InFocus 7205

Pros: Very nice, realistic looking picture. True colors and great contrast

Cons: Multiple probles (see details below). No technical support, not even by email! Somewhat noisy.

Summary: I got my 7205 installed in December, 2004. The first unit worked fine for about three months (~40 lamp-hours), then the lamp started to turn itself off for no reason. The projector did not display any error messages, just turned off the lamp. Sometimes it required two or three full power-down of the unit before the lamp would stay on. I called InFocus - no response. I called the local distributor - they told me "they only sell the product". I emailed InFocus tech support multiple times - no response, not even an automated one. I called again and the receptionist told me to email again. Finally I called my installer (who was out of the country for several weeks around this time) and he got hold of somebody at InFocus in thre-four days. Finally he got me a replacement unit.

The lack of any support by InFocus of a multi-thousend dollar equipment is mind boggling to me. They did not even say 'boo' to my emails. Their web site wants you to "register" the unit by giving them the serial number that is well hidden on a ceiling mounted unit, so I had to uninstall and reinstall the unit for the registration. However, InFocus kept asking for registration every time I emailed them. Their server acknowledged my registration every time but their support site would not take any notice of that. The emails I sent were all accepted (they did not bounce). Very frustrating!

That was in March, and now I am having problems again (~60 hours lamp-time). This time the picture just snaps upside-down and the colors are all off. This happens in the middle of viewing a movie. Turning off and back on the unit will restore the picture to the existing set-up. I am waiting to see if my experience with InFocus support is going to be any better than before.

Some minor annoyances:
- The unit is more noisy than advertised and expected. (This is subjective opinion, because I have not measured the noise level.)
- The digital connector that fits with all other digital devices does not fit into the projector. I don't remember if the projector has 8, 10, or 12 columns of pins and I am not going to go to my theater room to check it, but it has one extra row compared to the other devices. I can't make any digital connections between the projector and cable box or dvd players

The good stuff:
- The unit has really good color reproduction. No special calibration is required, the unit comes pre-calibrated from the factory. Skin tones and other, hard to render colors, look lifelike.
- The projector is really bright. You can enjoy the show even in a medium-bright room. (I have a bar in the adjacent area to my projection set up, so the brightness is most welcome.)

I will keep you posted if InFocus customer support has improved any.