The Miller Channel
InFocus LS110 Dual Mode
1-Chip DLP projector
$4,999 List
By Kevin Miller
(as seen in Home Theater Magazine May 2002)
In the past few years DLP (Digital Light Processing) display technology has come a long way both in terms of picture quality and affordability. Not long ago an entry-level 1-chip projector with a native resolution of 800 x 600 cost about $10,000. With the advent of the higher resolution 1-chip projectors (1024 x 768 and now 1280 x 720), the big screen front projection world has become accessible to many more people. New companies are coming into the DLP fold, as the technology is rapidly becoming one of the hottest of the new fixed pixel display alternatives for both rear and front projection applications. InFocus, up until now a company that concentrated solely on the professional business market, has recently entered the home market for the first time. The company's first offering is the LS110, a dual mode 1-chip DLP front projector with a resolution of 800 x 600 in 4:3 mode, and 853 x 480 in enhanced widescreen or anamorphic mode.
Finished in a combination of silver and gray, the LS110 is fairly sleek and minimalist in its design. With a relatively small footprint of 10.4 X 11.1 X 3.3 inches (LWD), and weighing only 6.7 lbs, this projector packs big screen capability in a very small package. Tucking it away up on the ceiling and forgetting about it should prove to be easy enough to do. However, the remote control is in my opinion too small, and the buttons on it are tiny, making it a bit awkward to use. The lack of backlighting makes tweaking the picture in a darkened home theater a hassle that is only made possible by the aid of a flashlight. The internal GUI (Graphic User Interface) is a little clunky and not the most intuitive I have ever encountered. In order to actually make a change and then leave the menu, you must hit the Select button on the upper right of the remote, then make your changes, and hit Select again before it will let you exit out of the menu.
The connectivity options on the LS110 are fairly comprehensive. Without the "Enhanced Connectivity Module", the projector only offers an I-MI connection for a computer (also a DVI I/O that can be used for HDTV), one S-Video input, one composite video input and a mini jack audio input. Adding the module gives one set of broadband component video inputs (Y,Pb,Pr) that will do 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i, a standard HD-15 VGA input, a 15-pin monitor output to send the signal to a PC or laptop computer, and an RS-232 port for control by a Crestron, AMX or similar automation system. There is also a set of line-level stereo audio inputs, as well as a shared mini jack stereo audio input for the two computer inputs. I was a little disappointed that the LS110 doesn't have two sets of broadband component video inputs. As it is, if you want to have component DVD and HDTV coming into the projector, you'll have to use a separate component video switcher unless you have an HDTV set-top box or a DVD player with a DVI output on it.
The LS110 has Faroudja's video processing in its internal scalar with their proprietary DCDi technology, which smoothes out the jagged edges frequently associated with video based material. Utilizing a 220-watt SHP lamp, the projector is rated at an impressive 1000 ANSI lumens of light output, and is said to have a contrast ratio of 600:1. Furthermore a 20-degree digital keystone correction feature helps correct geometry if the projector is not placed in exactly the right position in relation to the screen.
Unlike many 4:3 based chip DLP projectors, the LS110 can be used with either a 4:3 or a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. You simply have to choose which aspect ratio you are using in the menu. I used it on a 72-inch wide 16:9 aspect ratio Stewart StudioTek 130 screen, but due to the small size of my theater, was only able to project a 61.25-inch wide by 34-inch high 16:9 picture. The internal scalar will scale the image to create the aspect ratio you desire whether it is 4:3, letterbox for non-anamorphic widescreen sources, or 16:9 anamorphic for HDTV and anamorphically transferred DVDs. It can therefore create a 4:3 picture within a 16:9 screen the same way a CRT based projection system would. To change aspect ratios, look for "image" in the menu system and then select "resize". With the right or left arrow key, you can scroll through the aspect ratio choices and change them as desired.
Straight out of the box performance was impressive. I measured the color temperature at 30 IRE to be about 6200 Kelvin, and 6300 at 80 IRE, and both were plus green. There are Red, Green and Blue global gain controls for color temperature tweaking, and I easily got rid of the plus green color temperature by manipulating these controls with my trusty Philips Color Analyzer. The different Gamma settings in the LS110 are labeled "degamma" and can be found in the menu under "Color Management". I used film gamma, because everything I watched was film based, but there is also PC gamma for use with a computer, as well as video gamma for use with video based material. The LS110 has individual input memories allowing you to set the picture levels differently for each input. This is as it should be, and important. In my case in order to match the light output between the S-Video for DVD and the component video input for HDTV, I had to lower the Contrast level significantly for the HDTV input. Color and Tint levels also ended up being significantly different from one input to the other.
After a full-blown calibration of the S-Video input for DVD and the component video input for HD, I sat back and watched a variety of DVD material, and my HD feeds off of the Dish Network satellite system. The color fidelity of the LS110 is the first thing that struck me. The natural looking skin tones and overall color rendition of all the material I watched impressed me. There are a few reasons for this impressive picture quality. For one the color decoder in the LS110 is excellent, and the other is that the gray scale is capable of being tweaked to near perfection. White Field Uniformity, or the evenness of color across the screen, is really outstanding, which is something CRT based displays are not very good at. The Faroudja video processing certainly doesn't hurt the LS110's performance. The 3:2 pull-down helps eliminate the jaggy and motion artifacts that otherwise occur because of the frame rate difference between film (24 fps) and video (30 fps).
Looking at Chapter 4 of "Hollowman" in the scene when they bring the ape back to visibility showed off the clarity and detail the LS110 is capable of. I watched "Montage of Images" from Video Essentials in the 4:3 aspect ratio to see if the projector exhibited any light spray, which is something quite common to 4:3 based 1-chip DLP projectors. While there is some light spray, it is not as pronounced as on some 800 x 600 1-chip DLP projectors I've seen. There is a deep black boarder about 6 inches wide around the edge of the picture when it is in 4:3, and then there is a 3 or 4 inch area of light spray around the black boarder that is somewhat distracting on a 16:9 aspect ratio screen. There is a similar effect although much less pronounced when viewing in the widescreen modes. Using the LS110 with a 4:3 aspect ratio screen, and letting the projector do widescreen aspect ratios inside the 4:3 area, as opposed to the other way around, would minimize the light spray issue.
As far as picture quality, the biggest problem 1-chip DLP projectors have is with black level. They do not do blacks anywhere near as well as CRT based displays. This is particularly true of the 4:3 aspect ratio chip based units like the LS110. Dark scenes, whether on DVD material or even with HDTV sources, were plagued with lots of noise and a dark gray instead of a true black. I watched most of "Arthur" in 1080i HDTV on Dish Network, and found this to be just as problematic with HD as it is with DVD material. In fact, dark video of any kind looks very much the way it does on plasma panels, which suffer from the same inability to reproduce true black. I also noted that there is some visible low-level noise in bright scenes, but it is not nearly as objectionable as in darker scenes. In fairness to InFocus I have to say that this is an inherent problem with all 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 4:3 aspect ratio based 1-chip DLP projectors. The new 1280 x 720 16:9 aspect ratio 1-chip DLP projectors are much better in this regard, but still not up the level of CRT based displays. With that said bright scenes from both HD and DVD sources look quite good on the LS110.
For its effort in the home theater market, InFocus has done an excellent job with the LS110. The video processing (courtesy of Faroudja), the color decoding, and its excellent gray scale tracking all combine to produce excellent color fidelity with a minimum of artifacts. At $4999 the LS110 is definitely in the entry-level category, but when you compare its performance to most of its competition, it is clearly a notch above the pack. If you are on a tight budget, but looking for that big front projection home theater, the LS110 is certainly worth a serious look.
4/23/02
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