Best Home DLP Projector?

[MikeG]

I'm looking to buy a home theater projector. I've heard raves about infocus. Is the X1 any good? Or should I go with something in the screen play series. My budget is around $1000.

TIA

[audiohead]

$1000 does not leave you with to many choices. Have you viewed an X1? Some people have problems with whats called "rainbow effects". It seems that presentation projectors have slower color wheels than HT projectors. Some people also report getting headaches. I myself do not see these rainbows or suffer headaches from viewing DLP projectors. I have seen the X1 and found it to be a nice machine, but I will not buy one because of those issues. Heaven for bid I have company over for a movie night and one or all start developping headaches. If I were you I would save a little more and get a projector that is meant for home theater and not presentations. The prices for these projectors are dropping fast and it wont be long before you can pick one up at less than haft the price they sell for today. Here is a recommended web site that has more info about front projectors as it doesn't seem to get much press here.
www.avsforum.com

[woodman]

Mike:
audiohead made some good points in his response to you, but his facts are a bit out of date (it doesn't take long for THAT to happen).

I'd urge you to increase your budget by a few hundred and consider the infocus 4800 - which is a projector aimed specifically at hometheater use. infocus sells it at their website for $1299 and I think it would be a wiser choice for you than the X-1.

[audiohead]

The 4800 and the X1 are the same machine except for a few odds and ends.
Here is a quote from projectorcentral.com

So what is the Screenplay 4800?

Quite simply the 4800 is the X1 repackaged for home theater distribution. Physically they are the same projector. However, there are differences in software settings. When you power up the X1, the factory default setting out of the box is for 4:3 mode of operation. When you power up the 4800 out of the box it defaults to 16:9. However, on either model you can easily change the factory default to whatever aspect ratio you want via a menu selection.

Gamma tables have been adjusted to optimize video on the Screenplay 4800. A new remote with home theater-friendly features is included also. As far as functional performance goes, the X1 will do everything the Screenplay 4800 will do. But the 4800 is, according to InFocus product management, preprogrammed for optimal video performance, while X1 owners may want to do some calibration to get it tuned to its best for video.

Both the X1 and the Screenplay 4800 come with a VGA 15-pin computer cable, by which you can feed HDTV and component 480p into the VGA port. However, in addition the Screenplay 4800 comes standard with an S-video cable. It also comes with an RCA to VGA cable adapter. This is handy if you want to use an RCA component video cable you already have to connect an RCA output to the VGA port. However you can accomplish the same thing with the X1 by ordering the adapter as an optional accessory, or buying an RCA to VGA cable and thus eliminating the problem.

The X1/4800 is designed with a special seven-pin S-video connector that lets you input a component interlaced (480i) signal into the S-video port. InFocus provides an adapter that interfaces an RCA component cable to this special port. This adapter used to be shipped standard with the X1, but is no longer. It is now standard only with the Screenplay 4800. However, if you buy the X1 and you want this adapter, you can buy it for $20 on the Infocus website. So the fact that this adapter no longer ships with the X1 is not a good reason to spend $500 more for the Screenplay 4800

[MikeG]

Thanks for the great info everyone.

Pretty much after posting this topic, I went ahead and bought an X1 listed on eBay. Haven't recieved it yet. I'll be using it directly from my computer which has a TV tuner card, DVD player and the Radeon 9700 video card. Should be pretty awesome playing UT2000, watching The Matrix, Monday night football or working from home.

I'll post a review and a message on how it's working, etc.

Thanks again!