PreviousSunday 14 March 2004, 5:18 PM
Cannot handle Macrovision signals from DVD players
Good image -- but not if you connect it to a DVD player! It can't handle Macrovision signals. Background below.
I wanted an XGA native resolution projector, that was 32DB or less, and would not cost much more than £1,500. The InFocus LP70 seemed to fit the bill. At just over £1,500 it is the dearest thing I had ever bought (apart from my house), but I figured I couldn't go far wrong with that. I had read the reviews, read the specifications, looked at the InFocus site, tried a different model projector at home, and it seemed ideal. I'm not sure what else I could have done! I bought it from Simply Computers.
It arrived, I was excited, but I soon noticed flickering in some films. Since I had only bought it for films, it was rather worrying. I tried various settings to no avail. A friend watched the same films on my DVD player connected to his TV -- there was no flickering. Then I tried the films on two other different DVD players (one an Xbox) with my projector, and the flickering was still evident.
What then followed was lots and lots of contacting InFocus to find out what was going on (emails at end), and whether the projector was faulty. Simply would only take it back if the issue couldn't be resolved with the manufacturer.
It was a long time before InFocus admitted the truth. On 16 January they finally confirmed that the InFocus LP70 does not work for DVD playback from a DVD player (something hidden from all their publicity material). They said "The fact is that this phenomenon is something which is present on the LP70. It is the macro vision some DVD's has which is causing this rare phenomenon. The issue resists in the chosen Phillips video decoder in that projector. This can not be resolved by a software update and is as the product is designed."
Unfortunately this meant there was no fix for the LP70 -- it is simply unsuitable for watching DVDs on a DVD player, which is the only reason I bought it.
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