Acer PH530 1000 Lumen 720p Home Theater DLP Projector
By: Acer Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 7
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 On: 2007-11-04
I know most people fall into 2 camps with projectors... Those that see a rainbow effect with DLP projectors (and think they have to buy LCD projectors) and thoses that think DLP projectors dont have vivid colors... Both of these issues have been surpassed with the Acer PH530! And at only $599 (at the time), It is the best purchase I ever made!
I must point out that I had an early dlp projector and saw the rainbow effect when I blinked... BUT I was lucky that the projector had a DVI/HDMI(digital imput)... which let me plug-in an upconverting dvd (WHICH IS THE SECRET TO GETTING NEAR HIGH DEFINITION QUALITY WITH ANY MOVIE!)... Plus IT ELIMINATED THE RAINBOW EFFECT! Most likely, this is because it is taking a pure digital signal and the DLP is projecting it without having to do any analog processing.
Now for the low color problems that plagued the 1st gen DLP projectors, the new "dark chip" technology (Which actually has more segments including a clear section on the color wheel to increase brightness) makes the colors INCREDIBLY REAL and bright!
The final reason I purchased this projector in particular, is that it has very low cost lamps ($190) compared to most which cost almost twice as much... plus, in the low lamp mode (which is really bright enough for home theater viewing) will allow the lamp to last 3000 hours!
The only negative I found is that its a little big and it doesnt have a feature to mount on a shelf at screen level, it must be mounted on a high shelf/ceiling or on a tabletop.
I use it every night on my home made 140" home theater wall (I just mounted black-out material on the wall with staples (AND IT WORKS GREAT!) I simply cover the screen during the day with drapes and no-one knows I have a HUGE HOME THEATER!
George Lewis
Inheritables.com
 On: 2007-11-04
Picture quality is good... bright too.
(Amazon should update the product picture... my projector does not look like this!)
On: 2007-11-01
Picture is great out of the box. Menu is great for fine tuning. Bought instead of BenQ 720, and couldnt be happier for the money saved. Directv, Xbox, and dvds look awsome on the PH530. I have it in a dedicated room with no outside light, so the low lumens are no problem. I have had no problems setting it up, hooking it up, or adjusting anything the way I wanted it. I would not hesitate to buy this as a good entry quality projector.
On: 2007-10-22
I purchased this last Sept. 07, installed it in Oct. Have been LOVING IT since. The Super Bowl 08 was incredible in 720p HD. The lumens could be better, but if you can control the light youll be fine. If you can find this, BUY IT! :)
On: 2007-10-10
I have this projector hooked solely to an Xbox 360 in a room with absolutely NO natural light, that is a dedicated theater room and thats it. This being said, I couldnt be happier with my purchase, for the money. I am hooked through the component video on the back of the projector, and the picture quality is excellent. At a distance of 13 I am getting a widescreen image in the area of 100"-105", and I sit about 13 away and get NO "screen-door" effect. Actually, I can sit a row closer at 9 and still cant detect the "screen-door" effect. I dim the lights very low to watch and play, and the projectors presets provide vibrant and detailed pictures (even in econ mode which I run it on cause my room can get completely dark).
My advice on the sound of the projector... If youll be using it in combo with a surround sound system then you wont need to worry about detecting the noise of the projector. I honestly dont hear it at all and the projector sits about 5 directly above my normal viewing position (but then I may play movies and games louder than most, no neighbors nearby and no kids yet). If you do notice it, it will soon become background noise that you dont notice anyway.
I have compared this to a friends 640X480 running the same setup (Xbox, cables, etc.) and this is definitely crisper (I notice a "Screen-door" effect on his).
Also, my Xbox 360 was previously hooked to a Sony HD widescreen display in my actual living room, and was VERY crisp. I couldnt tell you that this looks any less crisp and vibrant than that did, and that was only a 46" screen.
My advice, you cant go wrong with this as a theater projector, for the money. But thats just my $.02
On: 2007-09-17
This projector is fantastic. I wasnt sure about the Acer name for projectors, but the picture blows me away. I previously owned a XGA BenQ PB6200. It didnt have an HDMI input, so I had to use the VGA to component adapter for HD content. Using the HDMI, this picture is so much clearer. The colors and the sharpness are amazing. It doesnt have a lot of lumens, so it is better for darker rooms. I recommend this for any home enthusiast. It is much better than a XGA projector in the comparable price range.
On: 2007-09-15
Hi folks,
there are not many reviews out there so I will provide you with some feedback.
The projector really impressed me a lot; I was previously owning a budget SVGA projector Acer XD1150. Comparing the ph530 to the xd1150 I must say that the ph530 projector is playing in the 1st league in terms of resolution and picture quality.
I found some reviews in German and Dutch language; on testeo . de you can find three reviews, the projector has an average rating of 1.7 (in Germany 1 is the best grade) so that is pretty good. On a Dutch site the projector received 4 out of 5 stars (5 the best - pcmweb . nl)
In the reviews the following upsides are mentioned:
+ amazing picture quality
+ good quality of connectors (VGA, Composite, HDMI...)
+ remote with mouse
+ WXGA 1280 x 720 great! resolution
+ projector bag included + set of short cables incl. HDMI
The downsides:
- noise level (31db); you can clearly hear it in the background; I am not bothered by it but be aware of it in case you are noise sensitive
- Lumens; it is not the brightest projector but then I watch movies in a dark room and as well when I tested it during daylight it was good
Somehow I couldnt get the HDMI cable connection work from my laptop (Nvidia Geforce 7600 Go card) and finally connected the projector with a normal VGA cable expecting rather low quality. I was stunned by the great quality and the colours. If anyone has an idea how I could work it out I would be very happy to hear from you. I would expect even better quality with a digital video input.
For the price I think it is a really good option. For anyone who is willing to trade up to the next level and have as well $200+ more to spend I can recommend to look at Optoma HD70 (Optoma has an MIR of $200 until 9/30) and Mitsiubishi HD1000u. Both projectors are deemed to be excellent but have as well a higher price tag than the ph530
I hope that helped a bit. Cheers, Michael
Update 9/15: I got a new HDMI cable, connected it and everything worked fine... I assume the HDMI cable that was in the kit is defect... However, I dont see any difference between the VGA and HDMI cable... But need to say I havent watch any HD content yet.
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