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This is from a newsletter I receive from a dealer. Have fun! 
ADZ
CEDIA REPORT 2004
My main impression at CEDIA this year, at least when it comes to projectors, was that it was mainly a repeat of last year’s show. I saw many of the same pieces trotted out once again, or projectors that are only incremental improvements over their predecessors. I got conflicting reports from manufacturers and from TI regarding what is new in the DLP world, and there seemed to be confusion as to what the differences are in some of the new DLP chips hitting the market. Perhaps someone here with closer ties to TI has the straight story. We are working on this as well – Brad has got a call into TI to get some answers and to clear up some of the conflicting information we received.
Right off the bat I want to point out what we missed – JVC’s new DILA products and the 1080p LCD projector that Fujitsu was showing. It’s possible that we missed several of the most exciting products there! With JVC it was doubly frustrating – we were told by a JVC rep that the last limo leaving for the HD2K demo was at 2 pm (which is what time was also listed on the “invitation” to see the unit at a nearby hotel). At 1:45 we went to the limo pickup location along with the JVC rep. We waited and waited (along with another attendee who had been waiting for 10 minutes already) and the limo never showed up. At five minutes after 2, all of us were getting frustrated. The JVC rep suggested simply driving over to the hotel, since he said the demos would be going until 3 pm (the close of the show). We did as he suggested, and got to the hotel around 2:20. We walked into the room and everything had already been torn down! At this point I was pretty upset, and let the JVC folks know that I was supposed to review the units for AVS Forum (hey, it’s true, isn’t it?) and was told that it would be set up to view until 3 pm. To JVC’s credit, they apologized profusely and offered to ship an HD2K to me just to evaluate. I plan on taking them up on this!
This is part of the reason we missed seeing the Fujitsu and LCD displays – he had planned to do that after JVC, but blew half of an hour waiting around for the nonexistent JVC limo. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of LCD so had put it off until last, but I had every intention of giving it a fair shot. Apologies in advance for not having reviews of JVCs DILA products (which I am a fan of) and the “true HD” LCD pieces.
CINELIGHT
For those of you who do not know, Cinelight is one of the largest distributors of home theater projectors in the country. We always stop in at Cinelight because they always have a side by side projector demo going in their “booth.” This year they had the Screenplay 7205 and NEC HT-1100 (with anamorphic lens) side by side. Interesting comparison! We did compare both projectors at our shootout, but not side by side as they did here.
Interestingly, the NEC looked brighter than the 7205! Jim from Cinelight admitted that both projectors were right out of the box and not calibrated in any way. Since the NEC defaults to its higher brightness setting and the iris was wide open, I guess it is not too surprising that the NEC looked as bright as it did. In terms of resolution, the 7205 displayed considerably more detail than the HT-1100 from the HD source (D-VHS) Cinelight was using. The HT-1100 had a smoother overall look, but it was obvious that it was at the expense of some fine detail. In terms of color, the NEC looked more accurate in terms of flesh tones – the Infocus had a slight reddish cast. Both units were new out of the box, so the bulbs had not had any real time to “burn in” – color balances shift, and most projector manufacturers do not recommend calibrating for color until at least 200 hours is reached on the bulb. One potential problem on the NEC – the whites were seriously blown out on the sample they had there. In shots of the sky there were many times that the clouds were simply a white mass on the NEC, while the 7205 displayed a much greater variation in whites and greys. This was also noticeable in the shots of the beach – many times the NEC just washed out whenever there were highlights in the wet sand. We tried to adjust the contrast down (usually what causes blown out whites) but that seemed to have no effect. Since the HT-1100 we had in our shootout displayed none of this problem. I assume that this particular HT-1100 was defective or severely out of calibration. It could also have been a fault of the gamma setting.
DENON
Nothing here in the way of projection, but I just have to mention their new AVR-5805 AV receiver. Man, that thing is huge! The main interest for those here in the projector forum is that it boasts three HDMI inputs and one DVI input. The days when we can use our receivers to do our digital video switching are close at hand…
DWIN
A much better presentation at DWIN this year. Nothing really new here (they were mainly touting their plasma line), but the TV3 projector looked very good on the 100” Studiotek they had it on. Very good reds and blacks.
EPSON
This is the second time I have seen the Epson LCD lineup, and the second time that it was displayed in a seriously overlit, washed out manner (the display was open to all of the ambient light from the show floor). For that reason I can’t really give any impression of contrast or color performance, but I did see the same issues with these projectors that have always prevented me from being a huge fan of LCD. Even the Epson 500 had the usual amount of screen door effect that I usually associate with a 1280 x 720 LCD, and vertical banding was fairly obvious. Beyond that I couldn’t tell much about its performance.
There is an artifact on LCD projectors that is almost never mentioned that I find personally distracting. Whenever there is an object moving diagonally across the screen, the edges of the object break up into jagged lines, almost looking like scan lines on an older interlaced CRT display. It’s a bit like stair-stepping, only more severe. I find this artifact more distracting than vertical banding, and it was in evidence on every LCD projector I saw at the show (with one notable exception, which I will discuss later).
HITACHI
Missed it! I don’t know if they had their PJTX100 on display, which I did want to see.
INFOCUS
The only really new piece here was the Screenplay 5000, their 1280 x 720 LCD piece for under $2000. It looked about as good as any other 1280 x 720 LCD projector I have ever seen, but a bit brighter (it did very well despite all of the ambient light thrown at it). If you’ve read this far you know I am not a huge fan of LCD technology, and this projector did nothing to change my mind.
Infocus spent most of the time showing off their new 6 ½” deep rear projection DLP set, co-developed with RCA. This may be a hot piece, as it has almost all the advantages of a plasma set without most of the major plasma drawbacks.
KNOLL
Nothing new here, except that Knoll now has a clone of just about every projector in the Infocus lineup.
MARANTZ
Marantz showed their new S4 projector, which looked very impressive despite being a prototype. As always, blacks and contrast were top-notch. Unfortunately, all they had to show on it was an HD football clip that recycled every few seconds. This was one of the very few projectors showing the new HD2+ chip with DarkChip 3 technology. From what I can gather, TI has reduced the dimple even further with the DarkChip 3, and has used an even darker metal for deeper blacks. The reduced dimple is supposed to yield greater brightness as well, and one of the biggest surprises was how bright the S4 looked even on a 100” Greyhawk!
Brad and I walked up very close to the screen just to see if we could notice any real difference in the pixels themselves. We noticed something odd – the pixels looked “different,” almost rectangular, compared to the HD2+. The image moved so quickly that we were never quite sure of what we were seeing, but it sure looked different, from a pixel standpoint, to what has come before. Maybe we were seeing things. From normal viewing distance, the picture looked superb.
MITSUBISHI
Mitsubishi is finally getting into the front projection market here in the US, and it was pretty obvious that their pieces were rebadged Optomas. Since the Mitsubishi display was open to the floor lighting, they were almost impossible to judge. Of course, you can always read my comments on the Optomas to get a fair idea of how the Mitsubishi’s should perform.
NEC
NEC showed off their new “budget” DLP projectors, the HT410 and HT510. The HT410 is comparable to the Optoma H30 and Screenplay 4805 in resolution and price point, but has a 5 segment color wheel (with a clear segment!) instead of a 6 segment RGBRGB. This is also true of the 510, which has the same 1024 x 576 resolution of current Matterhorn projectors but uses a new chip from TI. First impressions?
Rainbows galore!!!
The first thing we noticed upon walking into the NEC booth, and before we even knew what we were looking at, were the large amount of rainbow artifacts coming off the HT510. The last time I saw so many rainbow artifacts was the time I spent with an Infocus X1. The 510 didn’t look all that hot in the picture quality department either – it looked murky and dark, and didn’t even look as good as the little inwall NEC DLP projector NEC had next to it. Now, this very well could have been setup or calibration. The tough thing about these shows is that you never know what kind of setup the projectors have received. Still, the NEC rep stressed that these were strictly entry level pieces and not supposed to be in the same camp as the HT-1100, which they also displayed. I told the rep that I thought NEC was shooting themselves in the foot by coming out with a 1024 x 576 projector for less than half of the price of the HT-1100 (the 510 lists for $1999), and that was his reply. While I agree that the HT-1100 is far and away better than the 510, the price differential is huge when you consider how many people buy off of specs only.
OPTOMA
I finally got to see the Optoma H77, which is essentially the older H76 refitted with the newer HD2+ DLP chip and an 8 segment color wheel. It looked just about like I expected it would – solid, colorful, just like the H76 only with the improvements that the 2+ chip/8 segment wheel combo provides (better shadow detail, less noise and more saturated colors in darker scenes). IMO, the H77 is a terrific value, since not only does it street lower than any other HD2+/7 or 8 segment wheel projector, but is extremely quiet to boot.
Optoma also showed the H57, their new 1024 x 576 native projector that replaces the H56. It looked very much like the H77 in terms of color and overall picture, maybe a bit brighter. It also uses the new TI 1024 x 576 chip (like the NEC HT510) which (I guess!) is replacing the Matterhorn. Based on first impressions, I gotta say that the Optoma implementation was much better than NECs, but it also sells for quite a bit more (Optoma says $3500 list).
This was part of the confusion alluded to earlier – we could not get a straight answer on whether or not this new 1024 x 576 chip will replace the Matterhorn, is superior or inferior to the Matterhorn, or whether or not it has the faster data rate that was touted on the Matterhorn. I wish there was simply a name for it so I could stop typing “new TI 1024 x 576 chip with dark chip techonology.” About the only straight answer I could get was that it was cheaper to manufacture.
PANASONIC
We did see the new Panasonic 700 series LCD projector, and it was quite impressive due to the fact that it had zero screen door effect that we could see. Once again, it was out on the show floor and totally washed out from the lights in the convention hall. Panasonic did have one set up in a light controlled room at the same locale as the JVC DILA pieces, but they were just as eager to tear down as JVC – we got there just in time to see them loading up all of their pieces onto a hand truck.
SAMSUNG
We took a pass, as we have seen this projector twice previously.
SHARP
The big news here is the new XV-Z2000, an HD2+ piece that is supposed to carry an MSRP of $3999. Sharp says that they will start shipping around November, but I’m not holding my breath (they said the same thing about the Z200, and that didn’t show up until March and is still hard to get). Still, when it does ship, and if Sharp holds true to the announced pricing, it will be a serious contender. As displayed on a 123” Firehawk, the image looked very very good, with great colors and sharpness. It is rated at 1500 lumens in bright mode, and I think that was how they displayed it since it lit up the 123” Firehawk no problem. I could not pass any opinion on black level since all of the material they showed were brightly lit daylight scenes.
Here is where Sharp drives me crazy – they always have the same canned presentation every show, with a professional spokesperson who knows nothing about the product delivering the spiel. No questions were allowed (like, “Does it have a 6 or 7 segment color wheel?” or “How do you expect to maintain the $11000 MSRP on the Z12000 with the Z2000 in the line?” or “What have you left out on the Z2000 to hit that price point?”). Another bit of Sharp thinking – they displayed the Z12000 in high contrast mode on a 123” Firehawk!!! The picture was so dark at certain points that you had to squint to see anything. The Z12000 is capable of throwing a great image at that size provided that you have the proper screen, and the dark grey Firehawk ain’t it!
Enough griping – Sharp makes a great projector and I hope to have more info on the Z2000 soon.
SIM2
SIM showed their new HT300 E, their entry into the HD2+ with Dark Chip 3 category. Like the Marantz, the image displayed (once again on a 100” Greyhawk) looked bright, colorful, and had great contrast. SIM, like Marantz, had a total blackout environment in which to display it, and the image looked tremendous. They also showed their HT500 3 chipper, and it also looked terrific, brighter than the HT300 but with no rainbow artifacts and more apparent “depth.” I gotta say, though, that rainbows are very hard to see with the current generation of HD2+ 7 segment wheel DLP projectors. Of course, SIM uses a 6 segment wheel instead of the seven on their HT and Domino lines. They claim that the 7 segment wheel has more disadvantages than advantages over the 6. I can’t say that I really agree with this, but the excellent picture on the SIM projectors speaks for itself.
SONY
First of all, the Qualia. I’ve seen it before and just had to see it again. It looks just incredible, the best image I have seen, which is why I also wanted to see the JVC HD2K, which should be comparable (except in brightness). The only complaint – all Sony ever shows on it is brightly lit 1080p material, which of course is going to look great. If I could only get my hands on one to play with…
This brings me to the only LCD projector that I’ve ever seen that I really liked – the HS51. From what I could tell, the colors, contrast, and overall image were very good. I could not detect any vertical banding or other distracting artifacts, with the exception of screen door. This it had in abundance, but no more than any other LCD projector. Again, the problem here was that Sony was only showing high definition movie trailers, which are cut so quickly that it is hard to really get a feel for what the image really looks like. Did it have that murky look that most LCD projectors have in dark scenes? Couldn’t tell ya – the pictures moved far too quickly to make any critical evaluation possible.
Sony also showed their new black screen, paired with another HS51 in a different room. It is quite amazing – all kinds of ambient light yet a completely viewable picture. How does it compare with, say, a Stewart Firehawk? Definitely better than the Firehawk in terms of handling ambient light, plus it does not darken the image quite as much. Negatives for the Sony screen? It was quite directional, falling off in brightness about 50% off to the side. It also had a “plastic-y” look, almost like a rear projection screen, with a bit of a sheen to it.
More to come...
ADZ
CEDIA REPORT 2004
My main impression at CEDIA this year, at least when it comes to projectors, was that it was mainly a repeat of last year’s show. I saw many of the same pieces trotted out once again, or projectors that are only incremental improvements over their predecessors. I got conflicting reports from manufacturers and from TI regarding what is new in the DLP world, and there seemed to be confusion as to what the differences are in some of the new DLP chips hitting the market. Perhaps someone here with closer ties to TI has the straight story. We are working on this as well – Brad has got a call into TI to get some answers and to clear up some of the conflicting information we received.
Right off the bat I want to point out what we missed – JVC’s new DILA products and the 1080p LCD projector that Fujitsu was showing. It’s possible that we missed several of the most exciting products there! With JVC it was doubly frustrating – we were told by a JVC rep that the last limo leaving for the HD2K demo was at 2 pm (which is what time was also listed on the “invitation” to see the unit at a nearby hotel). At 1:45 we went to the limo pickup location along with the JVC rep. We waited and waited (along with another attendee who had been waiting for 10 minutes already) and the limo never showed up. At five minutes after 2, all of us were getting frustrated. The JVC rep suggested simply driving over to the hotel, since he said the demos would be going until 3 pm (the close of the show). We did as he suggested, and got to the hotel around 2:20. We walked into the room and everything had already been torn down! At this point I was pretty upset, and let the JVC folks know that I was supposed to review the units for AVS Forum (hey, it’s true, isn’t it?) and was told that it would be set up to view until 3 pm. To JVC’s credit, they apologized profusely and offered to ship an HD2K to me just to evaluate. I plan on taking them up on this!
This is part of the reason we missed seeing the Fujitsu and LCD displays – he had planned to do that after JVC, but blew half of an hour waiting around for the nonexistent JVC limo. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of LCD so had put it off until last, but I had every intention of giving it a fair shot. Apologies in advance for not having reviews of JVCs DILA products (which I am a fan of) and the “true HD” LCD pieces.
CINELIGHT
For those of you who do not know, Cinelight is one of the largest distributors of home theater projectors in the country. We always stop in at Cinelight because they always have a side by side projector demo going in their “booth.” This year they had the Screenplay 7205 and NEC HT-1100 (with anamorphic lens) side by side. Interesting comparison! We did compare both projectors at our shootout, but not side by side as they did here.
Interestingly, the NEC looked brighter than the 7205! Jim from Cinelight admitted that both projectors were right out of the box and not calibrated in any way. Since the NEC defaults to its higher brightness setting and the iris was wide open, I guess it is not too surprising that the NEC looked as bright as it did. In terms of resolution, the 7205 displayed considerably more detail than the HT-1100 from the HD source (D-VHS) Cinelight was using. The HT-1100 had a smoother overall look, but it was obvious that it was at the expense of some fine detail. In terms of color, the NEC looked more accurate in terms of flesh tones – the Infocus had a slight reddish cast. Both units were new out of the box, so the bulbs had not had any real time to “burn in” – color balances shift, and most projector manufacturers do not recommend calibrating for color until at least 200 hours is reached on the bulb. One potential problem on the NEC – the whites were seriously blown out on the sample they had there. In shots of the sky there were many times that the clouds were simply a white mass on the NEC, while the 7205 displayed a much greater variation in whites and greys. This was also noticeable in the shots of the beach – many times the NEC just washed out whenever there were highlights in the wet sand. We tried to adjust the contrast down (usually what causes blown out whites) but that seemed to have no effect. Since the HT-1100 we had in our shootout displayed none of this problem. I assume that this particular HT-1100 was defective or severely out of calibration. It could also have been a fault of the gamma setting.
DENON
Nothing here in the way of projection, but I just have to mention their new AVR-5805 AV receiver. Man, that thing is huge! The main interest for those here in the projector forum is that it boasts three HDMI inputs and one DVI input. The days when we can use our receivers to do our digital video switching are close at hand…
DWIN
A much better presentation at DWIN this year. Nothing really new here (they were mainly touting their plasma line), but the TV3 projector looked very good on the 100” Studiotek they had it on. Very good reds and blacks.
EPSON
This is the second time I have seen the Epson LCD lineup, and the second time that it was displayed in a seriously overlit, washed out manner (the display was open to all of the ambient light from the show floor). For that reason I can’t really give any impression of contrast or color performance, but I did see the same issues with these projectors that have always prevented me from being a huge fan of LCD. Even the Epson 500 had the usual amount of screen door effect that I usually associate with a 1280 x 720 LCD, and vertical banding was fairly obvious. Beyond that I couldn’t tell much about its performance.
There is an artifact on LCD projectors that is almost never mentioned that I find personally distracting. Whenever there is an object moving diagonally across the screen, the edges of the object break up into jagged lines, almost looking like scan lines on an older interlaced CRT display. It’s a bit like stair-stepping, only more severe. I find this artifact more distracting than vertical banding, and it was in evidence on every LCD projector I saw at the show (with one notable exception, which I will discuss later).
HITACHI
Missed it! I don’t know if they had their PJTX100 on display, which I did want to see.
INFOCUS
The only really new piece here was the Screenplay 5000, their 1280 x 720 LCD piece for under $2000. It looked about as good as any other 1280 x 720 LCD projector I have ever seen, but a bit brighter (it did very well despite all of the ambient light thrown at it). If you’ve read this far you know I am not a huge fan of LCD technology, and this projector did nothing to change my mind.
Infocus spent most of the time showing off their new 6 ½” deep rear projection DLP set, co-developed with RCA. This may be a hot piece, as it has almost all the advantages of a plasma set without most of the major plasma drawbacks.
KNOLL
Nothing new here, except that Knoll now has a clone of just about every projector in the Infocus lineup.
MARANTZ
Marantz showed their new S4 projector, which looked very impressive despite being a prototype. As always, blacks and contrast were top-notch. Unfortunately, all they had to show on it was an HD football clip that recycled every few seconds. This was one of the very few projectors showing the new HD2+ chip with DarkChip 3 technology. From what I can gather, TI has reduced the dimple even further with the DarkChip 3, and has used an even darker metal for deeper blacks. The reduced dimple is supposed to yield greater brightness as well, and one of the biggest surprises was how bright the S4 looked even on a 100” Greyhawk!
Brad and I walked up very close to the screen just to see if we could notice any real difference in the pixels themselves. We noticed something odd – the pixels looked “different,” almost rectangular, compared to the HD2+. The image moved so quickly that we were never quite sure of what we were seeing, but it sure looked different, from a pixel standpoint, to what has come before. Maybe we were seeing things. From normal viewing distance, the picture looked superb.
MITSUBISHI
Mitsubishi is finally getting into the front projection market here in the US, and it was pretty obvious that their pieces were rebadged Optomas. Since the Mitsubishi display was open to the floor lighting, they were almost impossible to judge. Of course, you can always read my comments on the Optomas to get a fair idea of how the Mitsubishi’s should perform.
NEC
NEC showed off their new “budget” DLP projectors, the HT410 and HT510. The HT410 is comparable to the Optoma H30 and Screenplay 4805 in resolution and price point, but has a 5 segment color wheel (with a clear segment!) instead of a 6 segment RGBRGB. This is also true of the 510, which has the same 1024 x 576 resolution of current Matterhorn projectors but uses a new chip from TI. First impressions?
Rainbows galore!!!
The first thing we noticed upon walking into the NEC booth, and before we even knew what we were looking at, were the large amount of rainbow artifacts coming off the HT510. The last time I saw so many rainbow artifacts was the time I spent with an Infocus X1. The 510 didn’t look all that hot in the picture quality department either – it looked murky and dark, and didn’t even look as good as the little inwall NEC DLP projector NEC had next to it. Now, this very well could have been setup or calibration. The tough thing about these shows is that you never know what kind of setup the projectors have received. Still, the NEC rep stressed that these were strictly entry level pieces and not supposed to be in the same camp as the HT-1100, which they also displayed. I told the rep that I thought NEC was shooting themselves in the foot by coming out with a 1024 x 576 projector for less than half of the price of the HT-1100 (the 510 lists for $1999), and that was his reply. While I agree that the HT-1100 is far and away better than the 510, the price differential is huge when you consider how many people buy off of specs only.
OPTOMA
I finally got to see the Optoma H77, which is essentially the older H76 refitted with the newer HD2+ DLP chip and an 8 segment color wheel. It looked just about like I expected it would – solid, colorful, just like the H76 only with the improvements that the 2+ chip/8 segment wheel combo provides (better shadow detail, less noise and more saturated colors in darker scenes). IMO, the H77 is a terrific value, since not only does it street lower than any other HD2+/7 or 8 segment wheel projector, but is extremely quiet to boot.
Optoma also showed the H57, their new 1024 x 576 native projector that replaces the H56. It looked very much like the H77 in terms of color and overall picture, maybe a bit brighter. It also uses the new TI 1024 x 576 chip (like the NEC HT510) which (I guess!) is replacing the Matterhorn. Based on first impressions, I gotta say that the Optoma implementation was much better than NECs, but it also sells for quite a bit more (Optoma says $3500 list).
This was part of the confusion alluded to earlier – we could not get a straight answer on whether or not this new 1024 x 576 chip will replace the Matterhorn, is superior or inferior to the Matterhorn, or whether or not it has the faster data rate that was touted on the Matterhorn. I wish there was simply a name for it so I could stop typing “new TI 1024 x 576 chip with dark chip techonology.” About the only straight answer I could get was that it was cheaper to manufacture.
PANASONIC
We did see the new Panasonic 700 series LCD projector, and it was quite impressive due to the fact that it had zero screen door effect that we could see. Once again, it was out on the show floor and totally washed out from the lights in the convention hall. Panasonic did have one set up in a light controlled room at the same locale as the JVC DILA pieces, but they were just as eager to tear down as JVC – we got there just in time to see them loading up all of their pieces onto a hand truck.
SAMSUNG
We took a pass, as we have seen this projector twice previously.
SHARP
The big news here is the new XV-Z2000, an HD2+ piece that is supposed to carry an MSRP of $3999. Sharp says that they will start shipping around November, but I’m not holding my breath (they said the same thing about the Z200, and that didn’t show up until March and is still hard to get). Still, when it does ship, and if Sharp holds true to the announced pricing, it will be a serious contender. As displayed on a 123” Firehawk, the image looked very very good, with great colors and sharpness. It is rated at 1500 lumens in bright mode, and I think that was how they displayed it since it lit up the 123” Firehawk no problem. I could not pass any opinion on black level since all of the material they showed were brightly lit daylight scenes.
Here is where Sharp drives me crazy – they always have the same canned presentation every show, with a professional spokesperson who knows nothing about the product delivering the spiel. No questions were allowed (like, “Does it have a 6 or 7 segment color wheel?” or “How do you expect to maintain the $11000 MSRP on the Z12000 with the Z2000 in the line?” or “What have you left out on the Z2000 to hit that price point?”). Another bit of Sharp thinking – they displayed the Z12000 in high contrast mode on a 123” Firehawk!!! The picture was so dark at certain points that you had to squint to see anything. The Z12000 is capable of throwing a great image at that size provided that you have the proper screen, and the dark grey Firehawk ain’t it!
Enough griping – Sharp makes a great projector and I hope to have more info on the Z2000 soon.
SIM2
SIM showed their new HT300 E, their entry into the HD2+ with Dark Chip 3 category. Like the Marantz, the image displayed (once again on a 100” Greyhawk) looked bright, colorful, and had great contrast. SIM, like Marantz, had a total blackout environment in which to display it, and the image looked tremendous. They also showed their HT500 3 chipper, and it also looked terrific, brighter than the HT300 but with no rainbow artifacts and more apparent “depth.” I gotta say, though, that rainbows are very hard to see with the current generation of HD2+ 7 segment wheel DLP projectors. Of course, SIM uses a 6 segment wheel instead of the seven on their HT and Domino lines. They claim that the 7 segment wheel has more disadvantages than advantages over the 6. I can’t say that I really agree with this, but the excellent picture on the SIM projectors speaks for itself.
SONY
First of all, the Qualia. I’ve seen it before and just had to see it again. It looks just incredible, the best image I have seen, which is why I also wanted to see the JVC HD2K, which should be comparable (except in brightness). The only complaint – all Sony ever shows on it is brightly lit 1080p material, which of course is going to look great. If I could only get my hands on one to play with…
This brings me to the only LCD projector that I’ve ever seen that I really liked – the HS51. From what I could tell, the colors, contrast, and overall image were very good. I could not detect any vertical banding or other distracting artifacts, with the exception of screen door. This it had in abundance, but no more than any other LCD projector. Again, the problem here was that Sony was only showing high definition movie trailers, which are cut so quickly that it is hard to really get a feel for what the image really looks like. Did it have that murky look that most LCD projectors have in dark scenes? Couldn’t tell ya – the pictures moved far too quickly to make any critical evaluation possible.
Sony also showed their new black screen, paired with another HS51 in a different room. It is quite amazing – all kinds of ambient light yet a completely viewable picture. How does it compare with, say, a Stewart Firehawk? Definitely better than the Firehawk in terms of handling ambient light, plus it does not darken the image quite as much. Negatives for the Sony screen? It was quite directional, falling off in brightness about 50% off to the side. It also had a “plastic-y” look, almost like a rear projection screen, with a bit of a sheen to it.
More to come...
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