Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Time to select my projector and screen size

$300 annually does suck at first, but then when you think about how awesome the large image is for movies and TV, it will be worth it.

You are right that manufacturers and vendors use the "up-convert" term, but it really is just a new way of saying scaling. JohnK's point is that scaling is the more "correct" term, but for a practical purpose, they mean the same thing, at least for this discussion.

Well first of all you need to keep in mind that companies like to stretch the info to make their products look better so they come up with unprecise terms to describe how they function.
Bottom line is that you can't add information to an image, thus when you upscale you are not increasing the quality of the picture. BUT not all scalers are equal and some do a better job than others. There are also filters that allow you to remove the noise in the picture as well as sharpen edges etc... (that can be done throught a HTPC, or a fancy upscaler). In such a situation the picture quality could therefore improve if the scaler in your TV/PJ sucks.
But that image would not be close to the quality that you would get if the image was already at the native resolution of your TV.

I went through this same question about three months ago and settle on the panny 900. It was either that or the z4... finally went with the panny because of the horrible reviews of z4 on stardard def tv. However, if you will never care then go with the z4... my wife and i have a few fav tv shows and they are cool on the big screen. I have NEVER regretted my purchase though. Can't go wrong with either LCD. If DLP then the Optoma line gets damn good reviews but of course there is the whole rainbow thing...

In reality, since you are a newbie like me then just buy something you feel comfortable with, as they all will blow you away. The best dal out there is probably the infocus 4805 if you are just looking for a movie projector...

How do you think you will use yours most?

Neb

Mike, don't get "baffled" by manufacturer BS. As my reply and those of Nick and Cam point out, whatever they try to call it there's no way that they can actually find definition that doesn't exist in the original source material and "convert" it to real HD, as they sometimes imply by using that term. Of course, players, receivers and TV displays can have varying scaling abilities.

Thanks guys. Got it now. All but the interlaced/progressive thing, but I doubt anyone could make me understand how that works.

That H72 is looking pretty good. I think the race is the H72 in the lead with the Panny second, then the Z4. It would seam by the reviews I’ve read that for my size room and the fact that I don’t have HDTV, the Panny and H72 might be better suited.

So what’s so great about DLP anyway? What’s it do that’s so special?

http://www.projectorcentral.com has a good article that explains the pros/cons of both technologies.