Projectors Reviews, price and comparision

Update: The Viewsonic Pro8200 projector review has been completed and published.

Greetings all.  For those of you who read my previous post, or commented about the Pro8200 projector, you are aware of some issues.  I’ve addressed these to Viewsonic, and got some answers for you.

First, I’m told a new Viewsonic Pro8200 (click for specs) will arrive here tomorrow.  It has the latest shipping firmware.  I will check out, and confirm.  These are the issues I’ll be looking at:

1.  Problems with HDMI –  retesting the same hookups the first unit had problems with.
2.  Checking for other HDMI artifacts when coming from a different source (reported by a reader)
3.  Static or sound from an hdmi input coming through the projector’s speaker, when the projector is turned off!
4. Failure to hold various user settings in memory when the projector is turned off.

Now the first thing of interest in conversing with Viewsonic about the Pro8200 projector, is that they acknowledge that units can have all of these problems (though #1 may only have been the unit I had received, as I haven’t heard anyone else have problems with medium to long hdmi cables.

They report a “small” number of projectors – the first batch in, apparently had firmware related issues causing these problems.

As far as the static, and voices…  What I encountered was the Viewsonic Pro8200 projector’s Microphone circuit.  The projector has a Mike amp, that stays on, with the projector off, so that, say, a teacher, or presenter, can use the mic amplification without having the rest of the projector on.

As to the voices, that was apparently coming from the audio of one of the sources hooked up to the projector – probably the satellite box, that bled through.

Viewsonic says there is an easy fix for the static, etc., and that is by turning the Green mode to On, which disables the “Mic always on” feature.  Problem solved.  If you aren’t using a Mic, no need for that mode, regardless.

In addition to that, Viewsonic says the newer units do have some changes to the HDMI operation, correcting some issues, so hopefully they got any and all of them.  It is encouraging that they have reacted so quickly.

MOST Importantly, Viewsonic said this, in regard to my question about users experiencing these problems with Pro8200's they recently bought:

“We released a small quantity of Pro8200 units prior to holding further shipments based on your feedback. Given the nature of the issues reported, it seems highly likely that customers will contact our customer service or tech support teams if they experience similar problems with the HDMI or Audio. We will be happy to upgrade the unit for them.”

So, those of you with problems, if all checks out with this inbound Pro8200, then Viewsonic should have the solution.  While any issues on new units are a nuisance, they are not uncommon.  In the constant battle to improve or introduce new models, tight launch deadlines, and so on, it has to be expected.  It’s nice to see what looks like a quick and relatively low hassle solution, from a manufacturer.

Actually that seems to be the rule.  I’ve been involved with issues perhaps 7-8 times over the last 5 years, or so, and actually, I felt the manufacturers could not be faulted, for their efforts.  Some problems took some time, but all the manufacturers seem to have provided proper customer satisfaction.  Looks like this one will work out the same way.

I will report again, over the weekend, after I’ve checked out these issues with the inbound “newest firmware” projector.  Hang in there.  BTW, next – I first look blog – the Sharp XV-Z17000, their 3D projector.  I’m starting it in 10 minutes… -art

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 1:34 am and is filed under Home Theater Projector issues, New Projector Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.