PLUS HE-3100 Piano DLP
Projector
 There's just no getting around it: No
matter how much television technology evolves, if you want to re-create the theatrical
experience of going to the movies, nothing beats a projection system. The only problem is
the cost. The finest projectors have always been the big 8" or 9" tubed CRT
(Cathode Ray Tube) jobbies, such as Vidikron's Vision One, which sold for a whopping
$49,000 and required a $30,000 line doubler to look its best.
There have been attempts to bring that cost down, of
course. First, there were LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) projectors, but they lacked the
sharpness and brightness required to rival the big CRT units -- and they still weren't
cheap. More recently, manufacturers have been working with DLP (Digital Light Processing)
technology to produce high-resolution units that don't break the bank. Sharp's XV Z9000U
at $9995 is considered a price-point and quality-level breakthrough, but 10 grand is still
a heck of a lot of money for a TV. The new PLUS HE-3100 at $2999 is far more my speed --
about the price I paid for my 35" Toshiba CN35F90 direct-view monitor about six years
ago.
My gut feeling suggests the tipping point for projector TV
is about $2500, so a product like the PLUS HE-3100 is a significant step towards
mass-market acceptance. Will HE-3100s start popping up in dens all over the place? It
sorta depends on how much of the same performance as those $70,000 projection systems it
delivers, don't it?
Content thyself to be obscurely good . . .
Texas Instruments' DLP technology enables consumers to
enjoy the benefits of front projection at revolutionary price points (and sizes). When TI
initially announced DLP, it sounded like a Rube Goldberg approach. But the proof's in the
pudding: It works -- no matter how far-fetched it sounds. DLP takes thousands of tiny
mirrors arranged in 800 rows of 600 mirrors each. Each mirror is attached to an
electrostatic motor-driven hinge. These 480,000 mirrors are in constant motion, modulating
the light from a powerful lamp through a lens onto the screen. All 480,000 mirrors
(actually a total of 580,000 are used to allow for redundancy), motors, and hinges fit on
a single chip wafer smaller than a thumbnail.
The PLUS HE-3100 is about the size of a collegiate
dictionary (it fits on a sheet of 8.5" by 11" paper) and weighs a scant 4.4 lbs.
It employs a new 848 x 600 dual-mode TI DLP chip. In this case, "dual-mode"
means it can be used in two formats: either standard 4:3 SVGA (800 x 600), like
conventional TV; or a widescreen 16:9 (848 x 480). This is ideal for home theater since
DVDs are encoded with 480 lines per video frame, which means no compression is required to
force 480 lines into 450 lines, as is the case when a standard SVGA chip attempts to
establish a 16:9 ratio. No compression means no compression artifacts -- the picture's
pristine.
The HE-3100 has a 4X-speed color wheel, which means you get
superior color accuracy with no artifacts. However, the PLUS has a brightness rating of
only 450 ANSI lumens, quite low compared to most other digital projectors. This means you
must set it up in a fully darkened viewing room. I added blackout pull-down shades to my
living room and found I needed to block the small amount of light seeping around the
window casings as well. Additionally, low light output means there's a limit to screen
size. I found that 6' was about the practical limit on the type of screen I had available.
Now, here's a list of what the HE-3100 doesn't do: It is
not HDTV compatible and its component inputs don't accommodate 480p or progressive-scan
signals -- not too disappointing since it has an outstanding on-board line doubler. (A
line doubler converts an interlaced-scanned video signal to a progressive-scanned signal,
and delivers those lines to a video display device at twice the frequency of NTSC video,
filling in the spaces "between" lines and giving a more film-like picture.) The
HE-3100 does accept digital input through its standard 24-pin DVI-I port, for PCHT
users. DVI keeps the signal entirely within the digital domain from DVD pickup until it
leaves the projector. This means the signal is free from jitter induced by D/A conversions
in DVD players and either add-on or on-board line doublers.
The HE-3100's fixed lens throws a large, clear image in a
relatively short distance. It'll fill a 6' screen from under 10'. However, it lacks zoom
capacity, so you're pretty much forced to locate it where it fills your screen -- so plan
carefully. The good news is that it doesn't spill much light, so it can be placed in front
of your seat without drawing too much attention to itself. Its fan is quiet, too, so its
noise won't overwhelm quiet passages. The bulb lasts about 1000 hours.
And keep in mind that a good screen is a necessary expense
with a system of this type. I won't go very far into that subject yet, but suffice it to
say that screens are themselves important home-theater components, offering a wide range
of focus and light gathering capabilities. Carefully matching screen to projector makes
all the difference in the world. If possible, use a screen with a slight amount of light
gain to compensate for the scant 450-lumen output of the PLUS.
One of those cases in which advice is good or bad only
as the event decides
So who's a good candidate for an HE-3100? Pretty much any
home-theater lover who wants to experience a front-projection system now. Its
built-in line doubler makes the most of broadcast TV and DVD -- but only if you can give
it complete darkness. The smallest amount of ambient light has a huge impact on the
quality of the image.
 But if you keep the room
dark, what you get is a thrillingly clear, colorful image that's easy to like. Given the
HE-3100's relatively low output, it was perhaps unfair of me to choose Citizen Kane
as a demo disc -- after all, Kane is a moody masterpiece, full of darkness and
shadows. Nevertheless, the new Warner Home Video Citizen Kane: 60th Anniversary Edition
features an unbelievably clear transfer, which the PLUS showed off to its full effect.
Images were sharp and clear and, for the first time ever, I was able to spot some of the
famous "mistakes" that made it into the movie.
In the scene where the young Kane's mother calls him in
from playing in the snow, the camera follows her as she moves from the window to the far
side of the table. Her path actually took her through the place where the table
should have been (it was quickly slid into place by offscreen stagehands after she'd
"passed through" it) -- in the next frame, Mr. Thatcher's hat, which is resting
on the table, can be seen rocking back and forth from the table's movement.
And in the scene before Kane's big fight with Susan, the
camera pans past a shrieking cockatoo -- and you can see the background through the
cockatoo's eyes. Small details, but far from insignificant when projected cleanly onto a
6' screen.
Shrek was a delight through the HE-3100 -- in fact, all
animation was eye-popping through the projector. The color saturation and the way the
images all but leapt off the screen stunned me.
Say what you will about the clarity and resolution of the
modern television set, there's something about watching a really big, really clear picture
without a frame. Using the adjective cinematic might seem a cheap shot, but that's
the right word: TV is lights in a box; a movie is light captured on a screen. Once you've
experienced the difference, it's hard to settle for TV.
So, let's talk about, umm, TV for a moment.
Home-theater enthusiasts sometimes act as though all we do with our setups is watch
classic movies, basking in the nuances of cinematic masterpieces. Oh bosh, we watch TV,
too -- even though we'll only admit to occasionally watching Ken Burns documentaries
during PBS pledge drives.
How you watch broadcast TV may well be the
make-or-break point for whether or not you'll enjoy a projection system. If you multitask
to TV, you may find having to keep the viewing room in complete darkness an imposition.
You can't read the paper while keeping one eye peeled on Homer Simpson's antics. If you're
a disciplined TV watcher -- or if you time shift and only watch TV when you wish to be
fully engaged -- you'll probably love a projection system. Otherwise, you should at
least hang on to your monitor as a backup.
But when you do watch TV, the HE-3100 built-in line doubler
makes it look great. Sports, of course, look fantastic, as do shows broadcast in
widescreen, such as ER. Thanks to TiVO, I've also become addicted to the visually
stunning Canadian import The Secret Life of Jules Verne, which may have plots
straight from The Wild Wild West (I've always wondered why it wasn't The Wild
West West, given the hero's name), but features some of the most lavish special
effects ever afforded to a weekly series.
It is a joy to have the benefit of what is good . . .
Of course, really intelligent television watchers may take
that as a warning to stay away from the HE-3100 -- when you start to watch bad TV just
because it looks good, it's probably time to get a life.
But the projector is addictive. It's not perfect. It
could be brighter. It could even be sharper -- not that I had any complaints on that
score. It could take HDTV. But it would probably cost more to gain in any of those areas.
As it stands though, the PLUS HE-3100 doesn't have a whole lot of competition at its price
point -- although that's sure to change. But for the home-theater enthusiast who wants to
watch DVDs and broadcast TV right now in an impressively large, beautifully detailed,
projected image, the HE-3100 is almost perfect. It puts the real thing within reach
of almost everybody.
And ain't that good news?
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
PLUS HE-3100 Piano DLP projector
Price: $2999 USD
Warranty: Two years parts and labor (90 days on bulb)
PLUS Corporation of America
80 Commerce Drive
Allendale, NJ 07041
Phone: (800) 289-7587
Fax: (201) 818-2708
Website: www.plushometheater.com
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