All 'InFocus' - hours of view pleasure

One of the latest projectors to hit the market, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP8604 allows you turn your home into a theatre with impressively bright and sharp display that will cover a 100-inch screen.

The SP8604 features native 1080p (1,920 x 1080) resolution. Its very high contrast ratio of 30,000: 1 provides very good depth with dark blacks and excellent shadow details.

It uses the latest DLP (digital light processing) DarkChip and Dynamic Black technologies and a 6-segment colour wheel for film-like colour reproduction and smooth motion.

It comes with Pixelworks DNX 10-bit video processing that provides ultra-smooth playback of a video signal.

The SP8604 also boasts 1,700 lumens of brightness and a quiet operation.

The SP8604 has three lens options and lens shift for easy placement and installation.

Its standard lens can throw a 3-metre (118-inch) diagonal image from 4 to 5 metres away. If you don’t have enough space, you may opt for its short throw fixed lens that can throw a 3-metre diagonal image from 2 metres away.

But if your living room is large, you really should opt for a long throw zoom lens that can throw a 3-metre image from 5 to 7.5 metres away.

The lens shift makes it very easy to place and set up the projector. During the test, I placed it on two-desk stereo racks on top of my sofa table and I used the lens shift to lift the lens angle up so the image was in perfect alignment with the screen.

I managed to get a 92-inch diagonal image from nearly three metres away.

The pictures were already impressive with vibrant colours and sharp definition when I set up the SP8604 on my own and the experts from Magnet Co Ltd (www.magnet.co.th), the official distributor of InFocus projectors in Thailand, further enhanced the picture quality of the projector using a special set-up Blu-ray disc.

The SP8604 comes with three picture presents – Movie, Bright and Normal - and it allows you to adjust and save three User settings. To get the optimal quality, you are advised to use the services of Magnet technicians to set a User setting for you.

Its high contrast ratio and high brightness allowed the SP864 to project good quality image even when I turned the ceiling light on during the test. I could also project movies during daylight with no problems.

The SP8604 has several inputs, including a VGA port for connecting to a notebook computer, 3 HDMI ports, a DVD Component port, a composite video port, and an S-Video port.

The SP8604 is quiet, so quiet in fact that I didn’t notice the fan noise at all during the test. Set it to the economical power consumption mode and it has only 28 dBA of fan noise and in high power mode, its fan noise is 33 dBA.

I tested the SP8604 using video sources from True Visions’ HD Plus satellite receiver, which is made of Samsung, and ViVo’s Legacy HD hard drive-based movie player. The projector was also connected to the ISO Clean 1000, which supplied interference-free electric current to the projector to ensure clean projected image.

The HD Plus satellite receiver and Legacy HD movie player were connected with HDMI cables to my Denon AVR-1611 A/V receiver. From the Denon A/V receiver, I connected to the SP8604 using a 10-metre-long Merrex Kable HDMI-1 (V 1.4). The image was projected on Stewart Filmscreen G (generation) 1 screen. Only Stewart FireHawk G3 screens (now available) offer better quality.

Watching True Visions’ programmes, I found quality of reproduced images from several channels were impressively sharp with vibrant colours. I enjoyed watching for hours with the SP8604. The quality of even standard definition channels, like Fox, BeTV (AXN Beyond), and AXN was impressively sharp and colourful.

The two HD (1080i) channels – HBO HD and True Sports HD – were particularly enjoyable, with superbly sharp pictures, good textures and details. I feel the pictures reproduced by the SP8604 were much better than my old LG Scarlet 42-inch LCD TV.

The quality of image of Full HD (1080p) movies played from ViVo Legacy was very impressively beautiful and sharp. When I turned the lights off, I really felt like I was going to a mini movie theatre.

I tested playing both full-backup Blu-ray movies and MKV-format HD movies from Legacy to the SP8604 and enjoyed watching them a lot. For example, when I watched full Blu-ray backup “Despicable Me”, the image was so sharp that I could see the fine knit in the main character’s sweater! Watching the full Blu-ray backup of “Cars”, I could make out the faces of the [car] audience members in the racing stadium and I could see textures in the eyes of the main car characters.

Magnet distributes InFocus SP8604 for Bt219,800. If you want to use Magnet installation service to hang the projector from the ceiling and to adjust the picture quality, you will have to pay an additional fee of Bt8,000.

Changing the lens to short throw fixed lens will cost Bt30,000 and long throw zoom lens will cost Bt38,000.

 

         Key specs

_ Resolution (Native): 1080p (1920 x 1080) 

_ Contrast Ratio: 30000:1 

_ Colour Wheel: 6-segment 

_ Display Technology: DLP 

_ Number of Colours: 1.07 billion 

_ Projection Presets: Movie, Bright, Normal, User (3) 

_ Placement: Front, Ceiling, Rear 

_ Video Compatibility: SDTV (480i, 576i), EDTV (480p, 576p), HDTV (720p, 1080i/p), NTSC (M, 3.58/4.43 MHz), PAL (B, D, G, H, I, M, N), SECAM (B, D, G, K, K1, L)

_ Connections: VGA, HDMI x 3, Component, Composite, S-Video, RS232, USB Type B (Firmware upgrades)

_ Brightness (High): 1700 lumens 

_ Lamp Hours (High): 2000

_ Maximum Image Size (width, inches): 468 

_ Minimum Image Size (width, inches): 29.25 

_ Projection Distance (max, metres): 7 

_ Projection Distance (min, metres): 1.5 

_ Throw Ratio: 1.54 ~ 1.93

_ Dimensions (WxDxH) (mm): 431 x 181 x 344 

_ Weight (kg): 8.8