Tonight Noah, KC, and Tom came over and we gave the LT150 a heck of a run through. The session lasted from about 8pm to midnight.
Tom brought over his HTPC with Radeon card and HiPix and we had the pleasure of doing some viewing on it.
**Let's start with HDTV:
o HDTV looked amazing through the HiPix.
o We couldn't get the LT150 to sync at 1080i from the HiPix, but had success when we set it to output 720p.
o Component out from the Dish 6000 at 720p was equivalent to the HTPC in picture quality.
o Component out from the Dish 6000 at 720p was sharper than RGB out at 720p
o RGB out from the Dish 6000 at 1080i was fuzzier than both 720p with both RGB and component outs.
**HDTV Conclusions:
o Send 720p to your LT150 rather than 1080i.
o Use Component rather than RGB.
o The picture looks great with both Dish and HiPix output.
** DVD Performance
o The Radeon HTPC blew us away with Super Speedway. I've never seen an HTPC other than my laptop and the Radeon HTPC was everything people have been cracking it up to be. It looked very "HDTV like" in my opinion.
o I purchased a Panasonic RP56 so we'd have a progressive scan player to compare with. I thought it did a heck of a job. Maybe 90% of the HTPC. Noah and KC thought it was only 2/3(!!) the performance of the HTPC with the HTPC being much sharper with fewer artifacts. Regardless we all agreed (Tom had left by then) that the HTPC with Radeon was the clear winner into the HTPC.
o 480i from DSS and the RP56 via SVideo or component looked pretty fuzzy. The LT150 does not do a good job with 480i.
o Twister looked pretty ppor for a while through the RP56 with progressive signal. It looked better after awhile, so we weren't sure if this was source material, the fact that we had just watched HDTV and hadn't adjusted, or the RP56.
** DVD Conclusions
o If you want the best possible picture, get an HTPC with a Radeon card.
o Progressive DVD from a cheapo ($250) player is pretty darn decent.
o Stay away from SVideo input and 480i.
**General Comments:
o There is a stray light coming out of the LT150 at about a 45 degree angle. It's quite noticeable in dark scenes and hurt the black level a little because it lights up the room. Hopefully this is something Thumper can take care of in his mods.
o From doing shadow tests, it is obvious that blacks still have a way to go in the DLP world. The black level is what I'll call "many levels" above reference black (what the screen looks like with no light projected). Hopefully this is also something Thumper will be able to improve with his mods. Still, these are the best blacks *I* have seen from DLP/LCD.
o The Greyhawk performed well. I did buy blackout fabric so we could contrast the two and we did a short test with me holding it up. Surprise! We thought the brights were brighter and the blacks were worse. I still think this projector could be well served with a slightly higher gain screen (1.3 maybe). When Thumper does his magic though, the Greyhawk might be the winner again.
o Rainbows - Nobody saw any in the DVD and HDTV material. I still think rainbow viewing is exasperated by high gain screens and too high contrast settings. But hopefully someone will come over and show me a rainbow someday (or maybe hopefully not).
o BIGGEST DISSAPOINTMENT (for me anyway) - No Native Mode when feeding 480p component into the LT150. This sucks. Really sucks for those of us who want to scale DSS and 4:3 material to 480p and have 16:9 screens. So basically right now I'm watching Friends in cinema mode (16:9). Boooo to the LT150 for missing this one feature.
Hopefully, the other guys will share their thoughts and correct my blatant lies. It was a blast having you guys over. Thanks.
--Les
[This message has been edited by arrow (edited 08-13-2001).]
Tom brought over his HTPC with Radeon card and HiPix and we had the pleasure of doing some viewing on it.
**Let's start with HDTV:
o HDTV looked amazing through the HiPix.
o We couldn't get the LT150 to sync at 1080i from the HiPix, but had success when we set it to output 720p.
o Component out from the Dish 6000 at 720p was equivalent to the HTPC in picture quality.
o Component out from the Dish 6000 at 720p was sharper than RGB out at 720p
o RGB out from the Dish 6000 at 1080i was fuzzier than both 720p with both RGB and component outs.
**HDTV Conclusions:
o Send 720p to your LT150 rather than 1080i.
o Use Component rather than RGB.
o The picture looks great with both Dish and HiPix output.
** DVD Performance
o The Radeon HTPC blew us away with Super Speedway. I've never seen an HTPC other than my laptop and the Radeon HTPC was everything people have been cracking it up to be. It looked very "HDTV like" in my opinion.
o I purchased a Panasonic RP56 so we'd have a progressive scan player to compare with. I thought it did a heck of a job. Maybe 90% of the HTPC. Noah and KC thought it was only 2/3(!!) the performance of the HTPC with the HTPC being much sharper with fewer artifacts. Regardless we all agreed (Tom had left by then) that the HTPC with Radeon was the clear winner into the HTPC.
o 480i from DSS and the RP56 via SVideo or component looked pretty fuzzy. The LT150 does not do a good job with 480i.
o Twister looked pretty ppor for a while through the RP56 with progressive signal. It looked better after awhile, so we weren't sure if this was source material, the fact that we had just watched HDTV and hadn't adjusted, or the RP56.
** DVD Conclusions
o If you want the best possible picture, get an HTPC with a Radeon card.
o Progressive DVD from a cheapo ($250) player is pretty darn decent.
o Stay away from SVideo input and 480i.
**General Comments:
o There is a stray light coming out of the LT150 at about a 45 degree angle. It's quite noticeable in dark scenes and hurt the black level a little because it lights up the room. Hopefully this is something Thumper can take care of in his mods.
o From doing shadow tests, it is obvious that blacks still have a way to go in the DLP world. The black level is what I'll call "many levels" above reference black (what the screen looks like with no light projected). Hopefully this is also something Thumper will be able to improve with his mods. Still, these are the best blacks *I* have seen from DLP/LCD.
o The Greyhawk performed well. I did buy blackout fabric so we could contrast the two and we did a short test with me holding it up. Surprise! We thought the brights were brighter and the blacks were worse. I still think this projector could be well served with a slightly higher gain screen (1.3 maybe). When Thumper does his magic though, the Greyhawk might be the winner again.
o Rainbows - Nobody saw any in the DVD and HDTV material. I still think rainbow viewing is exasperated by high gain screens and too high contrast settings. But hopefully someone will come over and show me a rainbow someday (or maybe hopefully not).
o BIGGEST DISSAPOINTMENT (for me anyway) - No Native Mode when feeding 480p component into the LT150. This sucks. Really sucks for those of us who want to scale DSS and 4:3 material to 480p and have 16:9 screens. So basically right now I'm watching Friends in cinema mode (16:9). Boooo to the LT150 for missing this one feature.
Hopefully, the other guys will share their thoughts and correct my blatant lies. It was a blast having you guys over. Thanks.
--Les
[This message has been edited by arrow (edited 08-13-2001).]