Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Screen and Projector

DLP, I would get the 4805 no questions asked. Right now, I see no point in getting anything bigger or better.

LCD, Panasonic AE700. I almost bought this, but wanted DLP instead because it's color is so much better. But the panny is a 720p, and it has an awesome lens that will allow many different places where you could position the projector in the room.

panasonic is suppose to be alright but at an extra 1500 bucks i'll take the other two. newf i feel the same. dlp puts out a much nicer picture. black levels are very nice.

Top 15 Home Theater Projectors

According to the latest home theater magazines, HD-DVD will be "available" this Christmas (that was where I got the $1000 number from. I didn't make it up, but then again, where did they get that number? Might be MSRP, who knows)...

At the same time, there are a hundred or so HD-DVD disks that are supposed to be released at the same time, so there WILL be some movies out there. It won't be years, it will be months. Dates are set for HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is a little more vague with a "Q1 2006" release.

We'll see, but I would think that the research teams and writers of several of these magazines would be closer to the facts than could be "speculated" here.

As for the DLP vs. LCD thing. This is a horse that you (smokey) beat to death once before. I agree that is many cases DLP is superior. There are tests and reviews that give it a slight performance edge, but LCD is usually a lower cost option, so you pay for the deeper blacks, and so forth. Keep in mind that you shouldn't compare a $4000+ DLP to a $1500 LCD and say that it is a clear cut case. LCD is still a proven technology and if done well performs well for the cost.

If you look at the 4805, you are not going to get the resolution of the Z3. But you would save some money since it (the 4805) is a low end projector. If you have no intentions of upconverting your image, then go for it. You will have a popular projector that might fit your needs as a low cost way to get a projected image.

As newf mentions, the Panasonic AE700 is a nice projector too. Very popular. The Z3 edges is out a hair in performance specs, but the Z3 has a better internal scaler and provides a better picture mainly just because it is a slightly newer model.

Anyway, if I had $5000 to spend on a projector, which technology would I get? DLP. I don't have $5000 so when I bought in March of this year (based off of what was available) I went for higher resolution, HDMI, etc, but had to give up in the black levels.

Good luck, and remember, people who buy Bose think that they have the best system in the world and that nothing else could possibly be as good. DLP has some features in their mid-high end gear that are truly superior to LCD, but don't count out LCD until you have done the research yourself.

your z3 is ranked below the h31 and the 4805 for time in the same catagory. so i don't know where you get the idea your machine is so much higher quality. its an entry level projector. the same as the 4805 and h31. good phrase about bose. seems very similar to what you preach about the z3.

I should have expected such a response from Smokey.

All I said that that the Z3 had greater resolution than the 4805. And unlike you and your statements, I will back mine with facts.

The 4805 has a max resolution of 1024x768... Heck, that isn't even in HDTV aspect ratio.
Don't believe, me? Here is the specs page from ProjectorCentral:
4805

Now, lets look at the H31... What's that, the same 1024x768? Yup.
H31

OK, now for the Z3... What is that I see? 1920x1080, AND HDTV ratio? You bet!
Z3

Now, for those people that have H31's and 4805's, I am NOT slamming your units. They all are popular machines, and I even pointed out specifically that the 4805 is a nice machine. I was just pointing out that Smokey interjects his opinion and not facts, and doesn't even READ other people's messages.

'Nuff said!

your telling people that scaling there dvds to 720 or 1080 well give them a better picture. come on. if there was ever a pile of crap here you've been stacking it. i've seen the h31 and the z3 both. hands down in dvd the h31 put out twice the picture. mabey the edge went to the z3 in hd but it wasn't by much. brag up the z3 for all i care reveiws for the other two back my opinion up.

lcd has hands down the better res's at their price range.I work the IT dept, and we have dozens of brand new/old lcd's, mostly sony, and infocus. We got all lcd for the computer side of things and need the extra res.

I'm sorry, but my 1400 cdn at the time dlp blows away the 3000-4000.00 infocus pj's for movies, tv, and games.

You really need to see a pj yourself, and really in your room. It's much like the "what sounds better to you" scenario.

Once again, Smokey isn't reading my messages. He also says that the Z3 is a bad projector, and that people should "read the reviews." You know what, DO IT! You will find good reviews of the Z3 too.

Here is one (note Part 2 of this one):
HomeTheaterHiFi

Here is another that even gives the Z3 a "HotProduct" award, and says that it has "Excellent Image Quality"
ProjectorReviews

You will also see that in the 4th paragraph, the reviewers point out things that Smokey says is crap with LCD projectors in previous messages from several weeks ago. Here is the quote:

"The screen door effect (SDE) was minimal. LCD panel manufacturers sure seem to have this problem under control."

To be fair, here is a review on the H31.
Audioholics

They like it, and give it an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5, but they also make point of saying that this number is "weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit". So for a projector with an MSRP of $1299, it is GREAT! I never said that it wasn't...

OK, and let's round the whole thing out with the 4805. Here is a nice, helpful review of it:
ProjectorReviews


Maybe Smokey's projector just doesn'thandle higher resolution images, whether true HD or "simulated" like upscaling. I don't know. I think that this thread needs to end here, on a positive, helpful point. This thing has just tracked off course too far, sorry pklin.

We have some LCD and DLP in our conference rooms at work. To be honest, they are all pretty bad, but that is mainly due to lack of lighting controls in the rooms. Lights are always on full, so it is hard to tell which looks better in that environment, but I do know that we paid a lot more for the DLP that doesn't perform any better than the older LCD ones in that amount of lighting. Then again, we are talking home theater here, so newf seems to have more experience with them than I do in a business setting.