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After reading Grant Smith's review of the LT150 I called my NEC rep and had them send me a demo. Well it arrived last night and I gave it a spin.
Testing was with a Geforce equipped HTPC and a DIY 54x96 gray screen.The first thing I viewed on it was Antz because it was movie time at my house and that is what my daughter wanted to watch. I thought the image looked very good the colors were accurate enough but I could have used a little more brightness. I am sure a screen with a little more gain would take care of this. Next I watched Jurassic Park. I like this disc because it is 16x9 so it fills my whole screen and it has dark scenes as well as bright vibrant scenes. The first thing in the movie right after the Columbia spinning planet logo is the title sequence. It consists of orange and yellow letters floating in a black background. This is where I was a little disappointed. I thought with a 800:1 contrast ratio and an overall output of 800 lumens that the black level would be outstanding. Well it wasn't. It was however very good but i would have to say that if it was better than the VT540 then it would have to be very marginal. I don't know, maybe my expectations are just to high for these digital projectors. I then put in Star Trek First Contact. This has become my projector torture test. It is a very dark movie with many scenes of darkness with bright lights which is a rainbow waiting to happen, plus it is 2.35:1 which cuts brightness down. Well I have to say that this projector did not fair very well with this movie. It needed more brightness better and deeper blacks. Again I have to wonder if a different screen would help. It would seem to me that a 2.5 screen such as the one grant is using would help the brightness but it would also raise the black level. I guess it's a trade off. Rainbows where evident on the ST movie but not near as bad as the LP340. On the other movies I watched I hardly ever saw any rainbows.
Now let me say some good things. Nec electronics are great. I fired up all my games and this baby didn't even flinch. It even did great with Mame games and all their whacky rezs. It also synched to my 1024x576 rez without a problem.
Overall I would have to sum it up like this
Size: It so small you can't believe that it could even work
Noise: It is a little louder than the VT540 or LP340 but not unbearable
Convenience: the lack of a zoom lens puts this thing in the middle of my room instead of at the end. A little inconvenient but really not that big of a deal.
Colors: better than the lp340, as good or better than the VT540, almost as good as the LT155 which where the best I have seen from a digital projector.
Black level: better than the LP340, as good or slightly better than the VT540 and LT155
Rainbow: much better than the LP340, the VT540 and LT155 of course had none
Conclusion: I think think this is a very good projector. I wish I could see the LT155 again now that I have a grey screen. It might edge it out with it's extra brightness and incredible color. I will try to get another screen and do some more testing. So for now lets just say the jury is still out.
Testing was with a Geforce equipped HTPC and a DIY 54x96 gray screen.The first thing I viewed on it was Antz because it was movie time at my house and that is what my daughter wanted to watch. I thought the image looked very good the colors were accurate enough but I could have used a little more brightness. I am sure a screen with a little more gain would take care of this. Next I watched Jurassic Park. I like this disc because it is 16x9 so it fills my whole screen and it has dark scenes as well as bright vibrant scenes. The first thing in the movie right after the Columbia spinning planet logo is the title sequence. It consists of orange and yellow letters floating in a black background. This is where I was a little disappointed. I thought with a 800:1 contrast ratio and an overall output of 800 lumens that the black level would be outstanding. Well it wasn't. It was however very good but i would have to say that if it was better than the VT540 then it would have to be very marginal. I don't know, maybe my expectations are just to high for these digital projectors. I then put in Star Trek First Contact. This has become my projector torture test. It is a very dark movie with many scenes of darkness with bright lights which is a rainbow waiting to happen, plus it is 2.35:1 which cuts brightness down. Well I have to say that this projector did not fair very well with this movie. It needed more brightness better and deeper blacks. Again I have to wonder if a different screen would help. It would seem to me that a 2.5 screen such as the one grant is using would help the brightness but it would also raise the black level. I guess it's a trade off. Rainbows where evident on the ST movie but not near as bad as the LP340. On the other movies I watched I hardly ever saw any rainbows.
Now let me say some good things. Nec electronics are great. I fired up all my games and this baby didn't even flinch. It even did great with Mame games and all their whacky rezs. It also synched to my 1024x576 rez without a problem.
Overall I would have to sum it up like this
Size: It so small you can't believe that it could even work
Noise: It is a little louder than the VT540 or LP340 but not unbearable
Convenience: the lack of a zoom lens puts this thing in the middle of my room instead of at the end. A little inconvenient but really not that big of a deal.
Colors: better than the lp340, as good or better than the VT540, almost as good as the LT155 which where the best I have seen from a digital projector.
Black level: better than the LP340, as good or slightly better than the VT540 and LT155
Rainbow: much better than the LP340, the VT540 and LT155 of course had none
Conclusion: I think think this is a very good projector. I wish I could see the LT155 again now that I have a grey screen. It might edge it out with it's extra brightness and incredible color. I will try to get another screen and do some more testing. So for now lets just say the jury is still out.