How’s that for a title.  I’m getting inundated (as usual) with folks defending their personal favorites that didn’t pick up a major award this year.  So, I thought I would just remind everyone that there are more really good projectors than one can hand out awards to. These three all received our individual Hot Product Award but none received any of our Best In Class awards from the report.  Let’s start with the most obviously “neglected” great projector, the one I’ve received the most email about:

JVC’s DLA-X35 also sold as the DLA-RS46. JVC has always set the bar for great blacks.  Technically I owned the very first JVC in the “series”, the old RS1.  The RS2 and it’s later day equivalents – the higher end X75R X95R and their RS twins, took blacks to another level still.  The X35 may be the equal to the X55R at blacks but not the X75R / X95R which are quite visibly better.

OK that’s the short version, there’s probably a few more tidbits in the three way comparison between them, that I wrote a month or so ago.

BenQ W7000:  Back again for year two, I really like the BenQ W7000 as a powerfully bright DLP projector that makes the cut as ultra-high contrast – in terms of good blacks.  Not up to the Epson, JVC, Sony, but right there with the Panasonic PT-AE8000 etc.

JVC DLA-X55R Projector

Large screen capable, it’s got the looks – classic DLP look and feel in terms of color and dynamics, and it’s got some flexibility in terms of zoom lens, lens shift.  OK, it has about the shortest lamp life specs of anything in the report, but, again, it is bright.  For those who wouldn’t find the more “elegant” Sharp XV-Z30000 bright enough to rock their world, but love DLP, the W7000 has to be a great choice for about the same money, or a little less.

JVC X55R – that’s the third.  While I appreciate features like e-shift2, and Reality Creation, that is the primary difference between the X35 and the X55R.  I’m sorry, I just don’t see e-shift2 being worth an extra $1500, give or take.  Certainly the X55 is an excellent projector but I’d tell folks hooked on JVC to either buy the X35, or splurge for the X75R, which for the bucks, would be my choice, budget allowing.  -art

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.

Panic Not.  The delay in the Home Theater Projector report will only take a few more days.  In the meantime, I will go forward, and publish this year’s winners on Sunday evening, but without the 50+ pages of sometimes rambling, supporting information.

The new Home Theater Projector Comparison Report report will be significantly shorter.

Here’s the good news: Accompanying the report, and including some of the best content repeated in each year’s report, will be our first ever:

Guide To Buying The Right Home Theater Projector For You.
Sometimes it takes me years for the lightbulb to go off.  (Switching to LED!)  It finally did.  The problem with all the previous HT Projector Comparison Reports is that, at the end of the day, it picked the best projectors.  Of course these projectors cover a wide range of abilities (and prices), with some projectors much better for one person’s type of use, some better for different type of usage – or environment.

The new Guide To Buying the Right Home Theater Projector For You, takes a different approach.  It will help you understand your needs.  It is User-centric, rather than Projector-Centric.  The Guide will help you understand your own situation, and enough about projector features, that you should have little problem figuring out which great projector is definitely the one for you, and which other great projectors no matter how great they are, simply aren’t a good match.  Our first attempt at something like this, of course is the 5-part video series we published a few months ago, Home Theaters: Choosing The Right Projector for Your Family or Media Room (click for part one, which covers brightness).

For you serious enthusiasts out there, there will be plenty in the Guide, that you already know, but there should be some good info for you to find.  For those considering your first home projector, and others who simply aren’t fanatical about the details, this Guide  should be just what you need, to gain a quick, and good understanding.  And I promise it won’t be “novel” length, more like a short story or three.

We are already planning at least one other video that ties into the guide: Choosing the Right Projector for your Home Theater or Cave.

Sorry for the delay!  both Guide and Report will be completed by the end of next weekend.  Come April 1st and I have to be working on our time sensitive Education Projector report that I publish each year.  -art

I promised a blog to tell you a bit about our “Smart Home” plans.  Here goes:

We’re creating a Dream Home!  It will be a Smart Home, a Connected Home, and lucky me, it’s my home (and Lori’s and Lisa’s).

As a former dealer, my old company Presenting Solutions! did some fairly high local automation, although I personally stayed focused on the online “box” side of our projector business.  Note, we mostly did automation for the Navy, and large corporations, rather than home automation.  Back then we were Crestron authorized.  It’s always been easy to automate a home if you  don’t mind throwing six figures of money at the project.  Not all of us, however, (certainly not me) have $100,000 or $250,000 to accomplish that.

Our goal, therefore is to create a Dream Home but do it with limited “old school” systems such as Crestron, AMX, Control4, and instead focus more on the new.  I’m talking  wired/wireless products supporting the Zigbee and Z-Wave alliances, and possibly Insteon too.  We’ll use “old school” were necessary, of course.

The goal is to do this affordably. Wireless for most things will drastically reduce installation costs.  Less centralized control, (but all iOS), will reduce hardware costs in a big way.  As a bonus, we expect our heating bills will drop, and our electric will plummet. Cool!  (Confession, electric will drop, but probably not “plummet” as virtually all the lighting in the house is already mostly LED and some CFL.  but I’m still looking for an average 30% further reduction in our electric bill which has already been reduced by almost 50%.  BTW, for you Android folks, I figure most things we will do using iOS you can do with your Android phones and tablets as well.

Our Dream Home is about to get Smart

Here’s a taste:

Smart Home Automation:   This will be fun.  We will automate my theater, from powering up projectors, satellite boxes, and blu-ray players, to raising and lowering my motorized Studiotek 130 screen. (If I had motorized shades – those too.)  Here’s a night image of RGB LED down facing strip lighting in our patio wall.  Right now, we can control from an RF remote, but soon, from our iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads.

We will use smart lighting.  I am currently in talks with Philips, for example, to provide their new Hue smart bulbs (RGB LED) through most of the home.  I’m talking with NEST (smart thermostat) and others about smart control for HVAC (heating/air), and working with Zigbee and Z-wave alliances for many individual products needed.

For example, while it’s cool to be able to “turn on the house lights from the driveway” or fire up the Jacuzzi, as you leave work by using an iPhone, sometimes you just want to walk in and throw a switch.  For that reason, we’ll be replacing dumb switches with smart ones that will work in conjunction with iOS, wireless, etc.

Same is true for many of the outlets around the house.  I’m having a conversation now with HAI/Leviton about supplying all those switches and outlets. Also talking with other players.

Outdoor lighting – all RGB LED, will also be smart, including energy efficient wall washers to light up the front of the house, and our garden.  Security?  of course.

The Kitchen?  Sorry, we can’t afford a $5000+ LG refrigerator that can tell me when I’m almost out of milk, but overall, we’re tackling  just about everything else in the house.

At the end of the day, the end of the Dream Home project, our Smart Home will be virtually fully controllable from an iPhone or iPad.  Now that’s “smart automation!”  If the technology progresses, by the end of the project (early 2015, we hope we will be able to voice control most of the house via our iPhones and iPads!   You know something like:  ”Siri, please lower the living room lights 30%.” Or:
“Turn on the outside patio lights, set to ‘sunset mode’.”  Or, if it’s a little cool in the theater:  ”Run the heat, theater only, for 5 minutes.”  You get the idea.

Speaking of the theater:  Finally the current 6-9 working remotes for my theater will become an iPad, or iPhone (both).  I can’t wait.  Even our waterfall and it’s lights will be controlled “smartly.”   (Darn didn’t mean to “leak” info about the waterfall.)

OK, that’s a good idea of what we will be making Smart.

The project to complete all aspects of the home is planned to take 18 to 24 months, will be rich in videos, regular blogs, photos,  This will primarily be my effort, but with help from a number of outsiders.  Much of our Dream Home project will be on the main site in the Smart Home area, but some additional information will, naturally be in the subscriber area as well as a “value add” for our “most loyal” readers.

OK…  If you have suggestions, now’s the time.  If your comments are about the Smart Home project, post them on this blog, post comments about the subscriber area on that blog, and the website changes on the first blog.

It is my hope that at the end of the day – make that by the end of the summer, the new site will be up, the Smart Home will be in progress, and overall, there will be videos and other content for all of our new subscribers.  I’m looking forward to most of you becoming subscribers, and I really intend to do what I can to make sure your subscription is a valuable and enjoyable (modest) investment.  -art

Life is getting crazy, but I’ve been meaning for weeks to tell everyone, some details about the new Projector Reviews website, or should I say, redesigned and expanded.

There’s a lot to tell you.  The site is currently being redesigned, by a company I recently hired. Expect the new www.projectorreviews.com site should launch end of May, or June.   I’m going to tell you a good bit, but the important thing is, if you would like to make suggestions, now, is the time. Wireframes of the new Projector Reviews website will finished and coding started in a few weeks.  Comment to this blog, if you would like to help us with those good suggestions!

The three aspects of the new site that are of greatest note are:

• Major new ProjectorReviews.com look and feel.  The new site engine will be WordPress based, rely more heavily on graphics a great User Interface,  and use of panes for showing multiple photos.  These changes will help accomplish two things.  No more incredibly long page swith 20, 30, 40 or more screenfuls, that are typical of current reviews.  Along with this the number of banners per page (not counting the microbannes) will be only about half of current levels.  So, the new site should be cleaner/less cluttered, and easier to navigate.
• Major new expansion:  Smart Home Automation. Our move into this related area, will be launched with a Dream Home – connected home automation project.  I figure everyone with a home projector would probably like to have it in a theater, and anyone with a theater, would like it automated – why not?  And once you are automating, why not the rest of your house, as long as it’s not absurdly expensive, and can save on electric and heating, and…

Thus look for our new section “Smart Home by Projector Reviews.”   The Smart Home will be an ongoing creation starting from an existing “pretty dumb” home, over the next 18-24 months, one project at a time.  We will deal with an entire house, so when done, we’ll  have wireless control of most things,

via wifi and other technologies, and virtually everything will be controllable by iPhone, iPad, Android… For a taste here’s one image  showing the living room fixer upper we bought, shortly after we replaced the flooring (first thing we did).  No, the floor, isn’t “smart, but all those lights you see will be.

• Subscriber Area:  We at Projector Reviews want to give you more information!  We realize we have a large number of occasional or regular visitors, and also newbies (no offense)  that visit regularly while shopping for their first projector.  Our new subscriber area, will primarily add new content to the total, rather than take some of the content that has always been free, and put a price tag on it.  Why not more info for free?  Great idea, but, we are “the press”, and since I know you are all internet users, you likely know well, that monetarily; the online press struggles to survive on advertising.  Oh, our site traffic has almost doubled in the last four years, but advertising revenues are pretty much stuck in low gear.  I need to add  full time reviewer, that only a subscriber  area can help pay for.  Such is life, or as Robert Heinlein made famous “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch” (The phrase and the acronym are central to Robert Heinlein‘s 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which popularized it) – wiki  (one of my fav short SF books, a classic!  -a)

That’s what’s up here at Projector Reviews – big picture.  Now a few details about each:

To give you a “taste” of the new site, which is still in wireframe design, here’s a shrunken down image of the the upper half of the homepage wireframe:

Preliminary (partial) Wireframe of Projector Reviews new homepage

Look for lots of panes for comparing images.  For example, for our usual Fifth Element Starship image, now there will be the usual 420 wide image, but instead of 6-10 individual images from other projectors below it, those will be a single pane, and you can just scroll through to compare the same image, from different projectors, to the projector being reviewed.  When youlick for a larger version, you’ll get 2 1000 wide images across one above the other, with the image from the review projector and below it, the large image of the selected competitor.  Then you can just click to change competitor images.  Cool?

Next I want to tell you a bit about the subscriber area benefits. and the Smart Home, connected home – Dream Home project.   But, this blog is already too long, so I’ll do two more blogs – one on the new subscriber area and all the goodies it will include, and the second blog will tell you about the Smart Home Automation section and project.

And don’t forget, our 2013 Home Theater Projector Comparison report will publish in the next week!

thanks! -art

TANSTAAFL!

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

Let’s consider that thought in terms of some of today’s great directors, and consider who’s directing 3D movies.  Although I’m skipping most of the directors of “mostly for kids” animated films, I will start with Lee Unkrich of Toy Story 3.  If you didn’t see it in 3D, you really didn’t see it at its best.  Want big names?  Check these film directors:

The Hobbit - An Incredible 3D Movie Adventure

James Cameron, (Avatar, Titanic remake, etc.)
Peter Jackson (The Hobbit)
Martin Scorsese (Hugo)
Robert  Zemekis (Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, The Polar Express)
Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black 3)
Spielberg (The Adventures of Tintin, he’s also produced a significant number of 3D movies)

and some up and comers:
Sam Raimi (upcoming: Oz: The Great and Powerful – he wrote Back To the Future)
Baz Luhrmann (wrote Moulin Rouge, directing The Great Gatsby).

BTW I’ve seen a 3D trailer of The Great Gatsby, what a feast for the eyes, even if you disagree with my wife who thinks DiCaprio is gorgeous.

The only thing I can’t figure out is what’s holding Tarantino back from directing his first 3D movie.  It seems so natural that he would.  He’s a known huge fan of 3D, and per iMDB (two years ago): Tarantino has been a fan of 3D movies for several years and wishes he had acquired the technology prior to the release of Kill Bill: Vol. 1.   IMDB also said at the time, of Tarantino; “he’s hinted he may use the technology for Kill Bill: Vol. 3, which is due for release in 2014.

OK, have I convinced you that much of the real talent in Hollywood is into 3D (Hey, it’s also rumored that we’ll see some 3D that’s Star Wars related from George Lucas.)

OK, enough name dropping of 3D directors (the full list, is huge).

When home theater projectors started appearing (Runco not withstanding), back at the beginning of the 21st Century (wow, that sure “sounds” long ago and far away), the highest resolution source material we had to view was the standard DVD.  Compared to Blu-ray or HDTV, a standard DVD is a relatively pathetic 853×480 resolution.   That’s barely 1/6 the number of pixels we’re used to with 1080p.  If you have a 100″ wide screen you could think of the resolution of DVD this way:  8.53 dots per inch.  No wonder no one wanted to sit closer than 15+ feet away back then.

That said, Blu-ray and 1080p still have come up seriously short (for us projector folks) NOT watching on some tiny little 42″, 55″, or 65″ LCDTV. 1080p on that same 100″ wide screen is still only 19.2 DPI.   (Think ink jet printers at 600 and 1200 dpi.)  At least at 4K, one square inch (on a 100″ wide screen) will have almost 1600 pixels in that square inch.  Compared to slightly less than 400, at 1080p, and only about 70 at DVD resolution.  All you metric folks out there, you can divide all these DPI numbers by approximately 6.45 to get the number of pixels per square centimeter.

In other words, when it comes to fully immersing yourself in a movie, or sports at 1080p (or 1080i) resolution, in order to not have too soft an image due to the “low resolution” of 1080p, you still have to sit pretty far back – let’s say the equivalent of the back of a typical movie theater, perhaps a little closer than that, or further back still.

And that brings us to where we want to be sitting.  The reason hundreds of millions of people who own nice sized LCDTVs and Plasmas head to the the local Cineplex (movie theater) many times a year, is due to two reasons:

1:  Some just can’t wait 3 months until most titles come out on Blu-Ray, or can be downloaded.

2:  The key one as far as I’m concerned:
Watching a movie on a 60″ screen just isn’t going to immerse you like going to the theater – you definitely do not have that “theater” experience.  No cigar, three strikes, no joy.  Sadness!   For 100′s of millions, movie or not, the only experience is still just “watching TV” not the excitement of a  ”movie premier”.

What is the answer?  Well for sure, 8K resolution would be great, but that will take probably 6 years. (For conversation purposes consider 2K and 1080p to be interchangeable terms, and also 4K and Ultra HD, to be interchangeable.)  Ultra-HD is twice the pixels vertically and horizontally of 1080p:  3840×2160 (8.3 megapixels).

Since I just mentioned 8K, note that they are definitely experimenting with 8K over in Japan.  Over here, though, the next great thing is Ultra-HD – 4K resolution.  It’s not perfect, but it’s a much bigger jump in resolution than going from 720p to 1080p!

And it sure will work for me.  Especially in 3D.   Why?   Because I do have a home theater – in most ways its better than any movie theater in good old California.  (I could argue the advantages of Imax.)  Oh, I recently visited  the theaters for Django and Zero Dark Thirty, but also for the incredible The Hobbit, Life of Pi, and more.

Mostly I stick to Imax, because I really haven’t been satisfied in any thing less.  This is California – which probably fire safety laws demand so much ambient light, that, as I mentioned recently, the movies have no blacks.  When viewing Les Miz, the black levels on the screen were inferior to watching any $999 home theater projector in a half way decent room with lights off.  I think I put it about the equal of the black levels of the recently reviewed Epson Home Cinema 750HD (an entry level 3LCD 720p projector).

Oh, true, we have yet to be allowed to bring DCI color gamut to the home (soon we hope), so the theaters do have slightly more color range, but with all that ambient light forget appreciating that difference!

OK, where am I going with this?  You home theater experience should blow away the local movie theaters. But, then most of the digital theaters these days are using 4K projectors. So the size of the screen to your eyes, can be a lot larger in the theater, thanks to twice the resolution (horizontally and vertically).  That is, you have to sit relatively “further back” at home (smaller perceived screen size), to maintain a sharp image.

With 4K, our home theaters will have parity with the movie theaters, and that can’t happen too soon.

I like sitting about 1/3 to 1/2 back in a good movie theater.  To get that much immersion in my home with a projector, on my 124″ diagonal 2.35:1 (wide) screen, as sitting 1/3 back, I need roughly to sit about 6-8 feet back.  As it stands, with 2K (1080p), at 10 feet back, in my theater, the screen still appears smaller than I would like it to appear, but I’m already just shy of the point where pixels are becoming visible on normal content.

Give me 4K – Ultra-HD, and 6 feet back becomes viable. at 8 feet, the term should be razor sharp, on a screen my size at 4K.  Note, time perhaps to convince Stewart, SI, Da-Lite, Elite, Draper, etc. to commit to offering us affordable curved screens!

And that brings us back to 3D.   I am a 3D fanatic.  (root word:  fan)  3D is not a gimmick.

If you remember nothing else from this article:  Please, try to remember that about the only things humans do on this planet that isn’t in 3D is read, write, and watch movies and TV.  The rest of our lives are in 3D.  Off topic:  Anyone out there dream in 3D?  (Sadly, I don’t remember my dreams.)

You will get to know 3D, it will not go away.  Every year, more and more blockbusters are in 3D, and for the movie snobs among us (no offense) not just blockbusters, more and more great movies too.  The kind that do win Best Picture, Best Actor…  Perhaps some one should wonder if some great blockbusters would have been great without 3D (Avatar comes to mind, Hugo, I think made an excellent 2D movie, but pales compared to the 3D version.)

Why, because it’s not a gimmick, it more closely resembles reality.

People 3D is not what you see the first 5 minutes you have the glasses on.  In most cases, that’s when you are going, “wow, 3D is cool” or “look at that” or “this is weird” (for those not fans).

Folks it’s about the next 2 or 3 hours of 3D, when unless it’s a kids 3D movie where the director is intentionally throwing 3D effects at you, that you forget that you are watching 3D.  Instead you are watching the movie, you are viewing and listening to the story, as it should be.  With real depth.  Things just are more natural.  More REAL, more believable.

And that’s true as long as 3D isn’t being treated as a gimmick by the director.

I can’t imagine watching a great or even good movie in 2D after seeing it on Imax, or in my home theater, in 3D.   It would be like stripping away the color, or maybe more like reducing the color saturation so that bright colors are instead pale.

Giving up great 3D is like taking the life out of a picture.  No, it’s not going to change the story, but great 3D will make “suspending disbelief a whole lot easier.  You will be more immersed in the world you are watching, and your brain (once used to 3D) will make everything more intense, believable.

Again, we’re talking serious 3D, not gimmicky Captain EO, or Journey to the Center of the Earth, putting objects 6 inches from you nose (so your eyes go cross-eyed).

So, projector fans, our time is fast approaching.  In another year or two, many of us will have taken advantage –  viewing true 4K (not gimmicks there either), on 3D content.  (or so we can only hope).

It really pleases me to think of viewing the beauty of Life of Pi in 4K 3D from 6-7 feet back from my 124″ screen in a pitch black home theater, or viewing the in-your-face action, and world building, and story of The Hobbit in 4K 3D.  That experience should have us wondering, in just a few years, how we survived in a world where 1080p and 2D was king.  It’s like looking back from 1080p to that old DVD with WVGA resolution, and pixels bigger than BBs,  1080p will be that same type of dinosaur, an important footnote in history, but not anything we’d want to actually have to suffer through.  (OK, I am getting carried away.)

And of course, 8K will follow 4K.   If only we could speed up the clock of change.

I am speaking from experience.  As noted, I did get to view a few things 3D and 4K in my theater, – including the trailer for Spiderman, on the true 4K Sony VPL-VW1000ES projector.  Thank you Sony, for sending me a server with such content, with the projector.

I’m done “waxing eloquent” (a phrase I don’t think I’ve ever used before, but always admired), about the future.  But for those of you who so far have considered 3D a toy, or just “have no interest”.  I ask only that you keep an open mind.  I’d hate to see you left behind.  Donot miss the 3D worlds you will be able to view in the future in your home  They should be far better,  for the naturalness of 3D, and for the improved resolution that will allow us to have a large enough field of view to be as fully immersed as possible.

Geez, after writing all of this, I think I better catch The Hobbit one more time in an IMAX 3D theater if I can still find one still showing it…  (I just looked, nearest 3D IMAX that still has it, is 50 miles away.  Darn, will have to ask Sony to send the VW1000ES back when they release the Hobbit in 3D.

My only complaint – all of this won’t be available, and affordable soon enough.

That said, I’d be really surprised if you can’t buy a really good true 4K, 3D home theater projector for $5K two years from now. Maybe even a good bit less?  Afterall, it’s more about getting those 4K LCD, LCoS and DLP chips on the street, than it is about 3D, since most of  all new home projectors over $1500 seem to be 3D.

PS  This particular blog was inspired by another blog I read the other day by Andrew Robinson, a hardware reviewer (audio and video…), and independent film director.    I had to comment on a point or two, as I think Andrew was writing with more of an LCDTV slant than from our home theater projector vantage.    I think he fears people will be watching their 4K LCDTVs from 2 feet away.  Check his blog out by clicking here.

PPS.  This turned out way to long for a blog.  I will be re-editing this piece into a main article (or perhaps two) on the projectorreviews.com website, and likely shorten this blog to something reasonable, more to the point, and point readers to the larger article for those willing to put up with my ramblings.

Thanks! -art

PPPS.  Don’t forget – our next two home theater reviews:  JVC DLA-X95R (aka DLA-RS66U from the other JVC division), and the Mitsubishi HC8000D.

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