Video Asylum

In Reply to: DLP Projectors and 4:3 stretch on 16:9 posted by shelly on March 06, 1999 at 17:49:09:

I revisited the deraler for another, more serious audition of the Dream Vision, taking with me notes from Mtry and from other research around the web. I went in to focus on all the shortcomings of this projector.

Boy, is this one impressive performer, given its $6000 price.
Mtry, I don't know if you auditioned this unit but the circles were circles and there weren't any noticeable jagged edges on white stripes. Are you sure that both the dvd and projector were in anamorphic mode with The Mask of Zorro?

I check vertical lines, like the moldings in As Good As It Gets. Perfectrly straight. Fleshtones. Acurate. No oversaturation of colors. The contrast, brightness, color saturation et al controls on the projector were all less than one half of their range.

There were momentary waveylines, similar to what I get on my Toshiba tube with window blinds, checkered pattrns, etc., baut they never took away from the movie.

I requested that non anamorphic movies be shown to eliminate the best possible picture that the anamorphic presented. We had the picture at about 100 inches diagnal, which would be about a 7 foot wide screen.
There was the lighter frame around the movie, and this could be eliminated on the sides by filling in the picture to the black edge of the screen. But It was present on the top and bottom. It's affect was to take some of the contrast of colors away from the picture. We increased the caontrast a tad to compensate.

With Dish Network sattelite transmission, the picture, obviously, wasn't as sharp as the dvd. So we zoomed in to about a 70-75 inch screen equivalent, and things sharpened up considerably.

Unfortuneastely, it has only an s-video and computer interface input. The dealer's technician is working on building an RGB to computer interface (the horizontal, multipin type whose name/number escapes me) to allow for the hookup of future progressive scan output, or even a line doubler (don't know if opne would work with the Dream Vision once the appropriate cable connection could be made. the dealer said that he waas told that it would work. Who knows?)

Whatever shortcomings this projector has, and those of the DLP technology, are minor to me, given its price. Certainly, this second generation chip from TI has elevated the single chip dlp projecator above the pack of first generation single ship projectors.
For now, I'm sold. ($6000 is still a lot of $$$$.)