ScreenPlay 5000 Features and Setup

Many people ask me about projector choices, but few have a light-controlled room in which to arrange many of the units I recommend. Last season I threw a rather large Superbowl Party and became quickly aware that there is a place in the world of home theater for bright projection systems - even at the sacrifice of black level and contrast. At the time I had used an LCoS projector that did a pretty good job of getting the picture onto the 100" screen from across the room. It was bright enough so that I could have guests watch the game without putting them in darkness. In fact, I was able to keep all of the lights on and allow unmitigated access to the central food and drink area in the same room. The ScreenPlay 5000, in comparison to that unit, is a veritable 'torch'. The amount of light this little projector throws is nothing short of astounding and I believe I have found a nice compromise to the needs of many people interested in adding a front projection system to their home.

Features and Favorites

The InFocus ScreenPlay 5000 comes with some useful features that really stood out to me. Here are some of our favorites:

• Lightweight and Portable
  With an included VESA HD15 input for computer use and a weight and size that make portability a reality, not just an advertised feature, the ScreenPlay 5000 truly meets the dual-use needs of a theater projector that can do double-duty in the boardroom.
• 1100 ANSI Brightness
  1100 ANSI lumens means that you can show films or television content with some ambient light in the room, especially if you are projecting onto a 100" screen or less. I have seen projectors rated at more lumens that did not put out the light of the ScreenPlay 5000. If you are looking for something to allow sporting events to be played in a medium-lit room, this will do just fine.
• Ample Color Controls
  By providing controls for RGB Gain, Offset and Gamma, InFocus gives users a fighting chance to get a really good calibration out of this projector in a myriad of lighting environments. In contrast to normal practice, I performed all calibrations and adjustments with ambient light so that I could see how well the system would perform in that environment.

Basic Setup and Installation

As always, when setting up a projection system you'll want to consider your mounting options, whether you want to hang it from a ceiling or perhaps set it on a table. The ScreenPlay likes to be mounted a couple of feet below the bottom of the screen when situated on a table. This will subsequently allow you to ceiling mount it in mos t rooms that can situate top of the screen a couple feet from the top of the room. Once placed it sets up easily out of the box and only requires power and input to get going.

To level out the projector you can use the front elevator foot and side rotating foot to get the image as perfectly squared to the projection screen as possible. To use the front foot, simply depress the button on the top side of the projector and it will free it to move up and down. I recommend making as many physical adjustments as possible before utilizing the digital keystone correction. In all honestly, you will want a professional to aid in the installation if you are ceiling mounting this unit due to the accuracy that must be obtained in order to fit the picture squarely to the screen. If you want to use the keystone feature, the ScreenPlay 5000 has a neat twist. There is an Auto Vertical keystone setting that uses a sensor to determine the best vertical keystone setting to make sure the image is perfectly squared to the screen. The same sensor can also be used to automatically set the projector if it's going to be ceiling mounted. If you do turn on Auto Vertical keystone, be aware that it will pop up a window on the bottom left of the screen in an attempt to make a correction if you bump the projector even a tiny bit (and though we never recommend its use if you wish to attain the most sharp image possible, auto-keystoning the picture is fun to show your friends and an excellent feature for boardroom use!)

Once the projector is turned on we did notice that there was a significant amount of light leakage from the back and side panels. This picture was taken with a long exposure to help show the lighted areas, so don't think that light is literally beaming out of the sides. It does, however come through the unused rear connectors and on both vented sides. Many modern home theater projectors control light emissions so that nothing adds to the minimum output of the projector and absolutely black areas on the screen can remain as dark as possible.

Throw Distance and Projection Screen Sizing

We used a Stewart Studiotek 130 100" screen for this review, though I would have liked a smaller screen for the room. There is a manual zoom, allowing you a bit of play on distance, but this projector requires a somewhat long throw distance to realize it's potential. You will also want to sit well behind the projector to watch movies so take this into account when you plan your room and seating. Here's how the InFocus ScreenPlay 5000's default lens sizes up against various screen sizes:

The ScreenPlay 5000 lacks any lens shift capability. This means you'll need to mount the projector exactly in the correct position for your room and screen size to avoid having to do keystone adjustments or having to angle the projector. While it does come with a fairly sophisticated digital keystone function (mentioned earlier), it should be avoided whenever possible as it softens the image - even if used just a little bit.