Radio Shack Cinego D-1000 Review - October 27, 2005

 

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A few weeks back we mentioned a new budget-priced, all-in-one DLP projector called the Cinego D-1000 that Radio Shack had just introduced to the market.  It hit the shelves a short time ago with a street price of around $1300 US.  Our evaluation also included a 55 inch screen Radio Shack recommends as an optional accessory.  The screen will set you back an additional $99 US, but you can bigger, go up to 106" for an additional $199 US.

 

The Cinego is a DLP projector with a built-in DVD player, audio processor and two speakers.  It also includes an external subwoofer for a complete 2.1 audio system.  As far as the specs go, the Cinego isn't going to blow anyone away.  It has a native resolution of 480p, which won't support high definition, but it's not supposed to, it's a DVD player.  It can be used as a data projector and handles up to 1024x768 very well.  The lamp is rated at 900 ANSI lumens and should last for 2000 hours.  The projector will support up to a 110" image, but worked best at 80" or below.

Overall the Cinego was a great piece of equipment.  It rendered an excellent DVD image, and the external subwoofer really added to the audio to give it that extra punch it needed.  As a portable home-theater-in-a-box system, it was a lot of fun.  It would work great for outdoor movies, or as an impromptu movie player anywhere, anytime.  For $1300, you really can't beat it's ease and simplicity.  There's virtually no setup required, just plug it in, plug in the subwoofer, connect one cable between them and you're ready for action.  There are more advanced features, such as component video inputs and digital audio outputs, but they really aren't necessary.

 

In the end, we'd love to give it a glowing review and say that everyone should own one, but there was one huge problem with it.  It wasn't able to ever play a DVD all the way to the end.  It would do a wonderful job for the first three quarters of the film, and then just fall to pieces.  The video would break up, the audio would fall apart, it was terrible.   We're hoping that the issue is just with our demo unit and have contacted Radio Shack to get a second unit to test.  Until we do, if you are fine with only seeing half a movie, you'll love the Cinego.  If you're partial to seeing how a movie ends, you can try the Cinego, but make sure you keep your receipt, in case it behaves like ours did.

 

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