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Hardly believing my own eyes, it was time to break out the precision light metering equipment and take some readings. It was obvious that this was one bright projector, but exactly how bright? Not only was it the brightest projector we?ve tested here, it was the most evenly-lit. I measured the brightness by dividing the screen into nine imaginary equal-sized segments and pointing the sensor of the light meter directly at the lens. The ANSI lumen readings of the nine segments were all within a few percentage points of each other, with the lowest reading at the bottom right at 1469 lumens, and the highest at the segment dead center of the screen at 1505 lumens. Besides this evenness of brightness that neared perfection, its colors were glorious?well-saturated but not too much, and perfectly calibrated as well. Using our Spyder2PRO professional color calibration system, the color settings were so perfectly balanced that they required no adjustment whatsoever. Remarkable.
This native 720p projector is especially well-suited for projecting gigantic images. We moved it way back into a large room here at the Midwest Test Facility, and noticed that even when its image was 12 feet wide, the high-definition picture was still beautifully sharp and bright. Even at that distance the blacks were extremely dark, almost perfectly black, and not the dark gray that we?ve grown accustomed to seeing in lower-priced projectors. Looking at our HD source, it was remarkable the way this projector converted that 1080i signal down to its native 720p without any noticeable loss. My only complaint is that this projector reveals every flaw in your source material, and I could see lots of them, especially in our Time Warner 1080i cable signal and the DVDs we used for testing. Blu-ray and HD-DVD, where are you when we need you? The arrival of high-definition discs won?t be a moment too soon for owners of projectors like these, that?s for sure.
Another thoughtful feature is the way the projector turns itself off automatically if no image is sent through it for a period of time. Considering that a new bulb for this projector costs around $900 and lasts just 1500 hours until it?s lost half its original brightness, this is a feature that will certainly be welcomed, even by the well-heeled who might possess such a projector. Another interesting advantage of a three-chip projector that you might not have thought of: Those who have complained about DLP?s rainbow effect won?t see any such thing with the three-chip 777, which has no color wheel to cause such artifacts.
As far as picture adjustments are concerned, there are more than you can imagine. There was only one adjustment parameter missing: While there is the ability to adjust for keystoning on this projector, there?s no corner pinning control where you can adjust precisely where the corners of the screen lie, as we?ve seen on most other late-model projectors. That?s probably because this high-end projector is intended for precision installation in only the best home theaters and screening rooms, and anyone who cares enough to spend $15K on a projector will probably see to it that the projector is installed both vertically and horizontally perpendicular to the screen.
Summing up, the InFocus ScreenPlay 777 is the standard against which we will judge all other projectors coming into our facility for evaluation. Well, at least for the time being. There are native 1080p projectors on the way, but until they can reach the 777?s $15,000 price point, this is as good as it gets. For the money, this projector represents a remarkable value. Highest recommendation. 10 out of 10 stars.
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