Projectors: Epson Home Cinema 720 - A first look

The Home Cinema 720 has been in use quite a bit in the first 48+ hours. This is going to be a challenging review for me to do. Why? Because other than the Epson all-in-one, the MovieMate 72, which I posted mid-December, all I have been watching and reviewing are far more expensive 1080p projectors - from the Panasonic PT-AE2000U at over double this Epson’s price, to the Sony and RS1, between 3 and 4 times the price, and the JVC RS2 at over 6 times the price.

Not surprising, the first night, when I pulled down the JVC DLA-RS2, and substituted the Epson Home Cinema 720, I was rather dissapointed watching movies. Black level performance for the Epson seemed pretty average for 720p projectors and significantly inferior to the JVC RS2.

I figured the best thing to do was to try to stay away from the RS2, going foward. Friday came along, and for me, that was a day of watching football, culminating with the Alamo Bowl, where Penn State beat Texax A&M (Go Nittany Lions, nice game Aggies). At various points during the day, I watched the games in Dynamic Mode and Livingroom Mode. As is typical, Epson’s Dynamic mode, is not what you would call accurate, but it sure has a ton of punch to it. Despite the strong yellow and greens, and contrast, my friends preferred it over LivingRoom, based on the significantly brighter image. Myself, I preferred LivingRoom mode, so over the course of 3 games I spent a good deal of time in both modes. I should mention that Epson rates the Home Cinema 720 projector at 1600 lumens, and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1 - two very impressive specs!

My first impression about how the Epson stacks up to the competition needs to be comparing it to the Panasonic PT-AX200U. I’m going to assume the Panasonic still has more lumens, and further, in Dynamic mode produces a more accurate image in terms of color balance, and image dynamics. On the other hand, in Dynamic Mode the Epson has tweaked it to really “pop”. Colors are screaming off the screen; loud, vibrant, intense. The PT-AX200U, by comparison, though brighter, would come off as a bit muted by comparison. I’d have to say, that while the Epson may not be as accurate in its dynamic mode, or as bright, that using that mode, the Epson just burns right through a goodly amount of ambient light. The Epson Home Cinema 720 definitely can do battle with the Panasonic overall, in ambient light situations, especially sports. BTW, I did play around by eye, (no measuring), with the various controls of the Epson, and was able to come up with a better mix of settings for Dynamic, that gave up little overall “pop”, but tamed the yellow-greens a little. That was the compromise we ended up with for watching the Penn State game.

Movies! This is where I got into trouble. It was late evening, I had just published the JVC RS2 review, and was editing errors, etc. I perhaps foolishly decided to replace the RS2 with the Epson HC720. I had on Casino Royale, and was admiring the black levels and shadow detail of the JVC, on some dark scenes, when I switched to the Epson. What a dissapointment. There is no comparison between the two. Of course I was switching between what is the best under $10K projector at black levels, to a “good” thousand dollar 720p projector. That’s like going from the Rolls Royce, perhaps, to a Honda Accord. The Honda may be nice, but not when you’ve just stepped out of the Rolls.

The good news is that after that shocking start, last night, I gathered the family together to watch Transformers, on HD-DVD. I picked it up earlier in the day, so was looking forward to it, not having seen it since the theater.

And boy was watching it fun. Most importantly, the Epson Home Cinema 720 did great. We watched in Theater Mode, filling about 125″ diagonal of my 128″ screen. Plenty of lumens for the watching, and eye popping colors, which is exactly what Transformers calls for. And skin tones looked really good too. This is all before I have measured and made adjustments to the grayscale, etc., which will happen tonight.

So, now I’m back to normal. Watching that movie, got those 1080p “high performance black level” 1080p’s out of my mind, and my “subjective” opinions should now be more “objective” if that makes any sense to you!

So, what are my initial impressions? Hmmm. Brightness - should be close to the Panasonic, with the Epson probably having more kick, in Dynamic mode, but less accuracy, (without taming those greens and yellows a bit). Very natural Theater mode, haven’t spent much time on the Theater Black modes yet. That’s where I should find the “best” performance in terms of black levels and shadow detail. The Living Room mode looks very good, for sports and other HDTV I watched.

As always from Epson, the projector seems very well built, has a great warranty - 2 years parts and labor, with a 2 year overnight replacement program, and so far, it seems that the Epson will need very little adjustment in its better modes, for ideal viewing.

One more thing. Epson is claiming up to 4000 hours on its lamp, when in low lamp mode. That should be a plus to those on a financial diet.

OK stay tune for the full review. It’s Monday the 31st, and this probably won’t post until Thursday evening, or even Friday - a few days behind schedule.

In the meantime I’m going to also try to post two short screen reviews - the dnp SuperNova, and the Elite Home Series Accoustic screen, by this weekend! Hang in there, and Happy New Years! -art

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 3 Comments »

JVC DLA-RS2 projector - first look

Wow! Even given that my own RS1 has about 1000 hours on the lamp (which means mine is not as bright as when new), the switch to the RS2 was immediately impressive (despite being rated at 600 lumens vs. 700 lumens for the JVC RS1). Black levels are improved, and noticeably so. I also put the RS2 side by side with the Sony VW60, and took a number of photos. I’d say, off the top, that the JVC DLA-RS2 has as much advantage over the new Sony, as the older RS1 had against the VW50. Some of those side-by-side images will appear in the review when published.

I immediately detected what seems to be a slight amount of black crushing (I haven’t measured or calibrated yet), however the quick fix, was not brightness, but to change the gamma from Normal to Theater 1. Better might be to go to a custom gamma of 2.1 (or maybe 2.0) instead of the default 2.2. I’ll know more as I progress…

OK, I started this post two days ago, but never posted it. Now I can tell you that I have measured the JVC RS2, and the review projector sent to me, if possible, is even more dead on the money, than an RS1. The combination of the Cinema setting and Low color temperature, is superb. For those who care, measuring at 100 IRE (white) and gray levels of 80IRE, 50IRE and 30IRE, are all within 110K a tiny variation, with 30 IRE bein the lowest at 6379K and white (100 IRE) the coolest, at 6488. And green is virtually in perfect balance at all IREs measured. In otherwords, the RS2 is ready to go, if all production projectors are as tightly tuned as this one.

One difference between the two projectors is fine tuning the color. With the RS2, there are now two Memory settings in addition to Low, Medium and High color temperatures. I did use Memory 1 to adjust the color temperature very slightly, to be even closer to the ideal 6500K. I’ll publish those numbers in the review.

BTW, a week ago I projected that the review would post Monday night. At the time I just wasn’t thinking ahead, and didn’t realize Monday night is Christmas eve.

So, look for the review to post Wednesday, probably early evening.

Some have asked me about motion blur, something associated with LCD and LCoS projectors (and absent from DLP’s because those chips are faster. The motion blur eludes me. I just don’t see it, and I do wonder if some are more sensitive to it than others. It may be like the rainbow effect with single chip DLP projectors, some are bothered by it, most never see it. So, I don’t see any motion blur, but others might.

Like the RS1, the JVC RS2 has plenty of brightness in best mode, handling my 128″ firehawk screen without any problem, when the room is fully darkened. And again, like the RS1, the RS2 doesn’t get a real boost in lumens when you select Normal or Dynamic modes. So, while the RS2 is, in best mode, one of the brightest projectors around (with only the Optoma HD81-LV and InFocus IN82 being significantly brighter) for movie watching, it doesn’t have a whole lot of extra power if you want sports with some lights on. That said, I’ve watched tons of TV and especially sports with modest lighting, on the RS1, and have no doubt that the RS2 will do just as well.

That’s enough for now, look for the review. Bottom line: Looks like the JVC RS2 will be the home theater projector to beat, in the under $10K range, unless you have need for one of the couple of projectors that is significantly brighter. None of the lower priced projectors though, can match its brightness, overall.

Posted in New Projector Reviews, Products | 3 Comments »

Panasonic PT-AE2000U Home Theater Projectors - Update to the Review

For those of you interested in the Panasonic PT-AE2000U 1080p LCD home theater projector, and who have read my previous review, published five weeks ago, are aware that the original review was done doing a pre-production version of the Panasonic projector.

As is not uncommon for pre-production units, there were some issues. Most notably, the projector did not produce color evenly across the screen. While no projector is perfect at it, 3 panel projectors - be they LCD or LCoS are more susceptable to the problem.

The first PT-AE2000U, a 3LCD projector, exhibited what could only be described as significant variation in the background color temperature. It was enough to be detectable under normal viewing, not just with a gray or white screen being projected. Of note, it was far more warm (redish) on the left side, and more bluish (cool color temperature) on the right.

The full production PT-AE2000U I just received still shifts a bit, but it is normal. The amount of shift is far less, and instead of being a left to right thing, it is mostly the upper left and upper right corners that are a little cooler. Overall, measuring the color temperature at many points across the screen, the color temperature stayed within about a 350K range except for those extreme corners where it ended up about 500K higher color temperature than the lowest readings.

That’s a major improvement. And, unless you are specifically looking for that shift toward blue in the upper corners, you likely will never notice an issue during normal viewing. Even finding it, on normal content, will be a bit difficult. Bottom line - as expected, the production PT-AE2000U is much improved over the older one.

A second issue relative to the full review emerges, however. While I warned in the review that the wide color shift made my grayscale color temperature measurements unreliable, even I was surprised to find that my original recommendations, from the first calibration, when plugged into this projector, produced decent results, but I felt it was worthwhile to remeasure everything, and come up with fresh recommendations based on the newer projector.

I will be creating an update page, which will be included in the Panasonic PT-AE2000U review. This should publish probably 12/27. First I have to finish up the JVC DLA-RS2 review, which by the way, is going great. It is as impressive today, against the competition, as the older RS1 was, compared to its competition 8 months ago, when the RS1 started shipping.

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Two major reviews coming: JVC RS2, and Epson HC1080UB

Ahh! Finally!

Just received confirmation that the JVC RS2 will be arriving tomorrow, Thursday, the 20th! I can’t wait. I’m biased, being an owner of the RS1, which most reviewers pretty much agreed was this past year’s projector to beat. The JVC DLA-RS2 has several advantages, including power zoom and focus, support for anamorphic lenses, and most importantly even better contrast and black levels. And that’s something since the RS1 is the reigning champ in both regards. With an $7995 MSRP (US), it is premium priced, and probably well worth it. My goal will be to publish the review by Dec. 28th.

I’ll post some preliminary thoughts on the RS2 in this blog, while reviewing.

The Epson Home Cinema 720 is the second projector inbound this week, and will also post before year end. The HC720 is already shipping and is Epson’s replacement to their Home Cinema 400 reviewed earlier this year.

Coming the first week of January, I’m now told, will be, Epson’s top of the line Home Cinema 1080UB. Claiming a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, the Epson Home Cinema 1080UB, offers promise of the best overall black levels of any LCD home theater projector yet. It uses a dynamic iris to help in this regard. Who knows? Can it give JVC’s DLA-RS2 a run for the money? It will cost less than half of the JVC.

So, three very exciting reviews coming. Stay tuned! -art

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Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD Wars Holiday Update

I’ve been roaming the usual brick and mortar stores this week to see what’s going on in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD wars.

Perhaps the first significant thing I saw, was lower prices on Blu-ray players, first, at Best Buy in Lake Forest, CA. Samsung Blu-ray players for $299 (one disc included, Spiderman 3, I think).

Then I just read somewhere (not confirmed) that Circuit City is offering a Sony Blu-ray player for $299, with five free titles. Now that works out to well less than $200 after you figure at least $25 per disc.

I’ve seen Toshiba HD-DVD players around for $199 for a while now, but I haven’t followed whether they have bundled discs.

Also good news for consumers, Wal-Mart apparently offered up an HD-DVD player for $99 at one of their “secret sales” which go out to their mailing list. (That was back before Thanksgiving.) A more recent Wal-Mart secret sale had the Toshiba HD-A3 player for $298, but with 12 free HD-DVD titles. Now based on the normal selling prices of HD-DVD discs, that’s pretty close to a free HD-DVD player!

On the bright side, thanks to Wal-Mart, my original prediction back in late 2006 in the first Blu-ray vs HD-DVD article, turns out to be in part true. Back then I predicted that consumers would probably be able to buy a hi-def player for under $100, and Walmart has made that happen. Of course I predicted both HD-DVD and Blu-ray would be at that price, so I didn’t get it all right.

Still HD-DVD for $99, and a $299 Blu-ray player with $125-$175 worth of free discs, is going to make for very happy shoppers this month.

As to who’s winning the war? Well, Blu-ray still has the advantage in most areas (except player price).

I noted that the local Best Buy had 3 sections of Blu-ray titles, vs only 2 of HD-DVD titles.

Last time I wrote about Blu-ray vs HD-DVD discs, the big news was pro HD-DVD - that Paramount joined Universal as the two exclusively HD-DVD studios (except for Spielberg’s formidible library). This time around, no major announcements, but, interestingly, I see that Warner, who has been consistantly supporting both formats, just released Blade Runner, in standard DVD and Blu-ray, but no mention of HD-DVD. Does this mean anything? Who knows. On the other hand, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is right around the corner (2nd week of January), and it is a time when announcements can be expected.

(Update: One of the comments received below just advised that Blade Runner is available on HD-DVD, and I thought that worth adding to the blog itself. Strange that they aren’t advertising HD-DVD, but that should have HD-DVD owners feeling a little more secure.)

Perhaps most significantly, I found this quote on another blog: “During the Black Friday period, BD titles made up 72.6% of all high-def purchases, with HD DVD totaling 27.4%, according to Nielsen/VideoScan figures cited by the [Blu-ray Disc Association].”

What to do? Personally, I’m rooting for Blu-ray, even though I have both a PS3, and a Toshiba, but it doesn’t really matter. At worst case, if you pick the format that doesn’t survive, you’ll still amass a collection of many dozens of movies, (before the dust has settled) for the format you start with, and you will always be able to play them as long as you have a working player.

With prices on Blu-ray and HD-DVD players at their current levels, my advice to all of you with home theater projectors, or planning on one soon, is to definitely get at least one format immediately. The differences between standard DVD and either hi-def format, are astounding on the big screen. It’s more than just resolution, the overall picture quality is usually dramatically better for viewing. Those of us with home theater projectors can truly appreciate these differences. Go for it. -art

Posted in Industry, News | 4 Comments »

First close look at the Epson MovieMate 72 - a high performance all-in-one home theater projector

Greetings all,

Before I start rambling on about this new Epson projector I’m reviewing, and, since this is my first official blog, I’ll take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Art Feierman, and I’ve been involved in the AV industry most of my career, since getting out of college in 1972 (go Penn State football).

I’ve owned a major AV online reseller, but am having even more fun as a reviewer of home theater projectors.
Turns out, it is a natural fit.

Launching a blog is something I’ve been meaning to get around to for more than year, but have just been very busy growing my business: Projector Reviews.

BTW, I plan to post at least twice a week, with updates on reviews in progress, as well as assorted tidbits on products, how to get the most of your home theater, and useful tips on choosing wisely.

Here goes:
Welcome! A first look at an all-in-one projector I am currently reviewing - Epson’s MovieMate 72. Very, very, cool!

OK, I’m in the middle of reviewing Epson’s new MovieMate 72. With a little luck, the review will post Sunday night 12-16-07, but probably it will happen Monday night.

Here are some preliminary thoughts.

Talk about a great last minute present for the whole family, the Epson MovieMate 72, finally brings a reasonably high level of overall performance to those craving an all-in-one home entertainment projector. The Epson has a built in DVD player, plus reasonably good sound (hey, it’s a small box), and for the first time, a true HD resolution picture (720p resolution). Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, Products | 3 Comments »