I finally ordered a Plus Piano Avanti HE-3200 DLP projector. The projector arrived Friday on my door step, and though my theater is not yet ready, I had to fire it up to give it a try.
First of all, the entire ordering process was great. I ordered on-line from Plus using their economy shipping on Monday, and the projector arrived on Friday. The projector was double-boxed and well packed.
I took the projector to my basement and hung a bed sheet over the studs where my screen wall will be. I hooked up a cheap DVD player I had laying around using the supplied s-video cable and fired up Ice Age and the kids and I watched. My first impression of the projector was that the picture is great. Even though most of the picture shot right through the bed-sheet, we still had enough of a quality picture to enjoy the film.
I then moved the projector to the living room where I could shoot it onto my off-white wall and hook it up to my Time Warner digital cable box. I used the component video connections. I watched several different channels, and it really was enjoyable to see my favorite episode of Seinfeld as large as my wall. The only drawback was that the poor picture quality of standard cable television is exposed on a large screen. I then switched to the few HDTV channels that Time Warner is offering on my local cable system. Wow. I was stunned. Even though the Piano must downgrade the resolution for HD signals, the picture was still absolutely fabulous.
I've only put about 2.5 hours on the bulb so far, and I have not done any calibration on the projector yet. But, I think I am going to be very pleased with this projector once it gets installed in my new theater room and is projecting onto my DaLite screen.
The drywall will go up this week, so hopefully the theater will be up and running in about 2 or 3 weeks.
First of all, the entire ordering process was great. I ordered on-line from Plus using their economy shipping on Monday, and the projector arrived on Friday. The projector was double-boxed and well packed.
I took the projector to my basement and hung a bed sheet over the studs where my screen wall will be. I hooked up a cheap DVD player I had laying around using the supplied s-video cable and fired up Ice Age and the kids and I watched. My first impression of the projector was that the picture is great. Even though most of the picture shot right through the bed-sheet, we still had enough of a quality picture to enjoy the film.
I then moved the projector to the living room where I could shoot it onto my off-white wall and hook it up to my Time Warner digital cable box. I used the component video connections. I watched several different channels, and it really was enjoyable to see my favorite episode of Seinfeld as large as my wall. The only drawback was that the poor picture quality of standard cable television is exposed on a large screen. I then switched to the few HDTV channels that Time Warner is offering on my local cable system. Wow. I was stunned. Even though the Piano must downgrade the resolution for HD signals, the picture was still absolutely fabulous.
I've only put about 2.5 hours on the bulb so far, and I have not done any calibration on the projector yet. But, I think I am going to be very pleased with this projector once it gets installed in my new theater room and is projecting onto my DaLite screen.
The drywall will go up this week, so hopefully the theater will be up and running in about 2 or 3 weeks.