Future Shop: 2800 Lumens Projector; $399

[marksoju]

Optoma Multimedia DLP Projector (ES522), $399 at "Failure shop".

The Good:
2800 Lumens (Bright enough to light up a gym!)
4000 Hr Lamp life (Most others do around ~2000)
Brand Name, Still lots of quantity
600 x 800 progressive resolution; recognizes up to 1080P (Still projects a very nice picture for 600p resolution)

The bad:
600 x 800 resolution. ALMOST High-def, but not quite. But don't despair: This thing will still project a very sponge-worthy picture for watching 720P tv.


http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10128443&catid=11521&logon=&langid=EN&dm=DEBUG

[lithiumli]

http://www.futureshop.ca/multimedia/products/large/10128443.jpg

[lincoln]

Looks like the bulbs cost over $300 and only last for 3000hrs

[erikr]

lol @ sponge-worthy comment.

:D

[Jon Lai]

Looks like the bulbs cost over $300 and only last for 3000hrs

OP said 4Khr half life...

[tragd]

OP said 4Khr half life...

too much science for you!

[KenLangendock]

I have had an 800x600 projector for over 5 years now. The picture is still quite good and I project it at 120".

I would love to upgrade to a 1024, but will wait until the price drops.

The bulb life is dependent on your brightness setting. If you set the projector at maximum all the time, you will only get 2000 hours. I have a 2000 lumins projector and I set mine to 50%, my bulb is supposed to last 4000 hours. 50% brightness is strong enough, anything more gives me a headache.

To experience a home theater is the utlimate in entertainment.

BTW, 4000 hours is a movie a day for 5 years....once it goes, replace the bulb and you have a brand new tv. You do the math.

[axnguyen]

Seems like a really good price...I'm tempted to try it out just for fun.

[Tracer]

I paid 1200.00 for my crappy benq (still going strong tho, after 2 replacements).

This is a great deal and a steal of a price. You can barely buy used for this.

[2heaven]

Any PM opportunity?

[fmillair]

As per Optoma, the bulb will last 3000 hrs at bright setting and 4000 hrs at standard setting. This pretty good since it's usually 2000/3000.

That being said, this projector is sold as a data projector, not a HT one. One of the consequences of that is the lack of any real digital inputs. As an example my old optoma H27 has a DVI input which I use with a HDMI-DVI converter for my HD cable. I also use the component input for my xbox 360.

This projector seems decent and I'm confident that the image would be nice but FOR ME, the lack of a DVI or HDMI input kills this deal. Make sure you think of your input needs before you pull the trigger on the deal.

[vric]

this is definitely not suited for movie.

If you want to do multimedia, go for it, but for movie, it would be like 2002 when you watched widescreen movie on your CRT tv. 50% of the screen will be black with 2:35:1 movie (90% of current ones)

Invest in something else if you want that (Like a refurbished optoma HD65 for ~$550)


The bad:
600 x 800 resolution. ALMOST High-def, but not quite. But don't despair: [/url]

Yea Almost.

480 000 pixels vs 921 600. Jussssssst over 50% there.. (you are FAR from HD) And since with black bar of 16:9 vs 4:3 you loose definition, you are well under 50% High-def..

[marksoju]

Touché. (But you don't have to be so mean about it!) I guess it doesn't quite measure up to widescreen 720p, but on the bright side, it outdoes standard dvd (720×480) by offering an extra 80 lines of resolution. It actually doesn't look bad on 1080i.

Oh, and the bad side of the HD65 is the 1600 lumens. Expect to use it ONLY in a dark room. The thread projector, however, will work on a sunny day on planet Mercury.

[rahzel]

oooo, use the 5% off from the Xbox360 debacle and get it for only $380+tax shipped.

[helphelp911]

if i saw this deal few years ago. i will jump on it right away.

But for today HD world, 800x600 is pretty weak and outdated for movie world.

[googoo]

I paid 1200.00 for my crappy benq (still going strong tho, after 2 replacements).

Hey, they've replaced a couple for me over the years, and nothing wrong with higher end Benq.

800/600 is fine when blown up large, it's the size that make it cool sure it's nowhere near high def but it still makes an impact.

Brent

[complainfromme]

your basically saying a 14mp P&S will outdo a
10 mp DSLR

for movie purpose like you suggested, a calibrated projector w/ proper lumen is all you need.

They can easily put a white segment and Jack up the lumen, get over the megapixel myth

Touché. (But you don't have to be so mean about it!) I guess it doesn't quite measure up to widescreen 720p, but on the bright side, it outdoes standard dvd (720×480) by offering an extra 80 lines of resolution. It actually doesn't look bad on 1080i.

Oh, and the bad side of the HD65 is the 1600 lumens. Expect to use it ONLY in a dark room. The thread projector, however, will work on a sunny day on planet Mercury.

[marksoju]

your basically saying a 14mp P&S will outdo a
10 mp DSLR

for movie purpose like you suggested, a calibrated projector w/ proper lumen is all you need.

They can easily put a white segment and Jack up the lumen, get over the megapixel myth

errr, what? Come again?

[Netcruzer]

I'd hold off on this and try to find a 1024x768 LCD native model or 720p DLP theater projo on the cheap.
I bought a used 1024x768 NEC VT660 LCD projo last year for $280, I use it with xbox360 VGA cables, set to 1366x768 onto a 16:9 92" screen I ordered from NCIX for around $100.
It looks great, hard to tell it's not 'real' HD.
I think if I was trying this with an 800x600 native projo it would look significantly worse. I'm also very happy with the LCD projector, DLP and I my eye's don't work well together (rainbows).

[Tracer]

Hey, they've replaced a couple for me over the years, and nothing wrong with higher end Benq.

800/600 is fine when blown up large, it's the size that make it cool sure it's nowhere near high def but it still makes an impact.

Brent

I bought the benq pb6100 and I think it was near their entry time into the projectors. dunno if they make them anymore.

yes benq does make some nice products but these had a high failure rate.

For all those people almost threadcrapping the deal, you are crazy.

It's $400 and you get a HUGE picture. Movies look great. Dare to compare, where are you going to get something similar for the same price? I still watch 700MB movies on my 1080p tv and they look fine to me.

[bobbob911]

Hey I've been looking for a very bright cheap projector for a little while (for outdoor casual use) - this might fit the bill.

Does anyone know what the color wheel speed is on this? I cant find it anywhere - not even in the manual.

Anyone know of any cheap (<$500) LCD projectors that are also ultra bright? (> 2000 Lumens)

Thanks!

[jrace]

your basically saying a 14mp P&S will outdo a
10 mp DSLR

for movie purpose like you suggested, a calibrated projector w/ proper lumen is all you need.

They can easily put a white segment and Jack up the lumen, get over the megapixel myth

That is far from "all you need".
The larger the screen the MORE resolution you need.
What do you think would look better on a 7ft wide screen:
800lines or
1900lines?
Don't forget as you increase the screen size the pixel itself increases - and so does the space between the pixels...the more pixels per inch the clearer and sharper the image will be.

I went from 480p on a 92" screen tp 1080p - the difference was astounding.
Even my luddite wife was shocked at the difference.

This is a great projector for SD only, and would be great for an outdoor setup.

[helphelp911]

I bought the benq pb6100 and I think it was near their entry time into the projectors. dunno if they make them anymore.

yes benq does make some nice products but these had a high failure rate.

For all those people almost threadcrapping the deal, you are crazy.

It's $400 and you get a HUGE picture. Movies look great. Dare to compare, where are you going to get something similar for the same price? I still watch 700MB movies on my 1080p tv and they look fine to me.

For me, on my 50" 720P cheapo tv. i can see the different between DVD and blueray. So i assume 100" 800x600 will be really bad

[Khrak]

I bought the benq pb6100 and I think it was near their entry time into the projectors. dunno if they make them anymore.

yes benq does make some nice products but these had a high failure rate.

For all those people almost threadcrapping the deal, you are crazy.

It's $400 and you get a HUGE picture. Movies look great. Dare to compare, where are you going to get something similar for the same price? I still watch 700MB movies on my 1080p tv and they look fine to me.

I picked up an 720p Optoma DV11 on Black Friday for $450 (Price error, supposed to be $600 with free 78" screen).
That was in 2007. $400 for a horribly out of date projector simply isn't hot.

Right off the bat widescreen video is going to be cut down to ~800x450 to maintain ratio. That's ~1/6th the pixel count of 1080p.

The fact that you are blind doesn't make low-quality crap look good on a big screen. Hell, I can't even stand watching those 700MB rips on my monitor they look so bad.

The difference between 720p and 1080p on a 100" screen is pretty obvious.

This is a bright low-res projector. It's meant for use in meeting rooms, not for movies.

[marksoju]

Oh, and make sure and use a component cable to accept 1080p signals. (even though it would display the exact same as a 720p signal, because of the 600 x 800)

[rahzel]

marksoju was AGREEING with you that this lower pixel projector was still very good, yet you told him to "get over the megapixel myth". Also, who is this Jack you speak of? Your post is hard to understand but I chose not to pick out all of the grammar and spelling mistakes because English is not the first language of many on these forums. There is definitely a "tard" in this thread and it isn't marksoju. "You are a tard" or "You're a tard". "your tard" doesn't make sense.

[tal65]

This is a hell of a deal for anyone who's looking at buying a projector for a big screen movie experience on a tight budget.

That's all that needs to be said, different people have different requirements, for the right person this is a fantastic deal and it's great the OP posted it. For other it's not going to work because they want high res, but why thread crap? All it does it deter people from posting deals, some may suit your needs, some don't. Not all deals are for everyone.

[complainfromme]

I never once mentioned resolution, I was talking about his lumen comment. People tend
to think that more lumen is better(like people think of megapixel). All the data/business type projectors hav high lumen for a reason.

Using this projector solely for watching movies would not be ideal, and the slower wheel speed would produce more rainbow than HT PROJECTORS any motion pic like movies. And color reproduction, black level are things to be considered. It's not all about resolution and
brightness likenthe OP thought it was.

It is not a good deal if your looking for a movie projector. The outdated h27, dv10, dv11, h31 will do a much better job at less or same price let alone the HD65 OP used to compare.

[klover]

This is designed for static images, not multimedia. The low resolution, slow colour wheel, poor/non-existent video processing, mediocre black levels, and typically muted/washed out colours of business projectors are not suited to video/film.

Don't expect too much from this and you'll be happy.

[marksoju]

3000:1 contrast ratio is nuthin' to shake a stick at. Granted, you'll see some blackness in the bars thanks to the 4:3 native.

This will produce a ten foot picture with no resolution loss from a dvd source. It will produce a clearer picture with bluray or HDTV. (Clearer than dvd, that is)

Anyhoo, form your own conclusions, and good luck finding a 2800 lumen projector for less than 4 hunnert bucks.

[Crowbarfoot]

Oh, and the bad side of the HD65 is the 1600 lumens. Expect to use it ONLY in a dark room. The thread projector, however, will work on a sunny day on planet Mercury.

HD65 has amazing reviews by people using it in very bright rooms. Check the 2000+ post thread on AVS or

http://www.projectorreviews.com/optoma/hd65/imagequality.php

I'm currently testing one right now in my basement.

[Emancipated]

Can you project this to a distance of 6-8 feet? I always wanted to get one so I can project to my ceiling while lying in bed to watch a movie (the answer is yes... I might as well say it since you're thinking it).

I"m thinking it's probably not good to keep it vertical like that or is it?

[marksoju]

Can you project this to a distance of 6-8 feet? I always wanted to get one so I can project to my ceiling while lying in bed to watch a movie (the answer is yes... I might as well say it since you're thinking it).

I"m thinking it's probably not good to keep it vertical like that or is it?

You CAN, but it wouldn't work very well for only 6-8 ft away. The picture would be kinda small. (ideally you'd have this thing more than 10 feet away.)

No harm in keeping it vertically mounted.

[biztyke]

Oh, and the bad side of the HD65 is the 1600 lumens. Expect to use it ONLY in a dark room. The thread projector, however, will work on a sunny day on planet Mercury.

i have an hd65 and i use mine in daylight all the time, the only thing it cant handle is direct sunlight(no projecter i know of can handle direct sunlight and still look good).

i also have a business projector(benq pb6240). it is 1024x768 and it does well as a bedroom projector, but the hd65 definitely outshines it. i can say this though, the projector mentioned here better have a "film" mode or some way to turn off the white segment. on my benq, if i leave the white segment on(which does give mega lumens) then video quality looks absolutely terrible. put it in film mode and it looks substantially better(but lumens go from like 2600 to about 1400).

$400 is an ok price, but not hot. and if someone is seriously looking at getting a projector for movie viewing, i would suggest spending the extra money and getting a home theatre projector capable of 720p at least. even a 480p projector designed for home theatre use would work better, i used to have an infocus sp4805 and despite being lower resolution, i think it looked better than my benq does.

[jennybean]

"lol @ sponge-worthy comment."

+1

[aaaaaa]

Our projector at work died, so this would actually be a good deal for us. But, as previously mentioned in this thread, 800x600 is horrible. Even for just using it with a laptop, it looks pixelated and terrible.

The one we have at work is an Optima one as well, can anyone comment on the quality of this brand? So far it looks like we have one strike against them since ours died. :|

[biztyke]

The one we have at work is an Optima one as well, can anyone comment on the quality of this brand? So far it looks like we have one strike against them since ours died. :|

well, i can only comment on my experience with my hd65. i bought it refurbished for $550 a while back(really cheap), it had a 90 day warranty. after a few weeks it started acting up, wouldn't fire the lamp half the time. i called optoma and they said i was likely doing something wrong. well, another 2 weeks pass and the bulb was dead. i sent it in, they said the bulb is only covered for 30 days(i was just over) but after a while they gave in and replaced the bulb. i asked them to check and make the the lamp driver was ok, they said it was fine and shipped it back. well, after another month it wouldn't turn on at all even with the brand new bulb. by this time i am over the 90 day warranty, and they again claim i am doing something wrong. i kept on their case, finally got another rma# and sent it in again. lo and behold they replaced the lamp driver(which is what i thought was wrong all along). it has been working fine ever since.

having said all that, from what i gather optoma has about the same average failure rate as any other major projector brand. i think with any projector, as long as it has a full warranty(i will not buy refurbished again) then you should be ok. just be aware that although it worked out for me in the end, it was like pulling teeth to get proper service from their rma dept.

as far as the image and ease of use of the projector, i am very happy with it.