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back to article Acer H5360 3D projector

2010 is supposed to be the year that 3D breaks into mainstream home entertainment but most of the PR puff has been focused on expensive TV sets. Acer does a good job of making this currently tiny market a damned sight more interesting with its H5360, a sub-£600 '3D Ready' digital projector. Acer H5360 3D ready? Acer's H5360 …

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  1. John 62
    Jobs Halo

    dvi

    DVI is indeed an omission, especially if it has VGA. However, I recently priced a few motherboards with integrated video, which had HDMI built in. I think HDMI is the way of future (though VGA is a bit oldschool, but they do insist on putting it on netbooks instead of miniDP :) )

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    1. James Hughes 1
      Reply Icon

      Just bought a couple of new PC's

      Both Acers I think, both came with HDMI out, not DVI. (also came with VGA out)

      HDMI is the way to go (and I believe supports a greater variety of resolutions than DVI). And if you want DVI, a very simple converter is easy enough to find (DVI +audio = HDMI), as the reviewer found out. Although they seem to have overpaid!

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      1. Bilgepipe
        Reply Icon

        Overpaid

        Of course they overpaid, they went to Maplin.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What is 3D- ready?

    Im confused between the difference between an HD projector and a '3D-ready' projector. Isnt the 3D handled by the graphics card? If I have an NVIDIA GTS 250, which supports 3D, then why do I need a special projector if I am just doing DVI/HDMI?

    Please clarify! Thanks

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    1. Neil 6
      Reply Icon

      refreshing

      I'm guessing but 3D ready probably means it has a refresh rate of 120hz or higher, so it can produce a stereoscopic image at 60hz per eye.

      The year of 3D for me was 1996 playing games with a pair of Elsa revelators. Everything was stalled for 15 years while LCD's tried to catch up with CRT quality.

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  3. pca
    Go

    HDMI

    I'm curious why you didn't connect to the HDMI port, as this is a DVI port with audio and a different connector. As you had to get an adaptor anyway, why not DVI to HDMI?

    Although for nearly 600 quid you would think they could stick an HDMI to DVI cable in the box...

    pca

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  4. Sarah Davis
    FAIL

    Yes, but it's Acer

    It's an Acer,..!!! so it's bound to go wrong, no-one will respond to your support requests, and there will be some vitally important peice of info missing from the sales pitch/manual/packaging like "it only works on Tuesdays between the hours of 2 and 4 AM"

    It's not even 1080p, and it's NOT 3D ready.

    And to state the obvious once again in case anyone missed it - IT@S AN ACER !!!!!!!

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    1. Brian 6
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      @Sarah Davis

      You say its NOT 3D ready........but the review u just read says "3D movies and games on this device looked not just impressive but amazing." Sounds 3D ready to me.

      You say its not even 1080p. Have u seen the price of 1080p projectors ? This is a sub 600 quid unit and VERY good value for money. And 720p on a 6ft wide screen looks great.

      So u had a bad experience with an Acer product which YOU failed to deal with very well. People have had bad experiences with every company that has ever existed. Get a life.

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  5. Stuart Halliday
    Thumb Down

    Oh dear...

    Didn't anyone tell them that a white projector in a darkened room stands out like a sore thumb!

    It's like you've got a white paper sitting on the dashboard of your car at night.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      White Projector

      Added to that, usually the lamp will make half of the projector itself glow :/

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    2. seanj
      Reply Icon

      White projector...

      You're not supposed to be looking at the projector anyway, you're supposed to be looking the other way. Also, a projector is usually mounted on the ceiling, behind your seating location, so the white is usually to help it blend in with the ceiling a little more in non-dedicated cinema rooms (and let's face it, if you've got a dedicated cinema room, chances are you're not buying a £500, 720p projector!)....

      My HD20 is currently, temporarily, set up on a small bedside table, sat about a foot from the side of my bed, and I don't find it at all distracting when I'm watching something.

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  6. smeddy

    A worthy projector?

    Ignoring the 3D capabilities, would you reccomend this as a great living room projector at the price? Are there any better sub-£600 projectors out there? Because I'm tempted :)

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    1. Jerome 0
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Answers

      If you want an in-depth answer to a question like that I'd recommend popping over to the forums at www.avforums.com. No offence to the El Reg commentard brigade, of course. :)

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      1. asdf
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Up

        Panasonic ftw

        Even at avforums this projector has been the one to beat in the sub $1000 market for several years now and is hands down the imho the best projector at the price point for HD gaming. The only negative is the $350 lamp having to be replaced every 2500 hours or so but tis the price you pay.

        http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Televisions/Home-Theater-Projectors/model.PT-AX200U_11002_7000000000000005702

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    3D Ready?

    I realise that there's a global slowdown on sales, but display manufacturers that think that re-releasing old technology with a slightly sharper frame rate, putting the letters '3D' on the box and bumping the price up again is enough to part people from their cash have a long way to go.

    I won't be buying home 3D with shutter glasses. They're fine for sitting in front of a PC, but for home film viewing it has to be the cheap and semi-disposable polarised glasses or nowt. That means investing in some actual polarised display technology (props to LG, at least), and if someone can't even manage to do that for a projector then that's a big fael.

    Now as a home projector on its own, this sounds pretty good. But by trying to make out it's something it's not is just going to make people put their purchasing off until a product comes along that is 3D capable.

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  8. Danny 14
    FAIL

    review fail?

    HDMI is digital or is that there for show? Get a HDMI to DVI from asda for £5 and im sure you are away.

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  9. Danny 14

    oh more review fail

    I forgot, of course it couldnt handle 1080p properly on analogue. Im surprised it worked at all at those res in analogue...

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    1. Shades
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Thats odd...

      because I get a pretty damn good picture with my Samsung NC10 outputting 1080p to a 22" LG HD TV/Monitor over VGA!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h42cm6gI25k

      Analogue IS capable of handling 1080p

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Analogue is capable of handling 1080p

        True, in the sense that it doesn't keel over. In most cases it just won't have the same picture quality.

        A bit like my 0.3 megapixel webcam is just as capable of handling a photograph of the entire living room as a Nikon 12 megapixel SLR.

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        1. Shades
          Reply Icon

          Picture quality?

          The picture quality is just like ANY other monitor at its native resolution. Even my trusty old 19" 4:3 Dell CRT Monitor handles 1080p (albeit letterboxed!) via VGA with aplomb.

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      2. M Gale
        Reply Icon

        More than 1080

        2048x1536, on a 10 or 12 year old 19" CRT at 60hz. Most times though I'll stick with 1600x1200 or 1280x1024@75-100hz though. The novelty of icons that require a microscope to see wears really thin after a while.

        HDMI isn't about resolution. It's about HDCP.

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  10. b 3

    +10% huh?

    sooo that's 82.5% not bad!

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  11. JWS
    FAIL

    Acer = Fail

    A real gaming PC should be custom built, not pre-packed with a huge mark-up. Plus my "cheap" sub £300 GFX card has HDMI out and also came with so many converters I could have gone into business. The fact ACER appear to have installed the bits and not supplied any extras for what is presumably a very expensive PC is clear proof of their crapness.

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    1. Brutus
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      Did you read the same review as me?

      'nuff said

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  12. Squareski

    Just to clarify...

    This projector projects alternating images requiring the lcd glasses (and the lcd glasses IR widget nearby) and not two images simultaneously but polarised as cinemas do (requiring only 'passive' glasses)? Also, did someone mention 3D movies?? I thought you could only buy DVD's (and possibly Bluray) supporting the red/blue style stereoscopy...

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  13. Mike Dunderdale

    3D imagery using cheap glasses.

    Google Geowall - uses twin projectors, two sets of polarising filters and a fairly bog-standard graphics card.

    We use it regularly for teaching purposes here at UCL, and did an amazing 3D fly-through movie of Mars for the Royal Society a few years back, complete with War of the Worlds style scaffolding mounting the projectors.

    Yes, needs 2 DLP projectors, but for thirty or so studnets the cost savings in the cheaper glasses is immediate.

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  14. Chris Evans
    FAIL

    "set zoom once, but fiddle focus all the time"

    "set zoom once, but fiddle focus all the time" No! Once the focus is set for a given physical position why would you ever need to touch the focus?

    Also why have you not picked up on the fact that it is not 3D but Stereoscopic? Good reporting should point out the manufacturers factual errors!

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  15. Tim #3

    Sizing?

    Looks a pretty decent piece of kit for the money. I could be tempted to replace my tv with one of these & free up some space - however while the review says it's used 1-5m range normally, I'd be interested to know what the maxiumum picture size is at 1m or 2m.

    Also, er, are 3d grumbleflicks about yet, and has anyone got a friend who's seen one & has commented on the format?

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  16. Neoc

    Not for me:

    Note to "3D" display manufacturers - some of us have to wear glasses most of the time anyway, especially to watch movies. I am myopic (short-sighted) and pretty much all of these "3D glasses", from the cardboard bi-colour to polarisers to shutters, assume your eyes are already lenses-free. Bottom line, they don't fit me.

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    1. Mark Boothroyd
      Reply Icon

      3D glasses fit fine over existing

      The 3D glasses I picked up at the cinema recently were all one-size-fits-all, including for existing wearers. I wear glasses and they fitted over the top of my exiting pair without any issue.

      So unless your wearing ridiculously large or wide glasses, then you shouldn't have any issues for cinema versions.

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      1. John H Woods Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        I wonder when ...

        ... opticians will start to offer a 3D extra pair? It should be easy if we can come up with a standard for left / right polarisation. Surely this would be the ideal way for us speccy types to watch 3D? I'd much rather wear my own glasses to the iMax than wear their bulky, scratched and smudgy ones over the top of my designer^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hspecsaver specs.

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