Initial Review: Dreamland Digital Galaxy DG-852 LCD Projector
Written by Brian on November 14, 2008 – 10:20 pm -
The LCD projector that I ordered earlier in the week arrived today. I won’t get a chance to use it in class until Monday, but I tested it out at home so I thought I’d share my initial impressions of the projector.
Overview of the DG-852 Projector
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I ordered the projector. It’s manufactured by a small (and relatively new?) Chinese company – Digital Galaxy. I wasn’t able to find a lot of information regarding their products on the ‘net, and I thought it a bit odd that the manufacturer’s website didn’t even feature the new model that two sellers were offering on eBay.
The ebay seller, digitalgalaxy509, had good feedback. More on that in a separate post, though.
Nonetheless, the specs seemed fairly decent and the price was spot on. Shipping included (3-4 day delivery from China to the United States), the projector cost me about $375.00. That’s better than the cheapest projector I was able to find state-side ($400+).
According to the eBay listing, the projector had a 2500 ANSI Brightness rating (I was looking for 2000+), a 5,000 hour lamp life (I wanted 3,000+), and a max resolution of 1024×768 (enough for me, although I’d have liked more).
The only spec that seemed a bit off was the contrast ratio. 600:1 is lower than I’ve seen on many other models, but some research has suggested to me that anything over 500:1 is generally unnoticable. More on that another time, though.
Test Run: YouTube in the Kitchen
As soon as I got home, I unwrapped the projector and tried to figure out a place to test it. My house is somewhat small and cluttered, and there aren’t a lot of big open spaces to project an image. Luckily, I just finished putting up new drywall in the kitchen, and there was a perfect, newly primed area to project.
I hooked up my laptop, fired up YouTube, and set about getting the projector to work.
Initially, I had a bit of trouble getting it to focus. I was used to the projector we have at school, where the image is almost always in focus and you simply turn the lens to fine tune it. On the DG-852, I needed to rotate the lens and move it out about an inch or two to get the image focused.
After doing so, the image came in crisp and clear.
I tried to simulate conditions like my classroom. I left a light on in an adjacent room to bring in some dim ambient light. It was light enough in the kitchen that I could read (the instruction manual) fairly easily, but it was definitely not fully lit. This is similar to classroom conditions, where I leave the shades open to let in sunlight so that students can see their notebooks.
The ambient light didn’t affect the image at all. Although I’m sure it might have come in sharper if I made the room pitch black, it was clearly visible on the wall. I had to tune up the Brightness and Contrast settings a bit to get it where I wanted, but the projector clearly has enough brightness to out-shine moderate amounts of ambient light.
Overall, I’m impressed with the quality of the picture. It meets my standards, and in that respect it will be perfect for use in my classroom.
But It’s Not Perfect…
Unfortunately, it’s not perfect overall. But I guess that’s to be expected when you purchase a cheap projector.
Aside from the focusing, another pet peeve of mine is the distance the projector needs to be away from the screen. I may be mis-remembering how far I stand away from the board, but it seemed that at roughly the same distance from the wall the projector created a small image. In other words, I’ll need to move deeper into the classroom to get the size image I want (the full height of the white board).
Floor space isn’t a problem. I generally arrange the desks in a U shape, so the middle of the floor is wide open. However, there is a concern about the length of cords. I use a short extension cord to reach the power outlet, and I only have a 10′ cord to extend from the VGA output on my desktop to the VGA input on the projector. Hopefully that’ll be long enough.
My only major concern is the fan noise. The fan is significantly louder than the projector that I have currently. It seems that the openings in the case are bigger, too. On the one hand this creates more air flow (and may be why the lamp is rated for so many hours), but it generates a moderate amount of noise.
I was able to hear the YouTube videos above the fan noise, but I’ll have to see on Monday if its loud enough to distract me or my students in class. I hope not.
The fan also remains on for five minutes after you shut off the lamp (this is a precaution to help cool the lamp down effectively). This compounds the noise problem, because the fan will continue to make noise even after I’ve turned off the projector.
The projector doesn’t come with a carrying case. Not a big deal for me, since I leave the projector out in my room most of the day and locked in a closet over night. Between the lack of a case and the five minute cooldown period, though, this is definitely not a great option for a roaming teacher.
Oi. I hope I don’t roam again next year.
Value for Your Dollar? Pretty Good
Bottom line, I’m pleased with my investment. The projector was cheaper than anything else I could find, and the picture is a great quality. In that department, it more than lives up to my expectations.
I have a couple pet peeves (the focusing and the distance between the projector and the board) and one real concern (the fan noise), but I don’t think either of them will be so inconvenient as to make me not want to use the projector.
Pending some field tests with the fan noise, I’d feel comfortable recommending this to a fellow teacher. It’s not the best projector I’ve seen, but its quality is great for the low cost.
Posted in Teach Them Well, Technology | 13 Comments »
Tags: Projector
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Initial Review Dreamland Digital Galaxy DG 852 LCD Projector | Wood TV Stand
May 31, 2009
Hello, I was wondering how did it turn out in the classroom? I am thinking about purchasing one and you are the only person I find reviewing it. Is the image good enough to watch movies? Thanks,
Well, to be honest, I haven’t taken it with me to school yet. It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, and I still have one on loan from my department.
Hopefully I’ll get to take it in this week and really test it out.
I bought this projector for my garage where I have a fun bay for my kids to use and not fill my house and so far I love it. I mounted it from the ceiling and put stereo speakers up there too. that helped with the fan noise. monoprice.com got me longer wires at a fraction of the cost of stores in town. I have it hocked up to my satellite box to watch T.V. my DVD player my WII game player and my computer though a switch box and it works great the only thing I’m still not sure about is the type of screen is best a white matte or a gray matte I’m using a borrowed screen right now to watch my movies and it and for the price I can’t complain
Hi
I own a dg-k8 Digital Galaxy there old model. I have had it dfor about 3 years and it still has the bulb it came with going strong. They no longer make my unit at all but it has been used every day for about 6 hours a day since I first got it. Still works like brand new. Mine is not as good as your new unit but I am going to be buying the dg-852 soon to upgrade. The spec’s for the old one are low but the picture looks sharp and clear.
640×480
500 ansi lumens
350 ; 1 contrast ratio
Has s video no tv tuner my main reason to upgrade is the tv part.
When I got mine they just start o sell in the usa I was one of the first to buy it. Like many I thought wow this will be junk. Boy was I wrong it is built like a tank.
Both there new and old units still use the same lamp bulb so I like that. The lamp is only about $35.00 but mine right now is 3 years old and just like new I got two back up’s on hand just in case.
I see they also use the same remote that to me is good but there remote is not the best on the block. I use a learning remote to use mine. I found there was week if you mount it on the ceiling.
Can not wait to get my new unit and the old one will be put up as backup. Thought I will probably never need it since they make good stuff.
I was testing it out some more yesterday, and I noticed the same thing about the remote. It doesn’t work very well unless you’re pointing directly at the front of the projector.
I’ve decided that the one thing I really don’t like about it is that it’s not great for portability and constantly being turned on and off. That makes it less than ideal for my situation (a classroom, and sometimes moving).
However, it certainly is a decent unit if you use it for extended periods of times.
Brian I just got my updated unit about 1 week ago. The company still makes great projectors I found a few things I like over there older units.
Easy to change lamp.
The old unit I never had to change the lamp but you had to total take it apart it had a metal housing. By looking at it it would not be easy to do.
New unit has filter.
Old unit did not have a filter.
New unit has the same type fan but now a added blower. Unit is not loud.
Old unit was two reg pc fans. It was not loud but the fan on the back side was large and you could see the lamp a little.
new unit I got the tv tuner. Might be my cable but it is a little fuzzy over the dvd player tuner. Still usable and looks fine just a few channels look fuzzy.
New unit has speakers good for just reg tv klate at night they are stereo.
Old unit had no speakers at all so had to use amp and was not good for late night tv.
Keystone on new unit is easy to use.
Old unit had a wheel you had to fource to turn.
New unit puts out larger image closer to screen.
Old unit had long throw.
Big pluse they added a filter to the unit.
Old unit did not have a filter at all.
Overall great projector for the price. Sharp image and looks great in dark room. But also is still usable with a over head light on I got two 40 watt in the room.
They add a usa type tv hook up for the usa so no adapter is need for cable tv. Best part is it is lighter then there old units and looks nicer.
I would say for home use or even a bar or night club there projectors are worth the price. Mine was spot on in the color settings. So straight from box to screen no setting up the color at all.
They also include two replacement filters. You can easy make more by buying a window ac filter for about $1/.00 and cutting them to fit.
Best part is shipping it came in a strong double box and was packed great. I am going to buy there mount since my old one will not work with I can not get the freaking thing down. lol
I would say by the tv tuner over the s video only if you have cable tv. S video to me is a little outdated but if you need it you will need a tuner old vcr or dvd player would work.
Question for you all…
My friend bought this projector to use at home. I hooked it up for him but can’t figure out how to get his cable feed (Television) to flow out. I screwed it into the cable receiver port on the side but the signal won’t flo out for projection. The manual is really thin and doesn’t provide much info about this. Hooking a DVD player up to it works fine, but the cable TV thing is a mystery. Any tips?
Thanks for this GREAT post!
HWood96 The problem is with the signal. The projector only accepts analog signal you would need a digital converter box to convert the signal for the projector.
How do I flip the image. Im mounting mine on the ceiling. I havent been able to figure out how to flip the image though. If u could email me directions on how to do so that would be great.
i cant figure how to set it to 16:9 its stuck on the 4:3 i have the dg737 nice picture with a white screen in my media room in my basement i have it mounted on the ceiling about 12 feet away
Hi All
I just bought the DG737/747 projector and i also got a videoSecu projector support for mounting in the ceiling. will this mount work? is it safe to put holes in the top of the projector as is illustrated in the mounting units instruction manual?
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