Customer Reviews
Best viewing experience for the price? 
2008-03-03
First off, here is a little bit information about my setup.
I have this unit mounted in my living room which is about 16 feet by 12 feet in dimensions. I have it ceiling mounted approximately 14 feet from the screen I'm projecting onto. I currently run one HDMI source and two component sources to the unit; my Playstation 3 (1080p), XBOX(720p), HD Cable(720p, 1080i).
And as for the unit itself:
It outperforms my best expectations.
It is almost absolutely silent. My XBOX is louder than the projector is.
The image is 100" diagonal, crystal clear, vibrant in color, and the blacks are black. The image is perfect, I never see a delay in the image or fault in the clarity.
What I would call it's only fault is that it doesn't come with keystone correction. So for a perfectly even, rectangular image you have to mount the projector completely level. This however isn't much of a fault, any time you change the keystone it degrades the resolution (or as I understand it). However if you don't like the fact that your image is being displayed too high or too low, the projector does have lens shift feature which allows you to move the image from the left, right, up or down. So even if you have it completely even with you ceiling you can still have an eye level image.
The universal mounting bracket I got for the unit had four handles to attach to the projector, however the HC4900 has only three screw holes for mounting brackets. It however is very stable.
The ANSI lumens is 1000, but I haven't had a problem with too much light in the room. I can watch movies with two lamps on and not experience a problem.
All and all I'm very happy with my purchase.
Excellent HD 1080p Projector 2008-01-07
By way of introduction, let me say that I am not an AV or Home Theater expert. However, I have done a lot of research in the last few weeks and finally decided on this projector. I do not regret that decision!
I originally was looking at the Mitsubishi HC1500 and Optoma HD72. Both seemed to get good reviews and the Mitsubishi was under $1,000. I went to tweeters and they only suggested a Sony projector that was almost $5,000. It was nice, but had a dedicated theater room and their lights couldn't come up to show what it was like in normal lighting. Typically for projectors you want it as dark as possible, but I knew that it was not practical for me to have my room dark at all times. Yes, to watch a movie at night - definitely, but to watch an episode or even play an Xbox 360 game there may be others sharing the room and I can't have them in the pitch black darkness.
I went to Best Buy and they had the Optoma HD70 on display. It looked great in the darkened room, but with the house lights on, it also looked good. It wasn't too washed out. Of course everything will look better in the dark, but the point is it is watchable with lights on. I wanted a large screen, but I also wanted to be able to watch things with some lights on. The HC1500 had better reviews from a brightness of the screen (even in lit rooms) than that HD72, so I made up my mind to get the HC4900 after seeing the old HD70 in action.
So I came back to get it and low and behold I was still bothered by the fact that I was going to spend about a thousand bucks on "old" technology - 720p. I knew I didn't have any pressing need to go with 1080p as I don't have digital cable or satellite. Most of my things would be upscaled and I wouldn't be able to enjoy the 1080p anyway. A few Xbox 360 games support it, but not a great deal. So I was going to live with the inferior 720p display. However, I found the HC4900 - the product I'm reviewing (in a very long winded way).
This projector is awesome. After rebates and looking at the lamp life, I determined that the two projectors are close in price. The HC1500 lasts at tops 3000 hours. The HC4900 lasts at tops 5000 hours. Assuming you watch 5 hours a day - which is a lot, that is 19 months versus 32 months. That amount of display time is very liberal. I just won't use it that much, but even with those numbers and the prices of the lamps being the same I would need to replace the HC1500 lamp a lot sooner than the HC4900 lamp. So if I factored in the cost of the lamp and projected out to a year and half down the road, the HC4900 is just a little bit more. So that little bit extra for 1080p was a no brainer for me. Your mileage may vary, but I'm very happy with the purchase I made.
The picture on this projector is great with the lights fully lit, partially lit and of course the room totally dark. I'm am very happy with the results of this projector! Some people complain about the black not being black enough versus other projectors. It is fine for my uses and I can't tell an issue. Again, I came from SD so I'm not the most knowledgeable on this, but for my viewing pleasure this 1080p for this price cannot be beat right now. This projector is super quiet as well. I have to get very close to it to hear the fan and then I have to strain. With any audio the fan noise vanishes altogether.
I have no idea how this compares to other projectors, but compared to a flat screen TV from a price perspective this can't be beat. Just don't forget to calculate in cost for the ceiling mount and a screen and where you will hook up all of your AV equipment. This goes for any projector obviously, but it is good to have these things laid out ahead of time. Remember projectors do not have any audio and you will need a receiver / amplifier.
