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The technology press has got all excited about the arrival of the new Philips Cinema 21:9 TV, because it offers a full movie wide ratio. Having a truly movie-like experience at home is the holy grail of geeks across the world, as long as it doesn’t involve any of that ludicrous 3D nonsense.
But, if you’re really serious about a cinema experience at home, then you need to get a projector. And nothing would make Optoma happier than if the projector you got was its ThemeScene HD82, which we can’t help thinking might be rather a good buy.
As you might imagine, it’s a 1080p projector, which, according to Optoma, can project an image of up to 150 inches. Optoma also reckons you’ll be getting a contrast ratio of somewhere around 20,000:1, which is pretty impressive. You’ll have to microwave your own popcorn though and there won’t be any teenagers on the phone talking loudly — unless you have your own teenagers at home.
Also featured is 24p playback, which should make your movies look as good as they do in a cinema. A trio of picture-processing technologies — ‘PureMotion’, ‘PureDetail’ and ‘PureColour’ — are supposed to keep motion smooth, enhance detail and produce vivid colour. Either that, or the names are really misleading.
You get two HDMI inputs, which is generous for a projector. You’ll also find Scart, DVI and VGA sockets, which will make it ideal for pretty much anything you might want to plug into it.
Lamp life is always a concern in projectors. The HD82 manages a fairly standard 3,000 hours. Of course, replacing the bulb is generally quite expensive but, as long as you don’t leave it on, or watch rolling news 24 hours a day, you should be fine.
The HD82 costs around £3,000, which is about the same as the Philips Cinema 21:9. The bonus of going down the projector route is that you get a massive display, and you don’t have to worry about aspect ratios. For the home cinema, this is pure winage.
