Good Price For Home Theater Star

Quiet sub-$2500 projector delivers quality images.

Philips' LC6231 is an extremely quiet LCD home theater projector with a breakthrough price. At $2495, it is less costly than most home theater projectors; but even so, its image quality approaches that of the DLP-based, World Class Award-winning InFocus ScreenPlay 110, which is priced twice as high.

DLP projectors normally have better contrast and less pixelation than LCD projectors, which excel at color and sharpness. Pixelation is less of an issue in new LCD models.

The LC6231 achieves its default 16:9 screen aspect ratio via three 858-by-484 (WVGA) panels. That setting is perfect for movies, and it's easily adjustable to a 4:3 ratio for TV. The HDTV-compatible unit also accepts component, composite, and S-Video inputs.

In tests using S-Video, the LC6231 exhibited slightly more ghosting than did the ScreenPlay 110 on images of extremely dark objects against light backgrounds. Contrast on the LC6231 was slightly worse, and its image seemed less smooth--but a bit more precise, with better color.

The LC6231's 1000 ANSI-lumen lamp is rated for 6000 hours, three times that of typical 1000 ANSI-lumen-rated projectors. Yet the LC6231's lamp costs only $300--$80 less than the ScreenPlay 110's lamp. The LC6231's barely audible, 27-decibel fan is quieter than the ScreenPlay's.

If not quite in the ScreenPlay's league, the LC6231 is a serious alternative to plasma and other big-screen TVs costing twice as much or more.

--Ramon McLeod

Buying Information

Philips LC6231 4.5 stars (01/10/2003)