[JFLNYC]

I may soon be entering the brave, new (for me) world of front projectors and I need the advice and counsel of all you wise men and women who have travelled this path before me.


I currently own a Mits 65807 HDTV RPTV. I've surrounded it with quality equipment (e.g., Hughes HIRD E-86 HDTV STB), tweaked the living daylights (or should I say, "da-lites") out of it and generally given it a good home. In return I get a wonderful HDTV picture (on those rare occasions when there's programming), a great DVD picture (thanks to a good, progressive scan player) and an unpredictable DSS picture (sometimes pretty darn good; other times almost unwatchable -- GIGO).


Because I am a malcontent, I want better!!! I've done some nosing around and it seems to me the Sanyo PLC-XP21N looks like it might make a very good way for me to get into projectors (not too cheap, not too expensive and projectorcentral loves it). If I decide to buy it, I'll add a Stewart Grayhawk screen, maybe use my DVDO iScan Pro, if necessary, and I'd be willing to spring for a CI or Quadscan, if necessary.


Here's the question: Assuming the equipment above (and that it's been installed and calibrated correctly), will I get a significantly better picture than I'm currently getting with my Mits RPTV?


What, you may ask, do I mean by "significantly better?" I mean will I notice less ghosting, ringing and the dreaded jaggies? In particular, since I watch a lot of DSS (sports, news, movies), will my NTSC experience be more pleasurable or is GIGO going to haunt me no matter how much I spend and tweak?


Any light you can shed on these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very, very much.




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Jamie

 

[Bernd]

I can't speak for the specific projector that you mention. I have a Dukane 9015 DILA (Same as a JVC G15). The major benefit of the projector is the ability to support a large screen. Mine is 110" diagonal, others have much larger ones than that.


Key to proper use of a projector is to drive it at its maximum native resolution. If you want a 16:9 screen, for a DILA this is 1360 x 768. So, you need a scalar or an HTPC to do the scaling for you. In general, the scalars in projectors are awful, and so you do not want to use them. Driving the projector at its native resolution bypasses the projectors scalar, and gives you the best picture.


Regarding NTSC sources, my opinion is that going to a front projector will make this problem worse and not better. Assuming you go for a large screen, the lack of resolution in NTSC sources will simply doom you to an unacceptable experience. I tried watching CATV and VHS tapes in my HT. I gave up. DBS (DirecTV) is as low as I will go in terms of resolution. SDTV (the 480i sent by DirecTV is scaled to 540P by the RCA DTC-100) is ok for most things. DVD's look great due to my HTPC. HDTV OTA is awesome.


Cheers,


Bernd

 

[Dan G]

I have not seen your TV, or any perfectly calibrated (to your degree) Mitsu.

I do own the XP 21n

I agree with the above poster.

I would speculate that for all the stuff you already like it would do it bigger, better, and more vibrantly.

For the stuff you dont like (NTSC) and the reasons you don;t, the large size would only cause it to magnify the things driving you crazy.

NTSC is crappy resolution, and once you have the equiptment to notice, it sucks!

Thats maybe one reason why it may have stuck around forever (no one noticed), and one reason I hope HD takes off!


The internal scaler is not good enough for NTSC.

I watch tons of sat and IMO a Quadscan is mandatory (have not tried DVDO), and makes it very nice.

There are more noticable artifacts than a 32" TV though (half cause I can see better, and half cause the pixels are 10 times as big)- by that I mean the pixels in the video image, not the projector.


The Sanyo is so #$^)*# nice though!

I love it.


dg

 

[JFLNYC]

Thanks for the input, guys. I hate NTSC, but I hate even more how DirecTV has sold out and compressed its signals so much. When I watch OTA SDTV it's so much better because it hasn't been so compressed. Oh, well. . . I'll wait for a revelation.


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Jamie

 

[Dan G]

Is Dish Network as bad?

I think my feed could be better, but generally it looks pretty ok for NTSC. Artifacts exist, it;s certainly not HD or DVD quality, but it looks pretty OK.

MAybe you shoudl invetigate Dish instead?

They have more HD too (Showtime plus HBO)


dg

 

[JFLNYC]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan G: Is Dish Network as bad? I think my feed could be better, but generally it looks pretty ok for NTSC. Artifacts exist, it;s certainly not HD or DVD quality, but it looks pretty OK. MAybe you shoudl invetigate Dish instead? They have more HD too (Showtime plus HBO) dg

Thanks, Dan, but I'm addicted to DirecTV's sports packages. If DISH had 'em I'd switch in a minute.




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Jamie