IN76 Connections & Picture Quality

When Ole Dame from InFocus approached us a few weeks ago and asked if we'd like to get a sneak preview of the new IN76 HD DLP Projector, we were only too happy to take him up on his offer. Not only is the IN76 one of the new generation of projectors that breaks the $3000 price barrier for true HD resolution with TI's DLP technology (list price on the IN76 is $2999, with a resolution of 720p, or 1280 x 720), it also represents the culmination of an intensive effort by the InFocus engineers to improve the quietness and design aesthetics of their front projection line. In those two design goals we've got to say that InFocus has succeeded admirably - not only is the new IN76 extremely quiet, it's also one very sexy looking projector, with smooth, rounded lines and a rich black and silver finish. The unit we received from InFocus was a production prototype, so it did not have the final software loaded onto it and will be further tweaked by the design team before it ships (please keep that in mind as you read my comments).

So, how is the picture and how does it compare to other 720p DLP and LCD projectors? That's exactly what we set to find out over the last week when we evaluated the IN76 on its own, as well as against a few other pieces - the InFocus SP-7210 (a higher end, Dark Chip 3 single chip DLP projector) and the Panasonic PT-AE900 (a very popular 720p LCD projector). As always, we invited anyone interested in seeing the IN76 to come along and add their opinions to our own (we hold these types of informal shootouts on a fairly regular basis, and we have a rather large crowd of folks here in Colorado who come just to check out the new pieces, or new comparisons of old pieces). All of the projectors were evaluated using HD clips that are great at revealing various projector strengths and weaknesses (we have a collection of clips stored conveniently on an HTPC we use for just this kind of evaluation), plus various HD clips off of a Dish Network DVR. Of course, we also ran some tried and true DVD clips to evaluate standard definition performance. All connections were made via HDMI, and all comparisons were done on a 123" Stewart Firehawk (although many times the projector images were zoomed down to 110" or smaller screen sizes, as very few projectors are truly bright enough to fill a 123" diagonal screen).

The New Chip

First, a few words about the new 1280 x 768 DLP chip that Texas Instruments is supplying for the IN76 and other lower priced HD DLP projectors like the Optoma HD72 and Mitsubishi HC3000. This new chip was designed by TI as an inexpensive hybrid chip that is compatible with both high definition video display and computer desktop display. By turning off either 48 pixels in the vertical dimension or 256 pixels in the horizontal dimension, the projector manufacturer is able to hit their desired resolution of either 1280 x 720 (HD) or 1024 x 768 (computer/business applications), respectively. This is a clever cost saving measure in that only one run of DLP chips can supply both markets: home theater or business projectors. Not only that, additional cost savings are obtained in making the chips physically smaller, which allows for greater production yields. Now, this is important when it comes to home theater applications 舑 while this new chip is capable of high performance, it is NOT designed to compete with the higher end standard size Dark Chip 2 or Dark Chip 3 DLP chips used in projectors like the Sharp ZXV2000 and InFocus SP7205 (Dark Chip 2) or Optoma H-79, BenQ PE8720, and InFocus SP 7210 (Dark Chip 3). First of all, the chip is physically smaller, which translates into lower brightness and more "screen door effect" (visible pixels) due to the lower fill factor.

Also, none of the projectors using this new chip incorporate the 7 or 8 segment color wheel that was developed a few years back to enhance the reproduction of dark scenes. This was done by adding an extra dark green segment - sometimes two - to the color wheel. The IN76 uses the six segment color wheel design, while the Optoma HD72 uses a variation on the six segment wheel with an added white segment. The white segment added by Optoma and a few others is actually part of the "Brilliant Color" system developed by TI. Brilliant Color was designed to compensate for the loss of color saturation that occurs when adding the white segment to the color wheel. InFocus chose not to use the Brilliant Color system since it is does not provide a benefit for projectors without the brightness boosting white segment. Since InFocus is able to hit their brightness and contrast spec without the addition of the white segment, Brilliant Color was unnecessary. With the added clear segment Optoma can actually claim a seven segment wheel, but the clear segment is actually a carry over from the business projector world, where extra brightness is more important than deeper blacks (we'll have more on the importance of color wheel design later).

Again, this is not to say that this new chip is not capable of producing excellent high and standard definition home theater images - as our tests show, it clearly is - it's just that we want to make clear that there are definite benefits to be found by moving up each manufacturer's projector line.

Connections

The big news here is that InFocus has finally added a true HDMI connector, so no adapters are needed for those who have an HDMI equipped DVD player, satellite receiver, or cable box. Those familiar with the old InFocus DVI hybrid, the M1DA connector, will be pleased to see that it has returned as well. This is a good thing in more ways than one, since it means that the IN76 effectively has two HDMI/DVI inputs (for those not familiar, M1DA is totally adaptable to and compatible with HDMI and DVI). As an added bonus, the M1DA port allows user firmware updates that registered owners can download from InFocus' web site.

In addition to the HDMI and M1DA inputs the IN76 has component, s-video, and composite video connectors, making it compatible with just about any video source you want to throw at it. InFocus has also thoughtfully added a serial control port and a 12 volt trigger.

Powering Up

On first powering up the IN76, two things were obvious. First, InFocus has replaced their old boring standard blue logo splash screen with a new one that reflects the new color scheme seen in all their advertising - a rich conglomeration of reds, yellows, and oranges. Pretty striking when you turn it on! Secondly - and obviously, far more importantly - is how quiet this new design is. One of the few legitimate complaints leveled against the previous line of InFocus Screenplay projectors was the acoustic noise level created by the cooling fans, especially if they cycled up and down. This new design is MUCH quieter, and what noise that remains is of the soft, almost soothing "rushing air" variety. The only projectors that we have evaluated that are quieter are some of the three chip DLP designs (due to their lack of color wheel) and the Optoma H-79 (which sacrifices some high altitude capability as a result, since less air is moving to cool the projector bulb).

Picture Quality

The first thing we evaluated was HD performance, using some HD-Net material off of Dish Network. Our first impression was of performance typical of 720p DLP projectors 舑 in other words, the picture had the same look and feel we associate with 720p DLP, with no glaringly obvious differences from what we see in other projectors with the same technology. Colors were nicely saturated and there was plenty of detail in the HD images. Contrast appeared excellent, and the black levels were very respectable - in fact, blacks were some of the best we have seen from an InFocus projector (InFocus is rating the contrast ratio on the IN76 as 3000:1). Overall, it was a very impressive image with the typical "WOW 舡 factor you get when blowing up an HD image to the type of screen sizes that front projection makes possible.

On the downside, after watching it a bit it was clear to our more critical eyes that the image had a bit more "coarseness" than the pictures we are used to seeing from our reference projector, the InFocus SP-7210. In some ways, some of those in the crowd who owned Dark Chip 3 projectors like the SP-7210 were relieved to see that the IN76 could not deliver equivalent performance at half the price of a typical DC3 unit! Screen door effect was also a tiny bit more obvious - displaying the computer desktop revealed a "blockier" pixel grid in the screen icons than we were used to seeing on the SP-7210. This more obvious pixel grid and slight overall coarseness to the image we attribute clearly to the smaller chip size and lower fill factor. To put this in perspective, though, visible pixel grid with the IN76 is still going to be far less than what you would see on a typical LCD projector or a 480p DLP unit (like the ScreenPlay 4805 or Optoma H31).

In terms of brightness, the IN76 falls into the "brighter than average" category. InFocus rates it at 1000 lumens, but we have learned to take ALL manufacturer brightness/lumen claims with tremendous grains of salt. We are big advocates of brighter projectors, as so many people we talk to want to go with screen sizes of 110 舡 diagonal or greater, and many home theater projectors are not really suited for screen sizes much beyond 100". Based upon what we saw here, I would say that the IN76 would be good up to screen sizes of 110", but not much beyond that. While it looked plenty bright even when we filled the full 123 舡 screen we had at our disposal, we are always VERY mindful that projector bulbs dim over time. At 1000 hours, most projectors are outputting not much more than half of their initial out of the box brightness. So many times we have heard from people who have bought one of the dimmer but higher contrast projectors that their image has become quite dim as they pass 1000 - 1500 hours or so. InFocus is famous for making some of the brightest HT projectors on the market (their SP-7205 and 7210 projectors are among the very few units truly capable of properly lighting up a 123" or 135" typical 1.3 gain screen, for example) and the IN76 does appear to be the brightest of the current crop of projectors using this new chip.

Note in regard to screen sizes: The right screen size is very much dependent on your planned seating distance to the screen as well as the brightness of the projector. The rule of thumb for a high definition DLP 720p projector like the IN76 is at least 1.5X the screen width. In other words, a 110" diagonal screen is 8 feet wide, so 8' x 1.5 = 12 feet back for your first row of seating. Any closer, and the pixel grid of the projector (the dreaded "screen door effect") becomes fairly obvious. High Definition 720p LCD projectors, with their moreeven more obvious pixel grid, generally require a 2X screen width seating distance to make the pixel grid "disappear" (110" diagonal screen = 8 feet wide x 2 = 16 feet seating distance for the front row of seating). The 1.5 rule for HD DLP has been based upon the previous HD2+ chips - since the pixel grid is a bit more pronounced with the new 1280 x 768 chip, a better formula for the IN76 and projectors like it may be 1.6 to 1.75 x the screen width if you do not want to see even a hint of screen door effect.

InFocus is also famous for being properly color calibrated right out of the box, and it looks like the IN76 follows in this tradition. Although the unit we had in here to evaluate was a pre-production unit without the final software, it appears that the colors are close to dead on, with the rich reds and greens that InFocus is famous for. One of our standard DVD tests clips is Chapter 23 of The Replacements. The football uniforms in this clip are supposed to be deep red, and the IN76 rendered them that way (so many projectors end up rendering the uniforms as a bright orange or reddish orange).

DVD clips looked very good, with the same richness of color and contrast we noticed on the HD clips. Due to the fact that we had the IN76 for just a limited amount of time, we didn't spend a great deal of time evaluating scaler/deinterlacer performance. Unfortunately, since so many systems we see these days end up having the scaling or deinterlacing done by the source (a cable box, a satellite dish receiver, an upconverting DVD player, etc), we feel that the internal scaler/deinterlacer is becoming less important to the overall performance of the piece from a real world perspective. This is unfortunate but true, since the quality of the processing can have a huge influence on perceived picture quality. Older InFocus projectors have used Faroudja processing and the new PlayBig IN series lineup is using Pixelworks processing, and the long and short of it is that there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems. From what we gathered from talking to the InFocus engineers, the Faroudja processing used on the Screenplay series does a slightly better job with 480i material (such as DVD and standard definition video) while the Pixelworks processor does a slightly better job of working with 1080i material. Bob Williams of InFocus did supply us with a list of pros and cons for each processor 舑 for those more technically curious, we have reproduced that below*.

For those who are sensitive to DLP rainbows, the IN76 exhibited very little in the way of rainbow artifacts.

Editorial Note: Faroudja vs. Pixelworks - Pros and Cons
Faroudja pros: Low angle interpolation is superior (flag test), mixed signal (film with video overlays) processing is better in some situations.

Faroudja cons: Limited to 8-bit video decoder due to strict timing requirements, Standard definition deinterlacing only, Not compatible with 3D comb filters (though makes up for it a lot with cross color suppression).

Pixelworks pros: 1080i film mode and per-pixel motion compensated video mode, Scaler is better at keeping detail intact when scaling, 10-bit video decoder, Very fast switching between film mode and video mode (bad edit detection), 3D comb filter.

Pixelworks cons: Slightly worse low angle interpolation, No 60 to 48 Hz frame rate conversion.