Future Shop: 2800 Lumens Projector; $399

[marksoju]

Optoma Multimedia DLP Projector (ES522), $399 at "Failure shop".

The Good:
2800 Lumens (Bright enough to light up a gym!)
4000 Hr Lamp life (Most others do around ~2000)
Brand Name, Still lots of quantity
600 x 800 progressive resolution; recognizes up to 1080P (Still projects a very nice picture for 600p resolution)

The bad:
600 x 800 resolution. ALMOST High-def, but not quite. But don't despair: This thing will still project a very sponge-worthy picture for watching 720P tv.


http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...id=EN&dm=DEBUG

[lithiumli]

[lincoln]

Looks like the bulbs cost over $300 and only last for 3000hrs

[erikr]

lol @ sponge-worthy comment.

[Jon Lai]

Looks like the bulbs cost over $300 and only last for 3000hrs

OP said 4Khr half life...

[tragd]

OP said 4Khr half life...

too much science for you!

[KenLangendock]

I have had an 800x600 projector for over 5 years now. The picture is still quite good and I project it at 120".

I would love to upgrade to a 1024, but will wait until the price drops.

The bulb life is dependent on your brightness setting. If you set the projector at maximum all the time, you will only get 2000 hours. I have a 2000 lumins projector and I set mine to 50%, my bulb is supposed to last 4000 hours. 50% brightness is strong enough, anything more gives me a headache.

To experience a home theater is the utlimate in entertainment.

BTW, 4000 hours is a movie a day for 5 years....once it goes, replace the bulb and you have a brand new tv. You do the math.

[axnguyen]

Seems like a really good price...I'm tempted to try it out just for fun.

[Tracer]

I paid 1200.00 for my crappy benq (still going strong tho, after 2 replacements).

This is a great deal and a steal of a price. You can barely buy used for this.

[2heaven]

Any PM opportunity?

[fmillair]

As per Optoma, the bulb will last 3000 hrs at bright setting and 4000 hrs at standard setting. This pretty good since it's usually 2000/3000.

That being said, this projector is sold as a data projector, not a HT one. One of the consequences of that is the lack of any real digital inputs. As an example my old optoma H27 has a DVI input which I use with a HDMI-DVI converter for my HD cable. I also use the component input for my xbox 360.

This projector seems decent and I'm confident that the image would be nice but FOR ME, the lack of a DVI or HDMI input kills this deal. Make sure you think of your input needs before you pull the trigger on the deal.

[vric]

this is definitely not suited for movie.

If you want to do multimedia, go for it, but for movie, it would be like 2002 when you watched widescreen movie on your CRT tv. 50% of the screen will be black with 2:35:1 movie (90% of current ones)

Invest in something else if you want that (Like a refurbished optoma HD65 for ~$550)

The bad:
600 x 800 resolution. ALMOST High-def, but not quite. But don't despair: [/url]

Yea Almost.

480 000 pixels vs 921 600. Jussssssst over 50% there.. (you are FAR from HD) And since with black bar of 16:9 vs 4:3 you loose definition, you are well under 50% High-def..

[marksoju]

Touché. (But you don't have to be so mean about it!) I guess it doesn't quite measure up to widescreen 720p, but on the bright side, it outdoes standard dvd (720×480) by offering an extra 80 lines of resolution. It actually doesn't look bad on 1080i.

Oh, and the bad side of the HD65 is the 1600 lumens. Expect to use it ONLY in a dark room. The thread projector, however, will work on a sunny day on planet Mercury.

[rahzel]

oooo, use the 5% off from the Xbox360 debacle and get it for only $380+tax shipped.

[helphelp911]

if i saw this deal few years ago. i will jump on it right away.

But for today HD world, 800x600 is pretty weak and outdated for movie world.