InFocus LP 70 Projector

Macrovision problems

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Mar 14, 2004 | 9 out of 11 found this InFocus LP 70 review helpful

Pros: Okay image from PC

Cons: Can't handle Macrovision from a DVD player

I wanted an XGA native resolution projector, that was 32DB or less, and would not cost much more than £1,500. The InFocus LP70 seemed to fit the bill. At just over £1,500 it is the dearest thing I had ever bought (apart from my house), but I figure...d I couldn't go far wrong with that. I had read the reviews, read the specifications, looked at the InFocus site, tried a different model projector at home, and it seemed ideal. I'm not sure what else I could have done! I bought it from Simply Computers.It arrived, I was excited, but I soon noticed flickering in some films. Since I had only bought it for films, it was rather worrying. I tried various settings to no avail. A friend watched the same films on my DVD player connected to his TV - there was no flickering. Then I tried the films on two other different DVD players (one an Xbox) with my projector, and the flickering was still evident. What then followed was lots and lots of contacting InFocus to find out what was going on (emails at end), and whether the projector was faulty. Simply would only take it back if the issue couldn't be resolved with the manufacturer. It was a long time before InFocus admitted the truth. On the 16th January they finally confirmed that the InFocus LP70 does not work for DVD playback from a DVD player (something hidden from all their publicity material). They said "The fact is that this phenomenon is something which is present on the LP70. It is the macro vision some DVD's has which is causing this rare phenomenon. The issue resists in the chosen Phillips video decoder in that projector. This can not be resolved by a software update and is as the product is designed." Unfortunately this meant there was no fix for the LP70 - it is simply unsuitable for watching DVDs on a DVD player, which is the only reason I bought it. Unfortunately most reviews in PC magazines had been testing projectors on PCs, not DVD players, so this problem won't have shown up. What was frustrating was that the problem was not publicised anywhere at all (including in the InFocus publicity)! As you can imagine I was frustrated that I had spent all that money on something that turns out to be an irritation to use and that I was unhappy with - and yet I couldn't possibly have known about the problem before I bought it, and in fact had never heard about Macrovision on DVDs before it was mentioned as a possible explanation for the problem after I had tried the projector. So because I didn't know about Macrovision beforehand, I couldn't have asked any questions about it. Argh! I posted a complaint to the official Macrovision site - that their copy-protection had ruined my enjoyment of films on the equipment I had bought, to the point that I would have to return it to the store, causing problems for them too. And because Macrovision aggressively keep forcing companies who manufacture workarounds to stop selling those products, the situation would not go away. Despite their claims, the Macrovision copy protection DOES have a visible effect in many cases, completely ruining film enjoyment. Needless to say, they didn't bother to even reply. Thankfully, once all this came to light Simply Computers agreed to take the InFocus LP70 back - not only that, but instead of a credit note they gave me a full refund to my bank account, and even collected the projector from me! Many thanks to Simply Customer Services. However, I still wanted a projector! After many queries, I bought a projector by another manufacturer, and Simply delivered it very quickly. It is quieter than the LP70 (29DB) and it has no problems with Macrovision signals (though I have to admit, if ever I buy another DVD player, I will be buying one that is hacked to disable the Macrovision signal). Read more Less