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projectors optoma vs sp infocus (1 Viewer)

chris**j

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Jan 6, 2005
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Im just getting into this stuff, but i know i want a front projector. i have been researching for a month and have narrowed it down to either the optoma h31 or the infocus sp 4805 both are with in my budget and i allready compared the specs (projectorcentral.com). im using the bonus room above garrage so light will be no problem. also thinking of running an ht computer. has anyone ever seen them demoed?
 

Jim Mcc

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Chris, have you read the review of the 4805 at Projectorcentral.com? It got a great review and is very popular. I don't think they reviewed the H31 yet. There is a long thread at Avsforum.com started by "Guitarman" about the H31.
 

Brian Gi

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Feb 20, 2003
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The Optoma H30 has developed a reputation for shorter than average bulb life. It may have been rectified with the H31, but who knows?

Infocus has some of the absolute best customer support in the industry. If they cannot fix a PJ within 15 biz days, (If a part is on backorder) they send you a new one.

Hard to argue with Infocus support.
 

Paul-D

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I don't know if this will help your decision or not, but Costco will have the 4805 on sale from Jan 31-Feb 6. The price will be 1199, then there is a $100 instant rebat, and a $100 manufacture rebate. Making the cost only $999. This includes a 76" screen and a 30' svideo cable. You need to go to the customer service before hand though and ask them for a coupon book. They should give one to you.

Good luck and let us know how things go.
 

ericSchirm

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Oct 17, 2003
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That Costco deal pushed me over the edge and because of their return policy. I bought a 4805 last night and I will go back to get the price match. I didn't want them to run out!!

I hooked it up last night and projected onto a black wall. MAN even that looked good! Building the screen this weekend.
 

KirkP

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Mar 9, 2004
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Chris,
We are a retailer for both product lines - I choose the 4805 for my own theater room. For the price, it really performs better than anything else I've demo'd. If you take advantage of the Costco deal, you'll be recieving a phenomenal deal that quite frankly, none of the other retailers (including us) can touch. Good luck & enjoy your new projector!
 

PeterMano

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Jun 8, 2004
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182
I've been researching these two projectors lately, myself as well as the optoma H30. The H30 scares the crap out of me. The premature bulb burn outs are a real killer in my book. Although, the problems are anecdotal in nature, they are far too widespread and numerous to ignore. There are ownes over at the AVS forums angry enough, that they want to launch a class action lawsuit against Optoma. Bulbs blowing at 300 hours and less. Multiple times. Bad bulb batch or faulty projector design? Either way, bulbs are very expensive and for owners in this price range, a $400 bulb replacement is huge. Add to that other problems I've read like a noisy color wheel, losing sync issues, etc and buying an h30 comes across as a crap shoot. Whats doubly worse in my book is that the problems haven't stopped. Problems reported by owners when it launched still crop up for new owners. And this unit has had firmware updates out the wazoo. So, I have real doubts that the H31 will be any different. Also, the PQ is there, but you have to tweak it. OTB performance is supposed to be all over the map, varying widely from one unit to the other. Let's just say, I have serious doubts when it comes to H30 and the concept of quality control.

I'm not saying the 4805 isn't going to have problems, but I just simply haven't read the same horror stories about it with such alarming frequency.

I want good picture quality for my dvd viewing at an affordable price, I want decent OTB performance, and a reasonable chance of going 2 years on a bulb, not two months. The 4805 seems like the best bet for me. I've previewed a 4805 at a dealer and liked what I saw. I found the unit to be quiet, but some parties have knocked the 4805 down for being noisy. I had the unit right beside me at my right elbow on a coffee table and barely noticed it was running.

If I had more confidence in optoma or their customer support, I'd take a more serious look at the optoma H31, because the specs look very good. But specs and performance are only one part of the overall equation, imo.
 

chris**j

Auditioning
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Jan 6, 2005
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WILL THE PRICE OF THE 4805 GO DOWN EVEN MORE IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS? iT SEEMS THAT THERE SHOULD BE A NEW MODEL COMMING OUT SOON FOR INFOCUS
 

Brian Gi

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Feb 20, 2003
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122
The X-1/4800 was around for more than a year before the 4805 was a gleam in Infocus's eye. The 4805 has the Dark Chip2 like the recently released Optoma H31 and just announced Optoma Movietime. The price may well come down a couple hundred more, but the manufacturers aren't stumbling over each other to kill either their margins or retailer margins, just the opposite. At the Infocus press conference at CEDIA, Infocus stressd how important it was to keep both their margins and their retailers, Infocus learned it's lesson with the X-1, slash prices and incur the rath of the stock market. Their market capitalization tumbled, and really horked off their stockholders.

At this point in time, and at the current price point, you don't see Optoma, Infocus, NEC, or Toshiba starting pricing wars, and LG is staying out of this market segment here in the US.

Buy the 4805 and don't look back.
 

PeterMano

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Jun 8, 2004
Messages
182
Front view projectors like the 4805 are delivering a remarkable bang for the buck even at list price. I would caution people against wanting even lower prices. With lower prices, often comes lower quality.

I have to admire companies like Infocus and Optoma among others for delivering high performance affordable projectors. These companies could've easily have crippled their low end offerings to have them fair less well against higher priced, higher margined offerings in their product line. But, they didn't.

The 4805 and H31's major limiting features are their resolution. Aside from that, it's hard to see them as budget or low-end units. From a standpoint of color rendition, contrast and features, they hold up remarkably well to projectors two to three times their cost. Any way you cut it, relative bargains both.

I"m siding with the 4805 simply because I can evaluate it better as its been out for a while. The h31 is a new product and could very well be "better", but by how much is questionable, since they both are based on the same chip set and spec sheets don't tell the story.
 

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