Projector Reviews

InFocus IN82 Home Theater Projector Review

InFocus IN82 Projector Highlights

  • Good, film-like, image quality.
  • Extremely bright, the 2nd brightest sub-$10,000 1080p projector
  • Very good black levels, typical of better DLP projectors
  • Extremely impressive shadow detail and gamma balance
  • Sold through local, installing CEDIA dealers
  • Quieter than most DLP projectors
  • Better than most, color balance, out of the box – very respectable
  • Very good Price/Performance when compared to other local CEDIA dealer only projectors – MAP is $5499
  • Now shipping!

InFocus IN82 Home Theater Projector Review: Overview

Editors note: I rushed to get this review up before leaving for vacation. Some cleanup and minor additions will be done, when I return in a week+.

I didn’t know quite what to expect. Of all the major players in the home theater projector space, all but two released 1080p resolution projectors between last fall and this past spring (northern hemisphere). The two that were notably missing, were InFocus and Sanyo. Both companies have “corrected” that situation.

Let’s start with bright. The IN82 projector is certainly that. In fact, only the Optoma HD81-LV, the brightest under $10,000 projector, is brighter and, just barely. The Optoma also sells for more money. But, we’ll deal with those things later, and in the Q4 comparison review I’m planning for early December.

The other immediately notable thing about the IN82 is its performance right out of the box. It is very, very, good. It can be improved upon, as can almost all projectors, the JVC RS1 perhaps being the only exception right now, but If you never took a calibration disk to the IN82 or have it professionally calibrated, you would still have one fine image to enjoy, no nasty shifts in color, such as too much yellow-green in faces, etc., as found in some major competitors, that have picture quality off enough that they demand calibration.

I would recommend a professional calibration for the IN82. In this price range, a good calibration (typically $400 – $800 for an ISF certified calibrator), takes a projector, even one like this – up a notch in performance.