that seems like a good way into budget projector t.v's , but where would i find something either the same model or simlar to the marantz one brand new ? i have searched every web site shop with projectors but all are starting at 1200 pound.please could you email me with any shops which stock more budget ones , thx
So you want to impress your friends with your own home cinema, but cant afford the several thousand pounds for one of the more expensive projection televisions? Then maybe the Marantz is for you.
This tiny little unit will project the picture from your video onto a screen or wall, making an image which in my case is some 8ft wide x 6ft tall. Plug the video into your hifi, get out the popcorn and you need never go to the cinema again.
Of course you dont get anything for nothing, and there is a reason why you can pay so much more for a projection television.
The VP500 works by shining light through a small LCD screen. The picture is made up a series of dots, some red, some blue and some green. To create a black area, none of the dots light up. To create a white area, all the dots light up, and so on. The limitation of the VP500 is its resolution. OK, I dont think it was ever designed for an image 8ft x 6ft (where the dots are about 1cm in diameter), but even when you project a smaller image, Harrison Fords head is still only made up of 5 dots when hes standing in the distance. This is particularly noticeable with cartoons, with their strong bright colours and hard edged illustrations, making my widescreen copy of Toy Story a bit of a disappointment. Much better are those grainy black and white films.
The other disadvantage of this low end machine is its brightness. Especially when shining from the other side of the room, the image is not that bright, so viewing during the day is a no-no unless you have particularly thick curtains. Its a strictly lights off affair, but then this all adds to that cinema authenticity :-).
My Marantz it is certainly a talking point among friends, its screen being not much smaller than our local Multiplex Cinema. Ive got another portable television in the bedroom for watching the matinee performance of Eastenders, so all in all Im pretty happy. However, I can occasionally be seen, wandering through the shops in Tottenham Court Road, eyeing up the more sophisticated systems, thinking one day
Owned for 2 years.
Preloved Visitor
Reviewed December 2002.
Performance
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Overall Value for Money
I just bought this projector used, though in good condition. This is my first video projector, so I'm not going to compare this to other projectors. There are no anything special in this projector, it's the smallest projector I've ever seen, it has just one composite video in and two audio inputs (2x Stereo RCA) plus 3.5mm headphone jack. There are four adjustments, one for audio, last four to the picture. Volume, color tint, brightness and color saturation. Projector lens can be rotated 90 degrees, and projector could be attached to e.g. table or wall by one screw. There is also place for camera tripod in the bottom of projector. When I first tested this projector, i was quite amazed how natural the colors were, and i could manage more natural color via easy adjustments. Black and shadow levels are good, as what I think of. Brightness is not so good, but on the other hand I have not bought a screen yet. I have just used walls and white textile which do not reflect light as well as real theater screens. Projector bulb is easily replaced, bulb is 13Volt, 25Watt Philips one - looks so extraordinary that I wonder do they still produce these bulbs. Fan is a big con for this projector, as it's very loud, 4x4x1cm one. And now the biggest con of this projector, and it's main job, picture quality. Black LCD grid is very visible even on quite small picture sizes but it can be reduced by adjusting focus manually from lens. I'm currently using about 75 inch projection and I'm quite happy with that. If u can get this one with easy money, I think u will be very happy, the big picture will win even my new 32 inch wide screen in terms of feel, like i would be there with Rose and Jack on the Titanic. If u have money, buy projector with better resolution. THx!
Owned for 1 month.
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