[patrick21]

I ordered my X1 yesterday afternoon and it arrived this morning. The real problem is we had some bad weather here in Charlotte and no power. Talk about being really POed. A brand new projector and NO power!


Well, got power about 1 hour ago. So, here is my preliminary report.


Parkland Screen, 80 x 45

Viewing right at 15 feet


I wanted to start out slow, so I connected my old VHS VCR to the X1 using the single RCA plug. I was not expecting a lot, but WOW! Watched a few minutes of Men in Black and Twister. The picture is much better than my Hitachi 46 TV. Could not see any screendoor even in the credits. Again, the credits were very clear. To be honest, this quality picture was what I was expecting using my DVD. Not much else to say about the VHS but WOW.


Next, I connected my non progressive Toshiba DVD through the S-Video input. WOW!! Watched a few minutes of Armageddon. Picture was significantly better than the VHS. Sharper, a tad brighter, and still no screendoor at 15 feet.


I cannot imagine how the picture could possibly improve when I hook up the DVD via component, which I will do tomorrow when I get some cables.


As for the noise, I do not know it is there. AND, the X1 is sitting on a box in front of the sofa I sit on to watch!


I have not made any adjustments yet because I do not know what it needs. The colors out of the box to me seem perfect. I will play with that later.


Now for Screen door. When there is a light background and the credits are white, I can see screen door at about 8 feet on the credits only.


I am having Time Warner cable set me up with HD on Dec 16. Can't wait!


In the meantime, if there is anyone in the Charlotte area who has the Z1 and Time Warner cable, I would love to talk with you about a "shootout" between the X1 and the Z1.


As you can probably tell, I am a newbie to projectors. If any of you have any questions, please let me know and I try to answer them.


Now I am going to try to figure out how to move everything around so I can have sound. I will check back in a half hour of so.


patrick

 

[patrick21]

I forgot to add, I have not seen any rainbows on the X1.

 

[audible]

Congrats Patrick on your new X1. If I can tear myself away from here I'll get mine hooked up and we can do some comparisons. Xmas is early

 

[robpf]

Congratulations


Since you are using a 16x9 screen how does the x1 handle a 4x3 input? Black bars on the sides? Is there an option to stretch a 4x3 image to fill the screen? Also how does the scaler handle straight TV input. I would love to watch a football game if there is not too much artifact. I'm still waiting for HD Cable. Thanks

 

[patrick21]

robph, I am not sure well I can answer your questions right now, but here goes.


The VHS was 4:3 I guess. It filled the screen 80 inches wide and over shot the top and bottom of the 45 inch height by a good bit. Probably the 15 inches needed to be true 4:3, which should be 80 x 60.


The DVD, Armageddon, was 16:9 I guess. I say that because I was able to fill the entire 80 x 45 screen with no picture outside the screen. So, no black bars. However, when watching some previews on the VHS, there was one that had black bars on the top and bottom. They were very black, and I had to look twice to see them.


Now TV. I do not yet have a cable run up to my theater (bonus room) yet. So I have no idea how it will look. I can only imagine it (digital cable) will at least look as good as VHS. If that is the case, you will absolutely enjoy watching football. I think it should actually be better than the VHS as I think the TimeWarner box will have S-Video for regular tv and component for HD). I may take the X1 downstairs and connect it to my digital cable box there if I can find a white sheet to project on. (walls are dark).


Any other questions, let me know.


patrick

 

[anthonyc]

is this your first projector patrick?

 

[boatman]

Congratulations on the projector. I ordered mine Tuesday from Studio Experience to save $100 and to get it shipped next day. I thought I would get it Thursday.... but no.. they did not have them in stock and won't have them till next week......bummed I wanted to setup this weekend. Thanks for the review I look forward to hearing more.

 

[patrick21]

anthonyc, yes this is my first projector. I must admit I have only seen 2 in action, Studio Experience 17sf and a Yamaha (not sure the model but sold online for 5k).


Really the only thing I have to truly compare the X1 with is my Hitachi 46" TV. My hope was to have picture larger than the Hitachi and with the same picture quality. As I said before, the X1 FAR exceeds the Hitachi using VHS (composite input only) and non progressive DVD. There is absolutely now way I would even think of spending money for a progressive scan DVD player.


I noticed a review on the X1 from dl today. It seems all his negatives are not mine. I think I hear very well and I have to listen hard to hear the fan.


I discussed the picture quality with my wife and neighbor, and all of us could not comprehend the idea that there could be a projector with a better picture. (DVD)


Again, no one has seen any rainbows yet.


boatman, Sorry you have not received your X1 yet. I can;t wait to hear what you think of the X1.


patrick

 

[Peter_Mann]

Patrick,

You say you see screen door on a light backround with white credits at about 8'


This is interesting because I'd like a pj that will work with my HT limited space (small basement) and my best seating arangement would have me 8-10' from the screen. I can also accept a 'modest' size screen if i'm sitting that close.


How evident is screen door on a DVD with fairly bright scenes at 9'.


Peter

 

[patrick21]

peter, i just went in to check again on screen door. My daughter had Monster Inc. in the DVD player. Here is the screen I judged. When you start the movie, first comes the THX certified bit. Next comes the Disney World screen. This is what I looked at, The background is lighter blue with Walt Disney in white. The letters are 10 inches high. With the picture paused, I can see very small screen door at 8 1/2 feet in the letters IF I am trying very hard to see it. If I am just reading it (which to me means normal viewing), I have to get to about 5 feet before it is noticeable.


Keep in mind this is from a non progressive scan DVD player connected via S-video, AND the letters are 10 inches high, and the screen is a Parkland plastic. I believe if you are sitting 8-10 feet away, you may notice screen door in the 10 inch tall letters only if you are actually looking for it. Otherwise, I do not think screen door will be an issue. It is not to me.


Robpf, you asked about the black bars. I checked this out on Monsters Inc as well. I have the projector set to 4:3 (you have choices of Native, 16:9, and 4:3) When playing Monsters, I selected the widescreen format. I takes up all my 80 x 45 screen. I zoomed it down a bit and did see the black bars. I had to actually look for them and then I saw them. No, they are not black when compared to the black frame around the screen. However, they were plenty dark for me. Again, I had to look for them to actually notice them.


patrick

 

[anthonyc]

I finally saw some of the rainbows that people talk about. It actually depends on how your eyes view things that are white with a black background.

Here is how I finally, and I said finally because it really has been not noticable until i went and hunted the technique down to look for them, saw them.

I was watching episode II during the scenes when obi wan is hanging on the droid flying through the air after the assasination attempt. Occasionally a fleeting white light will have a rainbow effect if you let your eyes follow obi wan and any action occuring on the screen. I see that if you just watch the movie in normally and let your eyes focus in the middle 60% of the screen the rainbows don't really appear. It seems that your chances get better when you shake your head or rapidly dart your eyes around the screen, of course that is normally the way I watch movies so I'm very dissapointed, lol.

Really cool scenes with the light saber fights did not generate rainbows. Of course I could have shaken my head around a bit.

 

[nornal]

Quote:

Originally posted by patrick21 I checked this out on Monsters Inc as well. I have the projector set to 4:3 (you have choices of Native, 16:9, and 4:3) When playing Monsters, I selected the widescreen format. I takes up all my 80 x 45 screen. I zoomed it down a bit and did see the black bars. I had to actually look for them and then I saw them. No, they are not black when compared to the black frame around the screen. However, they were plenty dark for me. Again, I had to look for them to actually notice them. patrick

Hi Patrick,


I still am fine tuning the size and screen format.


Could you confirm the following based of my understanding from your post


1. The projector was set to 4:3


2. The widescreen format was seleted from the Monsters DVD option


3. By any chance, do you know what your DVD player screen format option is. Mine has 4:3, 4:3 Letterbox and Widescreen (currently selected).

 

[patrick21]

hi nornal. You have what I am doing correctly. As for the DVD player settings, I do not know. Never messed with them since I had the player, over 3 years.


I have disconnected everything so that I can try to ceiling mount this baby. When I get all connected again, I will check the settings on the DVD player. I know it has them because I have seen it in the manual.

 

[Scarpad]

Hooking up a progressive scan DVD like a tosh SD6200 would require a special cable to go inthru the VGA Inputs ? Is this correct?

 

[Flooper]

Hey Patrick!

Don't have my projector yet, but according to the manual, you should set the projector to 16:9 mode for anamorphic wide-screen DVDs. I believe Monster's Inc. is anamorphic.

I know how this works on my Sony RPTV (it does the raster squeeze to give you 33% more resolution) but I'm not sure how it works on the X1. Does anyone know?


mike


FROM THE MANUAL:


Aspect Ratio: Aspect ratio is the ratio of the image width to image height.

TV screens are usually 4:3. HDTV and most DVDs are 16:9. The default is

4:3.

Select Native to see the unmodified input with no resizing by the projector.

Select 16:9 to watch enhanced widescreen DVDs.




Connecting a video device

You can connect VCRs, DVD players, camcorders, digital cameras, video

games, HDTV receivers, and TV tuners to the projector. There is also an

audio input. You can connect the audio directly to the projector to get sound

from the onboard speaker, or you can connect it to your stereo’s receiver to

get sound from your own speakers.

Before connecting your projector, you should decide which aspect ratio you

want to use. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the image width to image height. TV

screens are usually 4:3, which is the default for this projector. HDTV and

most DVDs are 16:9. If you’re projecting onto a screen, the size/shape of the

screen may answer this question for you. If you are projecting onto a blank

wall, you don’t have the screen size restriction. What you plan to project

will also help you choose between 4:3 and 16:9. Most regular TV shows are

4:3, while most movies are 16:9.

If you select 4:3 and play TV, the image will fill the screen. If you select 16:9

and play HDTV, the image will fill the screen. However, if you select 4:3 and

play a 16:9 DVD, the image may be compressed horizontally or have black

bars along the top and bottom. If you select 16:9 and play regular TV, the

image may be stretched horizontally or have black bars along the sides. You

can make this selection later using the onscreen menus (page 30), but for

now you just need to know which format you’ll use most often.

 

[Flooper]

Quote:

Originally posted by Scarpad Hooking up a progressive scan DVD like a tosh SD6200 would require a special cable to go inthru the VGA Inputs ? Is this correct?

According to everything I've read (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) if you want to run the dvd player in progressive mode, you'll have to get a component to vga breakout cable. The X1 will only accept progressive and HD (480p and 1080i) through the vga connection. Or, you can run the dvd on interlaced, hook it into the X1s s-video connector with the adapter, and let the internal Faroudja processor handle the de-interlacing and scaling. Since I don't have my projector yet, I don't know which would be better.


mike

 

[Scarpad]

I use a converter box for plugging my DTC 100 into my Mits Widescreen. But I imagine you mean something different. I would imagine the image would look better in 480p than 480 i, or am I mistaken. Sorry to sound stupid but I'm pretty new to the projector world.

 

[Flooper]

Scarpad,

The thing you use for your DTC100 is called a transcoder. You do not need that. All you need is a cable that starts with component connections on one end, and a vga connection on the other end...usually a lot cheaper than a transcoder.


The way I understand it (and god knows I get things wrong!) as far as looking better as 480p vs 480i, remember that all digital projectors are progressive. With your DVD putting out a progressive scan, you are letting the DVD player do the deinterlacing. When you send an interlaced signal to your pj, you are letting the internal deinterlacer of the pj handle the deinterlacing. So, it depends...which of your two units--the pj or the dvd player--has the better deinterlacer. In theory, though, it should be better to let the dvd player do the deinterlacing...unless you have a crappy deinterlacer in your dvd player. If I'm wrong on this, somebody jump in please.


mike

 

[Scarpad]

I've been pretty happy with the deinterlacer of the 6200, how that stacks up against the XP1 I do not know. Transcoder yep I was lost for words

 

[robbyc30]

The X1 has a Faroudja de-interlacer, which is top of the line. It will give a better picture than a lot of progressive DVD players.