IN76 Comparisons & Evaluation

InFocus IN76 vs SP-7210

In some ways, it was more instructive to compare the IN76 to other pieces to get a real feel for its performance, and comparing the unit to the SP-7210 was quite interesting, since they both share the same basic technology. At our shootout, we had about 9 people here in addition to Brad and I (who run these things), and the general consensus was that the 7210 was brighter, smoother, and richer in depth and color than the IN76. This stands to reason, as the 7210 uses a Zeiss lens, the top of the line Dark Chip 3 DLP chip from TI, and a seven segment color wheel (incidentally, most of these same upgrades 舑 with the exception of the Dark Chip 3 - are available in the InFocus SP-7205, which splits the price difference). As mentioned above, the Dark Chip 3 is a higher grade chip capable of greater contrast, less dithering, higher brightness, and greater smoothness thanks to its greater fill factor and more polished mirror surface. The improvement in brightness and smoothness was the most obvious upgrade when we powered up the 7210, even though our demo 7210 has over 800 hours on the bulb. I want to stress, though, that this is not one of those 舠 night and day 舡 improvements that you hear about, but it was clearly visible. Another more subtle improvement was in the way the 7210 handled dark scenes. Thanks to the seven-segment color wheel of the 7210, there was greater color depth and detail in dark scenes and far less dithering in dark areas of the picture. Dithering artifacts look like 舠 crawling ants 舡 when you get up within a foot or so of the screen, and are only visible in near black areas of the picture. This is the result of all of the DLP mirrors toggling on and off trying to reproduce various dark shades of grey. From normal seating distances, though, the 舠 crawling ants 舡 are not visible, but one can perceive a slight graininess to darker images that projectors with a seven segment color wheel lack (the seven segment color wheel adds a dark green segment to the original RGBRGB six segment wheel. The extra dark green segment allows for more accurate color reproduction in dark video, and reduces the dithering artifact).

Of course, the 7210 is also roughly twice the price of the IN76 and is a bit noisier as well, so whether the advantages are worth the difference in price is a personal decision. For someone wanting the very best performance that does not want to make the jump to three chip DLP, though, the difference is clearly there to see.

IN76 vs. Panasonic PT-AE900U

This was another instructive comparison, as the price of the InFocus IN76 puts it directly in competition with the HD 720p LCD projectors currently on the market. This brings us first to our take on the whole 舠 DLP vs LCD 舡 argument which rages in the front projection world.

We admit to preferring DLP over LCD for a large number of practical reasons as well as picture quality issues. As dealers, we can honestly say that LCD projectors have been more trouble-prone than their DLP counterparts, with problems ranging from dead pixels to dust blobs raising their ugly heads far more often with LCD than with DLP. There is also the issue of LCD panel breakdown, which was dramatically (but admittedly unfairly) illustrated in a test done a few years ago by TI and Munsell Color Laboratories (we may tackle that one in a separate article). It's instructive that many DLP projector manufacturers are willing to cover dead pixels under warranty, while most LCD projector manufacturers consider dead pixels "normal wear and tear" or require something like 6 dead pixels in a row before considering it a warranty issue. In fairness, we'd like to say that we've seen less problems with last few generations of LCD projectors, however, they have not been on the market long enough to develop a true track record.

That aside, our main concern here is with picture quality. Normally, one of the big advantages of DLP over LCD is that the pixel fill factor is greater on DLP and that the "screen door effect" is much less on DLP as a result. The Panasonic AE900 is unique in that there is almost no screen door effect at all. Panasonic has developed a technology called 舠 Smooth Screen 舡 that uses an optical system to blur the edges of the pixels, resulting in a very smooth image will almost no visible pixel grid. As a consequence, images on the Panasonic AE900 appear a bit soft compared to other LCD projectors, which are generally know to have a "hyper-sharp" quality that some find appealing, while others find unnatural or cartoony.

The end result it that the Panasonic is the one LCD projector that has less screen door effect than the IN76, where that would normally not be the case. In this regard, the Panasonic has a smoother image than the IN76 and it is possible to sit closer to the screen without seeing any visible pixel grid. If one were comparing the IN76 with an Epson, Sony, or Sanyo LCD projector the opposite would be true, since generally speaking screen door effect is considerably more pronounced with LCD.

In terms of color accuracy, the InFocus bested the Panasonic in the critical area of reds and greens, where the Panasonic looked a bit limey in the greens and orangey in the reds. The Panasonic also had a bizarre color shift to the image - the right side of the image was reddish and left side was greenish. This was quite obvious with the computer desktop and in any scene with solid fields of color, like the HD Ireland documentary we had up with its blue skies and green hills. This may be an issue with our particular sample, and I have to admit never having noticed it before (it's one of those things that is difficult to 舠 un-see 舡 once it's been seen). Overall, though, the Panasonic has a very pleasing color palette, it was mainly that the InFocus was more accurate with certain hues. Of course, most of these issues can be corrected with a good ISF calibration, but we feel it is a definite plus in the InFocus'favor that it is so accurate right out of the box.

One of the things that the Panasonic excels at is color saturation in dark scenes, which is where most other LCD projectors fall down, giving murky bluish grey blacks and washed out colors (this was very apparent in a recent shootout we did with the Sanyo Z4 舑 the Sanyo looked almost black and white compared to the Panasonic when displaying dark scenes). Even so, in this area the InFocus clearly did better, with deeper blacks and a sense of three dimensionality that the Panasonic lacked. In the night scenes of HBO's excellent HD transfer of SPIDERMAN 2, the InFocus had more saturated colors, deeper blacks, and greater depth to the image than the Panasonic, which looked flat in comparison. On the other hand, the Panasonic had a smoother look to the darker sequences, probably due to the dithering noise on the IN76. In fact, picture smoothness would be the one area in which the Panasonic was superior to the IN76, while the IN76 excelled at contrast, deep blacks, and three-dimensionality.

In terms of brightness, the Panasonic has three picture modes that vary greatly in light output. The most accurate setting in terms of color accuracy and with the highest contrast, 舠 Cinema 1 舡 , puts out the least amount of light. Compared to this setting on the Panasonic, the IN76 was considerably brighter. The Panasonic also has a mode called 舠 Dynamic 舡 which has tons of light output, but the grayscale is all blown out and the picture is extremely blue and oversaturated, plus blacks are crushed (we have our own name for this setting 舑 we call it 舠 Garish Mode 舡 ). In the middle we have 舠 Normal 舡 mode, which strikes a balance between brightness and accuracy. At this setting brightness was roughly equivalent between the two projectors.

What about picture artifacts? Both technologies are known for their artifacts, DLP for dithering noise and rainbows, LCD for fixed pattern noise, vertical banding, and motion blurring. Most of the new LCD projectors we've seen exhibit very little in the way of vertical banding (vertical streaks in the image), and the Panasonic is no exception. It's there if you go looking for it, but usually only in solid fields of color, especially if there is a moving camera (the vertical banding and fixed pattern noise are visible as 舠 dirtiness 舡 in solid fields of color like blue sky 舑 it looks almost like streaks on a dirty window). Motion blurring is also almost a thing of the past when it comes to LCD. While older LCD projectors had quite a bit of blurring on fast moving objects, the AE900 exhibits very little of this artifact. The IN76 had no motion blurring that we could see. The most obvious artifacts on the two projectors were dithering noise on the IN76 (visible as slight graininess to dark scenes) and vertical breakup on the Panasonic (a 舠 stair-step 舡 like effect visible on objects moving vertically or diagonally, almost like a deinterlacing artifact).

Of the crowd we had helping us evaluate the IN76, by a show of hands no one saw DLP rainbows Rainbows 舑 for those not familiar - are caused by the fact that single chip DLP projectors throw colors onto the screen sequentially rather than all at once. Some people see this as flashes of rainbow colored light out of the corners of their eyes. Brad and I could see them if we went looking, but, like vertical banding on LCD projectors, why go looking?

What was occasionally obvious on the Panasonic AE900 was the operation of the dynamic iris. Since LCD panels are fairly low in contrast by their nature, some manufacturers try to boost contrast by using a variable iris that opens or closes depending on the overall brightness of the image it is trying to recreate. If the Panasonic is trying to display a dark scene, for example, the iris closes down, letting out less light in order to create a deeper black. During bright scenes the iris opens up, letting out more light. In this way, Panasonic and others can claim high on/off contrast ratios. The problem comes in during scenes with variable brightness 舑 the iris control software needs to constantly monitor and vary the overall brightness to compensate. During scenes that would vary greatly in their content of light and dark, sometimes it was obvious when the dynamic iris was at work, as the overall brightness of the scene would vary as it played out. Some people are more susceptible to this than others 舑 for me, it is quite distracting. Since the IN76 does not use a variable iris to enhance contrast, the InFocus displayed none of this characteristic.

On another, more practical note: the Panasonic, like all other LCD projectors, has a dust filter you need to take out and clean every few months to prevent dust from getting into the optics (which shows up as 舠 dust blobs 舡 on screen). Like most (not all!) DLP projectors, the IN76 has sealed optics, so there is no need to take the projector down to blow out a dust filter.

Practical Concerns

The InFocus IN76 is a medium throw projector. For example, for a 100 舡 diagonal screen, the projector needs to be mounted between 11 to 14 feet back from the screen wall. InFocus provides a screen calculator for anyone wanting to try various screen size and projector combinations.

Another important mounting consideration to keep in mind 舑 the IN76 has a fixed lens offset, meaning that the projector needs be placed at a specific height in relation to the screen. Using the above 100 舡 screen as a reference, the IN76 would need to be mounted with the lens approximately 7.5 inches ABOVE the top of the picture area of the screen. Some other projector manufacturers (such as Panasonic and Sanyo) utilize a lens shift feature, which allows the image to be adjusted up and down by using either a manual or electronic control on the projector. Although many people feel that having lens shift is preferable, we respectfully disagree. With almost all lens shift projectors, the lens can be NO HIGHER than the top of the screen. That usually means a long extension pole down from the ceiling to the top of the projector and the projector hanging down a foot or two into the room. Projectors with lens offset, on the other hand, are designed to be placed higher than the top of screen. In most installations that means the projector can be mounted flush with the ceiling, up and out of the way. The only time this becomes a problem is if there is a soffit or low hanging light fixture between the projector and screen, in which case lens shift offers more flexibility