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Sony VPL-VW1000ES 4K, 3D Projector

I first saw a VPL-VW1000ES Home THEATER Projector at CEDIA last fall.  OK, everything always looks better in a fully blacked out demo room at a trade show, then in the real world.  Still, I really was dazzled.  There were some obvious issues with the prototype, but the projector, “cleaned up” had to be excellent.  January came, and at CES I got another 15 minute look (actually two of them) at the VW1000ES.  This time, the artifacts and other issues were pretty much gone.  And Wow!

I’ve been begging and pleading to get my hands on one for review, pretty much since CEDIA.  The Sony team is great, and, I do understand, I realize  I’m not at the top of the food chain for review units, and these babies are particularly scarce.

Well, my turn has come.  Monday – two days ago, morning brings me two big shipping containers on wheels.  I know the VPL-VW1000ES is big and heavy, so I’m not planning on bouncing it back and forth between the downstairs testing room and the theater above it.  So, I open them up, from the first, remove a huge HP PC server, loaded with 4K content I was told – it’s not like you can just order 4K from Amazon.  The second case was just for the 22 inch LCD monitor for the computer.

An hour later two of Sony’s finest arrived.  Their names will be changed to protect the innocent.  We’ll just call them Rock, and Roll.  Well Rock arrived first, from San Diego, while Roll descended upon me from LA.  Rock had the VPL-VW1000ES, which immediately joined the server upstairs.

I don’t even remember what we put on first.  We viewed a 4K trailer for the new Spiderman movie (saw that at CES too), Hugo in 3D, A quick look at Casino Royale for the train scene, and a delicious 4K train ride through the Rockies, complements of Stephen Low, the producer of Ulitimate Wave Tahiti 3D and Legends of Flight 3D, two of my favorite pieces of content for the sheer beauty, and knowledge.

VPL-VW1000ES Projector - 4K Image London

Some of the content, but not most, was in 2.35:1. That allowed me the largest image on my 124″ 2.35:1 screen.  On 16×9 content, I basically have a mere  96″ diagonal screen.  (I’m planning on “fixing that” in the near future.).

Let’s cut to the chase.  This is, first of all, a reasonably bright projector, calibrating out to more than 1500 lumens with the lens on wide angle.  That’s a ball park number.  Mike hasn’t sent me his report with the measurements and calibration settings.  BTW, 40+ lb. beast that the VW1000ES is, we decided Mike would do all his measurement and calibration work in my theater, instead of taking the Sony projector over to his place, as is typical for home theater reviews.  That’s all done now.

This link will take you to a 1000 pixel wide image that is a closeup of the same frame, just looking at the big tower on the left side. It truly is impressive to have that much detail.  Huge!

Well, here’s what matters.  First, the VW1000ES s plenty bright, (and quiet with lamp on high).  It’s just a pleasure to bathe in all those lumens.  For 16:9 I mostly have been running low lamp.

Next, the picture quality.  The projector looks great, “right out of the box” with my favorite 2K content.  I even broke out Star Wars IV for the opening 5 minutes.  Everything looks sharper.  I take a quick look and sharpness default is at 10, out of 100.  And Reality Creation – their dynamic package, also is at very low settings.  No matter that this is a 3 panel projector, I don’t believe any single chip DLP coming through here, has  looked sharper on 2K (1080p, 1080i) content.  Even at the moment my wife and I are watching American Idol, and the sets look great, the outfits colors jump out.  It was the same thing with Star Wars.  All of a sudden I’m noticing the detail in the scrapes and metal finishes on R2D2 and C3PO – and everywhere else.  It’s hard, really, to see 2K content look this detailed.  It’s like a veil has been lifted.  Note that I fired up the JVC DLA-X70R and switched back and forth.  No contest.  Not sharpness, but the wow and pop was stunning, though I concede that the poor JVC was badly outmuscled.  That of course is the benefit of a bright projector, you get to watch at the brightness that makes you happy, rather than being limited by the projector.  On smaller screens with more than minimal gain, brightness could almost become a problem.  Not in my theater though.

Getting back to Rock and Roll.  We decided to check out the 3D, so naturally I grabbed Hugo.  Rock, I believe, had not yet seen Hugo, so was doubly impressed.  Some have expressed complaint about the quality of the 3D?  Many scenes, on the other hand, are truly compelling in 3D.  certainly all the clock works – well, works.  It worked doubly so with the Sony VPL-VW1000ES.  Brightness in 3D was good.  Not a lot to spare, but it can do respectable 3D on a 100″ screen without risking overt dimness.  Hugo has many darkish scenes, yet the movie stayed vibrant.  That’s all I ask for.  3D seemed really clean.  I haven’t gotten back to it since then, but any crosstalk / ghosting was minimal I believe.  I wasn’t hunting, I was just taking it all in.

Everything looks great in 2K, but viewing the 4K content was relatively breathtaking.  I will post a 3 or 4 images to impress you with, tomorrow.  I’m shooting images now.  I already took all my 4K images first night, because that server that Rock and Roll delivered had to be packed up, and this morning (Wednesday)  Fedex picked it up, for a long trip to Australia.  I’m telling you, few VW1000ES’s around for press, trade shows, and demoing, and apparently they are shipping the server all over the place.  I am most honored to have the VW1000ES, or certainly should be. (A little pandering here can’t hurt, just in case someone Sony is reading this).

Well, back to the VPL-VW1000ES projector.  It has one really major flaw.  It’s $25,000.  No matter how much arm twisting is involved, very, very few of us will find one of these within reach.  It’s a 1%er.  OK, probably more like a 5%er with a real serious home theater hobby.  I can’t afford to buy a $25,000 projector, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it.  The only real downside is you are paying now in part for something that’s going to be really scarce for a year or two, at least, and that’s 4K content.

Before I go further, the Sony VW1000ES design is somewhat fluid.  Sony is confident that it will be compatible with still forthcoming standards, for example for HDMI, a new Blu-ray resolution… Rock and Roll expressed that there’s a lot of fluidity, so that the customer will be taken care of to keep the Sony fully capable for some time.  In other words, expect firmware updates.  I have no manual, but  I don’t think this puppy has wifi.   Hey, it might be two years – or longer – before we see a 4K Blu-ray disc.  On the other hand, we might be able to buy and download from the iTunes store.

This is it.  20 hours of viewing so far.  Definitely my all time favorite projector.  I’m factoring in what it can do with 4K material, but my initial impressions are that its easily more than a match for the Runco LS10 and the SIM2 Nero 3D2, just doing 2K both similarly priced projectors up there in the lower stratosphere.

I’ll be running more JVC X70 against the Sony VPL-VW1000ES in my theater, but that means no side by side comparisons.  No matter, Mike’s calibrated Sony, even in Eco mode is brighter than any mode the JVC has.  So I’m sticking to watching one at a time, and I’m watching a slightly larger image on the Sony (and running eco mode) to minimize the brightness difference.  As a side note, black levels are really good.  They still won’t match the JVC’s blacks without sacrificing dynamic range, but overall, I’d say “close enough”   When I watched the opening of Star Wars IV (the first), despite the blacks, the Sony blew away the JVC.  No contest.

Alls fair – the Sony projector  is over 3 times the price of the JVC.

I sure hope Sony doesn’t need this projector next week. So far, it was only the server that had to flee the country.

I mentioned the Sony is large, and over 40 pounds.  It is finished in a coarse dark gray surface with a rough feel to it.  It looks, and means all business.  - or pleasure.  The Sony VW1000ES even sports a DCI mode.  Folks, for those not familiar, think that’s the color space used in the theaters.  We’re getting by in TV and Projector land, with REC 709 and similar, none of which can match the color gamut of DCI.  Let’s hope when we start getting real 4K content, it is also DCI.  Sweet.  Then, our better home theaters will blow away the local cineplex in every way meaningful except for the popcorn.

Enough.  Much to do. My apologies for not being around recently.  Always busy this time of year, with the home theater projector report, which is still being added to (not much longer), and our education projector report, which I’m deep in the midst of.  And of course I had to squeeze in the NAB show, and also three gloriously hot days at Coachella.

Well, by mid-month, I’ll be done with the reports, and other than a week’s vacation, back in the full grind, with more regular blogging.  Remember, now we are in the age of Social, so I now have to also spend some time with youtube projects and with Facebook.  (it would be great if you Liked us) Social marketing is seems, is hard work for a small biz.

Thanks folks.

JVC Home Theater Projector

Still will add a few things, and will try to get about 5-7 more direct comparisons added, mostly so far, it’s just two new ones, and a bunch of carry-fowards from previous years.

The Best In Class awards are up, so for those who haven’t been there yet, the short version:

Down in the under $2K range, carved out a special Best In Class award, 2D only, which went to the Panasonic PT-AR100 projector – PT-AR100U, here in the US.

For 2D and 3D capability, a tie.  The Epson has the muscle with their Home Cinema 3010, and bright 3D, and great warranty and support.  The Acer H9500BD, though, while not quite as bright, truly had impressive black level performance, and that DLP look and feel.  Also, the Acer offers variable lens shift.

Two great projectors for the bucks.  If you are shopping under $2K, and want the 3D option, one of these two is almost certainly right for you.

Epson Pro Cinema 6010 Projector THX Certified

I had to go with the Epson Home Cinema 5010 and Pro Cinema 6010 for Best In Class in the $2000 – $3500 range.  Normally, with a Home Cinema and a similar Pro Cinema projector from Epson we only give out the single award, but this year, there’s enough difference to consider them two separate products, if very similar.  Great brightness, great blacks, great support, and th rest is pretty good too!

We did come up with a pair of runner-ups, and they might surprise you.  Hey, they surprised me.  Not that either of them picked up the Runner-up award, but that one projector didn’t.

The Best In Class Runner-up projector award in the $2000-$3500 price Class, go to the Panasonic PT-AE7000, and the BenQ W7000.  These two are pretty different products, but both are excellent choices.

And that brings us to the one that didn’t make it.  That would be the JVC DLA-RS45 – also sold as the DLA-X30.  It too is one fine projector with great blacks for the price, and an overall,  classy projector.  It just came up well short of all the award winners when it comes to 3D.  I considered a 2D only award, but then, the JVC is a 2D and 3D capable projector.  Didn’t seem fair.  So, my point is, it’s a really impressive 2D projector, also worthy of consideration, despite the lack of one of the report awards.

Moving to the top tier, I kept it very simple, all LCoS.  Didn’t review much in DLP projectors in the past year, and none of them in this range, that were reviewed, offer 3D at all (ok, the $20K SIM2 has 3D).

Bottom line, then, The Sony VPL-VW95ES and the JVC DLA-X70R (also sold as the RS55), tied for the Best In Class award.  I believe I demoted last year’s BIC winner, the Mitsubishi HC9000D, to Runner-up status this year.

OK, big report, a little better organized and written, I think, than in previous years.  Great year for new projectors, best in years!  Perhaps, the best year since the year Epson introduced the 1080UB, and JVC, the RS1.  Let’s say that changed equation.  This year may not be that dazzling a jump if you are strictly a 2D person, but if 3D’s on your radar, one fine year it has been!  Enjoy… -art

JVC DLA-X70 projector - 3D, and "4K"

Greetings,

I mentioned in the last blog, that the JVC DLA-X70 home theater projector has arrived, and Mike is calibrating it. It will be working in my theater not more than an hour or two after I return from travels this Wednesday night.

One of the “interesting things of JVC’s DLA-X70 – and the X90, (and also the identical DLA-RS55 and and DLA-RS65 home theater, projectors), is the claim of 4K resolution.  None of those JVC’s though have 4K LCoS panels, instead they are doing some “pixel shifting” for lack a a precise term.  The tech isn’t that important, what is of interest is how much truth is there in the 4K claim.

Mind you I’m not at all criticizing the performance of JVC’s X70, X90, and their twins the RS45 and RS55, just concerned about calling what they are doing “4K”. That said, if you want to see real 4K, the Sony VPL-VW1000ES is the ticket, but it’s $25K, not around $8,000 to $12,000.

If you see a 4K photo on that Sony, it’s awesome.  No way the JVC can match the sharpness, with or without “4K”, with the Sony we’re talking about  1 for 1 pixel mapping (one pixel for each data point) at 4K.

So I do want to say, that the JVC’s tech does bring something to the party, but “true 4K it ain’t”.

So, let’s discuss further.  One person at EHX in the JVC demo area owns “4K JVC projector”, he said that after having it a bit, he and his son definitely thought that the JVC was more natural looking “film-like” (in some aspects) then it was in 2K.   He also noted that overall, in 4K, things seem a touch softer, than it 2K…  (that should be a clue).

I thought that a very interesting comment, since it makes sense the way JVC’s doing it.  Since they are doing 2K, then doing 2K again, a fraction of a pixel shifted, the pixel structure (already barely detectable in 2K) becomes smoother.  - My take is this is adding the “film like”, by virtue of the smoother, softer image.

The amusing part of the story, I think, Is that I told him how we did it in the “old days” before 1080p, even before 720p:

Data was lower res with standard DVD’s being 853×480, and that the highest resolution content around. Naturally back then, therefore, pixels were larger, and more distinct as well.  As a result, close ups of faces for example, didn’t look smooth at all.   Everyone (I was still a dealer back then), writing about home theater projectors back then, would talk about defocusing, many recommending it.

Defocusing a home theater projector?

That is:  Get the projector focused to its sharpest, then de-focusing to blur the image just a tiny bit, to smooth and soften everything, and make the pixels less visible.

Most folks liked that, after all, imagine the image if you were watching a 400″ screen at 10 feet instead of a 100″ screen – pixels and data would be much larger, more coarse to the view, and look terrible.  Don’t think so?  Go to the theater and sit in the front row.

Darn, of course, back then I don’t think any reviewers thought to claim higher resolution, the setup was 853×480 maximum (disk and projector).  JVC, is actually doing addressing 4K, but with a 2K chip, and the image shift.

The defocusing technique did not give non HD projectors HD resolution, but by defocusing, you ended up with a smoother, softer resolution.  Sound familiar?

Also Panasonic has been using their Smooth Screen technology for several years in the PT-AE series, ie the new PT-AE7000 projector.  Without getting into the details of their technology, Panasonic creates an image that seems a bit smoother, and a bit softer, than say, an Epson using the same LCD chips, but uses nothing like SmoothScreen.

SmoothScreen is one reason (especially in past generations, I often said that a PT-AE projector was a touch more film-like than the competing Epson.

So the fun begins.  This will be my first chance to really play with an JVC X70, with me in control, with the content I know, etc.

You better believe I’ll be discussing JVC “4K” again, extensively, in the full review, which should be up in about 10 days.

You folks hang in there.  -art

PS.  FACEBOOK As some of you are aware, we have had a Facebook page for the last few months.  We use that page, among other things, to let people know when a new review is up (or find that on our homepage), or other interesting things going on.  We also have a lot of friends, major manufacturers posting on the page.  Drop by and visit our Facebook page, and, hey, if you think we’re doing a decent job, feel free to Like us, that would be appreciated!

I had to celebrate St. Patty’s day in Florida.  I came down to Florida, primarily for business, but also a quick visit to family (the mom).

I attended EHX in Orlando.  Sadly a smaller and smaller show each year, and I hear this is the last year, but I wanted a chance to catch up with a few contacts of mine I knew would be there.

Turns out, it was a far more successful show, for me than anticipated.

An announcement or 2:

1.  Of interest to many of you.  The JVC DLA-X70 has arrived, Mike is calibrating it, and I’ll be reviewing it the second I get back home to California (Wed. night).  As some of you must know JVC has two divisions selling identical products through two different groups of dealers.  The DLA-X70 and DLA-X90 come from the consumer side, the “pro” equivalent, are the DLA-RS55 and DLA-RS65.  More on that in the next blog.

2.  Looks like we’re finally going to be able to bring in our first Digital Projection projector in the next couple/three months.  Had a great conversation with them.

3.  Tracked down the folks from Screen Innovations.  We’re going to be bringing in one of their new 1.4 gain motorized Black Diamond II’s.  This will be their first motorized of the type.  I expect the new screen to start shipping in June, but that’s just my guess.  It has been previously announced, so I’m not “spilling the beans”.

3. Home Automation Theater Automation.   This needs a whole blog so expect one in the next couple of days… Let’s just say, it’s a new project, for now.

4. The only projectors at the show, were Epson’s and JVC’s in a couple of demo rooms.  But I wasn’t there to see projectors, just people.  It was fun in the JVC area though (a blacked out room as usual) where a couple of people were debating the realities of JVC’s “4K” projectors, which incidentally do not have 4K panels.

I’ll blog on this later tonight!

The annual home theater projector report is well in the works awards have already been decided in the Under $2000 Home Theater Projector Category, and the $2000 to $3500 Home Theater Category.  Until I finish the JVC DLA-X70 review, I’m not even thinking about the awards in the over $3500 class.

Thanks folks. A happy, belated St. Patty’s day to all.

That’s it from sunny Florida – not too hot, only too muggy.  -art

PS   The PT-AR100U review will get the remaining images (including black level comparisons), related comments,  and a proper competitors page also in the next couple of days.  Sorry for the delay.

Greetings projector fans, movie fans, sports fans, TV fans, and the world in general.  I’ve had a couple of days now with the Panasonic PT-AR100U.  Not as much time as I would have liked, but that’s my fault.  This weekend I had a tough choice watching a dozen or so hours on the PT-AR100U projector, or heading to Las Vegas with an old friend, to catch a concert.

But, first things first.  Panasonic’s pricing has dropped dramatically since the PT-AR100U was first announced around the fall.  A quick look on the web the street price is obviously right around $999, despite an MSRP of $1999.  Panasonic is definitely getting aggressive, price wise.

Sorry folks, in this case, the PT-AR100U projector lost out.  The band, btw, that Eddie and I saw, was Alan Parson’s Project.  (Yeah, just about none of you have ever heard of them, even though they’ve had some huge hits over the decades.  Hey, even a lot of folks from the 60′s don’t remember Alan Parsons.  More about the trip below!

The Panasonic PT-AR100U isn’t your average home theater, or home entertainment projector.  It is simply the brightest of them all, at least of the ones I’m aware of that are true home projectors, not compromised cross-over projectors.

Mike’s picking up the AR100U in a couple of hours, to measure and calibrate it, but I just want to start out with some impressive tidbits for you, even though I can’t quote measured numbers yet.

OK, here are the Panasonic PT-AR100U projector’s strengths, based on watching:

1. Major league brightness.  2800 lumens claimed! To find another home theater projector that has significantly more lumens we’re talking 3 chip DLP’s and a price tag at least 10x higher!  Well, if you are looking for one of these, a three chip DLP probably isn’t in your budget (or mine).
2. Great out of the box color!   I am truly impressed (regular readers know I’m quite often “impressed” and sometimes “very impressed” or “really impressed”, but rarely, every do I put “truly” in front of impressed.)  Even the really bright modes look really good out of the box. True, Cinema 1, and REC 709 are no where near as bright as Vivid Cinema, Standard (even brighter), and of course Dynamic, which is dazzling (and only slightly brighter than Standard).  I mean I can detect yellows as being a touch strong in Dynamic, and a touch more overall “contrasty” look, but not very much.  There’s a far smaller drop in color quality from Standard to Dynamic, than in most other projectors, including the Epson 3010 or 5010 projectors.   I’d have to say, that the Dynamic modes looks better than most LCDTV’s, PERIOD!  See the image from X-men, below, taken, with default settings using dynamic!
3. And paired with the right screen, and a not too terrible family room or living room, this Panasonic projector just might prove brighter than an LCDTV, and I mean, even at sizes of 100 inches diagonal.  (Yes, black levels will suffer somewhat, but sports – nice!)
   Wow!  I have to see how far I can push this projector – It’s going to be leaving my theater, and going downstairs into our extremely bright great room.  I need to shoot a few pictures for you – I’ll start with my light beige walls, since I have no screen down there, then I’ll break out an 80″ portable matte white screen, just to see.  But, you’d want an appropriate  screen in a family room or living room where there’s tons of ambient light.  Those pics will show up in the full review, in a few more days.
4. The amenities.   Lots of features, two screen triggers, Panasonic’s waveform analyzer, their auto adjustment for room brightness (Light Harmonizer), dynamic features, like CFI etc.  Lot’s of placement flexibility, good remote, lots of (good) picture modes
5. And: You get a dynamic iris, for better blacks.  Note:  I’m not prepared yet, for a really good assessment of the black level performance.  The 50,000:1 claim is a really good number, but, this projector is really not an ultra-high contrast projector in the sense of the Epson 5010, or Panasonic’s own flagship, the PT-AE7000 projector.  It may well offer better blacks than say the Epson Home Cinema 8350, a projector with a slightly higher street price, or their more expensive 3D capable 3010, but most likely its blacks are comparable to those Epson’s, and probably not as good as the Acer H9500BD DLP projector.  Remember, I’m watching a really bright projector – which means even really good blacks aren’t as black as a less bright projector on the same screen.  I’ll have it sorted out soon, in the full review of the PT-AR100U projector.

My first real take on the PT-AR100:

For those looking to forgo 3D, and just need a really bright projector – for almost any remotely suitable room, or for someone who just can’t live without a 160″ diagonal matte white screen, this Panasonic is probably the ticket.  It should easily outmuscle those other $1000 – $2000 home entertainment projectors, with only the Epson Home Cinema 3010 being bright enough to discuss as even “close” in brightness.

Panasonic PT-AR100U Projector - looks great, even in Dynamic mode (brightest).

At first I had the disturbing impression that the really bright modes are also a very high in typical image noise.  I normally expect to see more mosquito and other basic noise on DLP projectors than 3 LCD or LCoS.  In reality, I noticed a lot of noise  in Normal and Dynamic, but it turned out to be the default settings of the Detail Clarity control which was set for 3.  It provides an over-sharpened image, and in doing so, it magnifies the noise.

Can’t wait until Mike hands it back calibrated, and to do the whole photo shoot, and some side by side viewing.  In this case against the Epson 5010, as it’s the only projector I have here right now, bright enough to do a side by side with the AR100U projector.

For you gamers – we haven’t tested lag times yet, but that will be done in time for the full review.  Either Pete or Scott, my two gaming – projector bloggers, will get the projector to really run though its paces as a serious gaming projector.  Keep in mind Panasonic has been heavily focused on doing great gaming, on the predecessors to the PT-AR100U, such as the PT-AX200U, which this projector replaces.  Considering there’s even a Game mode, I expect lag times to be respectable.

That’s it, folks (well, mostly).  Below, a bit on the trip to vegas, and how my friend Eddie, will soon be considering replacing his old projector with a new one, with the PT-AR100U being on his short list.

Finishing up on the Vegas trip (and a home theater decision), my wine guy:  Eddie – Eddie Osterland, I should note, is one of the world’s foremost wine experts (first american to become a Master Sommelier), so you better believe there was some great food and wine on the trip.  If you head to Las Vegas, check out this Thai restaurant: Lotus of Siam – awesome and a world class wine list to die for (per Eddie).  Yummy!  (note, it’s in a run down large strip shopping center, and lacks the ambiance, of a fancy restaurant, but the food and wine, more than offsets.  Eddie says it’s a legendary restaurant among wine and food aficionados.

Eddie, is a home theater projector owner too – sold him his first a decade ago.  He’s got an old Sony and also a Panasonic, but time to upgrade.  He’s going to be replacing soon (I mention all this, because we watched a bit of Hugo in 3D, on the Epson 5010, and some 2D content on the PT-AR100U.  Eddies new place is loft like, lots of light, he’ll have to decide, which will serve him best – since he needs some real horsepower.  He can go 3D and really good brightness (Epson), or he can go for even more lumens and also save some bucks (if he forgoes 3D) with the Panasonic PT-AR100U.  Eddie knows about the importance of good blacks, but he also knows when you need lots of lumens, often blacks don’t come into play.  Ultimately we’ll see what he finally decides upon in a couple of months, and let you know.

Thanks folks!  -art

PS.  The full PT-AR100U projector review should be up on the website this weekend (sooner or later)!

I’ll start working with it tomorrow, should be fun. The PT-AR100U is a light canon of a projector.

For those who don’t recall anything about this projector, here’s a quick refresher course:

It’s really bright.  Panasonic says the PT-AR100U has 2800 lumens under the hood.  That’s about as bright as it gets for home theater projectors until you get into some 3 chip DLP projectors starting in the 20,000 range.

Contrast is claimed at 50,000 to 1.  That’s a very healthy number  For example 50,000:1 is also the contrast claimed by the BenQ W7000 projector, whose black level performance is Very good.

Overall it has a very respectable feature set, but we’ll save that for the review.  I’ll just say that a  2:1 manual zoom lens with plenty of lens shift, offers exceptional placement flexibility.  Translated:  It will almost certainly “work” in your space.

There’s CFI for smooth motion

Perhaps the most striking thing, though, is one feature it lacks, which is 3D.

Panasonic built this as a 2D projector with the horsepower to tackle family rooms and living rooms.

I’ll do a “first look” review blog, probably on 3/6.  -art

OK, I’m not the guy to write about gaming.  I’ve got two hard core gamers doing that – Pete and Scott.  But, Pete’s just blogged on the Epson Home Cinema 5010 as a gaming projector and I just shipped him the W7000 (click for review) so that’s next on his list.

After speaking with Pete, I did some Lag tests.  As you gamers know, but many of my other readers may not, gamers need their displays to be fast, whether you are a console player – PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, etc., or a PC gamer.

As you can all imagine, if a game does something, and your screen doesn’t show it for a a half second, you will be very dead, or some other bad thing, in most action games.

Many folks discuss how fast a display should be. Zero lag time is ideal, and some projectors do measure that fast.  (Measuring is done by running a timer program on a computer (I use a MacBook Pro), and projecting it.  I photograph the projected image and the laptop screen at the same time.  The difference in time, is the lag.  Obviously you want to use a clock that goes down to thousandths of a second.

BenQ W7000 Lag Times - Gaming Projector

Per my two hard core gamers, figure this lag times below 20 ms (milliseconds) is ideal  Once one gets in the 30 -50 range, most serious gamers I gather, are still pretty satisfied.  Generally hey’d like faster but the game plays well enough for serious competition.  Pushing much above 50, though, loses the serious gamers on first person shooters, and most other action games.  (Hey, if you are playing computer versions of Chess, or Monopoly, lag time isn’t an issue!)  Well, it’s Pete and Scott who throw out numbers, better you read their opinions.

OK, here’s the story on the BenQ W7000 and the Epson 5010 (which also means the 5010e and 6010).

The BenQ’s a pretty good gamer.  With my setup, as described, the W7000 measured 34-35 ms.
The Epson’s too slow for hard core gamers – or so my guys would tell me.  The Home Cinema 5010 measured 83 ms.   Now mind you, that’s still less than 1/10th of a second, so that may be fine for the average gamer, even on some action games.

Check out Pete’s blogs for the real word on how each of these projectors figure as gaming projectors – from one of the “hard core!”  Pete just loves his “consoles” and he’s been a projector owner for years, and he uses it for much of his gaming.   Fastest way to his blog is click!

Greetings BenQ W7000 and home theater projector fans everywhere!

I’m going to post our calibration settings tonight!   These settings are the ones that Mike came up with for the old engineering sample.  The “final” W7000 firmware, though has done some fixing, including the color tables.  The anomaly with Cyan, seems to be gone.   Mike’s been on vacation (lucky guy), so I improvised.

The BenQ’s three User modes start out the same.  I  looked at User 1 and User 2.  They looked identical.  Then, I simply dropped in Mike’s settings into User 1.  Wow!

What an improvement.  Mike didn’t find the User modes to have the best color temp when he started his calibration, but they had the best overall color space so he started his calibration with the defaults.

Bottom line, using these numbers we are publishing should do the trick.   I imagine if I gave the W7000 back to Mike, for a fresh calibration some of the numbers would change slightly, but, again, these do quite nicely.  Unless someone is going to get their specific projector calibrated these will probably serve you as well as Mike doing a new calibration, since the bulk of the difference might well be the variation in lamps and hours on the lamps.  -art