March 21st, 2011 Art Feierman
Greetings!
I’ve decided to complete the JVC DLA-RS60 review (click for specs) - also known as the X9, from JVC’s consumer group, based on our original findings. We’ve learned a lot since then, though not from JVC.
Had I known it would take so long for JVC to get back to me, I would have taken all the photos, etc. before returning the RS60 to them. We have full measurements and I believe I racked up more than 20 hours of viewing, I just wish I had it back here, for some of the details.
Look for the JVC DLA-RS60 projector review to post very late tomorrow night, or on Wednesday. Thanks! -art
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February 8th, 2011 Art Feierman
Greetings everyone,
Well for those waiting for the JVC DLA-RS60 (specs) review, we lost a day getting the unit back to JVC to be checked out.
So all you folk out there give a round of thanks to Fedex – here’s the scoop!
We had put in a request for a pickup, as usual. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Home Theater Projector issues, Uncategorized | 9 Comments »
February 5th, 2011 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
In our attempt to provide you more, better information on projectors, this week (Monday) we rolled out a newly designed homepage. Projector Reviews now looks very different from before, as we’ve gone to a panes design for the homepage.
Unfortunately, we hit some unanticipated problems, with parts of the design, that didn’t become apparent until our projectors homepage went live.
The good news, is that, as of earlier today, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in About our website, Opinion, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
February 2nd, 2011 Art Feierman
Greetings,
OK, I’ve received some less than enthusiastic comments about the new operation, though people seem to like the look.
Despair NOT!
We are fixing the obvious issue – when you click one of the pane buttons, that pane should stay frozen, until you click on a different button, or a link to leave the page. Obviously it’s starting back up when the cursor leaves that center area, and it’s driving everyone crazy.
Just as you get your cursor to the scroll bar, to scroll down, it rotates to a different pane.
Yep, we know!
Within 24 hours, that will either be corrected, or, more likely, the auto rotate, turned off while that cursor issue is fixed, and some other changes.
BTW, thanks for all the feedback, it is helping. I think you’ll find the site far more useable by tomorrow evening, and it to be much better still, in a week.
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November 11th, 2010 Art Feierman
Greetings all,
We continue to improve our projector site, and I just wanted to bring you up to speed on some of the new changes.
Also, I’m open to suggestions for further improvements – keep things modest though – I’m talking the site, not individual reviews, at this time. Please post any suggestions only to this particular blog page.
OK, let’s talk about some new tabs found on the masthead (the top) of all pages. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in About our website, News, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »
October 19th, 2010 Art Feierman
3M, AAXA, and Optoma pico projectors, LG Pocket projector
For anyone interested, I’ve finally gotten this year’s Pico projector report up, to give you an idea of what changes have happened, where the improvements are. And the big question:
How good are they really?
You may be surprised. I was.
Read the rest of this entry »
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September 27th, 2010 Art Feierman
Greetings, back home now.
Catch up tie starting with the new Sony VPL-VW90ES. The flight back to the west coast, was long enough, and a full flight. As soon as the guy in front of me is allowed to put back his seat, there went my chance to get any real writing done on the plane. There simply wasn’t enough room to use my MacBook. My thanks to Delta for such generous seating room.
The $9995 Sony looked pretty good in 3D and great in 2D. I was just a bit spoiled, though coming from seeing Runco’s $49K exceptionally bright 3D projector, (plus any fancy accessories). When I saw the Sony, it was looking pretty good on 3D, on a smaller screen, I don’t recall now, but probably less than 100″. Despite the significant loss of brightness for 3D (figure a minimum 60% drop in most typical designs when compared to 2D), the image was bright enough. Of course we’re sitting inside a true “cave” made of flat black everything, the only thing reflecting light were the dozen or so people watching the demo.
The VPL-VW90ES, (the ES is Sony’s new top of the line series of Receivers, Projectors, LCDTVs), has new 240hz SXRD (LCoS) panels, double the usual 120. That’s likely an excellent move, on several levels. Afterall, we now need more frames per second – for the creative frame motion smoothing, and again for left and right with 3D… 240 isn’t critical for anything to my knowledge, but allows for advantages, that can be exploited. One of those, according to Sony, is to reduce crosstalk for 3D. Sounds good to me. Bring it on.
Rated 1000 lumens, the Sony isn’t going to be handling any large screens in 3D. Before I forget, for the anticipated $9995 price, it includes two pair of active shutter glasses. I was concerned with the new JVC’s being only 1300 lumens for 3D, and therefore I’m even more concerned with the Sony’s 1000. (But then I like a 128″ screen in my room.) Well, typically the JVC D-ILA projectors have been brighter than the Sony’s SXRD projectors, year after year.
From the brief demo, it’s a real nice machine. Black levels looked really good too, Dare I say it? ”Blacks popped” I know the black cave room is a factor, but it did look impressive. Can’t wait to lay my hands on one of these. This Sony, like its predecessors offers good connectivity, and more control of the image than any other brand I’ve reviewed in the price range. It should be a delight for integrators, calibrators, and installers. Sony provides a long list of major room and home control systems its compatible with, from AMX and Crestron to Savant and Vantage.
The Sony VPL-VW90ES will ship in November. I hope to have a review unit in simultaneous with first shipment, so I can get a review out quickly. I’ve volunteered for an earlier unit, but I don’t know if they will lend one of the pre-production VW90ES projectors out for review.
I will keep you posted, as I learn more as to when a Sony will arrive.
Sony also introduced a second, (expected price $3395) projector but I didn’t see it demo’d. Lori’s already posted the press release of the VPL-VWPRO1, just a couple items before this blog entry. That will give you the basic info. Primarily it looks to be the VW40 replacement, and strictly 2D. It has a new iris configuration and 1300 lumens. A potentially brighter than average projector, which would be very welcome in the Sony line up. Gotta review this one too!
Runco and SIM2
Ok, I’m a little out of my normal space looking at projectors that cost a $50K or more by the time they get plugged in.
The Runco 3D projector demonstration was the single most impressive 10 minutes of the day. I should have noted the screen size, but it was a large screen. The projector was Runco’s just announced 3Dimensions Series D-73d, with a base price if $49,995. Options include different throw length lenses, anamorphic lens and sled, and outboard processors (their DHD4 ships with the projector for the $49,995 price). It uses a LED lightsource, rated 480 watts.
The Runco projector claims 20,000:1 contrast, and 1400 lumens. If I understood them correctly, though (I will confirm), in 3D they are putting out 1400 lumens to each eye (less what the passive glasses absorb). As you can see by the image, the D-73D looks like a stacked pair of projectors, which is pretty much what it is, though I assume many components are shared. The two lenses though imply a total of 6 DLP panels. Basically one projector for each eye. I like it.
I take that back, I love it. I watched the clips and, finally after a day and a half, I had an answer to the question – have you seen anything really awesome? Ca-ching! Bingo!
I realize I’m going to have to “settle” for a Sony or JVC or ?, but Runco’s 3D performance – and on a much larger screen than those others.
Later on, I saw another superb demo, and that was in the SIM2 booth, in their mini-theater… Far smaller than the ballroom setup Runco had. The SIM2 setup truly is made of a pair of their C3X Lumis projectors, and the demo was dazzlingly bright, and almost as impressive as the Runco. I’ll just say that I was able to thoroughly enjoy both demonstrations, primarily taking a quick note of the blacks and dark details, then the skin tones and colors, in each clip, and then I just enjoyed the content. I wasn’t looking for artifacts, and none shouted out and interrupted the viewing enjoyment.
OK, that’s it for now. I’ll have to get to a few others tomorrow. Ahh, including an M series Digital Projection 3D projector (with tons of lumens) – that they will send me for review. -art
Posted in Products, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
September 25th, 2010 Art Feierman
Hmm, my next stop was JVC. I had to hoof it to the Omni hotel next to (a 15 minute walk from the show floor), because they always set up in a real theater or a hotel ballroom each year).
OK, here’s the basics: And yes, all 3D projectors we talk about, of course do 2D!
Remember the JVC DLA-RS15, RS25, and RS35? Well, they are still current products but will be replaced shortly by the JVC DLA-RS40, DLA-RS50, and Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | 13 Comments »
September 23rd, 2010 Art Feierman
Hi everyone, remember the new Sanyo review has not been proofed yet. I want to be clear about one point. I’ve said in the review, that I cannot tell whether the improvements in color handling that I noted, were actually improvements, in the 4000 from the 3000, or firmware updates done as a 3000. I fully stand by my statements that the Z4000 I received after calibration definitely was slightly improved over the 3000 we reviewed. -a
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September 23rd, 2010 Art Feierman
You will be noticing a whole pile of new home theater press releases, on the blog. That’s because I’ve gotten a lot of requests… Problem is, I often do not speak of a new projector except in passing until one is inbound for review. As a result, those who rely primarily on projectorreviews.com, often were a bit late finding out about such things. Posting the press releases helps solve that communication issue.
I’d like also to announce that in a day or 4, we’ll put up a second blog – focused on press releases on new projectors for business, education, and home.
We’re still debating whether to keep putting the new home theater press releases on this blog “the art..”, or just to restrict them to the new blog. Your feedback is more than welcome.
One more thing. Lori (the wife) handles inputting all the projectors into our database, will be posting the press release blogs, including most of the ones now up…
She’s not a reviewer, but she’s been listening to me babble about this gear for more than 15 years.
She will try to flag one or two points she thinks I would consider worthy of mentioning first, before you get into all the manufacturer’s hype.
For example, on the new JVC projectors press release (tonight hopefully), she points out that the substantial lumen boost is critical for the 3 new RS JVC’s because they are all 3D capable (yep blu-ray…), and with 3D, as most of you know, you lose at least 50% of the brightness.
That type of tidbit is the kind of thing I’ve asked Lori to come up with. Often she may ask me for points, but during the show, she’ll probably post 5+ releases (most are multiple products), and “she’s on her own”.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
