Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: What About This Video Projector?

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Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 02-02-2004, 04:45 PM:

In an effort to support local business in our small community I am considering purchasing for a small screening room I am planning the following video projector:

ViewSonic 3500 Lumens High-Brightness
Multi-media Projector (1024x768)XGA.

Are any of you familiar with this machine? If so, what's your opinion?

The room will have about a 30 foot throw to a 5x11.5ft screen. If you need more info on the machine let me know and I will post what the brochure say about it.

Thanks.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-02-2004, 05:12 PM:

What do you plan to show on this video projector? DVDs or Power point or what?

If it is videos it is WAY too bright. You would need something like 400 lumens, not 3500 for 12fL on a matte white screen. You will have no "blacks" to speak of...just light greys and blues for dark areas and very bright "white" areas. Now for power point or other high-ambient light situations, then it will look stunning but probably still a bit too bright. One thing you can do, except it will set you back a couple grand is to get an anamorphic lens for it. That will give you a better quality picture for wide screen stuff and help with the light issue a bit. With the anamorphic lens, running at half-light (if your machine has that feature) it will look pretty good.

Steve

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 02-02-2004, 06:36 PM:

Hi Steve:

I plan on using DVDs so I don't have to worry about 16mm print quality. The screening room is for a private film club and will seat about 40. The screen will be mat white.

About the machine the brochure also says: Progressive scan, Whisper mode for extended lamp life up to 4,000 hours (does this mean I can reduce the light output?), Displays HDTV signals including 480l, 480p, 575l, 720p and 1080l, component video, RGB out, RGB inputs, DVI input/composite video/component video/S video/audio control/USB.

Sorry for what may seem like a dumb inquiry but I'm what the IA used to call an "operator" (of film projectors) not a technician and certainly not a high-tech tech.

Thanks for your time.

Posted by Bevan Wright (Member # 1884) on 02-02-2004, 08:10 PM:

Actual lumens on LCD projectors are typically 80% of 'Marketing' lumens. Whisper mode will normally drop the brightness by 20%. If you can swing it, an ISCO anamorphic or a VSR Panamorph will let you use the entire panel and help hide the pixel structure (or screen door effect). Better yet, look at the Sanyo PLV-70, it is native 16:9, 2,200 lumens and can be had for about $4,000 from many internet retailers.

I wouldn't worry about the 12ft-l rule here, DVDs are master for TVs which typically are ~60ft-l. If it is too bright for your liking you can add notch filters to help make the LCD blue-ish blacks a deeper black. As far as playback goes, a PC with a DVI output to the projector will give you the best bang for the buck. Complete digital signal path and much better scaling/processing than most DVD players. It also permits easy PowerPoint and other general use.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-02-2004, 08:48 PM:

The brightness issue Bevan is with the LCD part...even the Sanyo (which I own) is only 900:1. Personally, I target 16fL for movies with 12fL the minimum.

The Sanyo at only 2200 lumens is still WAY too bright for a 5 foot tall picture. You will have no blacks unless you put an ND filter in front. Also, the Sanyo does not offer a low-light setting (grrrr).

To knock the light down you can also consider a screen like the Harkness "High Contrast Grey" They offer it in .4, 6. or .8 gains and with a super mini-perf that has good HF response.

My gut tells me that either the Sanyo (without a Grey screen) or the Viewsonic is going to be just too bright to make it look really good.

Sony has a nice projector with 1200 lumens that should look rather sweet (VPL-HS20). Street price is knocking around $3000.00 It is an XGA-W projector (like the Sanyo Beven mentioned).

XGA-W means that it is also 768 pixels tall but it is 1366 pixels wide instead of 1024 like a regular XGA machine. Thus it is 16:9 native.

You will find most video projectors will take the inputs you listed. Some machines have better built in scalers than others (take what you give em and turn it into the native display of the projector itself). I must say that the Sany PLV-70 is about the best internal scaler I've come across.

Steve

Posted by Bevan Wright (Member # 1884) on 02-02-2004, 11:03 PM:

The 'color' of black is what I find most distracting with LCD (outside of the pixel structure/fill factor), especially when you have a black masking for reference. Starting with lumens to spare and adding filters can produce exceptional results - even as the lamp ages.

http://www.enhancedht.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=EHT&Category_Code=MTFLT

Posted by Mike Bianchi (Member # 271) on 02-03-2004, 01:21 AM:

A couple of good websites to check out on digital front projection:

www.hometheaterforum.com
This is the F-T equivilent for home theatre

www.projectorcentral.com
This is full of technical specs, reviews, etc.

Good stuff in both, enjoy.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 02-03-2004, 11:27 AM:

Lots of info here as well.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php

Posted by Jeff Taylor (Member # 443) on 02-03-2004, 12:26 PM:

Last year I bought the Viewsonic 551 which is the junior brother of the unit you're looking at, Bob. Mine has 1500 lumens and is largely used for powerpoint presentations at trade shows, although I have to confess I've used it in my regular film screening room with DVD's to great success. The only problem is that has an extremely short focul length lens, so placement has to be near the screen, but the 1500 lumens is almost overkill in a dark room, and the machine is half the price of the one you're considering.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-03-2004, 02:34 PM:

Thirty feet strikes me as a rather long throw to a screen of Bob's size. Presumably this projector comes with a built-in zoom lens, and I'd have thought it would be worth checking that it won't overfill the screen from that distance, even on its longest setting.

We use a Proxima portable (usually fed with MPEG-2 files from a fast laptop) for shows in temporary venues. The picture quality is incredibly good for what it cost (£3k), but the biggest problem is getting it close enough to the screen so as to prevent the picture from overspilling.

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 02-03-2004, 10:21 PM:

I will be checking into other lenses as well as other models of machine. Thanks.