This is just a quickie notification, that our annual Classroom Education projector report is going live this week.  I know that’s off topic for this blog, but I figure some of you might be interested. As with all reports, it will go up, piece by piece.

BTW one of the most interesting projectors in the report may not be ideal for the home, but if 3D sports ever really get going, this might be a hot projector for doing 3D in sports bars, etc, considering it uses passive glasses and has over 5000 usable lumens, for the brightest 3D I’ve seen yet without spending $5000+ ($1899).  One projector handles 3D for one eye, the other handles the other eye’s 3D image.   So, if you have a sports bar, check out the Epson W16SK review.

And for those of you who think Pocket and Pico projectors are cool, and want one, we’re writing up the review of a cool Pocket projector from HB Opto.  What makes it cool?  Well, lots of features, including 3D, and SXGA resolution (1280×800).  It will handle 1080p sources, such as my PS3.  But what tends to really set it apart, is having a few hundred lumens, and being able to deliver them from a similarly sized battery pack!

As long as I’ve got your attention, coming up in the next few weeks:  Epson Home Cinema 750HD, BenQ W1080ST (basically it seems to be a short throw version of the W1070, and Acer H6510.   That’s a nice collection of around and under $1000 home theater/entertainment projectors.   Stay tuned.

Click for this year’s Best Home Theater Projectors report winners, now published.

There are many more pages to the report, along with our new Guide to Choosing the Best Home Theater Projector for You, all of which will go live over the next 72 hours.

I’m done reviewing for the next week or so. I started writing up the  annual comparison report for home theater projectors two nights ago.   I really expect to publish it by next Friday.  Of course I tend to be optimistic about the timelines, as you all know, but I will try!  I have to switch gears and starting working education projectors for the annual education report, which has to publish by mid-April, so I can’t slip too much.

Still a couple of things to mention.  First, Acer shipped me another H9500BD projector,since I worked with an early one.  This one has several fixes and more robust image control.  I’ve been watching the H9500BD for the last few days, and I do believe I can say, that the current H9500BD is delivering more accurate color than we could get out of the early one reviewed over a year ago.  Also someone already emailed me asking about new H9500BD calibration numbers.  I will post the new results, replacing the old data in the Acer projector review’s existing calibration page.  CMS settings, which we’ve never published for projectors, were taken, and will be saved for our newly redesigned website which should be ready before June 1st.

While the results of the Acer’s calibration likely won’t be posted until after the report is finished, the new performance will be considered in our awards selection process.

The other news is that Epson just asked me if I would like their new 750HD to review.  I had to tell them we couldn’t tackle it immediately, but I would take a good look, and add a small piece on it, in the report, and do a “first look” blog.

I had hoped to get in a Panasonic Solid Shine projector for a quick look at, and also write about it briefly, in the report.  It’s technically a business projector series, but they have a 3500 lumen, 1080p projector claiming 20,000:1 contrast ratio.  They say it is ideal for sports bars…  It may well be a sensational solution for people needing an REALLY bright projector, where good black levels not great ones, are acceptable.

Enough!  It’s time to tell you all a bit about the new site.  I’ve mentioned it in some reviews, maybe a blog.  That will be my next blog!  -art

New Mitsubishi HC8000D 3D DLP Home Theatre Projector

This Mitsubishi H8000D is another DLP projector from Mitsubishi, similar to the white HC79ooDW we reviewed a couple months back, but finished in black, and with additional performance.  It offers higher contrast: 330,000:1, claims 1300 lumens, and sports a 6 segment 6X color wheel.

Mike has calibrated it, and it already looks much better than before it did when taken right out of the box, without adjustment (I spent about 5 hours with it pre-calibration), the  Cinema and most other modes exhibit too much red, which is easily noticeable on skin tones.  When I was first watching it, I “solved” that problem temporarily. just by turning down the color saturation slightly to make it more watchable.  Still, it was a lot better looking than the LCDTVs on display at Best Buy, just to have a perspective.

Mike’s calibration made a world of difference.  (OK, that might be a little much, so:  made “significant improvement!”)  Of course that’s for those of us seeking superb color accuracy.  Mike determined to calibrate this projector with Brilliant Color turned off.  (On low cost DLP projectors, if the Brilliant Color option isn’t too severe, he usually calibrates with it on.  This is a decision I normally leave for him.   Of course if you are hiring a pro calibrator, you might want both calibrated, since with this projector there’s more than a few extra lumens with it on.

The Mitsubishi HC8000D isn’t  a low cost  projector rather it street prices for about $2999, same as the projector it replaces.  As is typical of DLP projectors, it’s not particularly bright.  Still in 2D, no problem at all filling my 124″ 2.35:1 screen when watching wide screen movies, in my theater environment.

3D was a bit tougher, of course.  One real difference between this HC8000D and the lower cost model, is that this one has “custom” 3D glasses.  When you are viewing in 3D, you have a choice.  You can hand everyone these new glasses, or you can use the “universal” type that the HC7900DW has.  Why bother?  Easy.  Per Mitsubishi, you get a brighter image in 3D with their “special” glasses.  Works for me.  So far I’ve only watched about half of the Avengers in 3D.  Based on that, I’d say the projector is doing a respectable job at about 100″ diagonal with a typical 1.3 gain white screen.  When I tried to push out to fill my screen with a widescreen movie for a few minutes I definitely felt brightness was a problem.

As I’ve said many times in recent years, Mitsubishi doesn’t build light canons.  Their emphasis has never seemed to be on brightness.  Thus, I’ve usually recommended their projectors for screens 110″ diagonal or less (depending on all the usual variables.

That’s all I’ve got for you now.  The photo shoots I’m doing are:  HDTV sports, (in a few minutes), and all the movie based tonight late, and tomorrow night.  Also I’ll have a chance to run the Mitsubishi HC8000D for black levels and shadow detail, against the usual Epson Home Cinema 5020UB, but I also plan to probably embarrass the HC8000D, because the JVC DLA-X95R arrived yesterday.  Timeline wise, Mike will pick that one up for calibration on Monday, return on Tuesday.  Then I’ll also shoot some side by sides with what is sure to be outstanding black level performance (and picture), as one would expect from a $11,999 “hand built” projector with the JVC label on it.

Enough!  Photo shoot time for the HC8000D.

Hang in there.  -art

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that we were expecting the JVC DLA-X75R, essentially identical to the DLA-RS56U from the JVC Pro division, and the Mitsubishi HC8000D.  I had hoped both would arrive before this weekend.

Alas, a few changes.  In speaking with Mitsubishi this past week, they now tell me that an HC8000D 3D projector will ship out and arrive sometime late this week.

JVC also had a problem.  The JVC DLA-X75R it turns out would not be available until a new batch arrived at the end of January.  I would say “darn” or something more emphatic, but for JVC’s alternative:  They are instead, shipping me this week, a DLA-X95R, the JVC flagship home theatre projector. The JVC Pro group’s virtually identical twin is the DLA-RS66U.  Both use “hand selected” components, with the rest going into the next lower down models – DLA-X75R and DLA-RS56.  These two are are $11,999.$4,o00 less at $7999.  Essentially JVC has no price reductions this year, only the addition of the DLA-X55R model we reviewed recently.  Thanks to previously having both the “hand built” and standard projectors in house previously, I’m comfortable addressing both projectors, with just the one.

We’ve had the opportunity in the past to compare JVC’s premium projectors with hand selected optics, light engines, power supplies, etc., against the standard version.  Folks there is a very real difference. Oh, it’s possible that the best X75R coming off the line can match the least of the X95R projectors, but expect visibly better optics for openers, that’s what really impressed us last time.  And JVC manages to claim 130,000:1 contrast instead of 90,000:1, which is also nice, however slight  (takes a doubling to have a easily detectable difference when compared side by side, unlikely that we can tell the difference if not viewed at the same time.  Still, overall, we expect the X95R projector to “look and cook” just like the X75R, except that it will be have a better picture – perhaps not a truly significant difference to most, but it will be there.  Remember, these JVC projectors are the ones with mind boggling black level performance, without needing a dynamic iris.  I can’t wait for it to “land”  We reviewed the X55R which had extremely good black level performance, but blacker blacks are certainly available on some competing (and less expensive projectors using dynamic irises.

So, now it’s a race – which will arrive first.  Mike is standing by to calibrate them.  I truly expect to receive at least one before the weekend, and have that first one posted next week, with the second review only 4-5 days behind.  So, hang in there!

It’s almost obvious, but both of these projectors are fully 3D capable, using active shutter glasses.  The JVC will come with a plug into the back emitter for RF 3D.  The HC8000D?  Best I recall from CEDIA, the 3D emitter for the Mitsubishi (and glasses) are optional.

Both Mitsubishi and JVC claim 1300 lumens.   One interesting thing about the Mitsubishi, is that it can use universal glasses, or (not at the same time) get a brighter image out of glasses specific to the HC8000D that won’t work with the HC7900D.

OK, I’ll likely be doing First Look “reviews” of both, or certainly, on which ever arrives second, to keep you updated.

Other than those two home theater projectors, I’m also expecting JVC to get us their “entry level” DLA-X35, which comes in two “designer flavors”:  The DLA-X35W and DLA-X35B, are the same projector just the W comes in a white cabinet, and the B in Black finish.  Both are $3499.95 (gee, why didn’t they make them $3499.99 to capture those last 4 cents?)   I mean, seriously, (not really), when your product is about $3500 do you still need to be playing around with pennies?

Enough, the reviews will come soon enough for you, we hope!

The HC750HD is expected to look like this HC710HD

Epson has just announced its brightest home entertainment projector ever.  The Home Cinema 750HD, when it starts shipping in a couple of months, will be Epson’s best 720p projector.  Pricing is officially $899!  Or as Epson markets it:  ”under $900″ on their press release.

What’s this Epson HC750HD got, you ask?

Well for openers, the Home Cinema 750HD claims a massive 3000 lumens!  It’s ready to tackle some ambient light.

This projector just might be brighter than your LCDTV or  Plasma TV!  That should give you something to think about.

Designed for your family / living / bonus room this Epson projector should prove to be a real wall melter.  Pair this projector with the proper screen, and the results should be rather amazing, in terms of looking good in brighter situations that only a handful of home projectors can approach.  Pair this projector with the right screen, and it just might make your LCDTVs look not only tiny, but dull.

Of course there’s a lot more to tell you.  Resolution is 720p, but it can, of course accept 1080p in both 2D and 3D.  The Home Cinema 750HD is a 3LCD projector.  Using three LCD panels instead of a single DLP chip, means no rainbow effect to worry about.  Epson owns almost the entire world market share for the type of LCD panels that go into projectors.  Other manufacturers such as Panasonic use Epson panels.  You won’t find Epson offering the other technologies, LCD is what they’re good at.

Note that Epson claims 3000 white lumens, and 3000 color lumens.  Here’s a brief explanation:  Many projectors can produce a much brighter white, than they can red, green or blue.  Typically that means that projectors with low color lumens tend to have poor reds and yellows, at least in their brightest modes.  You can check out our video on Color Lumen Output.  It will demonstrate the differences.  The point is, lots of good looking lumens.

You get 3D!  If the lag times are good, this HC750HD should prove to be a great gaming projector, with all that horsepower.  I know Epson cares about the whole gaming market, as they took very seriously complaints about the slow lag times on the old Epson 3010 and 5010.  The new HC3020 and HC5020, by comparison have a good deal smaller lag.  Epson says they have optimized the Home Cinema 750HD for gaming.  It even has a special mode for it.

With 3000 lumens, 3D should be something to behold.  Treat yourself to a really large screen and get totally immersed.  I must comment, if there’s one thing where projectors truly blow away LCDTVs, it’s for 3D because there’s nothing like a huge screen to really immerse you in the content.

The Home Cinema 750HD uses the same 3D glasses as their more expensive projectors.  Nice glasses, I get to wear them a lot.  They are very lightweight (not the lightest though), rechargeable, and use RF instead of infra-red.  Ready to watch a movie, and the battery needs a charge.  Fear not, 3 minutes will give those glasses enough charge for a typical movie.  A full charge should give you about 40 hours.  Cool!  The charger cable plugs into the glasses, and the other end, plugs into a USB connector on any of your favorite other USB capable devices or chargers.

The 750HD has a built in speaker, handy if you are moving it around, or want to take it outside in the summer for a movie.  That’s become a pretty common feature on the lower cost, “home entertainment” projectors.  There’s also an audio out, so you can route the sound from your inputs, back out to an external sound system, or just hook up a powered subwoofer to “rock the house”.  Literally!

Like some other Epson projector models, and Epson’s  MG850HD and MG50 all in one projectors, the 750HD can run slideshows of your photos via USB.  See, it really is a nice family projector!

As a 3D projector it’s got to have HDMI 1.4, of course, as that’s needed for playing Blu-ray 3D.  The Epson also has component video, S-video, and two USB ports.  Placement flexibility is typical for low cost projectors.  It offers a 1.2:1 manual zoom lens, and advanced keystone correction.  Of course it will come with a remote control.

From a picture quality standpoint, the HC750HD, there are five preset color modes.  I have no details, but figure one will be geared for max brightness and will likely be called Dynamic.  There might be a separate mode for 3D, and there will be at least one mode for movies, one for gaming, and one “standard” mode.

Finally, let’s get to the boring practical stuff:  Lamp life is up to 5000 hours.  That will keep your overall cost of operation way down.  So will the two year warranty.  One year is standard among competitors, and even on many projectors twice as expensive.  It gets better though.  Epson’s providing two years of replacement program, which makes ownership as pain free as possible should you have a problem under warranty.  Epson is also very well known for excellent support of their projectors.

Here’s a tidbit for you.   3LCD projectors are more energy efficient – they deliver more lumens with a less powerful lamp.  There you go. Buy this projector and you can feel a bit better helping the environment.  Don’t worry you environmentalists, there are other green aspects to the 750HD as well.

Enough.  If you want to be first on your block to sport one, figure the Home Cinema 750HD should hit the stores in March.  Pick one up, take it home, plug it into your Blu-ray or DVD player, cable or satellite, iPad, and other tablets and smart phones.   We have used iPads and iPhones when we’ve tested Epson’s all-in-one projectors.  Nice touch.

There’s not a whole lot more I can tell you.  I’ve been briefed, but I have yet to see this projector in action.  I will get my first look at CES, and will blog some more info from the show.  Stay tuned as I learn more, I’ll share.

The image above, I should mention is the Epson 710HD.  I’m resuming the 750HD will look almost identical.  (Or Epson could fool me – it’s happened before!  -art

This W1070 review is coming.  Lori’s already doing first proofing of most pages.  We’re heading out to celebrate a close friends birthday, and when we return in a few hours, I’ll start writing the Summary page.

With luck the review will be posted between 11:30 and 1:am tonight.

People, even if the review isn’t worth the wait, the W1070 is.  Consider:This is a pretty amazing projector for the money.  I can’t think of a better one.  Oh, as you all know already, it doesn’t have the black levels of the better $2500+ projectors, and it certainly lacks a lot of advanced features, such as CFI and (lately) smart dynamic contrast systems like Sony’s Reality Creation.

But, it calibrates (with Brilliant Color On) at over 1700 lumens, and that’s with our conservative measurements.  3D is real good, and the calibration looks excellent.

BTW as I mention multiple times in the review.  I got sloppy yesterday, the projector wasn’t perfectly focused when I shot the HDTV and mode images.  I’ll try to replace those when I get back from CES, but, there are plenty of really sharp images there.

OK, I’m getting back to it.    Stay tuned!  -art

Lisa, Art’s daughter here. I’m home from college for the holidays, but we’re hard at work over here to bring you some great Projector Reviews TV videos, including review summaries, special topics and FAQs.

JVC DLA-X55R Projector

Greetings Home Theater Projector Fans,

This was going to be short, since I have much reviewing to do, but it didn’t turn out that way. Let’s get started with an overview of JVC’s new DLA-X55R from their consumer group.  This projector is also sold by JVC’s pro group as the JVC DLA-RS48U.

So, what do we have here?  We have the DLA-X55 in house, but other than probably some very minor cosmetics, the primary differences are which dealers sell which model.  We work with the consumer group these days because we find them more press friendly (at least to us).  That is, it’s simply easier these days to obtain a DLA-X55R than to get an RS48 from the other folks, as my primary contact on the Pro side, departed from JVC, and I can’t seem to find a replacement contact.  Such is life, with my contacts on the consumer side, I don’t have to worry about it.

The DLA-X55R is a new projector.  The X55 is an LCoS projector (which JVC calls D-iLA – thus the DLA name designations).  The X55R is priced at $4995.  It seems this year, neither the JVC consumer group, nor the Pro are publishing brightness claims.  I haven’t checked the manual yet, but I didn’t see any brightness numbers for the X55R.  That’s not too shocking, a couple years ago, when the pro group launched the first generation of this series, they published brightness numbers that many found overstated.  In fairness, best I can tell, they had been publishing a D65 brightness (calibrated), but then started publishing brightness the way most others do- maximum, not calibrated.

The good news is that we have already measured this projector, both calibrated and not.  So here’s the basics, the rest in the full review which will publish later this week.

Calibrated, with the lens at mid-point on the zoom, 703 lumens.
Uncalibrated, brightest mode, Stage (3D mode is similar), 872 lumens maximum.

Mike measures rather conservatively (other reviewers at other sites tend to produce numbers from about the same as Mike’s to 10% higher.)

The JVC DLA-X55 is 3D ready.  It uses a plug in emitter, and RF rechargeable glasses, both of which are optional.  It will also work with last year’s IR emitter and glasses.  I don’t see a way to use both old and new at the same time.

Based on JVC’s CEDIA pitch, the X55R basically starts out as a DLA-X35R projector, a upgraded version of last year’s X30 projector. But the X55 adds JVC’s e-Shift which they refer to as 4K e-Shift2.  JVC’s got an interesting technology here, and it provides some real benefit, but I do take issue with the 4K moniker, as it’s far from being what I consider to be true 4K.  (I consider true 4K to be approximately 4000 discreet, non-overlapping pixels of data horizontally.  JVC’s e-Shift (or now, e-Shift2), has the same sized (2K) pixels, it simply fires them twice, shifting the pixel..  That can be an effective tool, in several ways, but it isn’t true 4K.  True 4K is going to be something along the lines of 3840×2160.  I am curious as to whether the JVC with it’s e-Shift can produce images that appear sharper than the Sony with it’s Reality Creation, which really impressed.

So, getting beyond the marketing hype, what we have here is an impressive new projector, combining the features of last year’s X30 plus the e-Shift2, and falling nicely between  the X35R and the X75R projectors.  The DLA-X55R with e-Shift engaged definitely seems to produce a “sharper” image than, for example, the Epson Pro Cinema 6020, when I had set up in a side by side comparison.

Perhaps more importantly, the X55 projector also had slightly better blacks than the Epson.  That did not seem to be the case last year when we reviewed the DLA-RS45 projector.  I will be looking to confirm that the JVC DLA-X35 and the X55 are equal at black level performance, it should.  On both the starship and Bond, night train scene images, the JVC was able to produce images from about the same, to slightly blacker black than the Epson. Since the JVC X55R doesn’t use a dynamic iris, more dynamic range.  Last year, with the RS45, the Epson had a touch darker blacks than the JVC projector.  I note that the manual iris on the X55R projector has 16 positions like last year’s higher end models.  The older X30 and RS45 had simpler 3 settings on their manual irises.  We’ll have to see if JVC has also increased the number of iris steps on the X35R and RS48U.

Color is another story.  We’ve always found the high end of the JVC’s to offer truly excellent color, but less the case for the entry level RS40, RS45, X30, etc.  In the past the $7500+ JVC’s had more/better color controls, allowing for a better calibration.

While we haven’t seen the new higher end units, Mike’s report from his calibration still indicates that the DLA-X55 won’t calibrate as well as, say, the higher end X70 we reviewed last year. On the other hand, Mike reports some definite improvements.  He was able to get “very good” color, after both our usual grayscale calibration and a full CMS adjustment of the individual colors. That’s more calibrating than we have done on any previous JVC.

Brightness is still going to be a problem – at least for 3D interested folks.  Again, Mike measures conservatively, but none of the presets – even with the zoom lens at wide angle managed to measure even 1000 lumens, although calibrated it does offer a respectable 703 lumens.   Thus, a projector for dedicated theaters, that can handle large screens if you stick to 2D.

The full review will have all the rest of the details, and my comments after extensive 2D and 3D viewing of movies, sports and whatever else.  I’ll also do a basic lag times test for any gamers out there looking at a $5K projector.

Stay tuned for the full review. I’ve already started writing the easy stuff (the Tour page, Warranty, and parts of the Overview). Photo shoot is already in process, being finished tonight.

Hang in there!  -art

BenQ's W1070: Affordable DLP, 3D, home entertainment projector

The BenQ W1070 arrived about two weeks ago, but due to scheduling, all I could do was give it to Mike for calibration.  As soon as he returned it, we “put a stamp on it” and shipped it to Pete – one of our Gamer – Projector – Bloggers.

Pete should be posting his thoughts on the BenQ W1070 as a gaming projector, over the next few days.

Now, since I personally never fired up the W107o projector I’m just going to take a few paragraphs to report on the BenQ’s feature set, and also relate some of the key measurements from Mike’s calibrating of the projector.  Here goes:

BenQ’s W1070 projector is a 1080p single chip DLP projector claiming 2000 lumens.  It’s small – downright portable at under 6 pounds, and has a built in speaker.   A contrast claim of 10,000:1 indicates more than the minimal black level performance that some other entry level projectors offer.  (A typical DLP without a dynamic iris usually has claims of 2000:1 to 3000:1.)

This BenQ projector has, as we’ve seen before from BenQ, three lamp mode combinations, not the two.  Officially they are rated 3500 hours, 5000 hours and 6000 hours.  That should keep cost of ownership nice and low.  A one year warranty is typical in the price range.

Mike was extremely impressed with the before and after color quality.  He found that the W1070 projector had really good RGB balance right out of the box.  Mike took User 1, which at default is almost as bright as Dynamic, to calibrate.  With or without calibration, the W1070 breaks 1700 lumens (at mid-point on the zoom lens), brighter at full wide angle (almost 1850 lumens).  Mike measures conservatively, so getting within about 7% of claim is unusually good.

In Mike’s calibration of the W1070, he ended up with one of the tightest color temp ranges yet, downright surprising for a low cost projector. Post calibration, every temperature from 20 IRE to 100 IRE (white) measured within 6418K and 6500K.  Color should look great as both RGB and individual colors are very balanced (great).

Now when it comes to the picture itself, I can’t help you there, having not yet seen this projector in action, but it should be back here in about a week.  I expect I’ll be tackling it immediately after the JVC DLA-X55 which I’m currently reviewing.  The timing should be close to perfect, so I would hope to finish the W1070 projector review before Christmas.  If not, then certainly before New Years.  (No one gives me the week off – tsk, tsk.)

Before I forget, the W1070 is a 3D ready projector, but it does not come with any 3D glasses.  BenQ and 3rd party 3D glasses are available.   Here’s a compatibility chart BenQ provides:

Various 3D format supported

HDMI-Video:  3D frame packing, is what Blu-ray discs use.

The W1070 is also NVIDIA 3DTV compatible.  We’ve looked at that early on in 3D with an nVidia 3DTV, to try to get all those 2D games converted on the fly, by the nVidia graphics card.  We weren’t successful at the time, the Optoma we reviewed was brand new, and it seems it takes a while to get certified and a driver created for the nVidia graphics card.  Perhaps Pete, who’s got the W1070 will be able to check out whether we can get that 2D – to – 3D games working.

OK, that’s about all I can think of, for a projector that I haven’t even seen out of the box.  Certainly, Mike has had much to say about the color and calibrating the projector, and that’s all good.  I should note that he made an immediate point about how much better the W1070 is in terms of out of the box, and being calibrated, than the older BenQ W1200 which we reviewed. -art