Projecting great images

GIZMO GALLERY

Projectors seem to have come of age and there is no dearth of quality images, if you have the money .

When you want to get the largest image for a room big enough to accommodate it, a projector is the best way to bring the theatre experience to your home.

Epson's latest EMP-DM1 is a projector that comes with a DVD/CD player. This one is not your traditional, corporate meeting projector with poor image quality and sound, but rather an all encompassing home entertainment centre with advanced DVD capabilities and excellent sound performance.

If you want more out of this equipment then hook up your PlayStation 2 and check out a few games that look just as glamourous as watching TV.

Most projectors that are designed for home theatre use have an aspect ratio of 16:9, the widescreen format, which is the standard among DVDs. On the other hand, projectors aimed at the business market have an aspect ratio of 4:3, which is almost square like your old Cathode Ray tube (CRT) television set or computer monitor.

You can use a business projector in a home theatre setup but this will often result in a stretched, compressed or truncated image as it adjusts to the wider format.

The EMP-DM1 has a minimum projection of 30 inches, and if you have a big enough room (around 4 metre long) you can get up to 300 inches. The DVD tests were fairly good, but not perfect.

The biggest drawback of this projector is that it suffers from a fly-screen effect. In other words, the space between each pixel is noticeable and can get a little distracting if you sit too close or have a small room. Another drawback, quite noticeable in a small room setup was that this projector makes a loud noise.

The EMP-DM1 gets very hot while it's on and to combat this there is a built-in fan to cool the device but if the volume isn't loud enough the background noise can be very conspicuous.

The integrated DVD player supports JPEG, MP3, WMA and DivX files, making the projector far more versatile (and useful) than if it only supported DVD-Video. The included 8-Watt speaker system is not the best, but certainly does the job. Although it lacks the definition and clarity of a dedicated speaker system but delivers what you would get from a standard CRT television. If you have Rs 61,300, a spare room and have been toying with the idea of setting up a small home cinema then buy this projector without hesitation.

There simply are not many units in market that can match Panasonic PT-AE1000, a 3-LCD projector. To test 1080p gaming, we tried several Xbox games and found no problems at all. The detail was impressive, especially on graffiti and stone textures.

There was no pixelation to speak of and motion was handled without any ghosting or excessive blur. If you are looking to run one of the high definition film formats, or you are a keen high-definition gamer, this projector will definitely work. But then it comes with a price tag of Rs 1 lakh.