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Top 10 full-HD beamers

By Philip Wong
July 23, 2008

With the limelight stolen by the award-winning Pioneer Kuro and Sony Bravia X flat panels, it's high time we relook at their 1080p beamer counterparts to rekindle the lost interest. These sport the same multimillion-pixel resolution, plus the advantage of a supersized screen which is the closest you can get for a truly theatrical effect.

Click here for a feature comparison table.

Sony VPL-VW200

CNET Asia rating: 8.7 out of 10

The good: Exceptional color fidelity; deep black with excellent shadow detail; superb feature package; includes panel alignment and blacking; solid connectivity.

The bad: Expensive; some loss of resolution because of the scalar; MotionFlow anti-judder processing creates artifacts and makes film look more like video; no horizontal lens shift.

The bottom line: Although it certainly costs more than most of the 1080p competition, the SXRD-based Sony VPL-VW200 delivers one of the best pictures of any projector we've tested.

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Epson Dreamio EMP-TW1000

CNET Asia rating: 8.3 out of 10

The good: Vivid colors; judder-free, 3D-like HD visuals; bright; future-proofed; wide zoom and lens shift; 24Hz 1080p; affordable.

The bad: Slightly soft standard-definition pictures; manual lens adjustments; single HDMI; Japanese-centric D4 jack.

The bottom line: The Epson EMP-TW1000 lacks luxury functions and inky blacks but excels in the basics, critical for truly theatrical home entertainment in our space-conscious Asian quarters.

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Optoma HD80

CNET Asia rating: 8 out of 10

The good: Vibrant and 3D-like pictures; very competent HD upscaling; future-proofed specs; stylish and compact design; excellent connectivity; affordable.

The bad: Mild black crush; limited zoom; vertical offset complicates installation.

The bottom line: If you have a deep entertainment room and insist on nothing less than DLP, the HD80 is definitely the way to go.

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ViewSonic Pro8100

CNET Asia rating: 8 out of 10

The good: Excellent video-processing capabilities; zero screen door effect; detailed pictures; colorful images; quiet operation; motorized lens shift and zoom.

The bad: Black levels suffer with iris mode off; huge in size.

The bottom line: The ViewSonic Pro8100 is an excellent 1080p projector, which features a high-performance Silicon Optix HQV video processor and support for 24-frame playback.

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Sony VPL-VW60

CNET Asia rating: 7.7 out of 10

The good: Accurate color decoding; reproduces deep shade of black; comprehensive feature package.

The bad: Inaccurate primary colors.

The bottom line: While its color fidelity is not nearly as good as other late-model Sony SXRD products, the otherwise good-performing VPL-VW60 home theater projector remains a solid value.

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