I've been waiting/watching for HD projectors to come down in price & the new Sony 1080p offered is less than £600.00.

Back in the days a good projector would set you back alot.. £10.000.00 + pounds and that was just for a standard picture.

Now Sony offering a 1080p will knock prices down to around the £1000.00 pound mark. For me is' good news all round.

Info below about the new projector
Bravia meets 1080p and the big screen! The Sony VPL-AW10 brings together these exciting technologies to produce a protector that's big on entertainment. With the potential to show up to 200", the Sony VPL-AW10 really is like having a cinema in your own home! Furthermore, thanks to a quality specification, the picture quality doesn't suffer. An ultra bright, high pressure lamp gives a brightness of 1300 ANSI Lumen. The All Range Crisp Focus (ARC-F) lens with 1.6 times zoom ensures a super-sharp image at all times. With its HDMI input and 1080p compatibility, the Sony projector can show incredible levels of detail. Finally, 24p True Cinema means that the VPLAW10 will let you watch films as the director intended - at 24 frames per second. In addition to the HDMI input, the VPL-AW10 also comes with composite and S-Video inputs. For computer use you'll also find a PC input. It's the attention to detail that really impresses with the VPLAW10. The remote control, for example, is illuminated, making it ideal for use in darkened rooms. At just 20dB the cooling fan is, literally, whisper quiet, allowing you to enjoy the action without interruption.

For a projector that knows how to match quality with quantity, the Sony VPL-AW10 is unbeatable at this price! £600.00 pounds !

lol, I made the same mistake the other day on here. Richersounds are being deliberately vague with the details.

The Sony VPL-AW10 has a resolution of 1280x720, exactly 720p. It will accept 1080p and downscale it !

-Chris

Hi Chris 1 year ago a HD projector would of costed us around £4000.00+.
Now offering a HD 1080P from Sony be that downscaled to 720P is a big welcome.

Chris the point is Projectors have been well over priced for many years now and at less than £600.00 is great news ..

No, projectors have not been overpriced for many years...they are just getting better. The best modern projectors are already streets ahead of this Sony. It's just last year's model being knocked out as per usual. It'll still be good, but it isn't the pinnacle of projector achievement.

I disagree with you about this being a massive price drop, it would have been if it was *actually 1080p*, but its not.

Its still overpriced. The cheapest 40" 1080p TVs can be bought for £600 (native 1920x1080). The cheapest SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) projectors are about £1,700, from £2,000ish last year, and the average price is the same as it was last year too, about £4000.

Digital LCD/DLP projectors are still very crap btw, nothing highlights the problems better than playing futurama() and looking at how just *wrong* the colours are, Its so bad its just horrible.

720p projection may be worth it for situations where you *need* native 16:9 resolution, but I was burned paying £2,000 for a first generation 480p plasma, then again £800 for a early 32" samsung 720p LCD . Im going to wait this one out :sleep:

-Chris

Don't the bulbs in these things cost a small fortune (at least an arm), with a limited life span?

Yes Chris you are 100% correct compared to a plasma screen a projector does not even come close to quality picture.
My point is price drop is well welcomed into today’s high end market. Plus big screen projections offer a different feel
to viewing films or playing HD gaming.


Yes, it can be costly, but hopefully you would have a flat screen TV too,
as your main source of viewing and use the projector for enjoying HD filming and/or HD gaming e.c.t.


If you believe this . Projectors in most profession shops such as Music Matters and SevenOaks have offered projectors at
around £1500 to £30.000.00 pounds. and have just offered the lower £1500.00 in the last few years..

Yes they do, with many of them actually having a specified life, and they turn themselves off after that time, even though the bulb may be fine.

My local school was horrified to find out the running costs of their new whiteboard projectors!.

I actually know someone who has a pioneer plasma and does not use it for films anymore since he has had a new projector.

Not sure how many of you that have actually seen a decent projector in action.

However their can be probs with projectors.

Just another thing, i was always skeptical about buying a projector myself but after doing some reading regarding a certain one i decided to take the plunge, i am glad i did .................very suprised by the quality of the picture.
I did have to do some altering to the colour and yes the blacks are not as good as a plasma/lcd but it's just great having a mini cinema in your house and it's a better picture than the cinemas...........a lot better.

Errr.....what?

Let's just get some things straight...

1. DLP projectors can easily far outperform any plasma or LCD television. That is why the really good ones are very expensive.

2. Sevenoaks is not a "profession shop" (sic) - I assume you mean a professional shop - It's a hifi & home cinema dealer. Yes, some projectors cost many thousands of pounds...but who are you to say they are overpriced? The performance of things like Sim2 projectors is so far ahead of any flat panel TV that their value is only for the purchaser to decide. If people weren't willing to pay for the best performance, the projectors wouldn't exist. The sub-£1000 market is low end for anything to do with television.

I don't think half (if any) have actually seen a projector working to be honest..................full of hot air .

well yes, that's why they have fans in them.

No. The reason why the really good ones are really expensive, is because they are 3 chip DLP projectors (One DLP chip for each colour). And yes, they are impressive.

However, Your regular, standard, off the shelf single chip DLP projector is shite. Its like going back to composite. End of discussion. I had one. Appalling quality.
Its true that people who care about serious image quality don't touch LCD with a shitsoaked bargepole. However plasma has found its way into many a high end setup.
Throwing money at it wont get you anywhere. You can pickup a CRT projector off ebay for virtually nothing, replace the tubes, and you have something with far more contrast and all round better image quality than any new expensive projector with all their digital nasties !

-Chris

Ref to your point 1:
I've enjoyed many projectors over the years, however I have not yet seen a projector that comes close to the new top end HDTV'S.

Ref to your point 2 :
I for one would prefer SevenOaks to Curry’s or comet. "QUOTE Who I’m I to say overpriced". Is This not a free world ?
Is this not a web forum to tallk about htings any more. Or do you sit back and look at a price and say nothing.

A price drop in HD projectors is well worth spending money on and hope more will now enjoy owning one too..

Come on you know 3-D viewing is great on a projector until 2009..

I'd agree with that.

Had the Sony Ruby LCD before the Sim 2 HT5000 DLP I have now and compact screens don't even come closes.

You do of course pay a high premium for this, an arm and 2 legs.

Mid range models do a pretty good job so long as you don't expect a 200" image. Entry models need to be given a wide berth.

Optoma have some very good PJ's, they can project a good 72-84 inch HD image.

Basically you get what you pay for.

Yes Tommy you are correct & i too believe you get what you pay for.

Surely do not not also believe that £600.00 for a HD projector that works with 1080p signal is good news all round. Knowing Sony do offer good stuff

Kick off price for a real 1080p PJ is about £2k these days. At that price you do get pretty good results, though visible improvements can be seen by real people if you have more to spend. The JVC D-ILA HD1 is a bit more and still very good value. I do agree that £600 is a great price for a HD ready PJ from a quality manufacturer, but that ad is fairly misleading. Leaving out the real resolution, whilst slipping in the '1080p compatible' bit is sure to catch out some buyers.

Yep good comments all round & yes, site is misleading, but 1080p allowed through the project for £600.00 is good news all round.

I am not too conerned about this projector, but Sony offering this price for a pretty versatliy projector should knock the rest down..

Quality is still good if you have a 1080p downscaled to 720p, Rather than a 576p upscaled to 720p.

The wow factor of a large screen is just great news without having a big hole in our pockets.

you can't really call it a 1080p projector though, it's pointless. Any device you might use to feed it 1080p will output a more suitable resolution anyway.

replace the tubes? what with? new tubes! where are they coming from ? What single chip DLP did you have? I hardly think it's going to be "end of discussion" based on one opinion on one projector...

Well you two guys must be the unluckiest people alive to have seen such rubbish projectors.

I sell and calibrate displays for a living, and I see all manner of flat TVs and projectors right from the top end stuff down to sub £1000 gear. I'm constantly amazed with what people find acceptable on TV's. The majority of the budget to midrange stuff is complete pants. I'd have a projector any day of the week.

Like i said ..................they ain't seen diddly squat, if they had then they would know better....END OF.

Why post to the topic if you have nothing to add to the debate, should you not grow up instead.


Have a bit of respect for yourself and add something or move on..

You might be correct.. May be..

I been to the Bristol show 3 times and still not seen a projector that looks great.

How ever I do like projectors .. and believe film viewing on large screens are the best way to enjoy films..