive this projector at native resolution (1024x768). Any scaling, or adjustments to a 16:9 resolution (1024x576) produced a much inferior desktop. I also discovered that adjusting the keystoning also has a negative impact. This is seen on the desktop by vertical bands of out of focus text. No amount of pixel adjustment from the LT menus could fix this (for me).
The G11 is pretty much out of the box, calibrated for black level with Dilard and a few other Dilard wizards. No professional calibration.
The screen is a custom made home-brew about 144x54 inches. I like to adopt the constant height variable width approach, which unfortunately does not work with the fixed 4:3 aspect ratio of the LT150. The fabric is pretty much matte off-white, and wouldn't be described as high-gain.
The HTPC is fitted with a Radeon DDR and I used the Cinemaster engine for the decoder.
So here we go:
To avoid the keystone adjustment, I had to drop the projector height to just about a foot off the ground to get a centered image that filled most of my screen width. I would guess the projected width was around 100 inches or so. The projector was about half way between the screen and the DILA.
LT150:
I watched a complete movie on the LT150 last night after basic calibration and was very impressed with the image. However, for a side by side test, I went back to Gladiator and Fifth Element as my reference DVD's.
Gladiator looked better than it did when I quickly viewed it yesterday, probably because of the keystoning. If I hadn't seen anything else, I would think this was a superb projector...
However, having a critical eye, I looked for specific defects in the picture. I chose the scene in Gladiator towards the end where the Emperor stabs Maximus in the back just before their fight. I watched this through to Maximus' death. The entry of the Emperor into the corridor where he meets the hanging Maximus has a good contrast variance and the bright armour he's wearing has very defined edges. On the LT, I thought the armour looked a little lacking in detail and didn't appear very filmlike. When they move into the arena, there's a great long shot to test the resolution. Again I felt the LT was struggling a bit and saw slight halos around small objects. Rainbows were obvious to me if I moved my eyes from side to side quickly. However, I had to jerk my head like an idiot to look for them, and under normal viewing I didn't notice any, nor was I affacted by them.
I then moved on to Fifth Element. I like the intro scene in the cave with the columns and Chapter 9 and 10 where LeeLoo is created. Everything looked pretty good although not outstanding until the ledge scene. Here I felt the detail I'm used to seeing in the buildings was missing and the overall appearance was that I was viewing a lower resolution image than I've been used to. In both Gladiator and Fifth Element I felt that the color, while good, was just not quite there. I can best describe it as comparison of GeForce to Radeon.
So I fired up the G11.
Starting with Gladiator, the difference was night and day. Immediately the image had significantly better saturation and a very definite film-like quality to it. It was more three dimensional and seemed like I was watching HD not DVD. The digital vibes I'd felt every now and then with the LT150 were completely gone. The Emperors white armour was better defined and smoother, but with more detail. The long shot of the arena revealed much more detail and gone were the slight halos around small objects. Interestingly, I felt the black levels were very similar between the two projectors. This is bearing in mind I've run Dilard's black wizard.
Moving on to Fifth Element, the difference was the same. More film-like, more detail, better saturation and just plain better. Not by a small amount, but by a significant amount. The ledge scene was packed with detail. I could make out all the buildings very clearly, and the pans kept the detail, it didn't become a blur.
I don't want this to sound like a slam-dunk for the DILA. It's better yes, but look at the price differential.
As I said at the beginning, if I hadn't seen anything better, then I'd think the LT150 was a fantastic projector. And at it's price point it is. Heck it cost less than half my 65in HDTV. Anyone getting into FP's for the first time should be very satisfied with this little puppy. I just wanted to show you what the extra bucks get you if you go up the chain.
Chivs
