The picture is incredible and looks very life like due to its incredible handling of contrast. The colours are even more stunning than the contrasts it produces and this alone makes the HD8600 truly wonderful to watch.

The interchangeable lenses are a huge plus and allow you to put it basically anywhere in your theater and get the size of the picture you want. The Lens Shift feature they have is basically flawless as well and is perfect for adding last minute adjustments to your picture.

That is not to say that this projector is perfect though. Features like the PureMotion, which tends to be less than completely accurate and a bit jerky, maybe should have been left for next years model and given a little more polish. Similarly, the PureDetail goes a little bit overboard with the edge enhancement and tends to make the picture look unreal and cluttered at the edges.

Although the extra little options may not be perfect, the HD8600 is absolutely stellar at projecting an incredibly stunning picture onto basically any surface. Picture quality here is unmatched by anything else they’ve ever produced and you’d be hard pressed to find another projector in the entire market that you like better. When this projector is calibrated properly, you have one of the best HD home theaters money can buy. Good show ol’ boy.

It does lack the powered zoom and focus features of other comparable models but keep in mind that these other models are comparable not because of their prices, but because of their performance.  The Epson Home Cinema 8100 is incredibly easy to set up and use for basically anybody and its value is unparalleled making it one of the most consumer friendly projectors ever released.

The Epson 8100 is an incredible achievement with no real flaws that I can discern. Although it is the little brother to last year’s Epson 6100, it outperforms it in every single way to the point of surprising nearly everybody in the industry.  What’s more is that it does all this at a much cheaper price to boot.  It is one of the best ways you can spend money on a home theater projector and one of my favorites to come along in a long time.  Please, pick up this projector if it is in your price range because I guarantee that you won’t regret it.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.  Like so much else in the digital world, the two different formats create very interesting and unique advantages over the other.  It is one of those situations where no format is technically “better” than the other but one wherein the user decides which option best fits their needs.

We don’t want to forget another prominent technology called LCOS, which stands for Liquid Crystal on Silicon, and is currently being developed by large companies such as Hitachi and JVC. It too is an incredible technology that shouldn’t be forgotten but it is far less prominent in the home theater world and will gain steam in the future.

LCD projectors usually make use of three separate LCD panels, one for red, one for green, and one for blue; together they make up a full colour stream. When the light from the bulb passes through each of the LCD panels, they can open or close individual pixels to either allow light through, or they can block it from reaching the next LCD or lens.  In doing so, a beautiful RGB image is created with literally millions of different colour combinations possible.

DLP, on the other hand, is a technology developed by Texas Instruments.  Unlike the LCD chips, no light ever passes through the DLP chip.  It is, instead, a whole bunch of tiny little mirrors that reflect light either through the lens or away from it to represent a full image.  If you are really quite rich and can afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars there are certain projectors that use 3 separate DLP chips, one for each colour in the RGB stream.  To produce colour in single DLP chip projectors, there is a colour wheel with different filters on it that defines what colour will be projected.  The light from the bulb shines through the colour wheel and as it spins, it determines which colour in the RGB scope will shine through.  The angle at which each little mirror is reflected into the lens determines the amount of colour that makes it through on any given pixel at any given time.  In doing so, the light is manipulated at every given pixel with any amount of colour from a red, blue, or green stream of colour and produces an image on the screen.

LCD chips are often better at producing colours with more accurate saturation.  This is because in the DLP colour wheel, there is normally a clear panel that is meant to increase brightness which is a huge seller for most projector buyers.  The white screen on the wheel does add brightness to the image but in doing so it also tends to wash it out a bit.  The colours don’t appear to be as saturated and beautiful as they should but they do it willingly, knowing of the payoff. Even when the colour wheel doesn’t include a white segment, the LCD projectors usually tend to have better colours and produce nicer looking images.

The resolution delivered by an LCD chip is also almost always sharper than that of a DLP chip.  You notice the difference more with text and straight defined lines, not so much with the movies and pictures, but it’s still an advantage.  You really notice it when an LCD projector is placed right next to a DLP projector, like when you did Coke and Pepsi taste tests.

LCD projectors also tend to be more efficient at thurning the light produced by the lamp directly into ANSI lumens after it has left the projection lens.  Generally speaking, the LCD projectors seem to let more light through their panels and onto their final destination than their DLP counterparts normally would. Although DLP technology has made some incredible strides in recent years, the projectors putting out the brightest images are always LCD.

On the other side of the coin for LCD projectors is the ever problematic so-called Screen Door Effect.  This little baddy produces what looks like tiny black lines outlining each and every pixel on the screen, creating what looks like a screen door on the image.  The idea is that when you take an image of a finite number of pixels, as you make each pixel bigger, you also make the space between each pixel bigger.  At regular projection screen sizes you will never notice this problem but when you get into 120″ range, you definitely risk seeing the effect.  Like a screen door though, you can really just look right through it.  My first projector was only 800×600 and I had it projecting at 120″.  Although the screen-door effect was noticeable when I first sat down, as soon as the screen had movement I forgot about it completely.

LCD technology is also said to produce an imperfect image when it comes to black levels and contrast.  LCD’s tend to wash blacks out and make them less black than they should be; something that will trouble anyone who cares enough.  It has lead to the technology not being taken seriously in home theater circles and continues to be a mark on the technology.

These problems are becoming less and less important though.  As time passes and technology improves, the problems get pushed back.  For example, my old 800×600 projector has less than half the pixels a new LCD projector does, that means that the screen door effect would only be noticeable at a size twice what I had it at.  The gaps between pixels are also smaller.  They can cram so many pixels on a single panel nowadays that it absolutely boggles the mind to see one.  And although there have been incredible improvements in black levels and contrast with LCD’s, DLP is still the technology that leads in this department.

DLP projectors tend to be much smaller than a comparative LCD projectors.  They normally only need just one chip instead of the LCD’s three making it much easier to adjust for small space accordingly. All of the mini 3-pound projectors available use DLP chips because it quite simply wouldn’t be possible with an LCD chip.

DLP technology is still much better than LCD at creating good black levels and contrast.  Both technologies have made incredible steps in the past few years but DLP technology had a huge head start.  It has managed to maintain it’s foothold and continues to price images with better blacks and contrast.

DLP does, however, have an achilles heel.  Debates as to just how much this affects picture quality are often hot topics in videophile forums but to me, the Rainbow Effect doesn’t really bother me.  The so-called “rainbow effect” is brought on by the spinning colour wheel between the lamp and the DLP chip.  Technically, it can produce a… thing… I don’t know how best to describe it. Perhaps an anomaly, that looks like the colours separating out in the red green and blue apparent in the colour wheel.  The problem arises because the whole image on screen at any given time is either red, green, blue, or white.  Your eyes normally don’t notice it because it changes so quickly but there are some tells that this is actually going on.  Some people will notice the colours break out but others have been known to suffer from eye strain and headaches.  LCD’s don’t suffer from these problems because they are constantly shooting all three colours at the screen simultaneously.

The rainbow effect for me is about as big a problem as the screen door effect was on an 800×600 LCD projector.  I noticed it a bit at first, and I had to be looking for it to notice it, but after I started watching a movie, the thought didn’t cross my mind again. People do, however, experience much worse repercussions from watching DLP projections.  I am not one of them and don’t know of anybody having these problems but to not mention it would be irresponsible.

It should also be noted that Texas Instruments did some research a while back on LCD technology that claims LCD technology will eventually cause the colours to break down and produce less contrast and a shift in colour balance.  On the other hand, Texas Intsruments’ famed DLP chip didn’t fall victim to these shortfalls.  I think it’s also very important to keep in mind that Texas Instruments owns DLP and they funded and conducted the “research”.  In any case, you can colour me skeptical.

In reality, both technologies produce incredible images at this stage of their lives.  You have to decide on your part which picture you prefer and at what cost.  Get out there and do some research of your own and see if you can find images of certain DLP projectors benchmarked against their LCD counterparts. There is no clear “better” technology but you as the consumer have more options here and can hopefully make a more informed decision based on what you have learned.

It is incredibly simple to project a beautiful image on a black screen in broad daylight with these types of numbers. The lamps are two high-output 330-watters that are actually 20% more efficient that their previous models. The PLC-XF1000 projector is said to produce an image with a contrast ratio of 4,000:1 and make use of an improved QuaDrive optical engine that allegedly adds a so-called “Color Control Device to the conventional 3LCD system” for control of yellow light independent of the other colors.

This product is made for outdoor displays or digital signage and it shows.  There isn’t much in terms of resolution for this projector as it pumps out only 1024×768 pixels and has an Active Maintenance Filter to reduce maintenance costs and labor thanks to its unique cartridge replacement system. The Sanyo PLC-XF1000 is slated for release in December and will retail for $24,995… without a lens…

What really sets these high end projectors apart from their cheaper counterparts are the little extras you get that make the projector much more versatile.  The PT-AE3000U features a 2.0 times zoom that is capable of casting a 120-inch image on a screen from an incredible distance of only 3.6 meters. The projector also makes use of its red rich lamp to increase the overall luminance efficiency of the picture.  It also has a high precision optical lens unit, Panasonic’s Pure color Filter Pro and Smooth Screen Technologies, and a dynamic iris to give you even more leeway. Panasonic has even included their new Frame Creation 2 feature which aids in creating sharp and clear images when fast moving scenes are occurring.

The PT-AE4000U makes use of VIERA Link and has two programmable 12V trigger terminals.  Panasonic also made sure it had three HDMI terminals for basically anything you could ever want to plug into the projector and gave it support of x.v.Color and Deep Color just to make sure you were happy.

Keep in mind though, that as the camera shifts between the two screens, some brightness may be lost for a couple seconds while the camera lens adjusts.  Also, when the video is compressed into flash video for the web, there might be some artifacts visible.  These artifacts are strictly the byproducts of the compression and have nothing to do with the way the projectors perform.  There are problems with filming projectors work but I think this video does an incredible job of comparing the two projectors visually which is not a luxury most people are afforded.

So what does it all come down to?If you are looking to get into the full HD home theater projector market but have a limited budget, you can spend $1000 and get a 1080p 300-inch picture with really good black levels in a small easy to transport case, if you’re willing to sacrifice features.  On the other hand, if you are looking at upgrading to a full HD theater projector with an incredibly crisp image, some flexibility in how and where you install the projector due to a 2x zoom and lens shift, then the higher end LCD home theater projectors are what you are looking for.

Personally, I think that if you were to spend $999 on an Optoma HD20, a projector that’s truly worth the $999 price tag, you might as well spend the extra $300 and get a $5,000 projector in the Viewsonic PRO8100. I have said it before but this is in my opinion the best price going for a quality home theater projector.

If for some reason you have an aversion to ViewSonic, or you simply don’t have the extra $300 to drop on it, here are the links for the most popular high end LCD and entry level DLP home theater projectors.

High End LCD Home Theater Projectors

• Viewsonic PRO8100 (My favorite deal going right now. A $5,000 projector for $1,300)
• Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 6500UB(also a great projector for the price, but the price is twice as much)
• Panasonic PT-AE3000U(this one is a fan favorite for a reason, there isn’t a single rating less than five star on Amazon)

New Entry Level DLP Projectors

• Optoma HD20(seems to be the favorite, but it’s the only one currently shipping)
• Vivitek h3080FD(my pick for entry level DLP HD projectors, from stats only)
• BenQ W1000(big fan of BenQ and really looking forward to this little guy’s arrival)

You’ve got your new home theater projector and you want to take advantage of its 1080p full HD capabilities with the most impressive movies ever released on blu-ray. Lucky for you, I just spent a bunch of time building a list of the first 20 blu-rays you need to pick up.  Seriously, hours picking these movies and putting them in an appropriate order all for your benefit. Granted, this list may be personal preference, but I’m usually right. Also, as you will notice right away, this is by no means the best 20 movies in the world, just the best 20 to watch in 1080p on a massive screen. I bet you can guess a few of them, but I bet there’s a few you have never heard of either. Without further ado, let’s get this list under and then over with.

#20 Transformers

Yeah, I don’t care which one you watch, they were both God awful films.  The two films were absolutely unbearable for a reviewer to sit through for so many reasons but they did get one thing right. The visuals are absolutely stunning and basically benchmark the whole digital special effects industry.  I just hate these movies so much.

#19 Stardust

Stardust has to be my favorite fantasy movie of late and possibly all time. It is paralleled only by the incredible “Princess Bride” in my mind and is on this list because I absolutely love the world it takes me to. There’s just something about a fantasy movie with the attention to special effect detail. It makes me feel all tingly inside.

#18 A Clockwork Orange

This one also makes me feel all tingly inside too but for other reasons. Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” is in my opinion a cinematic masterpiece that deserves to be seen on the big screen over and over again. This film doesn’t boast insane special effects, but it dies contain some of the best and trippiest pictures ever put to film. It’s absolutely beautiful.

#17 Watchmen

It seems that people either love this film or walked out in the first 20 minutes. I am on the love side, let me assure you. Already being a big fan of the novel, I was waiting eagerly and patiently all year for this one. I was so excited to see it that I dragged the wife through the dodgy end of Patras while we were travelling in Greeece. If you’re on the hate side, you still have to admit that it is one of the most visually stimulating films of the year.

#16 Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

This is probably one of my favorite animated films of all time. The art team at SquareEnix rivals anything at Pixar. They are capable of producing absolutely jaw dropping imagery that is studied the industry over. There’s really nothing that comes even close to the fight scenes in this movie, they are absolutely brilliant. I’ve included a video of the movie below seeing as this is one of the less popular ones on the list, I figured a few people wouldn’t have seen it.

#15 Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a movie that I thought about for months after watching it for the first time. I absolutely love this movie because of the themes and future settings that are the backbone of this movie. Themes in this movie shadow very closely the premise of the Ghost in the Shell series, of which I am a large fan as well. Harry Ford is pretty awesome too; I don’t think there’s a SF role he couldn’t do.

#14 Star Trek

J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is easily my favorite of the series and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone say different. He breathes new life into the dying franchise with this incredible story and does it with style. I’m not a very big Abrams fan either. I haven’t liked anything he’s done in the past so I wasn’t holding out much hope for this. He really shows his film making talent and puts beautiful images on the screen with some of the best special effects in Hollywood.

#13 Gladiator

A classic tale about a not so factually correct Roman gladiator, but hey, it looks cool. I think the thing that sets this movie apart from every other ancient Roman movie is the sets. You actually fell like you are back a couple thousand years cheering with the rest of the public in the stands of the Colosseum. The fight scenes are indeed incredible, but I think the real visual pleasure is the setting and sets created for this landmark movie.

#12 The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie when I was a kid. I loved the surprise ending; I just thought that it was so tricky. I also loved all the characters because I guess it appealed to me back then. If you want a real visual adventure, boot up the projector, roll up a fatty, and put on Dark Side of the Moon. It will absolutely blow your mind.

#11 Sin City

Sin City is another one of those love it or hate it movies. I really love Sin City because it’s less of a movie than it is a moving comic book. Robert Rodriguez does such an incredible job at transferring these classic Frank Miller stories to a new medium and he sets the stage for future projects of the sort. Watching Mickey Rourke pound some guys face in while being covered in blood has never looked so beautiful.

#10 300

300 uses the same green screen technology as Sin City did but for another Frank Miller novel. Zack Snyder pulled it off miraculously and it was only his second movie. Granted, 300 lacks plot, it’s basically just fight after fight, but it is also one of the masterpieces of modern cinematography.

#9 Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse now is often regarded as one of the best films of all time. It’s one of those films that everyone has seen time and time again and is perfect for leaving running sans audio just as something visual and beautiful to look at. The scene where Sheen is coming out of the water right before he meets with Brando sticks in my mind as one of the most beautiful moving pictures ever made. I guarantee you too have a piece of this movie forever burned onto your brain somewhere.

#8 Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Another Japanese film that the masses may not have seen. The animation in this film puts Hollywood techniques to shame it is so beautiful. Most of the scenes are drawn by hand and then enhanced with digital backgrounds and other little tweaks so it is a mixing of old and new animation techniques. Below, I’ve posted my favorite scene in the movie which is an absolutely stunning parade.

#7 2001: A Space Odyssey

Another Kubrick masterpiece is 2001. This is another movie that you can just throw on without the audio and be pleased by it. Last time I threw a party I just put it on all my televisions, monitors and my projector, people kept commenting about how they liked it. I think of it kind of like a fish tank, fun to look at but doesn’t need to make noise. It’s also a lot cheaper…

#7 Saving Private Ryan

Truth is, I finished this list then remembered about this movie. I really couldn’t leave it out seeing as it truly is one of the best representations of the second world war ever put on film. The audio in this film is at least as stimulating as the incredible visuals. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg really left nothing untouched and truly created a masterpiece with this film. The two would get together later as well for the HBO series “Band of Brothers” which parallels “Saving Private Ryan” in every way, but gives us a much longer story line. This is clearly one of the greatest achievements in cinematic history. I didn’t want to push Transformers out of the list or get rid of anything else, therefore, you are left with two #7’s. Deal with it.

#6 The Lord of the Rings

You knew it was going to be on here but maybe you didn’t know which one I was going to pick. With this franchise, though, you really can’t pick a single movie. The plot wouldn’t be complete with just one of them and neither would the experience. These movies are much better with the sound pounding as hard as your neighbors will let you pound it. Make sure that you have the volume up when the thousands of orcs are charging in battle at the rest of the middle-earthlings. This is some absolutely beautiful film making.

#5 The Fifth Element

The Fifth Element is the classic “take pictures of how your projector performs” movie because of it’s beauty. The colours are so vivid and the settings so beautiful and unreal. This is the reason I give Bruce Willis credit and I believe one of the best science fiction films of all time.

#4 The Dark Knight

Oh yeah, this douche is gonna put The Dark Knight in his list cause everyone else did. While it is probably the single most hyped movie of all time, some of it is justified. Heath Ledger gave us the performance of his life and I think actually drove himself mad for this role. I think Bale was in this movie too but can’t quite remember. Like it or not, The Dark Knight has it all: fight scenes, fast cars, incredible heights, explosions, and Maggie Gyllenhaal!

#3 Baraka

You don’t need the music in this film per se, but it does really add to the eerie and surreal setting. Baraka is a film of cinematographic excellence and relies almost entirely upon that. Even though no words are spoken during the length of the film, it does have a fairly strong theme. It manages to show us the effect that humanity has on Earth from a gorgeous point of view but warns us about what we are headed for. These are some of the best pictures of our world and civilization ever put on film. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend you watch it.

#2 Blue Planet: Seas of Life

I liked Blue Planet more than I liked Planet Earth, so what. All you have to do is throw on “The Deep” and put it on repeat because there is nothing as incredible as some of the creatures discovered when we send humans somewhere they’re not supposed to be. This series is so inspiring and educational because of the beauty the photographers are able to capture. I can’t say enough about it.

#1 Star Wars

You didn’t see it in the rest of the list. You feared it might be number one, but was hoping I would put something else here. Too bad. There’s nothing quite like the feeling I get when I throw Empire on a “140 screen and crank the volume. It makes me feel like the first time I saw it. Oh, and this doesn’t include episodes I-III; I deny the fact that they ever happened.

I’m sure I’ve upset some fanboys out there so if I forgot something that you definitely think deserves to be on the list, or some piece of grabage that needs to be off it, leave a comment.

It offers a USB plug and play option wherein you only have to plug in a USB cable to both your computer and the projector to get everything to start working; it really doesn’t get any easier than that. Although I don’t put much stock into contrast ratios, this one boasts a 2000:1 ratio. I’ll let you make up your mind on what you think that means to Epson. It is easy enough to transport from the office to home weighing only 6.2 pounds and unlike other, less trustworthy companies, Epson offers a strong two-year warranty with the purchase of their product.

I think I would buy the Epson EX50 for the office and sneak it home on the weekends to watch movies. Granted, it’s not the best home theater projector you can buy for the money but it will certainly do the trick.If you’re looking for a projector that can do a little of both, this is your best bet.

We don’t really know what the quality of the product will be but it seems they have spent some money getting trusted components for the little monster. They based the projectors engine on the Texas Instruments’ S450 chip/light-engine design with Dark Chip II technology which should mean that this little guy performs better and for longer than other cheap Chinese models.

I think we have to remember that Vivitek wants to make a name for itself here in North America, largely with this release and the ones that will soon follow it. If anything, these projectors should be a quality product because you can’t break into a new market with garbage and not expect to go bankrupt.

Vivitek hired Rick Nguyen, as executive VP and general manager of the company after working for Optoma in Sales and Marketing. This really looks like a decent push at taking some market share in North America.

The product should perform pretty well jamming a very respectable 1,800 lumens through the 1080p DLP and only producing 29dB of sound out the oddly placed side air vents.

I’m really keeping my fingers crossed for Vivitek because I would really like to see the prices of this technology pushed down to where they can really get a chance to enter the mainstream markets in North America. You can pre-order yours right now. Let’s hope they give the Optoma HD20 a run for its money at only $999.