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Our CES review is coming soon, but we recently came across one reviewer’s take on CES and we couldn’t agree more! See Jeremy Laird of Tech UK’s quotes below, along with our own interjections.

Yet again, it was wall to wall LCD and plasma panelry at CES this year. But it’s about time punters realised the HD TV market is all about sparkly gimmicks and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses consumerism.

If you’re remotely interested in the viewing experience, what you really want is a projector.

It’s what we hear from our customers all the time. If you want an awesome movie theater quality experience in your own home, a projector is, without question, the way to go. And even after you factor in the cost of a replacement lamp, you are often still saving money over a flat panel display over 42-inches.

[ Photo: A ProjectorPeople.com Customer Home Theater. See more here. ]

The basic argument goes something like this. Even the largest, most preposterously pricey panels are plain puny compared to a good projector. For pure cinematic immersion, a decent projector is absolutely untouchable. And thanks to the recent fall in HD projector prices, you’d be mad to pay more money for a smaller, chronically inferior HD TV.

And compared to your old 4:3 TVs, the 42-inches feels more like a 30-inch set. The 42-inch spec is measured along the diagonal, so with the wide aspect ratio, you’re losing overall size.

But why settle for 40 inches when you can have 140 inches. Or even 240 inches. With a projector, the physical dimensions of your home rather than the depth of your wallet define how big you can go.

Exactly. Projectors with zoom lenses and lens shift add to the flexibility and ease of installation. Most LCD based projectors have lens shift as do select DLP based models. Watch for these features if you suspect your space will be a challenging one, or if you just like cool features.

Currently, there are several solid 720p DLP projectors available in the £500-600 segment. Just compare that as a value proposition to a £5,000 60-inch plasma TV. Hand on heart, I’d rather watch the £500 projector painting an eight foot image across my wall than the much pricier plasma. What’s more, by this time next year, I reckon full 1080p projectors will be selling for under £1,000. Then it really will be no contest.

And like plasma and LCD TVs, prices on projectors are dropping at a regular rate. Today you can pick up a full HD projector for just $1499 after rebate!

[ read the complete article on Tech.CO.UK ]

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Projector People is now offering special savings on projectors for home theater and business with our special Coupon Codes. Coupon codes are for blog readers only!

Coupon Code: SAVE50

Save $50 on the projectors listed below from now until 1/15/08!
Now extended through 1/31/2008!

• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC1500

No Coupons: Just Deals!

Free Toshiba Up-Converting DVD Player (TOSSDK860RE) with the projector listed below from now until 1/15/08!
Now extended through 1/31/2008!

• Optoma HD72
• Epson Home Cinema 720

Free AVIA II Home Theater Calibration Disc with the following 1080p projectors for a limited time only! Call for details.

• BenQ W10000
• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC5000BL
• Mitsubishi HC6000BL
• Optoma HD80
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000
• Sharp XV-Z20000
• Panasonic PT-AE1000U (also includes free one year extended warranty!)

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Projector People is now offering special savings on projectors for home theater and business with our special Coupon Codes. Coupon codes are for blog readers only!

Coupon Code: SAVE50

Save $50 on the projectors listed below from now until 1/15/08!

• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC1500

No Coupons: Just Deals!

Free Toshiba Up-Converting DVD Player (TOSSDK860RE) with the projector listed below from now until 1/15/08!

• Optoma HD72

Free Chief iC mount with the following 1080p projectors for a limited time only! Call for details.

• BenQ W10000
• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC5000BL
• Mitsubishi HC6000BL
• Optoma HD80
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000
• Sharp XV-Z20000
• Panasonic PT-AE1000U

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Save on the products you’ve wanted all year long! Starting Friday, December 28th, Projector People is offering special YEAR END coupon codes for our valued customers. See below for codes and details:

End of the Year Coupon Codes valid from 12/28 - 12/31

Coupon Code: YEAREND100

Save $100

• Mitsubishi HC4900 PLUS $500 mail-in rebate through 12/31/2007!

Coupon Code: YEAREND50

Save $50

• Panasonic PT-AX200U PLUS free Blockbuster movie or video game rental card AND a free 2nd year warranty through 12/31/2007!

Coupon Code: YEAREND25

Save $25

• NEC VT700 PLUS free replacment lamp through 12/31/2007! All for just $999!

Coupon Code: YEARENDMT

Free Chief iC Projector Ceiling Mount

• Panasonic PT-AE2000U PLUS free 2nd Year Warranty ($250 value) through 12/31/2007!

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This month we tackle some of our most common home theater projector related questions. We discuss 1080p vs. 720p resolution, projector brightness for watching during daylight hours, what is home entertainment vs. home theater, popular home theater projector features, and many more of our most frequently asked home theater questions. Listen here for our answers.

• Download Episode 5 here » [ file size: 20.98MB / time: 22:56 min. ]

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Last year we posted a photo of a football game projected onto the side of a house. It’s the kind of image you can only get from a projector, over 10-feet diagonal, literally filling the entire area with the image. It was one of our most popular 720p native projectors, and one of our best sellers last year (Panasonic PT-AX100U). At the time, we thought it looked fantastic. We even featured it on our “Football Packages” page to highlight it’s impressiveness.

[ 720p image: Panasonic PT-AX100 (native 720p projector) displaying HD football on the side of a house last year. ]

This year, we have an image of the same house, and an image that’s about the same size. But the picture is simply stunning. It’s an obvious improvement over the previous images, which already looked very good.

[ 1080p image: Panasonic PT-AE2000U (native 1080p projector) displaying HD football on the side of a house this year. ]

So, we thought we would share those images with those trying to choose between 720p and 1080p resolutions, and discuss our own thoughts on the matter. To start, we will talk about viewing distance recommendations from related to field-of-view, and then talk about resolution and image size.

Screen Sizes and Viewing Distance for Optimum Field-of-View

Screen manufacturer Da-Lite has established a basic guideline for selecting a screen size. Essentially, it boils down to recommending your seats be approximately two feet back for every (1) foot of image. So, if you want a ten-foot wide image, you need to be back about 17 and a half feet back from the screen. Our most popular screen sizes are 92″, 106″ and 120″ respectively.

The Da-Lite screen suggestions are all about finding the distance that allows you to keep the entire screen in view without moving your head from side to side (aka field-of-view) for the complete picture. Their suggestions have nothing to do with the resolution of the projector.

Resolution and Screen Size Recommendations from Projector People

Our customer feedback and our experience here in our own testing is that 720p looks as good as 1080p on about any screen under 80-inches from a reasonable viewing distance, but the 1080p is a dramatic improvement in an image over 120-inches when compared side by side. Ultimately it may come down to how picky you are about your image. But if you can afford to go 1080p, there isn’t much of a downside, other than the lack of true 1080p source material.

This chart is based on customer feedback and our own experiences with in house demos. If you want some more technical discussion on the topic you can read this article from this blog.

• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Panasonic PT-AE2000U
• Mitsubishi HC6000
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000

If you want to see the most popular 1080p projectors in action, check out our blog post. Scroll to the end for some video.

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Projector People is now offering special savings on projectors for home theater and business with our special Coupon Codes. Coupon codes are for blog readers only!

Coupon Code: SAVE50

Save $50 on the projectors listed below from now until 12/15/07!

• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC1500

Free Chief iC mount with the following 1080p projectors:

For a limited time only

• BenQ W10000
• Epson Home Cinema 1080
• Mitsubishi HC5000BL
• Mitsubishi HC6000BL
• Optoma HD80
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000
• Sharp XV-Z20000

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Nintendo Wii on Projector a Hit with the Neighbors.

“Is that a Wii projector? Where did you get it?” More than one passerby asked this as we played our Nintendo Wii on a 100-inch screen filled by the Epson MovieMate 72 projector in our front yard. At one point, we literally stopped traffic on our side street as someone stopped their car just to ask about our setup.

[ Photo: Screenshot of the Nintendo Wii on a 100-inch screen filled by the Epson MovieMate 72 projector in the front yard. ]

Because the Epson MovieMate has built-in speakers, and decent, powerful ones at that, setup is literally a snap. Get power to the projector, plug in the Wii, and play. We use the wireless sensor bar so that we can have the Wii next to the projector without the cord to the sensor bar getting in the way of our movement. The MovieMate speakers are loud enough for outdoor use, even when we had a dozen people chatting while waiting to play.

How Does the Epson MovieMate 72 Perform with HD Movies?

As the name implies, the Epson MovieMate 72 is not just a “Wii projector.” It is an all-in-one digital projector with built-in, up-converting DVD player. It is actually the very first of it’s kind to include built in HD (720p) native playback. It is full 720p (1280 x 720) resolution and 1200 lumens bright. It produces a beautiful image with very rich blacks. (See the video of a scene from The Polar Express as displayed by the Epson MovieMate 72 in our front yard this past weekend too.)

The MovieMate 72 has four 5-watt speakers built-in. These speakers are loud enough for groups of 10-15 people. But for larger audiences, or particularly chatty children, then the Epson MovieMate 72 also has an optical audio and subwoofer outputs so you can connect to more robust speakers if you wish.

So, what will an all-in-one, portable Wii and movie projector cost you? The Epson MovieMate 72 is $1,199. It is in stock now at ProjectorPeople.com and it qualifies for free ground shipping.

Images of the Epson MovieMate 72 in action

Screenshot of the Nintendo Wii on a 100-inch screen filled by the Epson MovieMate 72 projector in the front yard.

Nintendo Wii Bowling on a 100-inch screen filled by the Epson MovieMate 72 projector in the front yard.

Playing a scene from The Polar Express on a 100-inch screen filled by the Epson MovieMate 72 projector in the front yard.

Video of the Epson MovieMate 72 in action

The Nintendo Wii in action. Of course as it is with any YouTube video, things are slightly compressed in the video. It looked very good, even though the Wii isn’t a high-definition source (480p) and we used just a regular composite cable. The MovieMate 72 handled the conversion well, and the image looked good even at 100-inches plus.

We also ran the Wii on the Panasonic PT-AX200U a few weeks back. The Wii is just fun in general, but make your Mii life size, and somehow the fun gets kicked up a notch. Who knew? Now if only I could find a Wii in stock to buy my mother for Christmas!

Here is the Epson MovieMate 72 again… this time showing a scene from The Polar Express. No cables were needed to hook this up (except the power cable), since the MovieMate has a built-in 720p DVD player. The sound you hear is coming out of the projectors built-in speakers.

One more look at The Polar Express on the MovieMate 72.

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Projector People’s Holiday Coupons!

Here are all the holiday coupons available for the Thanksgiving holiday on projectors and projector screens.

Sale Dates: 11/21/2007 - 11/26/2007

$50 Off These Popular 720p Projectors

• Optoma HD70
• Optoma HD72
• Panasonic AX200U
• Sanyo PLV-Z5

Use Coupon Code: THANKS50

$100 Off These Full HD 1080p Projectors

• Optoma HD80
• Panasonic PT-AE1000U
• Sanyo PLV-Z2000

Use Coupon Code: THANKS100

$50 Off These Hot Picks for Business

• NEC VT595
• NEC VT700 - Plus FREE replacment lamp!
• Optoma EP1691
• Panasonic PT-LB51U

Use Coupon Code: THANKS50

$25-$50 Off Select Elite Screens

Save up to $50 on screens for your home theater or office. Sizes range from 92 to 120-inches. Screens and available rebates listed below.

• ezFrame Fixed Frame Screens : Coupon Code: THANKS25 to save $25

(Models included: R92H1, R92WH1, R100H1, R100WH1, R106H1, R106WH1, R120H1, R120WH1)
• VMAX2 Electric Screens Coupon Code: THANKS50 to save $50

(Models included: VMAX92UWH2, VMAX120UWH2)

• CineTension 2 Electric Screens Coupon Code: THANKS50 to save $50

(Models included: TE100HC2, TE106HC2, TE120HC2)

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[ 1080p Home Theater projector shootout ]

We just recently received the Panasonic PT-AE2000U, Sanyo PLV-Z2000, and the Mitsubishi HC6000(BL) projectors into our inventory, so we thought we would fire those up with some of other top sellers - the Epson Home Cinema 1080, Optoma HD80, and the 720p best seller the Panasonic PT-AX200U respectively.

Quick Specs for our 1080p Shootout Projectors:

Panasonic PT-AE2000U – New!
[ HD (1920 x 1080), LCD with D7 C2FINE™, 1500 lumens, 16,000:1 contrast ]

Sanyo PLV-Z2000 – New!
[ HD (1920 x 1080), LCD with D7 C2FINE™, 1200 lumens, 15,000:1 contrast, 3-year warranty ]

Mitsubishi HC6000 (BL) – New!
[ HD (1920 x 1080), LCD with D7 (with Micro Lens), 1000 lumens, 15,000:1 contrast, Power lens shift ]

Epson Home Cinema 1080 – Current best-seller
[ HD (1920 x 1080), Epson C2Fine 3LCD technology, 1200 lumens, 15,000:1 contrast, 2-year warranty ]

Optoma HD80 – Current best-seller
[ HD (1920 x 1080), 1080p DMD DLP technology, 1300 lumens, 10,000:1 contrast, 2-year warranty ]

Panasonic PT-AX200U - 720p bestseller
[WXGA-H (1280 x 720), 3LCD technology, 2000 lumens, 6,000:1 contrast, $1299 MSRP ]

If you want to compare all these projectors in detail you can create a comparison chart using our comparison chart tool. The tool allows you to compare our complete specs for up to three projectors at a time.

On to the 1080p Projector Shootout!

We set up our selection of 1080p projectors in our large demo room. We shot lined them up side-by-side on gray painted wall (since we don’t have a screen wide enough to accommodate all five projectors at one time. You might see a scuff or two on the wall, but this should still give you a chance to see them all in low-resolution video action.

We used mostly “out-of-the-box” settings for each unit, though we did tweak one or two just a little bit for the best comparison. If you want the best looking image on any projector, consider purchasing video calibration software, or tweak the images based on your personal preferences and viewing habits.

Shot of all five projectors from left to right:
Optoma HD80, Mitsubishi HC6000(BL), Epson Home Cinema 1080, Panasonic PT-AE2000U, and Sanyo PLV-Z2000.

Panasonic PT-AE2000U
This is one of our most popular sellers, even though it has only been on our shelves for a few days. The AE2000U includes the new D7 LCD panel we have discussed previously, and it also features three (3) HDMI inputs for added connectivity.

Sanyo PLV-Z2000
Sometimes criticized for having an ‘ugly’ chasis, the Sanyo has also received a number of strong reviews since it’s release.

Mitsubishi HC6000 (BL)
This one just arrived the day of our review, so we haven’t had much interaction with it yet. We tweaked the color on this one from it’s ‘out-of-the-box’ settings and it looked much better after the change. Mitsubishi is known for it’s color accuracy in their LCD projectors. This one appears to also have very accurate color.

Epson Home Cinema 1080
The Epson Home Cinema is actually not the most recently Epson 1080p Home Theater projector to be released. Well, okay, the new Epson Home Cinema 1080p UB (for Ultra Black) isn’t on the shelves yet, but it is coming soon. The version without the UB is still a great looking projector though, and Epson makes the LCD panels that power other popular LCD home theater projectors, including the popular Panasonic and Mitsubishi models.

Optoma HD80
One of these kids is doing his own thing… our only DLP in the mix for this shootout, the Optoma HD80 has also been on the market a bit longer than some of the others. Known for deep, rich blacks, the Optoma HD80 images looked very good, and had less visible ‘rainbow’ than we have seen in some DLP products. The color also looked very accurate. We can most likely attribute this to their new color wheel and Brilliant Color chip now available on DLP projectors.

Panasonic PT-AX200U
For comparison sake, we also ran the AX200U along with the big boys to see if it could hold it’s own. It actually did a very convincing 1080p imitation, and for the price, this projector is really one of the best values on the market today. But if you want true HD, you’ll need to shop elsewhere.

Video of new 1080p Projectors in Action

We also took just a little bit of video for you. There may be some motion artifacts when the camera is moving from image to image, but that is because we are using the video mode from our digital camera to shoot the comparison. We took some sample footage in a still mode and with moving video so you can compare the color as well as the video processing.

Projectors with a still image.

Projectors with a moving image.

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