Review: Infocus X10 Video
Category: Home Theater
The long wait for my Infocus X10 has finally ended. When it arrived, I did a little research on the kind of screen I will pair with it. After auditioning around 3 brands, I settled for an OS screen with a .8 gain. I reasoned that since my home theater is a fully light controlled environment, I do not need a high gain screen for my set-up. Besides, the reviews I've read indicate that the X10 is one of the brightest projectors there is in the market today. My set-up has the projector a little less than 12ft from the screen. Based on ProjectorCentral's calculations, I will get a maximum of 83 diagonal inches with this distance. I settled for an 80 inch screen that is a manual pull down type.
For reasons that I attribute to luck, the projected picture was 99% geometrically fit with the screen after I have applied keystone since my ceiling height was less than 7ft. I say that I'm lucky since this is my first attempt to set-up a projector and a screen in a home theater setting. Unless one is perfectionist of the nth degree, you could say that the projected picture perfectly fits the screen in my case.
My source are Blueray discs played using a PS3. The signal via HDMI passes through my Yamaha RXV1800.
The first movie I watched to test my new gear is the cartoon Kung Fu Panda. The first time I saw it, my jaw dropped so low that it nearly touched my lap. The picture of this 1080p projector was so amazing to say the least. I am saying this with reference to the PQ of my Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV from which I have the pleasure of watching this film countless times. And we all know that the Kuro continues to be the benchmark from which the PQ of the rest of the flat TVs are compared to.
And for the rest of the night, I watched excerpts from movies in my collection such as, Iron Man, Wall-E, Quantum of Solace, I am Legend and many more. Again these were movies I have watched in my Kuro more than once. I chose them since I wanted to see the X10's performance in relation to the excellent PQ of the plasma. And again and again, the X10 held its ground, and in skin tones I would say even bested the Pioneer.
After my initial impressions, I tried some adjustments. I found out that the only adjustments I had to change are the keystone, for reasons I stated above, and the Iris which I closed from the default of 100 to 45 to minimize the glare in my totally dark room The rest of the default settings are right on the mark. Indeed, this PJ needs very little professional adjustments, if any. As is, it's already excellent. The black level seems adequate to me. Remember I am used to the Kuro which produces the best blacks bar none. I am surprised that reviews on this PJ have been highly critical of its ablity to produce the black blacks. I believe that their impressions are grossly exaggerated, if not completely wrong. Likewise, I've read that one should avoid keystoning as this degrades PQ. Much to my delight, I could not observe it in my set-up. It could be because my screen size is only 80 inches and at this size, this is not so noticeable. That is just my conjecture of course.
Net, the X!0 is worth every dollar I paid for it (Bought it from AMAZON). My only complaint is that I sometimes see rainbows. This was explained in reviews that DLP projectors, because of the use of the color wheel, are likely to produce this aberration. But this is something that one can get use to and learn to ignore.
Indeed, the X10 is the best bang for the buck projector in the market today. And let me add, I say that with a lot of confidence.
Associated gear
Click to view my Virtual System
The long wait for my Infocus X10 has finally ended. When it arrived, I did a little research on the kind of screen I will pair with it. After auditioning around 3 brands, I settled for an OS screen with a .8 gain. I reasoned that since my home theater is a fully light controlled environment, I do not need a high gain screen for my set-up. Besides, the reviews I've read indicate that the X10 is one of the brightest projectors there is in the market today. My set-up has the projector a little less than 12ft from the screen. Based on ProjectorCentral's calculations, I will get a maximum of 83 diagonal inches with this distance. I settled for an 80 inch screen that is a manual pull down type.
For reasons that I attribute to luck, the projected picture was 99% geometrically fit with the screen after I have applied keystone since my ceiling height was less than 7ft. I say that I'm lucky since this is my first attempt to set-up a projector and a screen in a home theater setting. Unless one is perfectionist of the nth degree, you could say that the projected picture perfectly fits the screen in my case.
My source are Blueray discs played using a PS3. The signal via HDMI passes through my Yamaha RXV1800.
The first movie I watched to test my new gear is the cartoon Kung Fu Panda. The first time I saw it, my jaw dropped so low that it nearly touched my lap. The picture of this 1080p projector was so amazing to say the least. I am saying this with reference to the PQ of my Pioneer Kuro Plasma TV from which I have the pleasure of watching this film countless times. And we all know that the Kuro continues to be the benchmark from which the PQ of the rest of the flat TVs are compared to.
And for the rest of the night, I watched excerpts from movies in my collection such as, Iron Man, Wall-E, Quantum of Solace, I am Legend and many more. Again these were movies I have watched in my Kuro more than once. I chose them since I wanted to see the X10's performance in relation to the excellent PQ of the plasma. And again and again, the X10 held its ground, and in skin tones I would say even bested the Pioneer.
After my initial impressions, I tried some adjustments. I found out that the only adjustments I had to change are the keystone, for reasons I stated above, and the Iris which I closed from the default of 100 to 45 to minimize the glare in my totally dark room The rest of the default settings are right on the mark. Indeed, this PJ needs very little professional adjustments, if any. As is, it's already excellent. The black level seems adequate to me. Remember I am used to the Kuro which produces the best blacks bar none. I am surprised that reviews on this PJ have been highly critical of its ablity to produce the black blacks. I believe that their impressions are grossly exaggerated, if not completely wrong. Likewise, I've read that one should avoid keystoning as this degrades PQ. Much to my delight, I could not observe it in my set-up. It could be because my screen size is only 80 inches and at this size, this is not so noticeable. That is just my conjecture of course.
Net, the X!0 is worth every dollar I paid for it (Bought it from AMAZON). My only complaint is that I sometimes see rainbows. This was explained in reviews that DLP projectors, because of the use of the color wheel, are likely to produce this aberration. But this is something that one can get use to and learn to ignore.
Indeed, the X10 is the best bang for the buck projector in the market today. And let me add, I say that with a lot of confidence.
Associated gear
Click to view my Virtual System
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