Comments on: New Home Theater Projectors – Review Activity Update

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:12:11 +0000

Hi Logan, First re the whine – no I don’t, but then I’m getting up there in years – haven’t heard the sonic alarms in malls in a decade. If it’s real high frequency, I may well miss it.

I’ve commented on both Sharp, and HW15 in the W6000 review, as you’ve probably seen by now. As to the joystick for lens shift – ok, if you like that – Personally, it’s the lens shift I like. I much prefer two separate controls, only in that they are usually easier to get exactly the way you want them. Overall I found the W6000 to be very sharp. I don’t recall reducing the setting at all. I was just admiring the sharpness last night, and didn’t notice any more than the usual slight oversharpening, which, btw, I mostly attribute to the way they setup the content on Blu-ray. -art

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:08:30 +0000

James M. Would love to get in a SIM2. We tried once (the D80) but the unit had a problem. Right now, though I have to concentrate on the high volume projectors that most are waiting to hear about – Epson, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Optoma, etc… -art

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:18:57 +0000

Not a full article, but it will be covered in the competitors section of the RS15 review. With both Sony and JVC replacing models, it makes little sense over here (where it’s crunch time), to spend time comparing it to the older RS10. I’m hoping to have the RS15 in in November, but no confirmation yet.

That said, the HW15 isnt that much of an improvement over the older HW10, but it is a lot less money. Last year I had a definite preference for the RS10 over the HW10. From a performance standpoint, I suspect the same will be the case. The difference this time though, is that they are not as price competitive. Sony has lowered its cost enough to slug it out price wise with the Epson 8500UB, BenQ W6000, and others in the market “sweet spot” of $2000 – $3000. The JVC is now priced a good well over $1000 more. So, most likely, the JVC will still be the preferred product from a performance standpoint (thanks primarily to noticeably better black performance, and accomplishing that without a dynamic iris – and the baggage that comes with those), while many will choose the Sony, because of the lower price point. It will be interesting to see of the RS15 has any substantial improvements over the RS10. -art

By: Logan Ross

Logan Ross — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:15:36 +0000

Hi Art,
Any chance you could do a comparison of the Sony HW-15 to the JVC RS10/15? Considering they ar their copanies respective entry level machines and use the same technology, it would be great to understand how they stack up against one another.

By: Ivan Nunez

Ivan Nunez — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:27:42 +0000

Thank you Art for the response. I realized I made a mistake too, thank you for correcting me. Yes, being down around 7 inches will be a problem. My only option would to be tilt the projector and use keystone correction. Would you recommend this Art? I’m thinking of tilting the projector enough to make it raise about at least another ten inches. I don’t know if you have tested the keystone correction on the Mitsubishi hc3800, but in-case you have was the image quality degraded to a point where it a makes a huge difference? Some people say its bad while others say it really isn’t. Your professional opinion would be of good use here Art.

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:10:38 +0000

That makes good sense to me. -art

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:59:07 +0000

My error, I botched the whole calculation. I updated it yesterday, after 4 or 5 readers like yourself reported the faulty math (on several levels). BTW, for a 100″ the offset is an official 16.53 inches. So, for 120 inch diagonal (59 inch high screen – not the 54 inches you mention), and an 8 foot ceiling: 96 inches, -10 inches from ceiling to center of lens, -20 inches (approximate offset for 120 inch screen, puts the top of the screen surface down 30 inches – in other words, at 66 inches. With a 120 inch screen being 59 inches high, that puts the bottom of the screen surface, way down around 7 inches. Sorry, that math probably doesn’t help you. The HC3800 joins a long list of Optoma and other DLP’s with that huge amount of offset (including all recent 720p Mitsubishi DLP home projectors. -art

By: Ivan Nunez

Ivan Nunez — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:23:47 +0000

Hey Art, I know this isnt a place to talk about Mitsubishi hc3800, but I realized that in your “Len Shift” section, you said that in order to achieve a 120″ diagonals screen in a 8ft ceiling assuming the center lens of the projector are 10″ below the ceiling; the bottom of the screen will be just 25″ off the ground. Is that having the projector tilted up or perpendicular to the ground? I just wanted to clarify if that is correct because after doing my calculation it should be just 16″ off the ground since its offset is about 29% then 96″(8ft ceiling)- 10″ (center lens below ceiling) – 16″ (projector offset) -54″ (height of 120″ screen) = 16″. Can you verify if this correct because depending on your answer it may not fit my accommodation. Sorry for the long paragraph. Just to let you know, keep up the good work I find your reviews to be the most insightful.

By: Titus

Titus — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:28:47 +0000

I’m quite sure the sound comes from the color wheel changing rpm for 24Hz mode. ImageAI was off and the projector was in low lamp mode all the time. I had my Oppo BDP-83 on pause, displaying exactly the same frame. The only change I made was switching back and forth between 24Hz and 60Hz. Every single time, switching from 60 to 24Hz resulted in part of the noise lowering its pitch, and switching back to 60Hz consistently brought the noise back to its previous, higher pitch.

There is a second, equally loud component of noise coming from the HD20 which remains unchanged when switching between 24 and 60Hz, but increases in pitch and gets much louder when going from low lamp to bright mode. That must be the fan.

By: Art Feierman

Art Feierman — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:09:43 +0000

hmm, interesting I’ll see what I can do. There’s a question whether you are hearing the fan noise change or the color wheel rpm rate. Also, with the Optoma, do you have the ImageAI on? If I recall, the fan changes speeds depending if Image AI is on. Also, as to whether that relates to rainbows, or the fact that it is simply 24fps not 60, is causing you to be more rainbow sensitive, rather than the color wheel itself. -a