InFocus IN83 home theatre projector

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• Expert Rating

  4.25 / 5

• User Rating

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• Price

  $ 7,499.00 (AUD)

Campbell Simpson Good Gear Guide 08/04/09 Follow @pcworldau

Pros

• DarkChip4 video processor means contrast and natural colour are fantastic, high brightness, crisp detail

Cons

• Pricey, no adjustable lens shift, limited zoom, no dynamic iris

Bottom Line

If you can find a suitable location to set it up, the InFocus IN83 home theatre projector produces crisp, detailed 1080p images with great natural colour after a small amount of tweaking.

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The InFocus IN83 home theatre projector looks very similar to the InFocus X10 — and that’s because it is… on the outside at least. The casing of the projector is identical apart from a gloss black finish where the X10 projector had matte black.

Situating and setting up this 1080p home theatre projector may prove troublesome for those without traditional ceiling mounts. While the image is able to be flipped for inverted mounting positions and rear projection, there is no adjustable lens shift and limited zoom range. This presents a problem when shelf-mounting the InFocus IN83. If you’re willing to spend $7500 on a home theatre projector, though, you’ll probably have no issues with an extra $200 for a ceiling mount.

The InFocus IN83 has plenty of connectors for the digital video enthusiast, with a proprietary M1-DA connector taking pride of place. This can be transformed into DVI, VGA, component or HDMI depending on your needs. A dedicated HDMI connector is available on-board as well as component, composite, VGA and S-Video. The M1-DA port means that each audio/video connector is doubled — making the InFocus IN83 home theatre projector a great choice if you switch between different devices regularly.

Navigating through the menus of the InFocus IN83 is a breeze. The Picture menu gives easy access to all necessary image adjustments, and the Advanced sub-menu allows for fine tweaking. We didn’t find colour tweaking necessary in its default 6500K setting, but the ability is there if you need it.

Picture quality from the InFocus IN83, when properly set up and positioned, is amongst the best we’ve seen. Images have a film-like quality to them, with colours that are consistently natural and vibrant. As an example, the InFocus IN83 home theatre projector has the best reproduction of skin tones we have seen in our tests.

The InFocus IN83 has no dynamic iris setting — so there is no automatic brightness adjustment to boost contrast ratios. Thankfully static contrast is quite high at 15000:1 and there is only a minimal amount of detail-hiding black crush.

Sharpness is great by default, with fine image detail easily visible — but there are adjustment options if it isn’t suited to your tastes. We tested this InFocus home theatre projector on the Cinema setting, which lowers brightness to dark room-friendly levels. Brightness is more than high enough for watching with the lights on, however, with a rated ANSI lumens setting of 1600.

If you are looking for a 1080p home theatre projector with exemplary image quality and great colour accuracy, consider the IN83. If you can place it in your cinema room without trouble, the InFocus IN83 is a great choice.