8mm Forum: Digital Projector..?

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Posted by Brannon Carty (Member # 2582) on July 31, 2012, 04:06 PM:

Hi all!

I've been surveying eBay & Amazon the past weeks and I'm thinking about getting a digital projector. Personally, I do enjoy 16mm projections, but some films aren't available that I'd love to watch on a big screen. Plus, I'm dying to see Jaws (along with the Indy trilogy) on a huge screen once the Blu-Ray comes out in 15 days.. enough time to get a projector shipped to my house and purchase a nice screen.

Am I going crazy? Or do some of you film enthusiasts feel the same way?

Brannon

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on July 31, 2012, 04:16 PM:

No you aren't going crazy Brannon,I can see the logic in your
thinking, and have toyed with the same idea.Best of luck with
your new venture,and hope you get a good projector.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on July 31, 2012, 04:26 PM:

A lot of people here do digital projection on the same screen as film.

I'd love to myself: what a tremendous thing it would be to view any film you can get on disk on the large screen!

It's not an either/or proposition as some folks think!

Posted by Brannon Carty (Member # 2582) on July 31, 2012, 04:30 PM:

Thanks for the reassuring comment, Hugh. [Wink]

For those of you who do own a digital projector, here were some of the ones I was thinking about purchasing.

View Sonic 1080p DLP Projector
http://www.amazon.com/ViewSonic-PRO8200-1080p-Theatre-Projector/dp/B00465W7EC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343769283&sr=8-2&keywords=1080p+projector+hdmi

Favi 720p LED Projector
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FAVI-RioHD-LED-4-XGA-1024-x-768-New-LED-Mini-Projector-Model-RioHD-LED-4-/320921718624?pt=US_Video_Projectors&hash=item4ab86ccf60#ht_2948wt_1270

View Sonic 1080p Projector w/ SCOPE Support!
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-PRO8100-1080p-Theater-Projector/dp/B0011U64YE/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1343769475&sr=8-13&keywords=1080p+led+projector+hdmi

Do any of you members have any recommendations?

Brannon

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on July 31, 2012, 05:27 PM:

The FAVI 720P projector looks very convenient and a good price if you want a portable unit...but unless I missed something...I don't see any audio outputs. I'm guessing the built-in speakers on such a small device would not be very good and audio is a very important part of the experience.

Posted by Steven Sigel (Member # 21) on August 07, 2012, 08:26 PM:

I've had a digital video projector set up next to my film projectors since 2002. Check out the EPSON POWERLITE 8350 which is a 1080P projector which got terrific reviews and is very reasonably priced....

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on August 08, 2012, 04:36 AM:

I doubt many people put sound into a video projector Janice. The sound goes from the BD/DVD/LD player directly to surround sound amplifier. Actually this is the way most of us handle our Super 8 prints so it's probably no different really.

You need to do much research with video projectors Brannon because it's amazing quite how bad some of the cheapies really are. Cheap DLPs can be truly awful because a single DLP chip can produce very noticeable rainbow effects on the projected image. Expect to pay over $1000 for anything new and worthwhile (more in the UK - I'd say about £800). So if getting a second hand one check how much it sold for originally to give a basic idea.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on 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.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on 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).

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on August 09, 2012, 12:59 PM:

The Epson Steve Sigel recommends above sounds pretty interesting. It has both horizontal and vertical lens shift as opposed to vertical only as I see on most of these.

With that I could put it on top of my wife's china closet and run cables around the wall in back of it to my entertainment center in the back of the room. Otherwise I'd have to build a shelf over an archway that's horizontally aligned with my screen and run cables through the attic and then down.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on August 10, 2012, 12:58 PM:

Paul's Panasonic projectors come with the horizontal and vertical lens shift as do the similarly priced and very comparable Hitachi machines.

If I was to replace my video projectors I'd seriously look at a JVC D-ILA type which I think have now come way down in price. Originally they could only be had for around £16,000 so it will be interesting to see what the budget versions go for now. Best home video projection I ever saw when fellow film collector Colin Clark invested in the first one in Britain.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on August 10, 2012, 01:20 PM:

Somehow John,I don't think young Brannon is thinking of investing
in such prestigious machines as these,although that is good advice on secondhand machines.

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on August 10, 2012, 06:21 PM:

For me, JVC D-ILA is the only way to go for under £10,000

Prices start for a new one at about £3500 but simply blow competition away.

Unless you want good 3D...but let's not go there for now.

For £10,000 plus you can start looking at 3 chip DLP which is marvellous and so it should be at that money.

Where D-ILA succeeds where all competition fails is in native contrast / black level and shadow detail - so vital for a cinematic look; that and it's darn good at pretty much everything else too.

Even Sony's rival technology can't touch it.

Single chip DLP gives big pictures but with a lot of compromise.

It's all good fun if course and not to be dismissed if you want big images on a budget, but if you want something that looks like film, even super 8, big bucks are required. Sorry guys.

And I've wasted a LOT of cash on video projectors believe me...

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on August 10, 2012, 08:00 PM:

I have to disagree with Rob. You do not need big bucks to get an excellent digital projector. Maybe this was true a few years ago, but that is no longer the case. My Panasonic 4000 has superb contrast and brilliant colors and the picture is simply breathtaking on a 9ft wide screen with both Blu Ray and good DVD source material. Most of the time it literally looks like 35mm film. To get that kind of performance 5 years ago would have required really big bucks, maybe $10,000+, but today you can get it for 2K$.

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