BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector - Revisited

Greetings all,

As all of you who read my W5000 review, I found the projector to be overall, one of the best affordable 1080p projectors out there, in terms of picture quality, except for one significant failing.

That issue is high levels of image noise. I’ve been keeping in touch with the folks at BenQ, with the hopes that a new version will solve the problem sufficiently. Here’s where things stand:

The W5000 I reviewed was one of the first to have firmware version 1.08. Since then, BenQ has released 1.12.

I asked the nice people at BenQ if 1.12 solved the problem. They report a small improvement in noise levels, but are hoping to have an even better version (in the not too distant future - we hope). In fact, here’s what one of my contacts sent to me specifically:

“What’s shipping from BenQ are 1.12, and we are working on the next version which I thought will be a more significant improvement.
The one you tested it was 1.08.

What’s shipping now is 1.12.

1.12 the overscan issue is solved, but only minor improvement done on noise. We are working on even more improvement.”

Based on that response - and their recommendation, I don’t plan to take a look at 1.12, but will hold out for the next version, which - it seems, promises a significant improvement. And that would tend to make the W5000 the best lower cost 1080p DLP around, if they can pull it off. BTW, still no ship date from them on W20000 projectors here in the US. -art

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Projector Reviews Japan 3LCD, Epson Tour, part 2

OK, time to pick up where I left off. We’ve already discussed a bit about 3LCD’s strengths in terms of more color per lumen, and in color accuracy at full power. There are, however other issues which came up in our discussions. One of those was the cost of maintenance.The guys on the other side of the isle - those DLP proponents at Texas Instruments, claim a big advantage in terms of cost of maintenance. So, let’s investigate. This isn’t about reliability, but about routine maintenance. The DLP folks point out that that most DLP projectors do not require dust filters, because DLP projectors use a sealed light path. 3LCD projectors require filters, and therefore, frequent changing of them, because dust can be a problem, and can even mar the image with what are called (aptly) dust blobs.

The 3LCD folks counter, that many of today’s 3LCD projectors don’t need filters cleaned any more frequently than they need lamp changing. If that were the case, they would have a strong case. As I said to the 3LCD folks, hey, you don’t have to be better at everything. I said that, because I do think DLP has the advantage here.There are basically two scenarios. Projectors that are placed on a table top, and those that are permanently mounted. Since cleaning or replacing a filter is a very quick thing, if you have easy access to the projector, using your projector on a table top, negates any real advantage of projectors that don’t need filters changed frequently. Ceiling mounting is a whole different story. Often, accessing a ceiling mounting projector requires at least a ladder. And it can be a real challenge if you have really high ceilings. In some commercial applications, reaching the projector can be daunting, consider many church sanctuaries, where the projector could be 50 feet up in the air, or perhaps a small auditorium, large multipurpose room, or hotel ballroom. not only a pain, but expensive timewise, especially if you contract out, or have a support department run as a profit center.

So, I decided to see what’s really out there, in terms of filter maintenance requirements on various 3LCD projectors. I looked at manuals of Sanyo, and Panasonic small portable projectors. Both recommended frequent cleaning or changing on most models. Sanyo has a reminder features that looks to default to 200 hours. A call to Epson support (since their manuals were no help - they recommend frequent inspection and cleaning when necessary, but give no idea of timeframe), yielded a recommendation of every two to four weeks, unless you were in a really dusty environment. A look at a couple of Mitsubishi projectors yielded recommendations of 100 hours of use.

There are exceptions, and these are noteworthy. We find a number of newer projectors, of the larger, more powerful variety, now are offering autochaning filter rollers, or self cleaing filters, so that their filter system needs to be changed no more often than the lamp. These more expensive projectors are typically found in those larger rooms and are good choices for high ceilings. Projectors with such features include the Panasonic F100 series and newer F110 models, as well as several from Sanyo, including their 6500 lumen PLC-XT100L. As Sanyo works closely with Christie, this feature is also found in some of Christie’s LCD projectors.

Bottom line: If you really need to keep filter maintenance to a minimum, and want an LCD projector, it’s doable, but your choice is mostly limited to more expensive ceiling mount type projectors with high lumens. If you are looking for low maintenance in a low cost portable, DLP is where you will find those. Of course if you have a portable projector you are using portably, cleaning the filter is a quick thing, and no big deal. The problem comes when you want to ceiling mount a lower cost portable, as is often done in classrooms, and small business. Is filter changing a deal breaker - no, not normally, but frequent filter changing is going to be a point of discussion for, say, a school district looking to ceiling mount projectors in 200 classrooms, as even once every month or two, means significant extra labor time.

OK, I’ve beaten that topic to death, what’s next?Projector Market TrendsI learned a great deal, in terms of predicted trends. One, is that finally, SVGA projectors are going away. Mostly buoyed up by K-12 purchases these past 5-7 years, SVGA has endured almost a decade after SVGA computers became dinosaurs. It’s easy to understand. typically SVGA projectors have been about 2/3 the price of XGA models. A school district could populate 100 classrooms with XGA, or 150 classrooms with SVGA. For schools, mostly dollars wins over resolution. Finally though, the costs of XGA projectors - now available from under $600, have reached the point, where they are as affordable as SVGA projectors just a couple of years ago, and are only about $100 or so more expensive than SVGA today. End result, the now much less significant cost differences, are not enough to dissuade schools from entering the 21st century.What’s new and growing rapidly, (finally!!!) is the widescreen projector segment. Most of these now support 1280×800 resolution, which is common on widescreen laptops and desktops. Widescreen is taking over the market, and finally, we are starting to see a decent number of widescreen projectors. Better still, the price differentials are now much less (between widescreen and XGA) than in the past. Widescreen projectors now can be had (business ones), from around $1000, and some home theater 1080p widescreens can be had for less than $2000. Some of those home and business projectors will get a lot of double usage - business, and then brought home for enjoyment. Optoma, Panasonic, Sanyo, Epson, Mitsubishi, all now have multiple widescreen projectors in their lineups. I’m not sure what percentage of current projectors are widescreen models, but it’s probably 15-20%. Two years ago, it was probably no more than 2%-3%.

Here’s a shocker:

On the business side, according to one study, large corporations now have permanent projectors in 55% of conference rooms. (Hard to believe, but…). I think we can safely assume that the numbers are dramatically lower for small and medium sized businesses.Other trivia: Business projectors (all non-home theater projectors) - the market sweetspot, is $675 to $850, which now accounts for about half of all XGA projectors shipped. Look for XGA projectors to finally be readily available under $500 in 2009!Projectors are getting brighter, as the market sweetspot for brightness is moving now, up to 3000 lumens. Note: Not that long ago - say 2000 - 2002, a 2000 lumen projector was considered an auditorium projector, and that’s the output of most of the big 50 lb.+ models of that time. Now we can buy 3000 lumen projectors for around $1000 and 6 or 7 pounds. Impressive!

OK enough trivia, I’ve got another technical topic - and that is something I get frequent inquiries about. Back in the early years of this century (gawd, that sounds like a long time ago), there was an issue with LCD panel polarizers changing color -notably the blue, fading causing the overall color to shift to yellow. The good news was this rarely happened in less than several thousand hours, and to a large degree was heat related. This issue has been fading away over time, but the question is, has the problem gone away?Grilling of the 3LCD and Epson folks did not come up with a definitive answer, however, what they said, was encouraging. We are 4 or 5 generations newer with today’s LCD panels, and, on top of that, the panels have been dramatically redesigned over that time. Perhaps, most significantly, has been the recent shift (last two years) to “inorganic” LCD panels. While the folks at the meetings would not provide firm numbers, with the newer inorganic LCD’s we’re seeing things published by other members of the 3LCD group. For example, Hitachi has this to say: “New inorganic LCD panels show no decrease inperformance with use, giving you even longer life projectors.” So, even if not perfect yet, it sure sounds like you shouldn’t have to worry about a color shift in any newer 3LCD projector, during its typical life, unless perhaps, you have one of those 18 or 24 hour a day applications 365 days a year, and expect to get 10+ years (unlikely at that usage level, for any projector). (At those usage levels you are replacing lamps every 3 or 4 months!).

Bottom line - the newer inorganic panels are less heat sensitive than the older organic ones, and this should be a non-issue for 99%+.

New inorganic LCD panels show no decrease inperformance with use, giving you even longer life projectors.

What else - ahh, one more thing.

I’ve got a pet project, and I did my best to convince 3LCD and Epson that they need to be in the ballgame: Cinemascope Aspect Ratio Home Theater Projectors!

That’s right. Home theater folks keep reading about anamorphic lenses and getting rid of those pesky letterbox black bars at the top and bottom of every movie we watch on a 16:9 home theater projector.Problem is, anamorphic lenses can set you back $3000 - $6000. A hefty price to pay if you are buying a $2500 1080p projector.So, what the world needs, is for Epson to start shipping a native Cinemascope (2.35:1) LCD panel. Ideally, it should be something like 2560×1080 pixels so it can also do standard 1080p without compression. Creating the chip would allow affordable projectors to hit the market that support full movie widescreen (over 70% of all titles ever released).Sadly, everyone listened politely, nodded agreement as to the benefits, but I never got the feeling that it was going to become an action item. I’ll have to assume, that Epson, who makes almost all of the world’s HTPS LCD’s (the small ones that go in projectors), won’t do it until forced to by the market, and that means, it’s going to be up to either Texas Instruments to come out with a Cinemascope wide DLP chip, or perhaps, JVC or Sony, will pioneer that resolution with their LCoS panels (JVC calls their LCoS - liquid crystal on silicon - D-iLA, while Sony calls theirs - SXRD).

Oh well, I’m not holding my breath. 

What else?

Well, we had one more night to party.

Our hosts took us on a little, private dinner/karaoke cruise, on a neat little boat with lanterns along the side (about 20+ people). The evening was damp - misting heavily - a light rain, really. The boat parked in the open water almost below Tokyo’s Rainbow Bridge, their answer, I guess, to our Golden Gate. The whole v was magnificent, to watch even in the rain. Tokyo has a giant ferris wheel, much like the one in Paris, and it changes colors constantly, we could see part of it between the hi-rise buildings. A beautiful evening. - and that was before the singing started.

The food was a delicious assortment of sashimi, things I didn’t recognize, and some cooked foods too. Very tasty. Then the singing.

Now, I generally avoid karaoke, as with a lot of practice, I can almost carry a tune. Prior to this trip, I have only sang in public 3 times - Happy Together (the Turtles) - twice, and one Bon Jovi.

It seemed to me, however, that in the US, good karaoke is about singing well, everyone grumbles when someone is really bad, or even not great. In Japan, it seems to be more about having a great time, and entertaining. Now, that’s something I can sink my teeth into. I don’t remember (due to a steady flow of Chivas Regal) much of the later evening, but it seems I did 4 Bon Jovi songs, and was helping many others with their songs. I’m told, (fortunately) that I really didn’t embarrass myself, and, better still, a couple of our Japanese hosts told me I was a real “rockstar”. Works for me.

Well, that’s about it. After getting back to our hotel (not really clear about how that happened - a bus, and bottle of Chivas being passed around?), that concluded the entertainment portion of my Tokyo trip.

Awake, the next morning, and in less than stellar shape, I did make it to the airport, and finally back to San Clemente. Got home just in time to see the only person in my family, who really can sing - my daughter Lisa - star in Footloose at our high school. It was really good to be home, and hear someone actually sing on key! Lisa - go girl!

Last thoughts - I’m really hoping that Epson has another manufacturing plant - perhaps in Venice, or maybe the Greek island of Mykonos. If that’s the case, I sure hope they invite me back for another tour! -art

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Projector Reviews Tours Epson 3LCD Facility in Sapporo, Department store in Tokyo, Japan - part 1.

What a whirlwind trip. Japan and back in four days (from San Clemente California). Overall, the trip was a bit brutal, a lot of fun, and, actually rather enlightening. I’ll give you a taste of the travel schedule, and then get into the substance of the trip.

The brutal aspect of the trip started with a 10.5 hour flight from LAX to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. I’ve got to thank the 3LCD group for dropping the big bucks on Business Class. Those seats are the size of a small car, and really do open up into a flat bed. Amazing. Of course I had to leave the house 3+ hours before the flight, and once landing, there was the almost hour to get luggage, and take transport (90 minutes) from the airport to the hotel in Tokyo. Ok, that doesn’t sound so bad (if a 10.5 hour flight can ever be good - the food was).

The killer, though, was we left LA on Monday, and arrived Tuesday (crossed the international date line), around dinner time at our hotel, only to have to (after some catch up sleep Tuesday evening), meet in the hotel lobby at 7am on Wed morning, for a ride to another airport and a “short” two hour flight to northern Japan.

Once arriving on the island of Hokkaido (near Sapporo), it was a short ride to Epson’s automated 3LCD plant, located right off the airport grounds.

After a formal Japanese lunch (I’m still trying to figure out what food groups a number of the things I ate belonged to), we were given presentations on 3LCD technology, and plant operation.

The plant was cool. We only saw a large room where most of the workers that control operations, etc. sit, and the automated plant itself, seen only through a large window. It looked right out of Disney’s Star Tours - but more modern (take that R2D2)! This plant builds 3LCD panels without the active intervention of humans. We were told that the only time people enter the plant floor is for maintenance work! Very cool. We also saw samples the new 12″ wafers that Epson is building - the larger wafers than the traditional 8″ means greater yields, less waste, and lower costs. Epson currently makes 4 different 3LCD panels for business projectors, and two more for home theater models. That, I didn’t realize, until then.

Of course I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t previously know (why else put up with those long flights). For example, according to Epson (and or 3LCD) team, at this time home theater projectors only make up about 1/10th the volume of front projectors, with business type projectors making up the balance.

But, back to the travels. I’ll get into more of the discussions below. After the Epson 3LCD factory tour, we had a nice little side trip to a Kirin Beer factory. Not bad! (I always liked Kirin beer). Our hostess taught us the right way to pour beer from a can. Sadly, it’s a 3 minute process according to them, something I, and most beer drinkers don’t have the patience for. After the beer, back on the bus, back to the Sapporo airport, and another 2 hour flight back to Tokyo, plus all the usual airport and transport time.

So, naturally, we were still pretty wiped out. No problem - off to dinner in Tokyo. Excellent. Not much energy though. Actually everyone packed up after dinner for the hotel, except your humble blogger. I felt morally obligated to get the lay of the land, so spent a few hours wandering the city streets and clubs of Tokyo. Much fun, but that’s all I’ll admit to.

Thursday was next, with a 5 minute walk to Epson’s Tokyo offices, (in a really gorgeous office building with something like a 5 story high pendulum clock by Seiko Epson, in what I would describe as a Hyatt Regency style lobby/courtyard.

It was time to get to the heart of the trip. We had several hours of presentations, meetings and discussions - separated by an excellent lunch (I recognized most of the food this time.). Now it was entertain the guests time. OK to finish off the afternoon, we toured a huge electronics department store (9 stories, I think). Now this was (no offense to my 3LCD and Epson hosts), perhaps the most amazing part of the trip. We got about an hour and a half to wander around this store - mind you about the only things in english were the model numbers, and the price in yen. (easy to translate). This makes shopping a little difficult, but no matter, as I didn’t buy anything.

What really made it amazing, though, was the selection. The only way I can put this store in perspective, is to compare it to a Best Buy or Circuit City. And, in all fairness that isn’t even remotely a comparison!

The selection of equipment (computers, computer accessories, camcorders - including 1080p HD ones, monitors, projectors, digital cameras, watches, cell phones, MP3 players, even telescopes, and tripods, not to mention washers and dryers), is simply Way Over The Top!

I’d have to say, that for every computer on display at a Best Buy or Circuit City, there were probably 40 or 50 here. For every MP3 Player, cell phone, or point and shoot digital camera found at our traditional super stores (best buy, circuit city), there probably had to be 50 to 100 models of each in this Japanese store. For example, a quick count of 26″ LCD computer monitors, worked out to about 20 different models, and probably half that number of 32 inchers. I don’t even know if you can find a 32″ on display in the US? Point and shoot digital cameras - hundreds, many, many hundreds! True HD camcorders 1080p (not those lower res “HD” ones- must have been dozens. You get the picture. Oh, if only the info cards for each product on display were in english - who knows what I might have spent!

Talk about a toy store for guys! This Japanese store is to Best Buy, what a Super-Walmart is to a 7-11 convenience store. Wow!

Ok, it’s time to talk about what I learned.

Not surprising, much of the presentations and discussions were focused on the ongoing battle between 3LCD front projectors and DLP ones. This was the 3LCD Group and Epson’s shot at making all their points as to why 3LCD is best (and therefore logically why DLP should cease to exist - not that they said as much).So, the next few paragraphs are going to be a 3LCD lovefest, as I mention the various significant points our hosts made. BTW, I’m more than welcome to giving TI, and the DLP.com crowd their 15 minutes of fame too. Hello - DLP? I’m ready to see a tour of a DLP plant, and hear your schtick? Do you perhaps have a plant in Shanghai (I’ve never been there), or perhaps Tahiti, or Venice? If so, sign me up!

Let’s start with these key technology points. I’ll save more of the marketing info and analysis, for Part 2.

Our hosts point out that LCD devices dominate every major category, from Laptop displays (100%) to Monitors (92%), AV-Pro front projection (75%) Direct view TV (LCDTV) (69%), and front projectors overall (51%). All very valid, although we are concerning ourselves with 3LCD technology, sometimes referred to as HTPS - High Temperature Poly-Silicon (LCDs), the type that go into front projectors, and somewhat different from the larger panels that we know from laptop screens and large LCDTVs.

If marketshare counts for anything - score one for 3LCD.They also pointed out that based on efficiency, 3LCD is much more green than DLP. There is no surprise here, for many years, DLP projectors with similar lumen output to LCD projectors, have typically used lamps that draw 20 - 30% more electricity - a 160 watt lamp in an LCD projector is fairly common, and over 200 watts is rare. With DLP, lamps seem to start at about 200 watts and go up to 260 watts or so. Simply stated, 3LCD projectors produce more lumens per watt. Score a second point for LCD.Two of the things most emphasized in the presentations, and heavily discussed afterwords, were the issues of color saturation and accuracy (as it relates to using color filter wheels in single chip DLP projectors), and the importance - or lack thereof, when rooms are not fully darkened.Color saturation, and accuracy differences between DLP and 3LCD is a topic I’ve written several articles on, over the years. I found nothing new here, other than more info and numbers to back what I have said. Let me summarize: DLP projectors - notably business projectors but also some home theater models - “cheat” by putting a clear filter on their color wheel, along with the usual Red, Green, and Blue filters. This is a great way to increase the measured lumens, but it really doesn’t improve the projector’s ability to function in ambient light, as one should expect. Here’s how the game is played:

Remember white consists of equal amounts of red, green and blue. We will compare two systems. One which has a color wheel, with just red, green and blue, each 33% of the total (or it could be a 3LCD projector - but without the color wheel - with red, green, and blue panels. The other, is a DLP projector with four filters 25% each - red, green, blue and clear (effectively white).Here’s the math. Let’s say we start out with the idea of a 3000 lumen projector. With our first example, the red, green and blue panel or wheel slices, each put out 3000 lumens (3000 lumens of red, 3000 of blue…), they combine to yield 3000 lumens of white. Fair enough. OK, now let’s do the four slice system. Let’s start with that same 3000 target. This time, though we will start with 2250 lumens each for red, green blue, and clear. (In the first case 3000×3 = 9000, in the second case 2250×4=9000.) OK now. In case 1, we end up with 3000 lumens of white, and when we need a pure color like red, we get 1000 lumens of red - since red is 1/3 of the color used in white. Now, with the DLP projector to figure out white, we get 2250 lumens (2250 each of red, green and blue = 2250 total), plus we get an additional 3000 * 1/4 (the amount of the color wheel pass which is white/clear) = 750 lumens. Bingo - 2250 + 750 = 3000 lumens.

Both LCD and DLP projectors are outputting 3000 lumens of white, but - consider - for each primary color, the DLP can only produce 1/3 of 2250 lumens for red which works out to 750 lumens.Bottom line, both 3000 lumen projectors measure 3000 lumens for white, but the 3LCD projector has richer more saturated colors that can cut though more ambient light, by virtue of being about to produce 1000 lumens of any primary color, while the DLP in this case, can only do 750 lumens. Mind you some DLP projectors have larger than 25% clear slices, others have different proportions of red, green and blue, and some have additional colors. The key point, though is that the “white” segment, is a bit of a cheat (unless you are doing black and white/gray presentations).

Bottom line? You definitely get more kick, overall, with an LCD projector with the same rated brightness. Is the difference dramatic? Not hardly, but it is a real difference, especially if you like bright colors and you have a fair amount of room lighting. On the other hand, in a fully darkened room, you are less likely to notice the DLP weakness. Thing is, today - who (other than home theater), operates a projector in a fully darkened room? Answer - pretty much nobody. So, score a plus for 3LCD over DLP. Simply stated, you get richer colors and more color lumens, for the same amount of white lumens. BTW, it isn’t that simple - of course. In reality, with a call for red, a DLP projector could get you that 1000 lumens, buy using the clear filter as well as the red one. Trouble is, those extra lumens aren’t pure red, but an equal mix of red, green and blue - in fact exactly what you would get if you turned on another light in the room. Bottom line, 3LCD projectors will have the color saturation advantage when there’s ambient light present.

Another area the 3LCD Group, strongly favored LCD projectors is color accuracy. Now, those of you who have been following home theater projectors for some time, realize, that most home theater projectors are pretty color accurate, regardless of the technology, and most can use some minor adjusting to make them better. But, that’s the home market, where lumens have always been secondary, considered far less important that color accuracy, black levels and shadow detail. In the business market, when you want maximum lumens from a DLP projector, you are likely to find that colors - notably bright reds and yellows, tend to be poorly reproduced. This is nothing new, I comment on this in almost every review of a business DLP projector, and have mentioned this as recently as last month’s Dell M209X review. Bright reds tend to look more like a deep red wine color. Bright yellows tend to be more of a sickly, mustardy (a real word?), yellow green. Now, this isn’t how it has to be. Certainly, the vast majority of business DLP projectors can produce very good colors including those bright reds and yellows, however, in most cases you have to find the optimal setting - usually a Video mode. Thing is, select the Video mode, and not only do colors start looking good, but brightness often drops in half. Therefore, in our previous example, if you need highly accurate colors, that 3000 lumen DLP, may, in reality not perform much better than 3LCD projectors with 1500 - 2000 lumens. Now that is something to think about.

Mind you, DLP’s have their strengths, especially in contrast and black levels. So don’t think the battle is totally one sided. The purpose here, is to give you enough information, so you can “choose wisely.”

OK that’s more than enough to digest, especially without good graphics to illustrate.<p></p>

In the next “chapter” - part two, we’ll look at a bit more technology, but get started on some of the market dynamics.  And, perhaps a story from our Karaoke cruise - (or rather from what I remember of it).  -art 

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Optoma HD71 Review Update

Looks like late this weekend before the review posts (too much fun on vacation and trade show). In my two days in between, I spent 6-7 more hours watching the HD71 in my viewing room.    Overall, I’m extremely impressed.  This is a great projector if you  must have some lighting on.  It cruised with low lighting, where my JVC (still pretty bright) would have me running to turn off most of it.   

Finally, we have here a serious alternative to the Panasonic PT-AX200U, for those looking for a bright projector.

This gives those that favor DLP a nice, bright alternative.

Overall, I found the color balance and skin tones to be very good, although I had to drop the color saturation a little. But, even slightly oversaturated, they look good, and that extra saturation comes in handy with some ambient lighting.

That’s pretty much the gist of it. To me, it is a “on your short list” 720p projector. If it will work in your room from a placement standpoint, and you can live with a not especially quiet DLP projector (and DLP projectors tend to be the noisiest), it is an excellent value that should please most.

Optoma made a “gud-un”. -art

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Optoma HD71 Review - A super bright 720p home theater projector - first thoughts

So far, so good! As many of you know, I’m a big fan of brighter is better when it comes to home theater projectors. Most of today’s home cinema projectors can barely handle the larger screens - greater than 110″ diagonal, when new. And then, the lamp dims over time.

I’ve really been looking forward to reviewing the Optoma HD71, and was thrilled to see it arrive on Wednesday (two days ago). Normally, I need at least a week to do a review, but, unfortunately, I’m leaving for three weeks of travel, starting with family vacation tomorrow, then a trade show, and finally Japan, on business.

As a result, I’m going to use this post to give you some initial impressions. My plan is to post a more comprehensive review on our website, late next week (4/10/08). I should note, however, that I will not get the opportunity to do as much viewing of the projector as I would like, and will not have time to do the usual set of screen photos. The review will be finished late April, when I return, but there should be plenty of substance for you all to consider, between now and then.

So far, I have watched an hour or two of the projector, before any calibration. Then, yesterday, I calibrated the HD71 and took all the usual measurements. Last evening I managed to log a few hours watching the calibrated HD71.

OK, here’s what I’ve learned, so far:

Out of the box performance is not overly impressive, in terms of color accuracy. This seems to be typical of Optoma’s home theater projectors. Calibrating made major improvements. Unlike many home theater projectors, though, pre-calibration measurements were a bit unusual. With most projectors, the various grayscale measurements - from white -100 IRE, to dark gray - 30 IRE, are fairly consistent, or there is a definite steady shift in color from light to dark. Typical might be a projector that has a color temp of 6900K for white, becoming warmer and shifting down to perhaps 6300K by 30 IRE. Not so, the Optoma HD81.

Instead, the HD71’s color temperature, through the range is more of a roller coaster. This made it more difficult to get a great calibration, but, the end result was definitely pretty good.

The other issue, is that Cinema mode defaults to Warm color temperature, which produces a way too warm image. Initial measurements had measured from a high of just under 6000K (6500K is ideal), down to just under 5000K by 30 IRE.

I decided to change the basic color temp setting to Cool, and calibrate from there. The end result was a good, but not spectacular range from 6253K to 6831K. “Close enough for government work!”.

I also adjusted the Bright mode. the range was a little wider, but again, not bad. Had I more time to spend, I’m sure I could have further improved the color balance for Bright mode.

That brings us to brightness! Are you sitting down? The HD71, with lamp on full power, and in the calibrated Cinema mode, produced a really brilliant 1040 lumens. Now most home theater projectors in their equivalent modes, tend to fall between 350 and 500 lumens. There are only a couple of projectors, including the roughly $8000 Optoma HD81-LV, that are brighter. That means this is truly an exceptionally bright projector, for home theater. For once, while watching on my 128″ firehawk, I actually put the projector in low lamp mode, as I had the lumens to spare.

In the brightest measured mode, the HD71 measured just over 2000 lumens! Of all the 720p resolution projectors out there, only the Panasonic PT-AE2000U beat the HD71, (by a few hundred lumens). But, the Panasonic, in its best mode topped out at 672 lumens, no match for the Optoma. In the Panasonic’s brighter Vivid Cinema mode, it did 1110 lumens, making the two about equal.

I haven’t been able to spend enough time, so far, though to determine the overall picture quality differences between the HD71 in its cinema mode, and the Panasonic in its two cinema modes.

I can comment briefly on fan noise. DLP projectors are typically the noisiest, and the Optoma is no exception. Even in low lamp mode, its noise levels are not particularly quiet. Those who are noise adverse probably won’t find this projector acceptable even in low power. In high power, the projector is definitely loud when compared to most non-DLP projectors. It is definitely noisier, for example than the Epson Home Cinema 720, which is probably the loudest of the 720p home theater projectors. Consider, though, that more fan noise is something we probably must expect on a DLP projector this bright. An interesting trade-off!

To finish up my viewing so far, I did get in a couple of hours of post calibration movie watching last night. I started with Casino Royale, and I was overall, very pleased with the color balance. I am not yet prepared to comment on black level and shadow detail.

In other words, stay tuned!

So far, though, I’m very pleased with the HD71. It’s about time the Panasonic had some serious competition for those that need lots of lumens for large screens, more than a little ambient light, and general sports viewing.

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Major Error on 1080p Projector Comparison

Greetings All!

It has been brought to my attention, that the numbers I cited, in this blog, and in the report, relating to the Panasonic rebate, are incorrect:I reported that the new Promotion was going to be $400 mail-in cash rebate, and a $250 Blockbuster rental card. Well it turns out I screwed up. I see now (from the new banners just received from Panasonic’s ad campaign, and a couple of emails from dealers), that the campaign is actually $650, consisting of $400 in Blockbuster rentals, something that many folks will value as being worth far less, and $250 value for an extra year extended warranty! I checked an email received from Panasonic, and it too said that.Unless I were to value the $650 of blockbuster rentals and warranty, as about the same as cash (and I know many don’t like the Blockbuster cards), that should put the Panasonic in the $2000 - $3500 range.

Here’s how I’m going to treat things:

The awards, as they sit, will remain. Afterall, for those that will value the Blockbuster card as useful, and extra year warranty, it could just barely be rationalized that the PT-AE2000U still makes the top of the lower price category.

But more to the point, if I do not leave it there, I need to change the price point, so that I have at least three projectors in the Entry level category, which might mean making the lowest category $2400 and under, or something like that. That would move a couple projectors over, and force me to redo both the Under $2k and $2K to $3500 sections. All that would occomplish is moving back all reviews a couple of weeks. I just don’t have the “strength” to redo it all. Sorry!

I will, however alter some of the text in the report to correct about the rebate, and I will factor in the different rebate, in the current one-on-one comparisions that are in progress right now, including Panny vs Sanyo, Panny vs HC4900, Panny vs. Epson Home Cinema UB, and assign it a different value proposition.This will delay posting them a couple of days, now probably Thursday night when 6-8 comparisons will now post, as as three of the four I have already written, but not posted, involve the Panasonic.

Again, my apologies, for a grave error on my part. I can’t even blame it on Panasonic. I spoke with them, misunderstood, and then didn’t look closely at the email they sent me, which properly stated the program, so the fault is all mine. -art

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Opinion, Products | 4 Comments »

The 2008 1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report is Posted

Not complete yet, images not yet added, and not fully proofed, but there’s plenty there.

Best In Class $2000 and under:  Panasonic PT-AE2000U

Best In Class $2000 to $3500:  Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB

Best In Class $3500 to $10,000:  JVC DLA-RS2

The report also lists Runner-Up awards and Special Interest awards. 

Click for the 2008 1080p Home Theater Projector Report. Enjoy! 

Posted in New Projector Reviews, News, Opinion | 3 Comments »

The 2008 1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report is Posted

Not complete yet, images not yet added, and not fully proofed, but there’s plenty there.Best In Class $2000 and under:  Panasonic PT-AE2000UBest In Class $2000 to $3500:  Epson Home Cinema 1080 UBBest In Class $3500 to $10,000:  JVC DLA-RS2The report also lists Runner-Up awards and Special Interest awards. Click for the 2008 1080p Home Theater Projector Report. Enjoy! 

Posted in New Projector Reviews, News, Opinion | No Comments »

1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report Slightly Delayed

Greetings all,

I’m working hard on the report, but with 20 projectors under consideration, it has become a much more formidable task, than last year’s. While my goal has been to publish this Friday evening, I am convinced, that I can’t complete the entire report by then.

I’m now expecting to have the full report posted on Tuesday, March 18th. If I can, I may post some sections as early as this Friday, but no promises. Hang in there! -art

Posted in Industry, New Projector Reviews, Opinion | 5 Comments »

Epson 1080UB - Convergence Issue - Update

Greetings all, I’ve been able to cajole dealers into more specific numbers with two of the four dealers reporting having now checked all Epson return records for convergence issues.With the more precise numbers I can now report that The four dealers I requested info from, between them, have sold a minimum of about 365 and a maximum of about 430 projectors.  Combined reported returns is 8-9 projectors, for a convergence issue rate of less than 3%.  These four dealers carry the Home Cinema 1080 UB, however the light engine is identical on the home and pro, so there is no understandable reason why one would suffer an issue like this more than the other.Again, some buyers may not report back to the dealer, speaking only with Epson, however, that percentage is probably no more than half (possibly much lower), and I believe, definitely less than 2/3.   Using the 50% number, that provides a maximum failure rate (unacceptable convergence problems) of less than 6%, and if using 2/3, actually less than 8%.  So, best case, is all customers getting Epson units with a conversion issue, are advising their dealers, in which case our best usable number is “under 3%” while our “worst case” with 2/3 of buyers not notifying their dealers, and that is just under 8%.  Definitely a problem, but certainly not a huge one.  And it seems Epson is quickly replacing any units with problems through their replacement warranty, at no charge to the end user.  -art 

Posted in Opinion, Products | 4 Comments »