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Topic: Digital Projector..?
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 08, 2012 03:31 PM
I love my digital projector, and would fight to the death if someone tried to take it away from me. The freedom to show virtually any film that has ever been made, on a large screen in a dark room is wonderful.
But I would be extremely hesitant, in fact there is no way, that I would purchase ANY used digital projector without first having the opportunity to fully check it out. Digital projectors are totally unlike film projectors, they are extremely complex opto-electronic devices and any number of things can, and do, go wrong with them. In particular, they usually deteriorate with time. Polarizers and LCD panels age and produce discoloration, particularly eveident as non-uniform tinting of black and white movies. DLP projectors dont fair much better, with color wheel bearings getting noisy and color wheels shattering, and DLP mirrors fatiguing or breaking off. Most film projectors are basically very reliable and simple devices that can usually be fixed easily and inexpensively, usually by the owner himself. Not so with digital projectors, which cost the earth to fix, so much so that it is usually better to throw the projector away and buy a new one. To put this in perspective, my 2004 vintage Panasonic AE700 needed a new lamp. Cost $450.00. It was also showing the dreaded tinting when showing black and white films. The cause of this is a burnt polarizer, which is not that expensive in itself. But Panasonic does not just replace the polarizer, they replace the whole optical engine. Cost about $1,000! So to get my Panasonic up to snuff would have cost me $1400.00! No way, I purchased a brand new Panasonic, with much better specs, for $1,750.00.
The bottom line is that Digital projectors are disposable items, just not built like Elmo's, Eumig's or Pathe Baby's. You can be pretty sure that if one is up for sale it has some problem that is causing the owner to sell it.
As far as recommendations - I swear by Panasonics. Both of my Pannys have produced unbelievably beautiful film-like pictures, with no pixel visibilty even a foot away from the screen. IMO Panasonics produce a great product which usually has more features than the competition and at a lower price.
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted August 09, 2012 12:51 PM
The funny thing is that I've had a lovely Sharpvision LCD projection TV, and for it's time, (1999, I believe it was a great model by the way), it was pretty darned good.
... and then, I returned to Super 8 in 2003.
Sincerely, I have not used it since, (yep, it runs just fine).
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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