It comes with an adjustable base attached. This is nice for
table mount as it is simple to adjust for different angles
(you simply grab the projector and move it into the position
you need). For ceiling mount, this has to be removed but that
is simple to do. The lens has a unique adjustment. The zoom
and focus have little dials on the top. At first I was thinking
it was lens shift (though I knew it didn’t have it),
but then I played with it. It doesn’t really have any
benefit, but it is kind of neat to watch work. The projector
has a throw range of 1.53-1.94x screen width. This is a short-mid
level throw, good for smaller rooms but where one wants a
larger image. It does have a fixed offset of 116%, similar
to other units in their line. This means that for a 50”
tall screen, the lens has to be 8” above (or below for
table mount) the screen edge. For those with short ceilings,
this is not ideal. But for those with higher ceilings and
where the screen starts down a little ways, this will allow
you to keep the projector closer to the ceiling.
The first thing I did was to hook up my Accupel HDG3000 so
that I could calibrate it. For those who don’t know
Infocus, they state that their HT projectors are pre-calibrated
to 6500k color standard. Well many companies claim that, but
let me tell you, they mean it. I put up a gray window pattern
and hooked up my probe…I got a measurement of 6491k
out of the box! That is impressive. What this means is that
for DYI customers, there is not much need for an ISF (unless
of course you want it perfect). Note however, this is through
an ideal setup (the Accupel is very accurate). Your source
equipment, room, etc… may change the overall settings
so tweaking may be needed. I did have to do a tad bit of that.
Moving on, I did the standard adjustments, contrast, brightness,
color, etc…. Those did need to be adjusted to optimize
picture as one would expect. They have an overscan feature
that utilizes more of the surface of the chip, but I found
that it wrecked havoc with the sharpness, so I opted not to
use it.
The menu is well laid out. Basically the same as other Infocus
units, but much more control than some. They offer more gamma
settings, phase, tracking, etc… Lots for you tweakers
out there to play with! J
Next, I plugged in my Denon DVD3910 (and adjusted it to maximize
performance). It fed a 720p signal through HDMI into the IN76.
Gorgeous. The first thing I noticed was something that Infocus
has always had an edge on. It was bright. There are 2 modes
in this unit, normal and High Power. It comes in normal mode
out of the box, but I kicked it into High Power for testing.
I found that the increase wasn’t enough to justify the
added fan noise (which by the way was pretty decent in normal
mode, but sort of loud in High Power mode). For those who
do not have a dedicated room and/or ambient light to contend
with, this is definitely a consideration for you. I used my
usual I-Robot and Finding Nemo test discs since I use them
for all my reviews and am very familiar with them. The details
of the image were extremely good. I also noticed a very clean
signal, hardly any digital noise which for the lower priced
competitors is an issue. The black levels on this unit are
decent, much better than comparable LCD’s and about
on par with similarly priced DLPs. However, I did find that
the black levels were not at the level of some other DLPs
at the next level of pricing. On a positive note, the shadow
detailing of the IN76 was suburb. DLP has often had a tough
time with that in the past. Blacks can tend to be crushed
and you lose the details. This does not suffer from that at
all.
Unfortunately I could not do any HDTV demos as my DVHS has
just died on me. I will follow up on that soon though and
fully expect it to do well with that.
Finding Nemo |
