Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I purchased the projector on the suggestion of my neighborhood stereo installer. I had researched the unit online quite extensively. I liked the resolution (for the time) and the anamorphic capability. I also appreciated all of the connecions. The price point was aceptable, not too steep.

Strengths:
Good picture (at first). Ease of setup. You don't need an expert to get started. Color balance and picture adjustment are easy.

Weaknesses:
I have had to replace the ballast circuit board twice. Every time that I change the projectin bulb the ballast also goes bad! That is $450 for the bulb replacement and another $350 for the ballast. I called Sharp and got the cold shoulder (too bad). I will never buy another Sharp projector again. As much as the 9000 DLP is an awsome unit, I will not give them my money and will reserch an alternative for my next projector in the next two years. The fan is so load it is distracting during quiet passages. You can't be watching war movies forever.
There is no good way to keep dust out of the projection and bulb housing.

Price Paid:  $6999.00 from AVDesign

Summary:
I bought the projector after reviewing all of the literature available on this projector and comparable units for the price. The projector was very easy to set up. I did not need the installer to help me. I even gave him tips for his next installation. The RGB input and component imputs are handy.

The problem came up at the 1500 hour mark. The replacement bulb cost $400 and did not work. I had it at the repair shop for more than a week. The ballast was defective and needed a whole new circuit board.

1500 hours later, it is back at the repair shop. The new bulb blew along with the internal fuse. I was told it may be the ballast again and this time it is not under warranty. Needless to say if the repair is more than $1000, the projector is going in the trash.

Following the first repair, the picture sucked. There were dropouts all over the screen and spots. I was told "tough" by the repairman because the projector cannot be kept clean from dust. I will never buy another Sharp LCD again.

Strengths:
Initially an excellent picture. Ease of setup.

Weaknesses:
Incredibly noisy fan, Too dusty, You can fry an egg on it. Not a reliable piece of equipment. Two bulb replacements with internal circuitry repairs. It dopes not have to be this way. Sharp customer support is worthless, their arrogance knows no bounds.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $3500.00 from jumbo store

Summary:
The picture that this projector reproduce is very good. Is similar to a CRT image (naturally of the same range of price, like Seleco, vidicron and others). I use normally a image of 100". The screen must be of good quality and i use a gain of the surface of 1, 1,5. Screens with a hight gain produce an image too poor, in term of colour and contrast. The contrast set at default is low and i set nert to the max.
Don't set the brightness over the middle, because of the results isn't good. I loose the colour set at the default.
In my opinion, a problem of this projector is the sensibility to the dust in the air. After only 50 hours of use, the screen (with the blue screen is more evident) reveal the presence of little particle of dust in the optical system. Its'n a problem now, but i think that in future..... I opened the cover, but is very difficult to operate in this machine, because of the inner space is limitated. I think that the dust entered from the front of the optical.If anyone have the same problem wrote me and we find a solution.
Another problem is noise of fans.The only remedy is to place the projector far from viewers.

Strengths:
The sharpvision is a very good product, very good picture, for the price, good brigthness, colour and video dinamic

Weaknesses:
Noise of fan, Is sensible to dust of ambient, (take carefully to the position of the proiector)

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 310, 400, seleco crt, fuji lcd...

Price Paid:  $6300.00 from Now! Audio Video

Summary:
Very pleased with the performance, colors are great, with minimal bleeding. Every person who has seen the picture has been very impressed. Yes, you have to have a dark room, but you don't watch movies in broad daylight. Bottom line, don't buy this for everyday TV viewing.
Fan noise bothers me, why can't quieter fans be fitted?
My main bugbear is the dust that seems to migrate into the optics, causing blurred patches on the screen, anybody else have the same problem?

Strengths:
Very easy to set up.
Great picture for the money.

Weaknesses:
Fan noise.
Dust gets into the optics

Similar Products Used:
None

Summary:
Overall this is a pretty good projector but disappointing for its cost ($7999 MSRP). The light level dynamic range is low, meaning not very black blacks, not very white whites, and not much range in between. This results in a slightly muddy image though not as bad as VHS :) The colors can have plenty of saturation (I had to turn the red and blue down a bit from factory default).

The advantage of this projector is in the LARGE possible screen sizes, it will go up to 300", and best quality will be between 100" and 150". Note the minimum projection distance for a 100" 4:3 screen size is about 12 feet.

You're better off with a ceiling mount with this projector, and upside down also (so the intake fans are on top and not directing the noise right at the viewer/listener).

There is a built in line-doubler for all but the VGA input. It isn't really a resolution doubler but more of a de-interlacer, and it does a decent job. This unit will only take progressive scan video through the VGA input so if you want to view HDTV you better get a decoder box with RGB/VGA output.

You DO get the standard LCD "window screen" effect with this projector, but it isn't very noticeable if you just adjust the focus a teeny bit off or install a diffusion filter on the lens.

The 800x600 LCD panel (3 panels) resolution enables anamorphic material to be viewed at its full resolution since it will take the full 480 lines of vertical resolution and stretch it horizontally across the 800 lines to get the correct aspect ratio.

I bought mine for the component inputs, the 800x600 resolution, the flexibility over heavy CRT projectors and TVs, and the large image size. If you are in the same market I would suggest looking for a similar DLP projector first, you will probably end up with a better value and the same weight and flexibility of an LCD projector (though probably no component inputs but they're not that much better than S-video). DLP will have the same problem with grayish blacks, but will be closer to film (even film doesn't have pure black) and it won't have the window screen effect (though it will still have the super sharp square pixels).

Some day we will be able to get cheap (1500 lumens, light weight, good blacks, and all the types of inputs we need (RGB, YPbPr, 1394, etc.), but until then we are stuck with the so-so $3000-8000 projectors and the good $30000 Runco projectors.

If this projector cost $2000 I would give it a 5 star value, but it don't, so I won't.

Strengths:
Component video inputs
Sharp looking 800x600 resolution
Displays anamorphic material at full resolution
VGA input for excellent computer display

Weaknesses:
crappy blacks (dark gray)
window screen LCD effect (grid effect)
need a pitch black room

Similar Products Used:
none