Ask S&V

I was wondering about Casio's new Green Slim projectors (the ones with a new hybrid light source). Are these good projectors?

Ron Filippi

I'm glad you enjoy the podcast! I agree that Gene was a very interesting guest.

Casio's new Green Slim projectors are not designed for home theater, but rather for business presentations, educational applications, and gaming. And with a native resolution of 1280x800 or less, I wouldn't recommend them for home theater use.

The hybrid light source is interesting. It combines a blue laser, red LED, and green phosphor (activated by the blue laser) on a spinning wheel to shine red, green, and blue light sequentially on a single DLP chip. The goal is to eliminate mercury-based lamps, which is also achieved by using three LEDs (one red, one green, and one blue) as in true home-theater projectors from Vivitek, Runco, Digital Projection, SIM2, and NuVision. Most of these are much more expensive than the Casios, but they can produce a superb image under the right conditions.

Quiet, Please
I'm in the market for some headphones, mainly to listen to music. I am really looking for a middle-of-the-road noise-canceling type. Any ideas?

Ryan Banks

My favorite noise-canceling headphone is the Bose QuietComfort 15, a new over-the-ear model. The smaller QC3 is on-ear, but I find that does not provide as much isolation as the over-the-ear type. I just got the QC15 and wore it on the plane to and from CEDIA, and it was great! Excellent noise canceling and sound quality, and very comfortable. Mind you, I don't care for much that Bose makes, but the QC15 is a distinct exception. It's expensive at $300, but I think it's worth it.

3D or 2D?
I'm replacing my dead Samsung plasma and trying to decide between the Panasonic TC-P50G20 (2D) and TC-P50VT25 (3D). The current price difference is about $700-$800, but the 3D set comes with all the extras. Is it to soon to go 3D?

Glen Sabol

Aside from offering 3D and more bells and whistles, the VT25 is a better 2D display, though the G20 isn't bad by any means. In particular, the VT25 produces a lower black level than the G20. (Speaking of black level, we've been running a G20 continuously for around 1800 hours now, and it has shown no sign of increasing its black level as was reported in some 2009 models.) You can read reviews of both sets here and here.

Personally, I find that 3D on a 50-inch flat panel is not all that satisfying—3D really needs a very large image that literally fills your field of view to be most effective. But 3D flat panels are turning out to be among the best 2D TVs available, so I say it's worth the extra money if you can afford it.

If you have a home-theater question, please send it to scott.wilkinson@sorc.com.