Are you planning (or do you already have somewhere) a comparison list of the projectors you’ve fully reviewed? I would think that would be the single most helpful piece of information that you could provide. In my case, I’m specifically (especially) looking for a comparison of measured ANSI lumen output on each of the available modes for “all” projectors. I have an old Infocus SP4805, a BenQ PE7700, and am looking at getting a 1080p in the near future, but would like to know the relative lumen values of each. It seems that they’re occasionally buried in a review, or I have to go based on “X is brighter than Y”, etc..
Thanks!

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Hi,

First, for home theater projectors there is a directory - found at the top of the site (green tabs), which is “curiously” named “Home Theater Projectors” That lists all reviews by brand, sorted by date. We are soon to launch a search function for finding similar projectors - it should be up in the next 2-3 weeks. In that section you would be able to search for, say: 1080p projectors, with lens shift between $2000 and $3000, with a at least x number of lumens. Stay tuned.

My site does not support dynamically creating tables that would do just what you would like, and there are so many different modes on different projectors, that it would be difficult to do straight matchups - other than “best mode” and brightest mode. With brightest mode, there is much variation in color accuracy, etc, some are very good, some are purely “max lumens, max picture quality compromise” modes.

However, for the 1080p projector comparison report which starts late January, I will endeavor to build out some sort of chart that will help comparing brightness between projectors. There are fewer and fewer 720p projectors around these days, so it’s not as confusing as with all the new 1080p projectors. -art

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More likely than breaking out the Optic One again, I will have Mike remeasure one or two modes from the Panasonic PT-AE3000 or the Sanyo PLV-Z3000, with his new gear. That accomplishes the same thing - we should be able to say something like: For comparison, reduce the reported lumens in older reviews by ??% to get a good idea of how they would measure with the new equipment. Might even put a page up with our estimates for all the favorite projectors. -art

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Greetings Dave,

Well, you are probably right, but then Mike just got in his new meter, and we figure the sooner we switch over, the better. True, this isn’t a great time to do it, but unless we wait until early March, there won’t be a “good time” Consider:

Still plenty of “new projectors” that need reviewing - besides the Epson 6500 UB, we have these in our queue: Epson Home Cinema 6100 and Home Cinema 700, JVC RS10 and RS20, SIM2 D80E, the Sony VPL-VW70. All of these are “late season” projectors, and all will be around for a couple to several months after next fall’s crop of projectors starts to hit in August/September 2009. If we waited, then come next September, people would be looking at “old numbers” for the Epson’s JVC’s and Sony’s when comparing to the newly released Mitsubishi’s, Sanyo’s and Panasonics. Optoma, InFocus and BenQ don’t seem to release products on any predictable timeframe, to further complicate things.

So, - sooner is better than later, we figure! I plan to have Mike either provide measurements of the 6500 UB with both sets of equipment, or we will remeasure one of the recently reviewed - probably the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 or the Panasonic PT-AE3000, with the new meter.

The other reason for “now” rather than later, is that new software may also give us slightly different calibration settings, and the sooner we start reporting the new ones, the happier most new owners will be. I don’t expect any significant changes in calibration settings, but we will have more accurate readings in the low IRE ranges, where the Optic One is limited in sensitivity.

Hang in there! -art (and happy holidays!)