Here's a message if you spend time squinting at a small TV: big screens are better for watching movies and most everything else. And I don't mean those puny 50-inch sets most folks consider “big screen.” I'm talking about pictures that make you feel like you're actually in a movie theater — pictures 100 inches or larger! To get an image that huge, you need a front projector. (Click to read David Katzmaier's “Get the Big Picture.”)
If you're thinking something that can deliver movie-theaterlike pictures at home has to cost an arm and a leg, you couldn't be more wrong. High-qual ity front projectors designed for home theater use start out at $1,000 to $1,500. In that price range, you won't get images as bright as you can from big-ticket projectors, and budget models usually have fewer features and connection options. Picture sharpness is also a factor: low-price projectors offer only enhanced-definition TV (EDTV) resolution rather than HDTV. But they can do a fantastic job with DVD movies, and high-def programs will look good, too, if not as sharp and detailed as they could be.
We put three affordable front projectors to the test: NEC's HT410 ($1,295), InFocus's ScreenPlay 4805 ($1,299), and HP's ep7100 ($1,400). Each one produces images using a single Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing (DLP) chip — a semiconductor covered with an array of microscopic pivoting mirrors. One-chip DLPs incorporate a translucent color wheel, divided into red, green, and blue segments, that spins at lightning-fast speed, filtering white light from the projector's lamp into colors that get reflected by the chip's mirrors to form an image.
While you can get a decent picture by projecting onto a wall, a good screen is a necessity if you want the best possible picture. For this test I used a 92-inch wide (105-inch diagonal) Da-Lite High Contrast Da-Mat screen, a $1,123 model designed for DLP and LCD projectors (less expensive screens are also available). I set up each projector 14 feet from the screen for my evaluation — far enough away to minimize the “screen-door effect,” in which the pixel structure of the projector's display chip becomes visible. Now for the skinny on each of the three front projectors.
NEC
Widescreen projection, compact package
For a company with its feet planted firmly in the industrial world, NEC makes a good number of products that cross over into home entertainment. At $1,295, its HT410 projector is aimed at viewers who want a big image for regular TV and DVDs, but don't want to spend loads of money. A key benefit is the HT410's widescreen DLP chip, which lets you use its full 848 x 480-pixel resolution to watch DVDs mastered in the same 16:9 format.
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The HT410's industrial heritage is easy to see in the design. It's extremely compact, has a rugged, utilitarian look, and comes with a carrying case for toting along to a vacation house, business meeting, rave — whatever. Although the HT410 can be ceiling-mounted, the whisper-quiet fan makes it one of the quietest projectors I've ever tested, so coffee-table installation is a workable option.
I can easily imagine NEC's tiny remote control getting lost between the cushions in a plush couch. Thankfully, most of the projector's functions can also be carried out using its top-panel controls. The remote has a backlit keypad and dedicated buttons for each video source as well as noise reduction, picture mute (which blanks the image), and picture freeze.
SETUP The NEC has a number of neat features for setup and installation, including a vertical lens shift (gives you more leeway for projector positioning), front and rear tilt adjustments, and even surface-color correction if you're projecting directly onto a wall. Among its many video adjustments are selections for color management, color temperature, gamma (fine tunes the gradations between black and white), and peak white.
PICTURE QUALITY After tossing the new, director-approved DVD of David Lynch's Wild at Heart into my progressive-scan player, I settled back for some life-size weirdness. In a scene with Sailor and Lula in their convertible, a pack of Marlboros sitting astride the dash had the familiar red hue the world knows and loves. The skin tones of the parole-violating pair looked slightly too rich, but they weren't that far off. I became more concerned with the lack of shadow detail in a scene in a New Orleans nightclub — the band behind a blues singer got lost in the smoky darkness. And in a disturbing bathroom scene, the ornate floral-patterned wallpaper looked solid, although it lacked some crispness compared with the same scene displayed by the InFocus projector.
The HT410's solid image held up for standard cable TV programs, where the noise-reduction processing helped smooth out gnarly pictures without erasing too much detail. However, the processing seemed somewhat “slow” in scenes with motion. Patches of grass on the Golf Channel seemed to trail behind the players as they crossed the green.
For an industrial-strength projector, the NEC HT410 definitely has its movie chops down. And the computer input makes it a good option for someone looking to hook it up to a multimedia PC. In some respects (see “in the lab”), its performance lagged behind the InFocus and HP, but I still found it to be a fine little projector.
PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab
InFocus
High-end performance at a low price
The lowest-price model in the InFocus ScreenPlay line, the $1,299 Model 4805 follows the NEC in creating images with a widescreen chip. But the Model 4805 has another weapon in its video arsenal: Faroudja DCDi processing, which helps enhance the look of standard-def TV programs — like most sports, cartoons, and news.
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Although the 4805's styling is plain, its compact, silver-gray case will blend in with most environments. Connection options include a component-video input and an M1 jack that can connect either to the RGB output of a computer or to a copy-protected DVI output on a high-def satellite receiver. InFocus throws in a special 1-meter M1-to-VGA cable for a laptop, but for a digital hookup with other components — like a DVD player — you'll need the optional M1-to-DVI cable ($39 for 2 meters, $99 for 10 meters) or the M1-to-HDMI adapter ($45).
The supplied remote control is small but solid and features a backlit keypad. It has enough buttons to complete most tasks quickly, including direct switching of up to four video sources (you map each source button to a specific input via the setup menu), toggling picture presets, and making on-the-fly brightness and contrast adjustments.
SETUP InFocus offers a surprising number of high-end picture adjustments on its entry-level projector. You can select among several options for gamma and both standard and high-def “color space” settings. There are also menu adjustments for overscan, horizontal and vertical picture position, and red, green, and blue gain and cutoff levels. Using this fairly complete suite of controls, I was able to really dive in and tweak the picture to my liking — something I couldn't do with the other projectors.
PICTURE QUALITY Displaying Wild at Heart from a progressive-scan DVD player, the Model 4805 offered very good contrast. In a shot of the newly paroled Sailor waiting outside the penitentiary for Lula, the sunlight beating down on his all-black outfit brought out a wide range of subtle dark tones. The inky shadows beyond him lent a true sense of depth to the image, and even though the bright colors of Lula's red lipstick and her mom's pink fingernails looked startlingly vivid, more subtle hues like skin tones looked natural. For example, in a dim hotel-room scene, I could easily make out the transition between the pale upper and tanned lower sections of Sailor's arm as he lazed on a bed.
The projector's color and contrast didn't have quite the same range and “pop” with my DVD player feeding it standard 480i (interlaced) video. Even so, I was impressed by how clean the picture was. Cable TV programs also looked clean and sharp on the Model 4805. Its Faroudja processing didn't work miracles with the Golf Channel, but it did the best job of the three projectors in balancing picture smoothness and detail.
The InFocus ScreenPlay 4805's wide- screen DLP chip, Faroudja DCDi processing, and advanced picture adjustments make it a standout performer in its class. Add the projector's flexible input options and unobtrusive design, and it's clear that InFocus did its homework when designing the Model 4805.
PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab
HP
Simple setup and smooth looks
HP (Hewlett-Packard) is traditionally linked with computers, PDAs, and printers, but these days computer makers have their hands in everything. So it came as no surprise when HP entered the home theater field last year with a line of DLP projectors. At $1,399, the ep7100 is the company's entry-level model. Its 4:3 aspect ratio, 800 x 600-resolution DLP chip doesn't provide the same level of flexibility as the InFocus and NEC projectors if you have a 16:9 screen (more on that later). But unlike many projectors, which have an industrial look and feel and a gazillion adjustments, the ep7100 is simple for a novice to set up and use.
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The HP's user-friendly nature is echoed in its design. The white and gray pod-like projector looks at home on a coffee table — like an affable robot that's been programmed to entertain. It's a little bulky, and its fan noise is a bit loud, but I usually recommend mounting these puppies on the ceiling out of the way.
The computer mouse-shaped remote itself is a study in simplicity, with buttons for menu navigation, power on/off, toggling video inputs, and switching picture modes — that's it. The sparse keypad is backlit, making it easy to use in dark rooms. One thing I didn't like was the remote's weak infrared output — unlike the other two projectors, which can be controlled by bouncing remote commands off the screen, the ep7100 needs a direct line of sight to the remote.
SETUP The ep7100 can be used for watching widescreen programs, but its 4:3 display chip suits it best for displaying standard-shaped sources like regular TV and videogames. If you plan to use it with a 16:9 screen (as I did, since I used the same screen with all three projectors), you'll have to select Widescreen Input from the picture menu during setup. The downside is that you'll be using just a 16:9 chunk of the 4:3 array of pixels to display images — it's the same as when you watch a letterboxed wide-screen program on a standard-shape rear-projection or direct-view TV.
There's a bare minimum of other setup options: horizontal and vertical picture shift, White Intensity adjustment, and a Picture Enhancement slider (some sort of gamma adjustment). Unlike the other projectors, the ep7100 has no low-power mode to lengthen bulb life and reduce fan noise.
PICTURE QUALITY It didn't take much work to get the HP to look good with DVDs. In a scene from Wild at Heart where Marietta intercepts a call to her daughter from Sailor, her skin had a slightly pinkish cast but appeared natural otherwise. And as the camera slowly zoomed in on her twisted, martini-slurping face, both a lemon wedge and her candy-red lips looked vibrant.
Although the HP's picture looked the softest of the three projectors with DVDs, its contrast and shadow detail were impressive. For example, when Lula and Sailor encounter a car accident on an empty highway, the desert sky held its dark intensity even with headlight beams cutting across it.
Standard cable programs didn't fare as well as DVDs. I saw occasional stairstepped “jaggies” in scenes with fast motion, and the green backgrounds in my Golf Channel torture test looked so smoothed over as to be completely robbed of detail. To be fair, however, standard programs would have looked sharper if I'd watched them with the projector configured for a 4:3 screen.
If you find the idea of setting up a front projector kind of scary, HP's ep7100 is for you. It offers good overall video performance, an easy-to-use interface, and a stripped-down feature set designed to prevent confusion.
PDF: Features Checklist
PDF: In the Lab
The Bottom Line
Front projectors used to be a luxury item that only the rich and famous could afford. But those days are long gone — solid-performing models for less than $1,500 make a true home theater experience available to a broader segment of the DVD-watching public. Given my choice of these three projectors, I'd be hanging the InFocus on my ceiling in a heartbeat. I found some shortcomings with the NEC's picture, but I also appreciated its extensive setup options and near-silent fan. And the HP strikes me as an impressive freshman effort. So with all these options, why settle for a big-screen TV when you can get really, really big-screen entertainment for the same amount of money?