I HAVE been using the Infocus Screenplay 4805 since 2005 and is very gratified with its picture resolution (as utilized permanently with a Denon 2930 DVD and linked with a Kimber Kable HDMI at 720p-WXGA-60hz). But I am needing a new projector for a modestly-sized meeting hall and the Infocus X1 I have could not efficiently met the screen size, the ambient lighting and the native 4:3 picture format it is imbued with.
Hence I started to look this year for a fresh projector which could at least come up with the demands for more lumens and a far better picture that could be given by either 720p or 1080p native pixels & is fixed at 16 X 9 widescreen format. I made a mental preference for the Mitsubishi HC5000 LCD projector. But the local pricing places it at P200,000. When I looked over American internet sellers for its best pricing, the cheapest is the one being offered on eBay at $2,900. I backed off from getting it because the unit is originally a Japanese unit and so all the menus are in Nippongo. Also, I hinged on the peso appreciating to at least P40 to P43 to be able to buy such a high-end model thru buying dollars from Security Bank or Banco De Oro and use that to pay the eBay vendor. I have no over-anxious qualms on ordering projectors this way because I've tried it before with my first DLP and my Bombay-Hindu eBay transactee did served my order and there was just no hassle (thru Western Union, thank God!). But the peso could not seemed to appreciate more and has gone back to around P48 (the bank's selling price) hence I backed off from the Mitsubishi and has realized with this limiting situation that to pursue the Mitsubishi even with its cheaper U.S. price would almost surely put me on a long-term or at least a 6-month bank loan debt.
( A fellow on this site, as an aside, have gotten an HC5000 and he and a lot of other videophiles raved about the shown film images. What I noticed is that the sample film shots were culled from only two sources: an animation picture and the King Kong HD-DVD. Video calibrators as a rule accepts as common wisdom that animation images does not give the best yardstick whether your projector or big-screen TV set is indeed of superior manufacture. Thats because animation would tend to universally give a certifiably sharp image at all times owing to its all-digital composition (as opposed to that of traditional cell animation being done by Disney, et al.). Hence, to try to show the virtue of your projector through animated captures is somehow lopsided - and besides how many PinoyDVD fans truly relished animation as regular viewing fare? On the other hand, the King Kong film captures came from the HD disc format, to use HD-DVD (both player & software) - sweepingly makes the older standard format bite the dust because it is limited to a mere 480 line resolution. The King Kong HD might accentuate the merit of the HC5000 - but then I ask you, how many HD software do you own right now? Chances are its paltry because the official releases are far too few - compare to the 10,000 or more titles for standard DVDs (since it began in 1998). And surely - at least in my case - I would not have the endurance probably of watching HD-DVD King Kong for the 50th time so that my ultra-expensive HC5000 projector could elicit from me repeated awe and a dropped jaw.)
Hence, the better yardstick for a good projector is how superior and improved will it show a standard DVD. But I realized in time that the HC5000 despite its P200,000 price is very DIM. Technical calibration done by it only measured a true lumen rate of 370. That was the deal-breaker - when I learned the measurement. Thats just a paltry 20 points higher than my old but trusty 4805. Such under-achieving lumens is okey coming from a projector that costs at least P60 to P70k but for a 1080p $4,000 MSRP LCD unit thats "cutting a corner.")
Next, I began to daydreamed about the Yamaha DPX-1300 DLP. This obscure unit is even twice expensive, placed at $6,000 from U.S. web sellers and P295,000 from Listening-Shangrila. This model is touted very highly by two home theater evaluators. Of course, I don't take their technical evaluations as solid Gospel truth because as publishers their main bread & butter would remain advertising (not subscription) and Yamaha is definitely one of their most consistent advertisee. But I placed high credences on their Yamaha evaluations. But this Yamaha - with its SQV Realta video chip (supposedly the best line-doubler chip in the industry, even its manufacturer's name is fearsome: Teranex....sounds like T-Rex!) - is just priced too fantastic. Why fantastic? Because its price tag could already give one a sparkling new 1080 units like the JVC DILA RS1 - with several hundred dollar change, or a Panasonic AE1000, or a Sony SXRD VPL100 - with a spare change for a brand new Toshiba HD-DVD XA-2. What this amounts is that Yamaha places premium on "exclusivity" or more precisely "elitism" that only very few people could buy it. Or make that: grievously FEW units gets sold. This is a grievous mistake - as Yamaha would shortly realized. They placed their projector products way too prohibitively priced that they earned critically little. For sure, its corporate stockholders will noticed it shortly (and they have began, in fact: Yamaha has released the DPX-850 at $3,000+ but no one, and no one is buying it). Yamaha to my mind, much as I wanted such an elite model has to be bade farewell as a multi-millionnaire's new toy and a middle-income man's wild daydream.
But last month I researched even more and I have noticed what amounts to a middle-income man's definitive Mitsubishi projector. This is the HC3100 DLP projector. The distinction of this model is being imbued with Texas Instrument's Darkchip 3 DMDs. It is said to be the most superb on its present line. The good thing & word that could be said about Texas Instrument is that not only has it brought DLP front projectors more affordable to the common man but it has invested heavily on our shores, in fact I would theorized that some of its DMD video chips are being made in Baguio City. I could confirmed that SQV Realta's video deinterlacer chips are manufactured - believed it or not - in the Philippines - but that's another story. Hence, I asked around if the 3100 is available on our shores, it turned out that two audio-video specialty shops have already known about it (they do received the "advanced knowledges") and their stocks are being shipped underway.
Therefore, I had to look and evaluate the HC3100 more closely because this projector might hold some breakthrough merits (with regards to price, the DMD video chip, the picture resolution and the claimed 1,000 lumens) at least for my needs. When I asked around from Chinese or Chinoy compatriots, I was quoted a P115,000 price for it. That is still expensive because it surpasses the P100k mark, but if it could truly deliver a superior home theater picture, then I ought to reconsider its price relevant to its final performance. The evaluation then proceeds underway, I'll see if it could gratify my standards and could be gotten from another more low-profile dealers at a lower cost. My standards are basic and simple - that the projector could give a better picture than the Screenplay 4805 thru HDMI and that it could offer twice the lumen rates of the 4805 or thrice that of the X1. Lets see if this model will fit the bill...
