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I know this projector isn't on this forum's radar screens anymore (but boy was it debated on last year!) but for anyone whose in the market for this projector, this review might be of some use to you....
I bought this A10X as a closeout demo model with over 500hrs on the lamp, but fortunately (knock on wood) so far no dead pixels. Its a great short throw projector, I'm currently estimating a 107" 4:3 or 98" 16:9. The projector is mounted upside down and resting on a shelf. Viewing distance is about 12 ft from the front of the eye to the wall.
The screen is Valspar Plank Grey flat latex from Lowes. I painted the wall with two coats. I considered Berh Silverscreen or even Misty Evening and although I'm sure either of those colors would have been great on my projector, another threader (thanks Ron-P) has demoed all of them a found his Panny to exhibit more black levels using the Valspar than the others. Based on his testing, I chose the Valspar and I am very happy with the screen and the resulting image. The wall itself is textured but from my viewing distance, not noticeable. Possibly the texture spray pattern was set to a smaller setting.
Now for the review of the A10X.
Black Levels: If you were to only judge black levels by the colors of the letterboxes, you'd have have a fairly dark grey. However, if you mask these sections out with felt (black paint is not effective enough) or simply concentrate on the movie and not the letterboxes, the perceived black levels on the image are very satisfying and fairly deep. I think the grey screen contributes more to this rather than the projector which brings up another side point: Low contrast dpjs would probably benefit more from grey screens rathers than white- they need all the help they can
get.
Colors: In short- beautiful. As long as you have a 4:3 image, the colors just pop out and the image is very immersive and detailed. However, the image is only as good as the authoring of the dvd itself, so where Gladiator or Nemo might look awesome, Thomas the Tank Engine looks barely tolerable (but don't tell that to my son). Sharp is well-regarded in displaying rich colors and the A10X is no exception. I must add that 4:3 looks so good, I am strongly considering buying all of my future DVDs as pan and scan, just to take advantage of the large picture quality.
Resolution: When you are considering a LCD, rather than a DLP, as a projector, strongly consider XGA rather than SVGA. From about 3-4 ft. I can already see pixel structure but because its an XGA and there are more lines, the structure disappears at viewing distance, which in my case is probably 4-5ft closer than it should be. But if your room or seating area is close, chances are you'll see the lines easier with SVGA resolution.
Controls, etc.: Very versatile. Since I have a dvdo pure progressive, I can use the VGA input. From this I could chose RGB or component input. I chose component because I was happier with the signal, but others may prefer RGB. Curios thing about the A10X, the fans noise increase about 30minutes into the film, but then lowers to its low fan setting about 10 minutes after. I don't whjat causes it but the filters look clean so it could some timer cycle to get the pj to operate at a comfortable level.
Well that's it for now. I'll try to post pix of the theater and some images on this unit. I know there are many projectors out there than are much better in features or picture, and this being a discontnued pj it might tougher to find around. But a lot of my choices in getting this pj was from reading this forum (and the diy screens forum) so my thanks to everyone out there and happy viewing..
I bought this A10X as a closeout demo model with over 500hrs on the lamp, but fortunately (knock on wood) so far no dead pixels. Its a great short throw projector, I'm currently estimating a 107" 4:3 or 98" 16:9. The projector is mounted upside down and resting on a shelf. Viewing distance is about 12 ft from the front of the eye to the wall.
The screen is Valspar Plank Grey flat latex from Lowes. I painted the wall with two coats. I considered Berh Silverscreen or even Misty Evening and although I'm sure either of those colors would have been great on my projector, another threader (thanks Ron-P) has demoed all of them a found his Panny to exhibit more black levels using the Valspar than the others. Based on his testing, I chose the Valspar and I am very happy with the screen and the resulting image. The wall itself is textured but from my viewing distance, not noticeable. Possibly the texture spray pattern was set to a smaller setting.
Now for the review of the A10X.
Black Levels: If you were to only judge black levels by the colors of the letterboxes, you'd have have a fairly dark grey. However, if you mask these sections out with felt (black paint is not effective enough) or simply concentrate on the movie and not the letterboxes, the perceived black levels on the image are very satisfying and fairly deep. I think the grey screen contributes more to this rather than the projector which brings up another side point: Low contrast dpjs would probably benefit more from grey screens rathers than white- they need all the help they can
get.
Colors: In short- beautiful. As long as you have a 4:3 image, the colors just pop out and the image is very immersive and detailed. However, the image is only as good as the authoring of the dvd itself, so where Gladiator or Nemo might look awesome, Thomas the Tank Engine looks barely tolerable (but don't tell that to my son). Sharp is well-regarded in displaying rich colors and the A10X is no exception. I must add that 4:3 looks so good, I am strongly considering buying all of my future DVDs as pan and scan, just to take advantage of the large picture quality.
Resolution: When you are considering a LCD, rather than a DLP, as a projector, strongly consider XGA rather than SVGA. From about 3-4 ft. I can already see pixel structure but because its an XGA and there are more lines, the structure disappears at viewing distance, which in my case is probably 4-5ft closer than it should be. But if your room or seating area is close, chances are you'll see the lines easier with SVGA resolution.
Controls, etc.: Very versatile. Since I have a dvdo pure progressive, I can use the VGA input. From this I could chose RGB or component input. I chose component because I was happier with the signal, but others may prefer RGB. Curios thing about the A10X, the fans noise increase about 30minutes into the film, but then lowers to its low fan setting about 10 minutes after. I don't whjat causes it but the filters look clean so it could some timer cycle to get the pj to operate at a comfortable level.
Well that's it for now. I'll try to post pix of the theater and some images on this unit. I know there are many projectors out there than are much better in features or picture, and this being a discontnued pj it might tougher to find around. But a lot of my choices in getting this pj was from reading this forum (and the diy screens forum) so my thanks to everyone out there and happy viewing..
