Leo Kerr
Screenwriter
- Joined
- May 10, 1999
- Messages
- 1,698
As some of you may recall from an earlier post (yesh! three weeks ago?) I recently got a cute little Panasonic PT-LC75u XGA native resolution LCD projector.
For those who aren't familiar with it, it's about 8"x12"x4", weighs just under seven pounds, and is Panasonic Silver in color. It accepts composite, Y/c, Y-Pr-Pb, and RGB signals, and outputs roughly 750 or 1200 ANSI Lumens. In low brightness mode, it is very quiet; in high brightness mode, it is louder; 2.5-3 dB if I remember the manual correctly.
Practically, with the configuration I'm using, the difference between the 750 and the 1200 lumens is negligable - definitely not worth the estimated 1000 hours of lamp life it sacrifices (2000-3000 hours.) In my situation, it turns out that even 750 lumens is a bit bright!
The full-on/off contrast is, as I recall, quoted to be near 400:1; people on the AVS forum say that the ANSI contrast is somewhere in the 200:1 - 250:1 range, depending on numerous variables. I haven't measured mine; I intend to - sometime. There are a lot of things I intend to do sometime, but unfortunately, there are a lot of other things that take precidence, and so instead of running tests and measurements, I've been running more movies, instead.
In my configuration, I have a DIY gray-screen of a fairly loose weave 100% cotton fabric, stretched over a PVC pipe frame, with a useful size of 40"x60". Yes, I know that 1.5:1 is not anyone's aspect ratio! The advantage of this screen is that it is close enough to being acoustically transparent that any/all speakers behind it are relatively unaffected. The viewing distance I'm using is between 5-7 feet, and the projector is suspended from a DIY ceiling mount, made out of MDF, screw-eyes, over sized cup hooks, and nuts that allow me to trim the angle, balance, roll, pitch, and yaw. Okay, maybe not the yaw, but there's enough room for me to do that with the projector. Aside: I need to extend the hanging mechanism a couple inches so I can eliminate the use of the digital keystone correction.
On the equipment side, I'm still using just a plain old Panasonic 110a player that is limited to interlaced S-video. Unlike many people with the 110 and 120 players, I've never had any of the bugs that plagued many of these early units. It does, however, support DD and DTS. Some day, maybe, I'll replace it. Not this week.
First off, the projector is easy to set up. I'd prefer if some of the controls could be accessed without using the menu system, but for the most part, it's fine. The one difficulty I've had is for some reason, either the discs aren't mastered right, or the player isn't handling them right, but the projector doesn't always recognize the anamorphic signals. It, however, is easy enough to force into the 1.77:1 mode.
As some people have noted on the AVSForum, the lamp is a little on the green side, and someday soon, I'll find my collection of color correction filters and try playing with the mild +magenta filters.
Impressions
Coming to 70" diagonal front projections from a decent grade 20" CRT has been an adventure. CRT blacks, I have come to realize, are incredible. CRT detail and sharpness, I have also come to realize, is pathetic.
There are two significant problems I've identified with this projector. One is the fault of the projector. It's black level is too high, or it's contrast level is too low. Take your pick. In 'average picture,' however, the black level isn't a problem. In a relatively dark film, however, it's a little too bright.
The second problem is that this sucker reveals mediochre transfers and MPEG and digital artifacts like mad. Edge enhancement, which I usually had to look for pretty carefully on the 20" CRT, now leaps off of those 2.35:1 Columbia Tristar titles. Old DVDs, like Ladyhawke are badly chewed up, between the D-2 master (composite) and the early MPEG-II encoder. Ye gods! I can't wait for a good transfer and recompression of this title! Better handled titles, however, look pretty good.
Laserdiscs, I found, were interesting. They look soft and smooth - even just the MPEG coding adds a great deal of 'aparent sharpness.'
A word of warning: the projector's sharpness control is set, by default, to 4 (on a scale of 0-16 or something like that.) At this setting, it is actually neutral. Going below four softens the picture - quite a lot.
And an interesting note on the fan and the fan noise. In the 'low brightness' mode, the fan runs slower. Mostly. It appears that it can cycle the fan speed if it needs to. Even so, with the projector directly over my head, it takes a quiet scene without any ambient noise or music to be able to hear the fan.
In short, I am pleased. It isn't perfect, no doubt. It is, however, quite decent. And in two or three years when it comes time for me to replace the lamp, I dare say that the projector world will have changed enough that I shall merely replace the projector, with something higher resolution, higher contrast, and probably cheaper than the $2230 (inc shipping) I paid for this one.
Leo Kerr
[email protected]
For those who aren't familiar with it, it's about 8"x12"x4", weighs just under seven pounds, and is Panasonic Silver in color. It accepts composite, Y/c, Y-Pr-Pb, and RGB signals, and outputs roughly 750 or 1200 ANSI Lumens. In low brightness mode, it is very quiet; in high brightness mode, it is louder; 2.5-3 dB if I remember the manual correctly.
Practically, with the configuration I'm using, the difference between the 750 and the 1200 lumens is negligable - definitely not worth the estimated 1000 hours of lamp life it sacrifices (2000-3000 hours.) In my situation, it turns out that even 750 lumens is a bit bright!
The full-on/off contrast is, as I recall, quoted to be near 400:1; people on the AVS forum say that the ANSI contrast is somewhere in the 200:1 - 250:1 range, depending on numerous variables. I haven't measured mine; I intend to - sometime. There are a lot of things I intend to do sometime, but unfortunately, there are a lot of other things that take precidence, and so instead of running tests and measurements, I've been running more movies, instead.
In my configuration, I have a DIY gray-screen of a fairly loose weave 100% cotton fabric, stretched over a PVC pipe frame, with a useful size of 40"x60". Yes, I know that 1.5:1 is not anyone's aspect ratio! The advantage of this screen is that it is close enough to being acoustically transparent that any/all speakers behind it are relatively unaffected. The viewing distance I'm using is between 5-7 feet, and the projector is suspended from a DIY ceiling mount, made out of MDF, screw-eyes, over sized cup hooks, and nuts that allow me to trim the angle, balance, roll, pitch, and yaw. Okay, maybe not the yaw, but there's enough room for me to do that with the projector. Aside: I need to extend the hanging mechanism a couple inches so I can eliminate the use of the digital keystone correction.
On the equipment side, I'm still using just a plain old Panasonic 110a player that is limited to interlaced S-video. Unlike many people with the 110 and 120 players, I've never had any of the bugs that plagued many of these early units. It does, however, support DD and DTS. Some day, maybe, I'll replace it. Not this week.
First off, the projector is easy to set up. I'd prefer if some of the controls could be accessed without using the menu system, but for the most part, it's fine. The one difficulty I've had is for some reason, either the discs aren't mastered right, or the player isn't handling them right, but the projector doesn't always recognize the anamorphic signals. It, however, is easy enough to force into the 1.77:1 mode.
As some people have noted on the AVSForum, the lamp is a little on the green side, and someday soon, I'll find my collection of color correction filters and try playing with the mild +magenta filters.
Impressions
Coming to 70" diagonal front projections from a decent grade 20" CRT has been an adventure. CRT blacks, I have come to realize, are incredible. CRT detail and sharpness, I have also come to realize, is pathetic.
There are two significant problems I've identified with this projector. One is the fault of the projector. It's black level is too high, or it's contrast level is too low. Take your pick. In 'average picture,' however, the black level isn't a problem. In a relatively dark film, however, it's a little too bright.
The second problem is that this sucker reveals mediochre transfers and MPEG and digital artifacts like mad. Edge enhancement, which I usually had to look for pretty carefully on the 20" CRT, now leaps off of those 2.35:1 Columbia Tristar titles. Old DVDs, like Ladyhawke are badly chewed up, between the D-2 master (composite) and the early MPEG-II encoder. Ye gods! I can't wait for a good transfer and recompression of this title! Better handled titles, however, look pretty good.
Laserdiscs, I found, were interesting. They look soft and smooth - even just the MPEG coding adds a great deal of 'aparent sharpness.'
A word of warning: the projector's sharpness control is set, by default, to 4 (on a scale of 0-16 or something like that.) At this setting, it is actually neutral. Going below four softens the picture - quite a lot.
And an interesting note on the fan and the fan noise. In the 'low brightness' mode, the fan runs slower. Mostly. It appears that it can cycle the fan speed if it needs to. Even so, with the projector directly over my head, it takes a quiet scene without any ambient noise or music to be able to hear the fan.
In short, I am pleased. It isn't perfect, no doubt. It is, however, quite decent. And in two or three years when it comes time for me to replace the lamp, I dare say that the projector world will have changed enough that I shall merely replace the projector, with something higher resolution, higher contrast, and probably cheaper than the $2230 (inc shipping) I paid for this one.
Leo Kerr
[email protected]
.(Summer time! Won't be working on the HT again till the fall) 
