And here are my impressions/notes
Ugly unit, and very big compared to what i was expecting.
Silent: i was 2 ft. from the vent, and it did not bother me at all with no sound on. very nice!
Picture:
saw it from 14 ft. away projecting an 80" wide picture on a Draper Clarion 100 4:3 screen (don't know gain, nor did salesman--Harveys guys tend to be idiots). no external scalar used, but just a Panny RP91. this screen shape hurt contrast a bit, as there was some halo that needed to be covered. didn't seem like a lot at all, and very similar to the selecos in the halo arena.
checked the menu to see if it had been calibrated, and apparently it had been. 4, -2, 4 is what i have in my notes, most likely referring to white level, black level, and color.
1st dvd was Gladiator--chapter 24, ie. rainbow killer/shadow killer. I thought the black levels looked about as good as my 200DM did. however, still some rainbow effect. compared to the Seleco, there appeared to be no difference to me. Maybe a bit smaller. however, they are DEFINITELY still there. Now, I was able to rid most of th rainbows on teh DM by lowering brightness, grey screen, etc. This could make the rainbows nil. i did think the picture was soft however, on this "unsoft" transfer. surprising. i also thought the blues tend to be the strenght of the Sharp colorwise, but the reds weren't even close to the Seleco. I would say hands down, Seleco has a better designed color wheel. they are just far more vivid, and really stand out. other seleco owners i am sure will agree...
2nd dvd was Sleepy Hollow--black level was good, as was contrast. no pixelization throughout, unlike the DM, which if you are <2x heighth, you can have problems. I even walked up to the screen, and pixels weren't noticable until 4 ft. or so. overall, i thought the Sharp was still soft. it reminded me of the Seleco 250 i have seen at another forum member's apartment. The DM is much sharper i feel. This of course is personal taste, and some may argue the Sharp is more "filmlike" which the idiot salesman said. again, color was just not as good...on the scene where he is using the ax on the tree and all teh blood is spewing, just not near as good as on the DM. also, the chapter with the robin on the tree (i will edit and update with exact #). the seleco makes the bird just jump off the screen. the sharp was bland on this one. Oh yeah, saw a few rainbows in chapter 3, my other rainbow torture test. one thing about contrast, is that i saw a little muck on the opening scenes...even on teh DM it is very hard to get good. crt owners would hate this. i think with a bit of tinkering, the shadow detail could be better. also the halo was effecting my vantagepoint i am sure.
Finally, Romeo must die. Again, picture looked nice, but some coloration was off to me. oranges were streaky like, and blaring in one scene. very harsh. this probably is a source issue, as i don't know this dvd like the others. i skipped around and thought overall, that this projector is pretty good.
Conclusion-
Well, it ain't the holy grail of pjs...anyone buying this should definitely see it. I just like a more detailed, color saturated picture. Now, calibration and screen choice definitely may cause some problems, but I just can't see this pj destroying the DM, which costs less. Of course, i didn't see the machine with a scalar, and didn't see HDTV on demo. i however did fail to notice scaling artifacts, though i wasnt looking for them. I imagine the Sharp would be much better than the DM in HDTV. So all in all very nice, but not perfect.
However, with a scalar, the HT300 would be my bet. Seleco just has colors and black level down. And it is half the size of the Sharp. So, I would wait and see the marantz and seleco prior to purchasing. I know there are a bunch of Sharp pushers here who havent seen the unit...but specs don't tell the whole story in this case i feel. with 3 projectors out in the next 1-2 months, i would audition all three before making a final decision.
Feel free to ask questions!
KeithR
[This message has been edited by KeithR (edited 09-17-2001).]
Ugly unit, and very big compared to what i was expecting.
Silent: i was 2 ft. from the vent, and it did not bother me at all with no sound on. very nice!
Picture:
saw it from 14 ft. away projecting an 80" wide picture on a Draper Clarion 100 4:3 screen (don't know gain, nor did salesman--Harveys guys tend to be idiots). no external scalar used, but just a Panny RP91. this screen shape hurt contrast a bit, as there was some halo that needed to be covered. didn't seem like a lot at all, and very similar to the selecos in the halo arena.
checked the menu to see if it had been calibrated, and apparently it had been. 4, -2, 4 is what i have in my notes, most likely referring to white level, black level, and color.
1st dvd was Gladiator--chapter 24, ie. rainbow killer/shadow killer. I thought the black levels looked about as good as my 200DM did. however, still some rainbow effect. compared to the Seleco, there appeared to be no difference to me. Maybe a bit smaller. however, they are DEFINITELY still there. Now, I was able to rid most of th rainbows on teh DM by lowering brightness, grey screen, etc. This could make the rainbows nil. i did think the picture was soft however, on this "unsoft" transfer. surprising. i also thought the blues tend to be the strenght of the Sharp colorwise, but the reds weren't even close to the Seleco. I would say hands down, Seleco has a better designed color wheel. they are just far more vivid, and really stand out. other seleco owners i am sure will agree...
2nd dvd was Sleepy Hollow--black level was good, as was contrast. no pixelization throughout, unlike the DM, which if you are <2x heighth, you can have problems. I even walked up to the screen, and pixels weren't noticable until 4 ft. or so. overall, i thought the Sharp was still soft. it reminded me of the Seleco 250 i have seen at another forum member's apartment. The DM is much sharper i feel. This of course is personal taste, and some may argue the Sharp is more "filmlike" which the idiot salesman said. again, color was just not as good...on the scene where he is using the ax on the tree and all teh blood is spewing, just not near as good as on the DM. also, the chapter with the robin on the tree (i will edit and update with exact #). the seleco makes the bird just jump off the screen. the sharp was bland on this one. Oh yeah, saw a few rainbows in chapter 3, my other rainbow torture test. one thing about contrast, is that i saw a little muck on the opening scenes...even on teh DM it is very hard to get good. crt owners would hate this. i think with a bit of tinkering, the shadow detail could be better. also the halo was effecting my vantagepoint i am sure.
Finally, Romeo must die. Again, picture looked nice, but some coloration was off to me. oranges were streaky like, and blaring in one scene. very harsh. this probably is a source issue, as i don't know this dvd like the others. i skipped around and thought overall, that this projector is pretty good.
Conclusion-
Well, it ain't the holy grail of pjs...anyone buying this should definitely see it. I just like a more detailed, color saturated picture. Now, calibration and screen choice definitely may cause some problems, but I just can't see this pj destroying the DM, which costs less. Of course, i didn't see the machine with a scalar, and didn't see HDTV on demo. i however did fail to notice scaling artifacts, though i wasnt looking for them. I imagine the Sharp would be much better than the DM in HDTV. So all in all very nice, but not perfect.
However, with a scalar, the HT300 would be my bet. Seleco just has colors and black level down. And it is half the size of the Sharp. So, I would wait and see the marantz and seleco prior to purchasing. I know there are a bunch of Sharp pushers here who havent seen the unit...but specs don't tell the whole story in this case i feel. with 3 projectors out in the next 1-2 months, i would audition all three before making a final decision.
Feel free to ask questions!
KeithR
[This message has been edited by KeithR (edited 09-17-2001).]
