Video Asylum

Posted by Some Guy on March 16, 2003 at 15:05:59

In Reply to: You can get a great ... posted by Harmonia on March 14, 2003 at 23:14:59:

I've never seen a projector in this price range yet that looks great, but I haevn't yet seen either of the two models you mention. The new DLPs have a lot better blacks and shadow detail than they used to, but they still weren't quite good enough for certain scenes in Dark City or LOTR when I was looking last fall.

I haven't seen them either, but the reviews I've read are very interesting. I particularly like the one by the guy from Pixar... they seemed to have a fairly comprehensive approach to it all without being overly scientific. It bugs me when people take out the human element and just focus on the specs and numbers...

Regardless, most rear projections are using the same exact processes, but they have just a bit more control since the whole process happens in the box. I just want to avoid having the box to deal with 'cos I know moving it will be a pain. That and everything I've been reading sounds very promising in that it will deliver a good picture, especially in my naturally dark entertainment room.

Between LCD and DLP, they mentioned the DLP had rainbows (a nice prism effect from all the miniature mirrors combined with the color wheel) and the LCD had the "screen door effect" from all of the pixels. While a lot of manufacturers say only a small portion of the population can see the rainbows, most all of the guys from Pixar saw them immediately. They do say you can eventually tune them out (kind of like background noise at a concert) but they can be very distracting. On the other hand, the screen door effect more or less blends out with distance.

One thing they did mention is that the B&W movies is that the greys get lost and that the contrast between the whites and blacks were too severe; however, with some tweaking, the picture was more watchable.