Native 16:9 home-theater projector produces great moving images.

When it comes to building projectors for top-quality video, InFocus may not be the first company that leaps to mind. After all, InFocus has a full range of business-oriented data projectors and has been a close partner with Texas Instruments in helping to drive the microportable market. But InFocus was also the first, some five years ago, to license and incorporate Faroudja technology into a portable-class projector (the LCD-based LS700), and the company is still moving forward.

InFocus' ScreenPlay 7200 targets home-theater buffs, but a pretty picture and native 16:9 HD resolution should catch the eye of video pros, too.

The ScreenPlay 7200 is built on TI's 0.8in. HD2/Mustang LVDS DMD chip, the latest-generation high data rate chip that uses low-voltage differential signals to increase data transfers some 70% over current DDR, or double data rate, DMDs. Admittedly, a number like 12.8Gbps is hard to put into perspective, but as DLP color wheels spin to blend red, green, and blue light to produce accurate color, it is enough to know that faster can't hurt.

TI's 16:9 Mustang chip has one obvious advantage for video over 4:3 chips such as the DDR chips used in projectors like NEC's HT1000 and Mitsubishi's XD300U (reviewed in the January 2003 and April 2003 Video Systems). Wide content loses no resolution to letterboxing, and there's no light spewing outside the frame on 16:9 video content. The main disadvantage to native 16:9, aside from light outside a 4:3 frame, is economy of scale.

Given that TI makes far more 4:3 DMDs, projectors like the ScreenPlay 7200 (and its OEM sibling, Toshiba's MT8, also $9,999) are going to carry a price premium of 50 to 80% over 4:3 models like the XD300U and HT1000. Still, for 16:9 content, Mustang has a significant resolution edge over the effective 1024×576 of a native 4:3 XGA projector showing widescreen, and it loses very little on 4:3 content.

Of course, chip resolution isn't the only thing that makes the ScreenPlay 7200 more expensive. InFocus is first out with Faroudja's most recent IC, the FLI2310. Rather than use TI's reference design, that newer chip gives the ScreenPlay 7200 access to video expert Faroudja's pre-scaling, as well as its edge and contour enhancement. There is also an automatic or manually adjusted noise-reduction filter.

Interestingly, the FLI2310 is field-upgradeable, and InFocus has yet to implement many features in the current version of the 7200. The company claims that over the next few months, ScreenPlay 7200 owners will gain access to currently grayed-out features like manual control of chroma delay and white peaking, as well as graybar patterns and blue-only color balance mode for maximizing contrast effectiveness (as opposed to straight contrast ratio: See Pete Putman's “The Fallacy of Contrast,” in the February 2003 Video Systems).

What InFocus has done in the current version of the ScreenPlay 7200 is provide a video user's bonanza of connectivity, with eight different inputs. There are two separate (3X RCA) component inputs — BNCs would be too much to ask from a projector targeting home use. The projector also has two S-Video inputs, an M1-DA, a 15-pin RGB, RCA composite, and another component D5 connector. At the other end, Carl Zeiss optics in an extended lens housing with manual focus and zoom help make what's coming out of the DLP chip look as good as possible.

While there's a lot to like about the ScreenPlay 7200, on the test bench the results were somewhat mediocre. For example, while InFocus claims 1000 ANSI lumens on the spec sheet, we measured not more than 822 in high-power lamp mode and 718 in normal lamp mode. The difference is mostly the result of rather poor brightness uniformity across the entire picture.

I tested two different ScreenPlay projectors and neither did very well, although the first had such a severe drop-off on the left side of the picture and such an effective brightness on the right side that it was most likely out of alignment. While the second unit had a bright spot appropriately near the center, the corners fell off sharply in both 16:9 or 4:3 modes, putting uniformity at less than 70%. Even contrast ratio 1238:1 full on/off was less than the 1400:1 spec, with an ANSI checkerboard contrast of a rather modest 95:1.

In figure skating competitions of yesteryear, one-third of final rankings were based on the technical precision of figures that the skaters carefully drew in the ice (thus the term “figure skating”). Judges would get down on their hands and knees to study skate-carved figure 8s and other compulsory designs. Arguably akin to test bench statistics, those compulsory figures are gone now from international skating competition, leaving the free skating programs as the sole measures of excellence. Are they missed?

Clearly a home-theater projector ought not be too tied to numbers. Appropriate brightness is far more important than peak lumens, and in a controlled environment the ScreenPlay 7200 is plenty bright and has a good range of grayscales. Moreover, its color temperature is very consistent across that range of grayscales, affording consistent color as images move in and out of shadows, for example. The weakness — visually and by the numbers — is that blacks aren't black enough. Still, the grayscale strength compliments excellent colors — both saturated colors and more subtle colors, shadows, and highlights.

Coming back to where we started, the ScreenPlay 7200's resolution and Faroudja image processing produce a very sharp and clean picture for the money. Overlaid titles and graphics are well controlled with very little ringing, and images are smooth thanks to excellent scaling and de-interlacing.

As a fan of good video it's easy for me to sit back and enjoy one of the best pictures you'll find under $10,000. That's where the ScreenPlay 7200 delivers. The statistics — those often forgotten compulsories — will matter less if the room is dark enough to cover the modest blacks and the clarity of lines, and flashes of colors show brilliance deserving of a medal.

Still, for $10,000, maybe a little more attention to compulsory figures like solid uniformity and less of a bright spot would make me think the far more entertaining moving images really deserve the top prize.