DLP Projector Reviews

Most home theater projectors are either LCD projectors or single chip digital DLP projectors.

Entry level home projectors typically cost less than plasma displays or big screen TVs, and, of course produce a much larger image on to a projector screen. There are basically two groups of entry level projectors; all-in-one projectors with built in DVD players and speakers, and stand alone home theater projectors. Both groups typically offered EDTV resolution (one step below HDTV) of 854x480, referred to as 480p. Today, however, stand alone projectors are mostly 720p resolution (1280x720), which is one of the HDTV standards, and are now even getting into the 1080p resolution.

The key factors to consider in making your home theater projector choice, include; your budget, placement considerations (ceiling, table, back wall), image quality (of course), ability to control your room lighting, and matching the projector to a projector screen, that will work best in your room.
When all is said and done, your new home theater projector and system can do what plasma displays and big screen TV's just can't accomplish, and that is provide the huge "theater-like" viewing area that allows you to be immersed in the content. Even the largest most expensive plasmas now shipping produce an image less than half the size of the typical home theater projector setup.

ProjectorReviews.com

The abbreviation "DLP" stands for "Digital Light Processing". DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) micro processing chips manipulate the way a digital or graphic signal is reflected off of a multitude of tiny mirrors on the chip onto the screen producing an image. The DLP chip is probably the world's most sophisticated light switch. It contains a rectangular array of up to 2 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors. Each of these micromirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair.

A DLP chip's micromirrors tilt either toward the light source in a DLP projection system (ON) or away from it (OFF). This creates a light or dark pixel on the projection surface.

The array of microscopic mirrors on a DLP chip reflects a digital light image through a projection lens onto a screen. The image that is produced is far more detailed and defined than any previous technology.

The bit-streamed image code entering the semiconductor directs each mirror to switch on and off up to several thousand times per second. When a mirror is switched on more frequently than off, it reflects a light gray pixel; a mirror that's switched off more frequently reflects a darker gray pixel.

In this way, the mirrors in a DLP projection system can reflect pixels in up to 1,024 shades of gray to convert the video or graphic signal entering the DLP chip into a highly detailed grayscale image.

Color is produced when the digital light image is sent through a spinning color wheel. When only one DLP chip is used (which is the case for home theater systems) an array of millions of colors can be produced that far exceed the capability of previous technologies. In larger venues a three chip light prism system is used to create an array of trillions of color possibilities.

The white light generated by the lamp in a DLP projection system passes through a color filter as it travels to the surface of the DLP chip. This filters the light into a minimum of red, green, and blue, from which a single-chip DLP projection system can create at least 16.7 million colors.

With BrilliantColor Technology, additional colors are added including Cyan, Magenta and Yellow to expand the color pallet for even more vibrant color performance. Some DLP projectors offer solid-state illumination which replaces the traditional white lamp. As a result, the light source emits the necessary colors eliminating the color filter. In some DLP systems, a 3-chip architecture is used, particularly for high brightness projectors required for large venue applications such as concerts and movie theaters. These systems are capable of producing no fewer than 35 trillion colors.
The on and off states of each micromirror are coordinated with these basic building blocks of color. For example, a mirror responsible for projecting a purple pixel will only reflect red and blue light to the projection surface; those colors are then blended to see the intended hue in a projected image.

If you prefer to watch precise and seamless smooth motion, practically NO picture degradation, NO burn-in or fading, amazing color reproduction, incredible brightness, contrast, clarity, and picture reliability DLP technology is by far the best choice.

ti.com

Amazing, February 3, 2010
By Rami Abdel-rahman "Rami" (Delaware)

Just got this last night, after doing extensive research on a dlp at entry level price. It is my first projector, straight out of the box the colors and contrast was awesome. I streamed a movie out of netflix and couldn't believe how good the picture looked, skin tones very true. I had it projected on a fixed 120 and the best part, the aspect ratio changes auto to fit the screen best based on the input movie.
If you were thinking about it and on the fence, I would 100% recommend it.

Ecost Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications: Mitsubishi HC3800 1080p Home Theater DLP Projector

Perfect Home Theater Projector for larger Screens (120+), December 9, 2009
By Andy O. Williams "andyo" (Wichita, KS)

The W6000 has some of the highest ratings in a home theater projector under $5,000 and delivers a super bright, high contrast picture. It has 2500 lumens compared with most projectors in this price range with 1000 to 1600. It's big, heavy, it has a formidable lens and delivers an excellent picture in any lighting. If you are considering the Panasonic PTAE4000U or Epson 8500UB, this projector is definitely in that class but is far superior in brightness. For a screen size greater than 120" and with any level of ambient lighting, this is undoubtedly the best overall projector for the money.

pcRUSH Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
BenQ W6000 2500 Lumens 1920 x 1080 50000:1 DLP Projector

BenQ's W600 is the sensible solution for huge-screen enjoyment of all home entertainment devices. Gaming, videos, pictures, TV, and more are easily connected via dual HDCP-compliant HDMI ports as well as RGB, Composite Video, S-Video, and Component Video interfaces. Graphic-intensive games and complex movie scenes are immaculately rendered in 720p high-definition, backed by an advanced 6-segment color wheel, BrilliantColor, UNISHAPE, and 3D Color Management. BrilliantColor affords up to a 50% increase in brightness, enhances mid-tone hues, and expands the color palette beyond RGB (red/green/blue) to also include yellow, white, magenta, and cyan for more realistic and lifelike color reproduction. 3D Color Management enables users to fine-tune hue, saturation, and gain of individual colors so that specific applications are optimized to user preference. Flawless color accuracy, deeper blacks, brighter whites, and sharp detail definition are additionally supported by 2,000AL brilliance and a 3,000:1 high contrast ratio. A class-leading 4,000-hour eco lamp life and sub-1W standby mode further solidify the W600 as a sensible choice for affordable, fun home entertainment.

Amazon Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications: BenQ W600 3D-Ready 720p DLP Projector

The W1000 finds its unique niche as a 1080p Full HD home cinema projector equipped with solid performance essentials. Like the W6000, it boasts a 6-segment advanced color wheel and BrilliantColor processing for exceptionally rich, true-to-source tones.
Exclusive 3D Color Management and OSRAM's UNISHAPE technology differentiate the W1000's mastery of color: the former allows users 100% color customization without compromise; the latter amps image brightness up to 40% by varying the intensity of the projector lamp in synchronization with the color wheel. The result is movie magic with boldly rendered hues and never-before-noticed dark detail definition. A high 2,700:1 contrast ratio harnesses the 1,800AL for deep, rich image quality, even with ambient room lighting. Top access lamp door and dual HDMI inputs afford easy installation and hookup. A generous 4,000-hour eco lamp life is icing on consumer budgets.

Amazon Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications: BenQ W1000 1080p DLP Home Theater Projector, White

For the home theater consumer that is looking for a practical and less expensive video projector that can also be used while watching a football game in the living room with the guys, Samsung's SP-A600B projector fits the bill. Even in a brightly lit room, this projector emits so much light to the projection screen that watching the latest NFL playoff game in the daylight hours presents no problem to the SP-A600B.
In fact, this projector produces up to 883 Lumens when it is in the Vivid mode, more than enough light emission to compensate for projecting video images in rooms that allow a lot of light onto the projection screen.

Since you can purchase this very impressive HDTV video projector for the fairly low cost of $1785, any home theater consumer that needs to upgrade their current video projector to a model that delivers outstanding contrast levels with superior sharpness and detail in every frame that it projects should rank the Samsung SP-A600B very high on their "need to buy" list.

Capitol Supply, Inc. Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
Samsung - Samsung Sp-A600B Home Cinema Projector - 1920 X 1080 - 16:9 - 10.36Lb

This advanced home theater projector features native 1080p resolution and produces the deepest blacks and brightest, most vibrant colors for home theaters. It's bright enough for multipurpose rooms or viewing with the lights on. The SP8602 offers high-performance, adjustable optics, a 30,000:1 maximum contrast ratio and video-optimized 1300 lumens for stunning clarity, color and vibrancy.

"The sleek design, simple user interface and plethora of features makes this projector one of the best home theater models available on the market," said Benjamin Joy, product line director at InFocus. "The SP8602 recreates a true cinematic experience with astounding realism that will amaze both casual and hard-core home theater enthusiasts."

The SP8602 features Texas Instruments DLP® DarkChip technology with BrilliantColor to display more than 1 billion vivid colors with razor-sharp accuracy. Using Pixelworks DNX 10-bit video processing, the SP8602 delivers ultra-smooth playback of film and video content, including a proprietary motion engine with 120Hz support that allows for a faster, fluid transition between frames in moving images and a fast color refresh for color stability and motion quality.

Buy.com Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
InFocus SP8602

Was even better than I expected. Awesome picture!, February 5, 2010
By Tim Durham (Southaven, MS)

I am just about done remodeling our whole upstairs which includes our 500sf gameroom. I am creating a portion of that to be the "media" area and decided to go with a projector. I got this projector b/c the reviews were very good. To say the least, I am very very happy with this projector. The picture quality is super. The ease of use is very simple. I was a typical male and did not even open the manual... I did not need to. It was very simple and there was nothing to really change. We first tested the Xbox and my son was on cloud nine playing on a screen that was 6 feet wide. I then hooked up the Cable to it using the standard video cable and the picture looked really good. Will be going to get an S-video cable tomorrow.

When the playroom is complete I will be doing a ceiling mount there. Due to the projection angle, you can get very close to the screen w/out obstructing it when you do a ceiling mount. Not that you should be that close.

I have an old Sherwood video/audio system that handles multiple input/outputs and I will be using that system to manage my audio for the various items (xbox, wii, regular cable TV, and DVD player.

I wish the HD71 had a "sleep" function on it so that it would turn off after a certain amount of time. If we have young folks over watching a movie or game late at night, we can set the cable to turn off on a sleep timer but the HD71 will just stay on until it is turned off :(

The speaker on the HD71 is just for emergency purposes only as it is not very loud at all. For a business presentation it would be of some value for that. It came with a set of video cables and a set of composite video cables.

This unit is 720p and I just can't imagine that 1080p could be that much better, maybe it could. But from my research, you can not find a better unit for the money on this unit. I paid $943 for it w/ free shipping.

You will positively be satisfied with the quality of the picture and ease of use. I can't vouch for long term durability and hopefully that will never be an issue. I did purchase an extended 1 yr warranty for aprox $35.

Buy.com Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
Optoma HD71 MultiMedia Projector - 1280 x 720 WXGA - 6.3lb

Does a truly excellent job for the price!, January 23, 2010
By Westcoast Gunner (CA USA)

I bought this projector 3 weeks ago from Amazon. Delivery was prompt and on time. The projector came in the usual Optoma box but without a carry case. Of course I knew that, but one would have been nice anyway. I had already printed out the manual (at work of course) from the Optoma website.
Set up was easy enough but a little time consuming as the settings where totally off. I believe everyone using this projector primarily for home theater will and should set the bulb to standard. The extra lumen will come in handy however when using the 3D glasses to view 3D content.
Once calibrated, picture quality was very impressive for a 720p projector. Blacks were black enough, color and shadow, rich and detailed. The projector does a good job (imo) of scaling 1080p content. I have two Blu-ray players and the projector showed Blu-ray content a lot better with my Philips player so like everything else the source is important.
Overall I'm very happy with my purchase. Couldn't convince the wife at this stage to let me spend the extra money on a 1080p projector, so I was already looking at the HD65. I was encouraged by what was being said by the very early adapters that had pulled the trigger on the dedicated AV forums (God bless them). Early veiwings included Iron Man and Transformers, and Walle and UP for animation, all in Blu-ray on a 72" 16:9 screen and I'm truly impressed. The harshest critic is too, the wife. Picture is as good, if not better, than my Sanyo 42" 1080p plasma. I'm English; my wife is American so were now looking forward to the World Cup being shown in 3D. By the time the tournament begins hopefully the price of active shutter glasses will have fallen enough so were not passing one pair around the room to everybody.
If you have bought this projector from Amazon just post a review good, bad or indifferent. I was compelled to do so because for a long time the only one posted nearly caused me to pass on the HD66. $700 is a lot of money (to me at least), so I utilize reviews all the time without giving back. This was my first one ever, hope it helps.

Best Price- Abes of Maine- Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
Technology HD66 DLP Projector

Absolutely Pleased, January 13, 2010
By Happymoviewatch. (Idaho)

This is my first projector. My only other experience with home theater projectors is watching movies on two of my friends' projectors in the $2000.00 range. When I was waiting for my projector to arrive I had the mind set that if I wasn't satisfied with it I would immediately return it and spend an extra $1000.00 to get something I was happy with. As soon as I received my Optoma HD20($999.00) with the recomended ceiling mount and an Elite 100" screen I installed it. It is limited on the adjustments that you can make to the image size but the quality of the picture is excellent. I connected it to a sony blueray surround sound and I'm completely satisfied with the picture and sound. I did not have to make any adjustments other than picture size and focus.
I give it five stars and recommend it to anyone that doesn't want to spend $5000.00 for a great home theater system. Installation is very symple, all the needed hardware came with the ceiling mount from from Projector-gear. The only other hardware I had to buy is two wood screws to install the screen and an HDMI cable to connect it to the blueray player. I may never pay $10.00 per person (I have a spouse and three children) to enjoy a movie. The kids are absolutely exited.

Best Price- Abes of Maine- Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
HD20 DLP Projector - 1920 x 1080 - 16:9 - 6.4lb

Excellent sub $1k 1080p projector!!, February 24, 2010
By M. ALYAHRI

Let me get this straight to you. If you're trying to buy your first projector, just go buy it or watch it in action. You don't have to look at all the negativity surrounding this projector. I really was pushed away from this projector because of all these rainbow effect comments and I was leaning toward the Optoma H20 because of the 4 color segmant wheel which is supposed to be faster and produces less rainbow effect than the Vivitek H1080FD. But you have to know that This Vivitek projector has higher contrast than the optoma H20. That's what really matters to me. I'm glad I took the Vivitek route. I really can't say anything bad about the Optoma HD20 since I don't have it, but I can tell you that my Vivitek is amazing as my first ever projector and I'm totally satisfied with it.

I unboxed the projector and hooked it to my PS3 using HDMI cable and projected the image on a light yellow flat wall from about 6 feet away, from that distance and using the maximum zoom, you'll get around 80" diagonal picture. I played Call of Duty: Modern warfare 2 and the picture was excellent, I really forgot that I was projecting the image on a wall that is not fully white and the color of the picture seemed to be correct!!!.... I was afraid of being a rainbow effect guy, but that wasn't the case. I really didn't suffer or noticed any rainbow effect. only when I turn my head to the left or to the right fast, I kinda see some vertical lines of primary colors which I think is what people refere to as rainbow effect. I invited my 3 nephews to play MW2 on split screen mode. we played for 4 hours and no one complained from the rainbow effect or any headache. So there you have it, rainbow effect is either overrated or only few few people suffer from it.

Closing the rainbow effect chapter and moving on to the performance of the projector. I was expecting some lag or frame rate drop from this projector when playing fast paced games, but I really did not encounter any, the gameplay was as smooth as silk. The picture projected was vivid and crisp, although there are minimum adjustment to the picture quality from your projector, but you really aren't going to need them because the presets are very accurate, you still can play with the contrast, brightness and hue.
Ease of installation is an issue here, this projector is not flexible, it's not an expensive projector so you'd expect such features to be stripped out, there is no vertical or horizontal shift to the picture. That means you're going to need to install or place your projector in the middle of the intended projected image. That means if you're going to ceiling mount it, you have to get rid of whatever is hanging from your ceiling.

The only real drawback of this projector is the black levels, if you're picky and have the budget, this is not for you. But if you're just like me,, someone who's got his first projector, who's not too picky about the darkest black in his projected image, then you will not care about this at all, you'll just be amazed at the performance of this projector.
the noise was very low, I was sitting 3 feet away from this projector an I couldn't hear anything.

PROS: Vivid & crisp picture, quiet and very cheap.
CONS: black is kinda dark gray.

I would recommend this product to a friend.

I'm waiting for my 120" Elite screen to arrive and once I install it and ceilling mount my projector I'll be able to provide you with my feed back on a bigger projected image.

Buy.com Price, Rating, More Reviews and Specifications:
H1080FD PROJ 1800LUMEN-1080P VGA 2X HDMI 5000:1