[LEXICON]

I am about to pull the trigger and buy a projector. Which one

would you purchase?

 

[Mark Lareau]

It really depends on your viewing habits. I use my HT for watching DVD movies pretty much exclusively (occasional X-Box gaming), so for me native 16:9 is an absolute must. I also get headaches when watching DLP's (not to mention those somewhat distracting rainbows), so I'm pretty much limited to LCD or it's more expensive variants (LCOS, SXRD...)


My suggestion; after gleaning whatever you can from this forum, try to get a look at both of them in person and pick the one that looks best to you. Although even that may not prove to be your best bet, as most PJ's I've seen in people's homes look far better than when they are quickly set up for in-store demo's. "Tweakability" factor is something to take into consideration.

 

[darinp]

This depends a lot on screen size, how the throw and offsets work for you, brightness needed in your room, personal preference and other things. Which one I would choose would depend a lot on where I planned to use it. On my 116" High Power in my white walled living room I would take the HS20. On a smaller screen in my dark theater room I might take the HT1000 (although I sold mine to get a Sharp 10k).


--Darin

 

[EHUFF]

Looks as though your down to the same 2 projectors I am. As I posted the

 

[Martin Butler]

I hope you guys can compare them soon, I'm interested in these two pj's as well. It does seem to me that there will be quite a few affordable HD2 pj's soon, thanks to the HD2.5, so maybe a used Sharp 10000, DWIN , InFocus, etc. will be the same price as the NEC and that might be worth waiting for. I wish Sony would announce their time frame for the inevitable "affordable" SXRD.


The HS20 is supposedly better than the 12HT, and at much lower price.Tough decision.


I like the HDMI/DVI aspect of the HS20 a lot. You just know that Sony will up the ante soon with a DVI/HDMI out DVD player.

 

[darinp]

Quote:

Originally posted by Martin Butler I hope you guys can compare them soon

I'm not sure what you would get from a comparison if you weren't there. I think most of the stuff about the HT1000 is already known and much of the stuff about the HS20 can be figured out to a reasonable point from the HS10 and what some of us saw with the HS20. Now, if we could get some measurements of light output and true CR from the HS20, that would be nice.


Last year when we had the big shootout of lower end projectors at my house, many people thought we would just compare them and then we could say which one was best. It didn't work that way. They each had some advantages or disadvantages. We were able to find some of those, but measurements could have told some of the story.


If we got an HS20 and HT1000 in the same room, I know that some people would prefer one and some would prefer the other, so I'm not sure how much you would learn.


Are there specific criteria about each that you would like to know? Maybe we could give some educated information about them, some more speculative than others, though.


I think a comparison of the HS20 to the Z2 would have more merit, since they don't differ nearly as much as the HS20 and HT1000.


--Darin

 

[Martin Butler]

Thanks Darin. Personally, I loved the JVC G150 D-ILA picture, truly lovely, but agree that black levels needed some work. I've been anticipating a 16 X 9 JVC pj with similar and possibly improved black levels at 6-8 G's which I hoped to get second hand at 3.5 G's a year after release, but that's not happening. I'd be very happy to try out a nice DLP pj, but did notice eye strain when I've viewed them and a few rainbows. It may or may not be a major issue. I don't like the washed out look of LCD, but with Sony's HS-20 they may be at that "good enough " point. The price and features are excellent. I wish there was a place to view a properly set up HS-20. At the Sony Headquarters here in NYC, they usually plop a pj on a table in a bright area, plug it in, leave the wrong aspect ratio setting, and expect you to say wow!

 

[Uther]

I know for me, a major point of comparison between the HT1000 and HS20 would be in terms of Hi Def viewing. I think from a strictly DVD watching perspective, it would be tough to beat the HT1000, but how about at higher resolutions? If the HS20 is only slightly below the HT1000 with DVDs, but much better at High Def thanks to its increased resolution, that would be the HS20 out in front for me since I am look at keeping a PJ 3 - 4 years before upgrading.

 

[jcebedo1]

i think the HT1000's contrast is beyond what the HS20 will be capable of.

 

[LEXICON]

Any info about HS20?

 

[darinp]

Quote:

Originally posted by jcebedo1 i think the HT1000's contrast is beyond what the HS20 will be capable of.

I'm sure it is, but I don't think it is going to be as much as people think. I was able to get about 1390:1 out of my HT1000 without a filter in high contrast mode. I would expect closer to 900:1 to 1000:1 on the HS20, but we will see.


--Darin

 

[Martin Butler]

Do you think that an HS-20 coupled with either a Greyhawk or Firehawk screen would bring final contrast ratio in line with at least HD1 machines, or reasonably close to HD2 DLP pj's when they're projected on a "standard" white Stewart 1.3 gain screen?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'm also really curious what this HS20 can do. Firehawk screen is a given.

 

[Martin Butler]

If the contrast ratio and screendoor factors are acceptable in my layout, this could be a great "interim" pj. while waiting for either a JVC D-ILA high def 16 X 9 pj to cost less than eight grand, or for Sony to produce an affordable SXRD pj. There's a lot to like about this pj's features and pricing. I think Sony's doing a lot for the market in general by making quality big screen viewing so affordable. That's not to say that I think $3500 is cheap, just that it's a good value.

Anyone know if it's officially released yet?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Does the HS20 have MLA to reduce screen-door?

 

[Martin Butler]

DaVid, I vaguely recall reading another thread that said yes in regards to MLA, but I'm not certain. Don't know what MLA stands for. It's tough keeping up with all these acronyms!

 

[scottyb]

Micro Lens Array

 

[Martin Butler]

Thanks Scotty,what advantage does MLA offer? I'm guessing less of a screendoor effect.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yep. It sort of "blurs" the pixels together...but supposedly it does so in a way that doesn't lose much sharpness like you would if you just defocused the image to try to do the same thing.

 

[schlitzie]

Pretty sure it does include MLA -- supposedly it was mentioned in a Japanese press release, but I guess not in the translated version. MLA is also credited with increasing light output.