Free projector! Worth having? (1 Viewer)

[Nile Bland]

I recived my first PJ yesterday via gift from mother and step father. they bought a new one. It is a InFocus LP425Z. Is it worth spending anytime on trying to use as home theater main piece? I hooked it up set it on table and pointed at flat white wall, was amazed at pic quality! I have a 42" sony TV set and it made it look small. I did some searching online and found that it is no longer made, and most importanly this thread! I am alittle excited at the poss of having a home theater but still unsure if it will to the job. I would love to hear from anyone on their thoughts. Where do I go from here? All I recived was PJ, with all the basic items that came with it new. They bought it new 4 yrs ago. And said it has maybe 50 hrs of use on it at most. Thoughts please. Thank You.

Nile

 

[Mike LS]

A 4 year old, 50 hour projector, and they bought a new one? Wow.

Well, from the specs on this, it wouldn't be the easiest unit to use for HT since there seems to be no keystone correction (you'd have to mount it perfectly) and the contrast isn't all that wonderful, so blacks would be so-so, but for free? Heck, I'd definitely put it into my system and see what it looks like.

 

[Nile Bland]

Ya I know. He owns a auto dealership,used for traning. I quess he needed a tax write off? What does HT stand for? It says somthing about keystone in the manual but refers you to the keystone manual and I dont have that. It has a small door on side with a special key. I have not spent alot of time messing with it yet. Thanks

 

[Chuck Mullen]

Home Theater:b

 

[Tommy G]

Nile, welcome to the Forum! Anyway, I would use it as a starter and if you have the room for it, go for it. After another 4 years, you can get the upgrade from your dad and simply switch the 2 . I don't know how much cash you have but obviously the next steps would be to decide what the throw distance would be. After that you can decide on screen size. You can also get a fairly inexpensive surround system and maybe have the whole thing done for $400-$500.

 

[Jimi C]

no, not worth it, give it to me.

 

[Citizen87645]

I have the LP400 and LP435 at my work. The LP4XX line uses DLP (Digital Light Processing). Being four years old the DLP technology is not as good as it is now plus there is no component video connection, just s-video. There's no comparison to an InFocus X1 but for free there's not much to complain about.

EDIT: I you were to complain, it would be the fan noise and the contrast ratio. Not really designed for home theater, but again - FREE!

 

[Neil Joseph]

My previous projector was a VGA (640x480) projector which is nowhere as good as this Infocus unit. It threw up an image that immersed me into a movie such as the cinema would so go for it. Get yourself an s-video cable and enjoy. Throw up the image onto a white wall. You could even mount some black border material right onto the wall to mask off the edges... minimal cost to enjoy the big screen.

 

[AdamGaines]

The Infocus LP425Z is actually a fairlt decent projector. I had one in my home theater for many years. I did have the problems mentioned earlier with keytone. IT MUST BE MOUNTED PERFECT to get rid of the keystone. It also has light spill as most single chip DPLs do. Some of my friends complained of the "Rainbows", but I never saw them. Contrast was decent with a pitch black room. Forget about using this projector with any light to get a decent picture. It accepts 1080i HDTV and scales it down to the panel resolution. I ran it with both a Samsung HDTV STB and an HTPC with decent results. We eventually sold it for an RPTV and never looked back. Watching with light makes the wife happy...