Digital Projectors

[alrobin]

I just wanted to revive this thread and provide an update on our experience with the Canon Realis SX50 SXGA projector in the recent SuperCircuit Festival.

The projector on loan from Canon, through a local retailer, performed marvelously, although as Andrew mentioned, we didn't really test out the higher resolution as most shows were designed for the most commonly-used 1024x768 size. However, the brightness was suitable for our 5.5 x 5.5 m. screen, and the image was very sharp, even projecting from close range (about 10 m.). Colours were bright, and real for the most part. We did have some trouble with calibration, but then no one knew how to do it properly. (I have since learned to calibrate the laptop instead of the projector.)

I used my 3 MHz laptop to run all the shows, and everything went very smoothly. My laptop is a WXGA model (with maximum resolution 1440 x 900 px). For the projection, I set it to 1024 x 768, and everything worked fine, even though the images looked distorted on the laptop.

I found the SX50 to be too bright for home use, and so I have since purchased the new Mitsubishi HC 3000 DLP WXGA projector (maximum resolution: 1280 x 768). I learned that most new projectors of the WXGA variety have a max res of 1280 x 720 px, so I appreciate the extra vertical pixels when I project a "normal" 1024x768 show. Also, this matches the 1280x768 setting on my HP laptop perfectly. I can use the PTE "Push" transition for panoramas on both the laptop and projector without leaving a gap between images, for both horizontal and vertical pans.

Brightness is only 1000 lumens, and this can be toned down even further, so it's ideal for home use, but it makes use of the new Texas Instruments "Brilliant Colour" feature which can be switched on to give a semblance of greater brightness if using it with a larger screen. I have yet to test this feature in a public presentation with a large screen.

I gave up the idea of a projector with even higher resolution mainly on the basis of price, as most of the new ones coming out now (and therefore the ones with the best price advantage) are targetted toward the HDTV and wide-screen home-theatre users.

I also chose the wider aspect ratio over the common 3/4 ratio (e.g. 1024x768) as it allows me to display a full-frame image from my camera with the least amount of cropping for the same size image on-screen. 3/4 is not an ideal aspect ratio for the equivalent of 35-mm slides. We seem to be locked into this ratio because of the popularity of older pc monitors.

However, the greatest feature of the HC 3000 is its density range of 1:4000. Even B&W presentations look awesome, with good contrast range through the highlights and shadows. I'm still working on the colour calibration - the yellows and greens are too intense, so I have to tone them down on the laptop when projecting slideshows. For some reason, though, the colouration in DVD movies looks perfect (skin-tones, fields of grass, etc.) They must use some more-advanced method of colour control.) I have also set up a special profile on the laptop in order to obtain a perfect neutral grey from grey-scale presentations. This is not suitable for colour presentations, however, so I will have to try to develop a more complicated profile that matches both.

Overall, however, I'm very pleased with the Mitsubishi projector.

I would be interested in other people's experience with colour calibration.