Don't get much chance to write many reviews, but when I do, I make sure all my reviews are thorough...
Don't get much chance to write many reviews, but when I do, I make sure all my reviews are thorough and if you have any questions about the products I've reviewed, then please feel free to ask me
Member since:11.11.2006
Reviews:13
Members who trust:1
This really is a true function over form projector. I promised to review it in another projector review so here we are.
If you are looking for your first projector and are looking at the second hand market, then I very much doubt that this will be your first choice. It is big, bulky and heavy. And lets face it, it's not the most stylish projector in the world (though the picture of it here on ciao is quite good).
So why would you buy it then? Because this is a really solidly built, reliable projector. The lens for example has a nice big rubber edging around it. The lens on a projector is probably the second most fragile part of a projector (after the bulb), but it's one of the most commonly damaged. Having a protective edging around the lens means that should anything nock it, it is unlikely to damage it. Also the protective ring sticks out slightly from the lens, so the lens is unlikely to get scratched, by something passing in front of it.
The insides of projectors rarely get mentioned in reviews, but in this case, to replace a bulb in this projector, the whole base of it has to be removed. So even the average consumer
will probably get a look inside at the inner workings at some point. The great thing about this projector is most of the components and PCB's (printed circuit boards) are well spced out. This serves two purposes, it helps the projector stay cool by allowing air flow. The second is that in the event of the projector being dropped (this is more common than you might imagine), then the damage is almost localised. So instead of the whole projector being ruined, just one of the PCB's tends to get damaged. This makes repairs much easier and damaged projectors can make great donor projectors (by this I mean, we can buy in a dropped, broken one to use the parts to fix another as we know the damage will only affect one area). Now I must point out at this point that you should never attempt to fix a projector yourself and only allow an experienced engineer to carry out repairs. Another advantage of the parts being spread out, is that it makes access much easier. So repairs can be done much quicker and this reduces your labour charges on repairs.
Now, back to the projector. One of the best parts of this projector is the speaker. It probably has got the best speaker that has ever been put into a projector. And this again is because they have the space to do it. Most projector speakers are tiny and as a result the sound is awful and always high pitched. This projector has a good quality speaker that can even cope with bass! There is a bass controller in the menu, so you can adjust the level of bass, and the sound is quite impressive.
The projector's specifications claim that it can reach an image size of 6.4m. I think this is a bit optimistic, I think that 3m at most would be bout right for this projector, which is a very good size nevertheless. The average user would use a 100" screen which is 2.54m so this is more than capable.
To explain my next point we have to look at the brand name. When asked about Philips projectors people will usually think of the BSure range. These projectors where renowned for being silent when in operation. You literally couldn't hear them running when they were new. One of the major problems with projectors is the noise the fans make due to the speed they haveto run at just to cool the bulb. Philips have clearly adopted the technology from their BSure range and put it into this projector as it is almost silent. You can bearly hear it running!
I get the impression by the robustness of this projector that it was designed to be transported a lot and probably aimed at people looking to buy for office presentation use. Whih with it's almost silent operation it would be very suited to. However at just under 5kg and with is large size: Width: 31.5 cm
Depth: 25.4 cm
Height: 10.9 cm I don't really think that it would be best suited to this. However it is portable, so if you had one in an office block for example you'd have no problems moving it from room to room.
The projector's bulb has an estimated life of 2000 hours. You should never use a projector bulb for longer than intended, as overused bulbs are proned to fracturing, and as they are under pressure they tend to explode (this isn't an exaggeration). Now, I don't want to scare anyone now thinking that their projector could explode at any minute. There isn't enough force to break through the projector's casing, but what tends to happens is the rupturing of the bulb will cause the prism inside the projector to move slightly. Moving the prism even just a tiny amount will cause the colours to shift out of alignment. This results in what i referred to as ghosting, whereby the image is produced three times. But, these projectors tend to last a lot longer than intended, we had three in all in need of a service, two had over 3000 hours and the third had over 4000 hours use on the lamp.
Overall this is a pretty good projector. They are very well built, with sturdy construction and a good quality item on the whole. They are very reliable, and rarely go wrong through faults of their own (it's usually because someone has damaged the projector). With silent operation, a good quality speaker and complete reliability; If you can settle for it's 5kg weight and boxy looks, then this could be a very good projector to buy.
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