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Hey all,
This past Tuesday I was given the oppertunity to visit Andrew Pratt, and take a little demo of his HT, most importantly the 1HD, as we are in the market for a FP sometime in the next month.
Now my wife and I have never seen a FP, so I don't have anything at all to compare this unit too. But one thing is for certian. If there was any dount in my wifes, or my mind if we wanted a FP, that doubt is now gone.
The screen size was in the mid 90's (96" I think, correct me if I am wrong) It was a home made screen and looked fantastic. But I am getting ahead of myself. I will come back to the screen later.
The 1HD itself gave an amazing picture, a 96" screen is a little overwhelming compared to my old 62" RCA. The brightness/contrast was great. One of my main concerns with FP that I have read is that black are seldom dark enough. To my eyes that was not the case. We demo'd Episode 2 for about 15 mins. Corusant was alive with color and the 1HD did a great job on all fronts. Crisp and clean. Bright and vibrant. Blacks were very black.
There was only one instance when I think I may hve seen the dreaded screen door effect, but it was extremely brief. (When Obi-wan is lecturing Anikin on politics) I saw it, but my wife did not, and in all fairness I was sitting about 3 feet closer than she was, so I attribute it to my seating position, more than the 1HD.
We also had a few minute look at the new release of Lion King. This also showed off the colors quite nicely, very bright and vibrant as well. Crisp and clear all the way. No screen door or any flaws that I saw.
Another concern I have had about FP is fan noise. From what I read the 1HD is pretty low on the DB scale as far as noise is concerned. I have to agree, I didn't hear a peep out of it during any of our watching.
Next up, the screen. During Star Wars Andrew pulled out about 6 - 7 samples of screen material he had been looking into, and held them up to his screen so we could look at the difference between a home made screen and a manufactured one. Now I cant remeber the names of any the fabric we tested, but there was only 2 that my wife and I thought produced a slightly better picture. And I do mean slight, they were both grey material, so the blacks were a little darker, and the whites a little brightrer. But from what Andrew mentioned about the price of the material ($18 a sq foot and up) it hardly seemed worth the expense of the high end material. The other matrials we tested were either identical in color/black level, and a few of the samples looked worse, they washed the blacks out and made them a little greyish.
We are definitely building our own screen when the time comes after seeing how good a home made one looks. I am already getting presured from my wife to build it before we get our FP.
After seeing the 1HD in action, we are definitely reconsidering our choice of FP's. We were originally slated to buy a Infocus X1. Which we will be viewing in the next couple days, so I cannot offer a fair comparison yet. But from from what I have read, the 1HD looks better picture wise than the X1, and as it is a LCD, no rainbows. So the 1HD is looking more and more likely for us. Also it is native 16:9 opposed to 4:3 of the X1.
Price point is a little more expensive for the 1HD than the X1, but the price seems to dictate the quality. And for the extra $200 it would cost for the 1HD, we think it is well worth it.
Oh, almost forgot, we took a little time to fire up the PS2, and check out a little ESPN Hockey. Now gaming is one of my main motivations to go FP. I have been worried about new HD RPTV's as burnin is a huge issue, especially when you play as much as I do. Hell we play more games than watch movies. So this is a major factor for us.
We played first in 4:3, the picture was great, but the unit really shined when stretched to 16:9. The game looked great. My gaming worries about stretched mode have been aleviated. I have read that a lot of games stretch well, and this one is definitely one of them. I was also concerned about taking a PS2 signal and making it so big. No quality was lost in the transition at all. If the PS2 looks this good, then I cant wait to get my Xbox hooked up to the FP and play a little 100" Halo in 480P.
One thing that makes me curious though, if a $2000 projector looks this good, how much better can it get? We will be totally satisfied with the image we were seeing on the 1HD. But I guess then again, we loved our 62" RPTV till we saw FP.
As I said earlier, if there was any doubt about wether or not FP was for us, that is all gone now. Only problem we now we have to wait till the end of October or middle of November till we can get ours. Sigh, it is going to be a long month......
Kris
This past Tuesday I was given the oppertunity to visit Andrew Pratt, and take a little demo of his HT, most importantly the 1HD, as we are in the market for a FP sometime in the next month.
Now my wife and I have never seen a FP, so I don't have anything at all to compare this unit too. But one thing is for certian. If there was any dount in my wifes, or my mind if we wanted a FP, that doubt is now gone.
The screen size was in the mid 90's (96" I think, correct me if I am wrong) It was a home made screen and looked fantastic. But I am getting ahead of myself. I will come back to the screen later.
The 1HD itself gave an amazing picture, a 96" screen is a little overwhelming compared to my old 62" RCA. The brightness/contrast was great. One of my main concerns with FP that I have read is that black are seldom dark enough. To my eyes that was not the case. We demo'd Episode 2 for about 15 mins. Corusant was alive with color and the 1HD did a great job on all fronts. Crisp and clean. Bright and vibrant. Blacks were very black.
There was only one instance when I think I may hve seen the dreaded screen door effect, but it was extremely brief. (When Obi-wan is lecturing Anikin on politics) I saw it, but my wife did not, and in all fairness I was sitting about 3 feet closer than she was, so I attribute it to my seating position, more than the 1HD.
We also had a few minute look at the new release of Lion King. This also showed off the colors quite nicely, very bright and vibrant as well. Crisp and clear all the way. No screen door or any flaws that I saw.
Another concern I have had about FP is fan noise. From what I read the 1HD is pretty low on the DB scale as far as noise is concerned. I have to agree, I didn't hear a peep out of it during any of our watching.
Next up, the screen. During Star Wars Andrew pulled out about 6 - 7 samples of screen material he had been looking into, and held them up to his screen so we could look at the difference between a home made screen and a manufactured one. Now I cant remeber the names of any the fabric we tested, but there was only 2 that my wife and I thought produced a slightly better picture. And I do mean slight, they were both grey material, so the blacks were a little darker, and the whites a little brightrer. But from what Andrew mentioned about the price of the material ($18 a sq foot and up) it hardly seemed worth the expense of the high end material. The other matrials we tested were either identical in color/black level, and a few of the samples looked worse, they washed the blacks out and made them a little greyish.
We are definitely building our own screen when the time comes after seeing how good a home made one looks. I am already getting presured from my wife to build it before we get our FP.
After seeing the 1HD in action, we are definitely reconsidering our choice of FP's. We were originally slated to buy a Infocus X1. Which we will be viewing in the next couple days, so I cannot offer a fair comparison yet. But from from what I have read, the 1HD looks better picture wise than the X1, and as it is a LCD, no rainbows. So the 1HD is looking more and more likely for us. Also it is native 16:9 opposed to 4:3 of the X1.
Price point is a little more expensive for the 1HD than the X1, but the price seems to dictate the quality. And for the extra $200 it would cost for the 1HD, we think it is well worth it.
Oh, almost forgot, we took a little time to fire up the PS2, and check out a little ESPN Hockey. Now gaming is one of my main motivations to go FP. I have been worried about new HD RPTV's as burnin is a huge issue, especially when you play as much as I do. Hell we play more games than watch movies. So this is a major factor for us.
We played first in 4:3, the picture was great, but the unit really shined when stretched to 16:9. The game looked great. My gaming worries about stretched mode have been aleviated. I have read that a lot of games stretch well, and this one is definitely one of them. I was also concerned about taking a PS2 signal and making it so big. No quality was lost in the transition at all. If the PS2 looks this good, then I cant wait to get my Xbox hooked up to the FP and play a little 100" Halo in 480P.
One thing that makes me curious though, if a $2000 projector looks this good, how much better can it get? We will be totally satisfied with the image we were seeing on the 1HD. But I guess then again, we loved our 62" RPTV till we saw FP.
As I said earlier, if there was any doubt about wether or not FP was for us, that is all gone now. Only problem we now we have to wait till the end of October or middle of November till we can get ours. Sigh, it is going to be a long month......
Kris
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