Step above Infocus 4805 (1 Viewer)

Hi Folks,

I was planning to order an Infocus 4805 tonight but I guess I'm having buyers pre-remorse. What would the next step in quality be above this new projector? My needs are every similar to what I keep reading it is best at, so it might be hard to be without spending serious money but I thought I would ask.

I'll use a projector at least 80% of the time for watching DVD's in a light controlled room. I want 16:9 native and my room is 13' X 17'. Is there another projector, at say $3000 or less, that would be better for what I want to do?

Thanks for any help!

-Chris

What about HDTV via the InFocus SP5700 or Sony VPL-HS20?

I know nothing about projectors, but would HD-ready be worth the extra investment?

Thanks. I'll check out the 5700. I don't buy Sony products so that one is out.

-Chris

I was looking into the InFOcus and the Panasonic 500U and the guy at ProjectorCentral recommended the Sony HS20 over the two. He said it is great.

I dont really think he was trying to just sell a more expensive projector because the other one I was interested in was about $1500 more then the Sony, and he still recommended the HS20.

Also, LCD FP (the Sony) means NO RAINBOW'S!

Here is a nice place to look at the Sony:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-foKIGzv...&avf=N&search=

Crutchfield's prices do not look to friendly on that projector.

I didn't tell him to buy from them.

To quote myself :



I know you can get them a lot cheaper elsewhere.

Thanks guys but I refuse to buy anything with the Sony name on it. I've been burned with their stuff multiple times.

Had an in-dash Sony cd player years ago and the transport died on it after a short time.

Had a Sony 200 disk cd changer and the transport died after a year of very light use.

Sony boombox and the transport died on it after a relatively short time. It's been in the garage working FM only for a long while.

Paid $500.00 for a Sony DVD player back before you could even rent DVD's. While it still works, even the slightest blemish on a disk has always caused it to error out and skip.

-Chris

Has anyone reading this seen both the 4805 and the 5700? I watched a 5700 for a bit today and was very impressed. We were watching on a 106" screen at about 12' away and it looked great to me. I asked about the screen gain and he said "4". I'm not sure what he really meant but didn't question but I don't think it was 1.4 as it wasn't nearly as bright as I've heard described for a high gain screen.

I would really like to hear comments on what the 4805 would look like compared to the 5700 at the same viewing distance. I'm assuming the higher resolution of the 5700 allows you to sit closer without seeing screen door but I'm not absolutely sure I have it right.

The demo room was very close in size to the room I'll be using at home and being able to sit that close on the front row would sure be nice. If the 4805 will give close to the same picture without having to sit much farther back, I'm absolutely sold. If not, I am probably going to take the money I was planning to use on an amp and step up to a nicer projector.

Thanks,
Chris

Well, you need to let the bulb cool before changing it!

Ba duh tiss!



In the past decade, we have had >15 Sony items, all of which preformed flawlessly. VCR's, Hi8, MiniDisc, receiver, CD changer, etc. I am not a Sony fan, but they have not let me down and I take note of that.

As a matter of fact, I have never had a consumer electronic item fail on me.

Chris:

Imagine watching LOTR on a huge, beautiful screen, with 'great' sound at the worse. Or, 'good' picture with marginally better sound.

While I am a speaker freak, I would take a better video image for home theater, especially if you already have good audio gear!

I've seen both at an a/v dealer. IMO, the 5700 isn't worth the difference in price from a standpoint of PQ. The unit will cost you well over twice the price of a 4805, at least, it does where I live.

I also saw a Sanyo z2, and for dvd watching, felt the 4805 easily outdistanced the sanyo. The salesperson I dealt with had previously been skeptical concerning the 4805 as he didn't care for the 4800 at all and didn't recommend it, but he changed his tune major league after playing with the 4805. Enough, that he intends on picking one up himself, as he watches a minimal amount of hd material and watches primarily movies. The film setting out of the box was quite nice.

The 5700 is a very nice piece as well, but it's PQ doesn't justify its price in comparison with the 4805. I'd be concerned with a possible major price drop on the unit. It's a tweener machine, higher res than the 4805 but not an HD machine.

Also, some people have commented on the 4805 being noisy. Well, I was seated watching the film, and it was beside my right elbow, and the volume was quite modest, and I barely heard the fan.

I've heard the optoma H30 is also a nice machine in the same ballpark as the 4805, but I haven't seen it.

First hand reviews from people attending the AVS projector shoot out (in Denver?) said the 4805 performed almost equally well as the 5700, and was even comparable to the 7200 in many areas for DVD play. Only problem was if you were to have big 110"+ screen is the screendoor effect, which can only be cured by more pixels.

What exactly are you worried about? If you watch 80% DVDs I think you'll be satisfied. Imho I think this will be an awesome first FPTV for many of us, until we can get a decent HD projector under $2k.

I have an IF 4805 and the next step I'll bother to make is to a 720p DLP. Right now that's a mighty big step in dollars...I wouldn't bother spending $3000. I could have stretched the budget over that,but didn't.

I have to agree with PeterMano,

A nearby theater store (Delaware) had both on display, and while sitting in both rooms I was far more impressed with the 4805. There may be reasons to spend more money on the 5700, but if considering between these two FP's I would still go with the 4805.

One observation was projector noise, the fan on the 5700 was much louder and distracted from the viewing experience.

I'm new to the whole FP thing, but when comparing these two it was clear to me that for the money the 4805 was in most areas equal to or better than the 5700.

Depending on how much more you are willing to spend, I'm sure other members can suggest other brands that kill both the 4805 and 5700.

The consensus seems to be that the 5700 has better available resolution than the 4805; but in all other areas (contrast, brightness, RBE, color purity) the 4805 is either equal to the 5700 or, in the case of contrast ratio, even slightly better (2000:1 calibrated for the 4805 vs. 1400:1 ANSI on/off for the 5700).

Especially if your main video source is going to be DVD, then there is just no way that you can beat the 4805 for the price/performance ratio right now. And most users are even stating that the unit handles HD perhaps better than it should based on its available resolution. It's just an incredible machine for the money!

EDIT: By the way, I spotted a post over on the AVSCIENCE forum by an Infocus Tech Engineer which pretty much stated that the 4805, subjectively at least, even provides about 80% of the picture of their new 7205, which costs around $8000!

Actually the engineer in question was referring to the 777, their flagship machine. Here's the quote.

To put things into a little perspective, I've recently been the technical lead on 3 of our home projectors: the ScreenPlay 7205, ScreenPlay 4805, and ScreenPlay 777. My favorite by far is the 4805, and I truly believe it is the best projector value we have ever done in terms of image quality for the money. Based on MSRP, you could get 1 SP777, 3 SP7205's, or 20 SP4805's, and the image quality of the 4805 in my opinion is closer to 80% of the SP777 than 5%, especially if you want to watch a DVD and you have a screen smaller than 8 feet diagonal. In a dark room it significantly outperforms any projection television you can buy at even double its price. I also believe that in any videophile shootout it will win against projectors with competing technologies, even ones with HD resolution, as the contrast, color accuracy, and gray tracking cannot be beat.

Hopefully, if the projector does well, we will bring the true movie theater experience to lots more people than before.

__________________
Bob W.
ScreenPlay Engineer
www.infocushome.com

Peter:

Yeah! That was the quote!

A statement like that just makes you exhale ...
Mutter "Wow!" to yourself as the full significance of what was just claimed sinks fully in ...
And then reach for the plastic!

Thanks again folks. The higher resolution of the 5700 is the only thing that is keeping me from ordering the 4805 right now. I just have to decide if having a 1' larger screen and sitting 2' closer to the screen is worth $2000.00 to me. Probably not, the more I think about it. I've posted the same question over on avsforum in the hope that some of the guys that sell both projectors and see them both daily will comment.

I'm also about a third of the way through the thread on the projector shootout they had in Denver last month. The biggest thing I've gotten out of it so far is that I should probably look at a couple other projectors before making a final decision. With my intended use, I might be able to use a projector with a little better resolution but lower brightness and have the larger screen I would like. Keeping the room completely dark while viewing is not an problem for me, I think. The more I learn, the harder this decision becomes.

Right now, the 4805 is still at the top of my list. Since nobody seems to have them in stock around here anyway, another week of research should be fine. I'm sure itching to get something after watching that 5700 yesterday though.

-Chris

Also take a look at the BenQ PE7800. Uses the same Matterhorn chip as the SP5700 but can be had for around $2800.

Screenshots

Britney