About two and a half weeks ago I published a full review of the Viewsonic Pro8100 1080 3LCD Home Theater Projector.  Overall, it was very impressive, but had one glaring (ok, not so glaring) flaw.  I found the dynamic iris to have problems.  It was often visible in its operation, to the point of occasionally being distracting.  It didn’t just adjust from scene to scene, but seemed to overshoot where it was heading (opening or closing) before settling back to where it should be.

This resulted in making its action more visible than if it simply adjusted to exactly where it should go.  The action was visible enough that you could often see it at work, even in a single scene if the lighting (content) changed even slightly.

I brought this to Viewsonic’s attention (pat on my back), and they seemed to really appreciate it, advising that they were already working on improving the dynamic iris, but that the commentary has spurred them to do a firmware update almost immediately (a pat on their back), instead of holding off, perhaps until the next model, which is no doubt many months away.  Remember, this is Viewsonic’s first serious 1080p home theater projector, and they are off to a pretty good start.  

I agreed to take a second look.  Unfortunately, I had just shipped the Viewsonic Pro8100 back to them a couple of hours before they called me.  Today, I received notification that they are shipping the same unit back with the newest firmware.  

That new firmware now offers 3 different dynamic iris modes (instead of one), plus, of course, dynamic iris off.

Assuming the new settings provide a much more ideal iris action, this will elevate the overall performance of the Pro8100 projector, already a very good home theater projector, so I’m looking forward to my second look.

I should note, that the firmware is user upgradable, so any who have or still get one with the older firmware, can quickly update it.  I will provide the firmware information when I post an updated review, next week.

The projector should arrive on Tuesday, the 15th, so I should be able to get to it before my one week vacation that starts on July 19th.

Stay tuned!  -art

This is just a quick piece to let you know what is planned for home theater projector reviews over the next two months.   Of course, summer is a bit slow for new home theater projectors, but there are a few, I’m hoping to get my hands on.  I’ve got confirmations from the manufacturers for most of these.  Here’s the scoop:

BenQ W20000:  I’ve been waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  However, I did receive an email this week indicating that they are sending me the W20000 that they were showing at Infocomm two weeks ago.  At this point, I’ll believe it, when it arrives (or actually, they call me to pick it up, since they are only 25 minutes from here).  The W20000 should be formidable, but whether it (with Darkchip3) can hold its own against the Darkchip4 InFocus IN83… we shall have to wait and see.

InFocus: The IN83 (most impressive) review will be posted in a few days.  

In addition, I’m expecting their new lower cost, $2299 MSRP X10 1080p projector by end of the month, so anticipating a completed review in early August.  This X10 projector is available from online resellers, and is definitely one of the least expensive 1080p projectors on the market.

Epson Ensemble:  I’m a huge fan of Epson’s Ensemble concept.  Basically, a turnkey system built around the Home Cinema 1080 UB.  the system includes a 100″ motorized screen (white casing), with left, center and right speakers built into the screen case.  A “platform” for the projector itself is also white, and includes left rear, and right rear speakers (it can be shelf or ceiling mounted).  There’s also a subwoofer and separate AV control center, which includes a standard DVD player.  There are two HDMI inputs as well (cable/satellite, and Blu-ray player), which should be all the Epson Ensemble needs.  

The system includes all wiring, etc, and even an equipment cabinet for those that need one.    

The Epson Ensemble should be here also late July, but as it’s a complete system, give me an extra week or so, to have everything installed.  The beauty of the Ensemble, is that it should make a projector installation not significantly more challenging than the average plasmas display or large LCDTV.  I’m really excited about this one, as it is designed so even those basic Best Buy, and Circuit City type installers can knock off a full installation in less than a day, at a reasonable price.

Other than that, probably one more home theater projector review in this timeline (July - August) as I have some biz projectors to review, and will be taking a a week of vacation as well.  Other possibilities, if I can pry one loose:  a 1080p projector from SIM2, possibly a projectiondesign 1080p projector, and, I’m also hammering a few other companies.  For those with tomorrow off, have a great 4th of July!  -art

I can tell you right now, InFocus has released a first class projector.  I already liked the IN82, and here comes it’s Darkchip4 “version”, called the IN83.  So far, I’m pretty much “blown away”.  

Remember, please, this is a very preliminary “first look” based on a couple of hours of untouched, “out of the box” settings, and then some minor tweaking, and more watching but without calibrating the IN83.  In fact, I’m normally not that good at “tweaking” by eye, without software or gear.

I decided that while the “out of the box” color accuracy was pretty good, it was a bit strong on greens and yellow, relative to the reds.  The skin tones therefore came out a little pasty, and pale, sort of just slightly grayish.  So, what I did, was to eyeball the slight problems and correct the color balance of R,G,B gain and 

offset, by eye.  As I said, I’m not great at that, (especially since each projector’s controls tend to be have differently, and the gain and offset controls affect one another).

Turns out, in five minutes I had near perfect color, without using calibration gear.  After a few more hours of watching, the projector went to Mike for the calibration (it saves me a ton of time, and besides, he helped me learn calibration a few years back, so I know I can trust his work).

Mike brought it back, impressed that I had gotten all the gain settings virtually identical to what his formal calibration did (ok, 1 pat on the back, for me), although I didn’t do quite as well with the R,G, and B offsets.

Here’s the point.  In the last 48 hours, I have probably watched at least 10 hours of the IN83, post calibration.  I have never encountered a projector with color accuracy, and skin tones as good as this InFocus IN83.  Some projectors are easier to calibrate than others, so to some extent, it might be due to my calibration skills (and that Mike is better at it than I am), but whatever the reason, this IN83 is something to behold!

I mean, it would hard to imagine further improvement.  Whether skin tones, or the reds and blues of an american flag - getting a really perfect red on an American flag, is something, beyond the ability, for example, of my own JVC RS1.

It gets better still:  

The InFocus IN83 is bright - 1100 lumens in best mode, after calibration, (with the manual iris wide open)!  No doubt, all that horsepower, influences my enthusiasm, although I did knock the iris down to 55% for much of the viewing (still brighter than most of the competition, Optoma HD81-LV nothwithstanding).  

But, I’m not prepared to comment on black levels yet.  Since the projector is so bright, in best mode, the blacks are also brighter than would be on a projector with comparable black level handling, but a dimmer projector.  Based on recollection, the IN83’s black levels are almost certainly  better than the IN82 (a good thing, although the IN82 is pretty good).  

The real question is whether the IN83 can match or beat the black levels of the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB I have here, or my JVC RS1.  I don’t know yet, but this evening it will be Epson vs InFocus, side by side, on the Carada Brilliant white, and I’ll be shooting images.

Remember this is a manual iris projector - no dynamic iris issues, although if InFocus had the foresight to put a first class dynamic iris on this projector, it might well be, overall, the best projector on the market (under $10K), and possibly by a noticeable margin.  I’m figuring that already really good black levels, if enhanced with a dynamic iris, it should at least rival, and probably beat both the Sony VW60 and the JVC RS1x, and who knows - perhaps even the JVC RS2.  Hey, it may be as good as those, as is, I just can’t be sure, yet. (I am pretty certain that its black levels are not as good as the JVC RS2.

But, that’s all conjecture (aren’t blogs great)?  I will know, soon enough.

For those interested in the overall package of the IN83, but can’t wait, just read the bulk of the IN82 review and stay tuned for the IN83 full review.  

Out of the box color is slightly different, and it measured just slightly less bright, but physically, its basically the same projector with just about all the same controls (maybe all, haven’t gotten that far yet).

Let me say this - if the black levels pan out to match the RS1, then, this is probably my new, favorite projector under $10K.  Flawless color, and tons of lumens, (and I forgot to mention, a very sharp image) If the JVC RS2, my, to date, top rated projector, can only do slightly better black levels than the IN83, then the InFocus will likely be the preferred choice for most people, because of twice the available brightness.  

From my perspective so far, I would almost certainly consider replacing my RS1 with the IN83, but for my sensitivity to the Rainbow Effect.  While I owned DLP’s for years, and consider RBE only a minor, occasional annoyance, it would be hard to go back to a DLP for that reason, after a year of no rainbows at all.

Oh, and yes, it supports Deep Color and 24fps!

That’s it until the review is posted.  Friday the 4th, late, hopefully (but don’t count on it).  Those of you who are regular readers, know I have a tendency to be optimistic.  At worst case, next Tuesday evening (a lot going on this weekend).

Everyone (in the US) have a great 4th of July weekend.  And, the rest of you, have a great weekend as well.  -art

PS, one last thing - the Olympics are only 6 weeks out.  Those of you just sitting around on the fence, trying to decide what to buy, just remember, the Olympics in hi-def should be something to behold. That makes the Olympics a great excuse to finally pull the trigger, and get your projector sooner, rather than later.

This year’s Infocomm was one of the most interesting in years… Hang in there - late July is my target!  -art

The first unit we received had an issue, so we received a second one, and it performed beautifully, give or take a minor issue or two.  In a nutshell, the Pro8100 is definitely brighter than the average 1080p projector for the home, especially in its best mode, and it is one of the sharpest projectors I’ve seen.

The Pro8100 was found to have great color management, decent but not great out of the box color (but it calibrates beautifully), and an overall dynamic image with rich colors - lots of wow and pop!  We also found a flaw or two, notably with its dynamic iris.  For most considering the Pro8100, the “issues” are not deal breakers, and the strengths are multiple.

Check out the full Pro8100 projector review.  -art

I just received tracking information from InFocus for my IN83 review projector.  The IN83 is perhaps the first big name Darkchip4 DLP projector to ship.

UPS advises that it will arrive tomorrow.  Thursday night it will get fired up, in the theater, and I’ll check out it’s out of the box performance.   With luck, it will be calibrated by Friday night, and I can spend the weekend doing extensive viewing.  Look for the review to post around 7/8, sooner if I can (don’t forget - there’s the 4th of July, between now and then.

Not much else to say, other than the IN83 should be almost identical to the IN82 we reviewed earlier this year, with some minor improvements, and one major one - the switch from the Darkchip3 DLP chip, to the newer, higher contrast Darkchip4.  This allows even better black level performance.  

I’m extremely interested (as I imagine you are) to see of the IN83 can match the top performing projectors in terms of black level performance (the JVC RS1x, and RS2, the Sony VW40 and VW60, and the Epson UB series. 

Until the last year and a half, the coveted black level performance champs had all been DLP, but more recently LCoS projectors (JVC and Sony), as well as the Epson Pro and Home Cinema 1080 UB, have surpassed the best black levels of any of the DLP’s I have tested.  

This should be really interesting.  And, I’ve got a JVC, and an Epson here, for direct comparison!

The IN83 is one of the more expensive under $10,000 home theater projectors, but then so are most of the competition mentioned above.  InFocus sells the IN83 in the US, only through authorized local installing dealers.

Stay tuned.  -art

Things haven’t worked out as well as I had hoped with this review, and I am now waiting for a replacement review projector from Viewsonic.  As a result, the review will now likely be posted around June 25th.  There have been some very interesting results.  To quote The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” however, “DONT PANIC”.

Let’s start at the beginning.  TheViewsonic Pro8100 is Viewsonic’s first serious entry into the 1080p home theater projector market.  It is a 3LCD projector, however, it is unusually large for an LCD projector.  It’s pretty, in shiny black, and slightly sculpted.  Physicially, it looks worth the price tag ($4999 list price).

The projector has the standard goodies found in most 3LCD home theater projectors - vertical (and horizontal) lens shift, a zoom with a good amount of range (1.5:1), although not as much as the 2:1 found on many 3LCD home projectors, but better than any of the single chip DLP projectors.

Upon firing up the projector for the first time, in my theater (pre-calibration), the most impressive thing I noticed right off, was that the Pro8100 is especially sharp.  Definitely, it produces one of the sharpest images I’ve seen to date (and that covers a lot of 1080p projectors).  Out of the box performance for movie watching wasn’t bad at all, but, as with most projectors it needs some work. Color saturation is a little over the top, but that took about 5 seconds to adjust to a more pleasing level.   The first evening I watched segments of two movies - Casino Royale and Live Free and Die Hard.  Not bad at all!

Where I ran into a problem, though, was the following day.  I fired up the projector again, this time starting with some standard resolution TV.  What I saw, was an incredible image noise problem.  I’m not talking the usual slightly noisy tendency of many DLP projectors here, I’m talking total disaster.  Essentially, an unwatchable picture.  At first I assumed that it may be a problem specfic to SD (standard definition), so I popped in a SD DVD.  Same disastrous results.  Mind you, I had already used the projector’s system reset, several times, and it helped not at all.  The Viewsonic projector has four types of noise filters some with up to four settings.  Nothing made any significant difference.  BTW, during all this excitement, Mike showed up, as he was going to calibrate the projector.  He’s my witness! It was so bad, it was unthinkable that any company would ship a projector that had this noise problem. No one in their right mind, or even without a right mind would ever find what we saw as acceptable, so, it was obvious there was a problem with this specific projector.

Finally, I put in a Blu-ray movie, and to my surprise, it showed the same problems as the TV, and SD DVD.  HDTV did no better.  So, now I’m in the situation of it looked just fine the night before on Blu-ray, but now looked like - well, the stuff cow pies are made of, comes to mind.  Now realizing that something had happened since the night before we decided to move the projector from the theater to the testing room.  

And, of course, it started behaving like it did the night before - just fine.

So, our conclusion was, that the Pro8100 burped!  Strangely the resets (multiple) did not solve the problem, but, apparently turning the projector off, and back on, did, as that was the last I’ve seen of the problem.  The projector has since been powered up and down at least a half dozen times, as Mike calibrated it, and I put in more hours watcing content.  I probably accumulated at least 10 more hours of operation, without this noise PROBLEM re-occurring.  

So, I’m not overly concerned about that, but it really was something to see.  I can’t even begin to describe it, other than we were looking at an announcer on ESPN, and most of his dark sport jacket looked like slimy things were slithering over most of it, in the dark.  Like some Indiana Jones movie scene!

If that was the end of it, I would have continued on with the review.  Because of this problem, and before it was restarted with the problem gone, I did something I normally avoid doing.  I decided to see who might have already reviewed the projector to see if they encountered the same thing. 

Projector Central had already reviewed it, and they reported nothing like what I described above.  But, in my brief scan of their review I found another discrepancy.   They were reporting the projector doing about 700 lumens in Cinema mode after adjustment, but I was getting a measurement of about 275 lumens before adjustment, and similar numbers after.  Mike measured it again, separately, with his equipment, and got numbers almost identical to mine.  So, why was Projector Central getting a dramatically different level of brightness - roughly 2.5 times as bright?

At that point it was time to hit the panic button.  I contacted Viewsonic, and am shipping this one back. They are sending out a replacement.  Hopefully the replacement will show brightness more in line with Bill’s review.  If not, then things get really murky.

Mike did a great job of calibrating it.  I watched the Pro8100 last evening for several hours and the image quality was most impressive.  Lots of Pop and Wow.  Black levels were very good, but not up there with the best (which, in the case of LCD projectors, is the Epson “UB” series (TW2000 outside the US.)

The Viewsonic uses a dynamic iris, and the iris action is a bit more visible than other projectors.  I’ll discuss that in depth in the actual review.

So the Viewsonic Pro8100 is heading back to Viewsonic tomorrow, and hopefully the replacement will arrive shortly.  

On other notes, a good question is:  Where can I buy one?

Viewsonic says the projector is being distributed to local “installing” dealers, and, therefore, is not likely to be easily found on the internet, but, other manufacturers have said that before… we shall see. Viewsonic knows that if they want the local installing dealers to embrace the Pro8100, they need to maintain margins, and that can’t be done without, maintaining control of internet distribution.

That’s it for now.  Overall, I suspect we have a very good projector here, although, one that is a bit pricey.  Note, please, that projectors sold through local dealers only, are traditionally pricier than those widely sold online.

Hang in there!  -art

OK, enough about Mike.  

He’ll pick up the projector, do the full range of measurements I’ve been doing, and some additional ones, and he’ll calibrate the “best” (usually labeled Cinema, or Theater, or similar) mode, and also do some tweaking of brightest modes, as needed.   

Fear not!  Each review will continue to provide the adjustments made when calibrating.  In fact, there should be more usable numbers, to get everyone started.

After a day or so at Mike’s, the projector will come back to me, for extensive watching in best and brightest modes, the usual photo shoot, and, then, finally, I’ll put in the usual grueling hours needed to write it all up, and publish it.

Who knows - with Mike on board for this, and a new light meter coming, we may even start providing contrast measurements and other goodies, that I’m occasionally asked for.  

Still, picture quality is king.  Specs are nice, numbers are nice, but the bottom line on each review will be how it works in the real world.  -art

As many of you have read, I was really impressed with the Optoma HD71.  It’s a really bright 720p home theater projector, who’s review posted earlier this month.  Being a big fan of having some lumens to spare, I really looked forward to the HD71 review, and considered the less expensive, physically tiny, and less bright HD65, to be of secondary interest, compared to the HD71.

Having said all that, I’ve been working with the HD65 for more than a week now (interrupted by a nice weekend out to the desert for the Joshua Tree Music Festival), and find it to be a rather formidable projector in its own right.

I’m already starting to write up the review and hope to post Wed. night, (May 21), but probably you’ll have to settle for Thursday evening.  Projector reviews rarely manage to get finished right on schedule.

Here’s some tasty tidbits about the HD65 that hopefully will hold you over until the full review posts:

It really is tiny for a home theater projector!

The HD65 actually has very good “out of the box” performance, I was most impressed with the color balance.  This is one of the few projectors that you can just bring home, plug in, and enjoy a really good picture, and I’m sure that will be a real strength that will have many people who simply don’t want to have to “fool around” with their projector - calibrating it, etc., before it can do a really good job.

There are a few downsides I should mention, but none of them are deal breakers for most home theater projector shoppers.  Thanks to its really small size, its fairly noisy in terms of fan and color wheel noise.  Of course most DLP projectors are.  The HD65 isn’t the noisiest out there, but, on the other hand, it isn’t a quiet projector either.  This little projector also leaks a fair amount of light. Some comes through the lens and you can see that light primarily below the screen if you have light colored walls.  More light comes out the front exhaust vent on an angle.  That has the light leakage exiting at about a 45 degree angle from the front - probably will hit your side wall.

The good news, is that the amount of light leaking isn’t a real problem.  If you are a purist, and demand minimal light leakage, fine, maybe shop elsewhere, but if you just want a really nice, little portable home theater projector that does a really nice job, with no real effort on your part, the HD65 really is one of the better choices out there.

If the HD65 was more typical in size, and improved on both noise and light leakage, it might find an even bigger following, but it should have plenty.  It produces one of those classic DLP type images that many really love.  Typical of Optoma’s in general, the gamma levels seem high in the lower IRE (brightness) ranges.  This provides a slightly darker than normal image in the darker areas, but one that produces really rich, standout, dark colors.  I’ve always found that to be a strength of most Optoma projectors.

OK, enough said, for now.  Tonight is “photo shoot night”, and the last night of viewing.  Check back Wednesday, if you are a real optimist - otherwise, Thursday night it is.

Last thoughts - we’re trying to bring in a number of projectors in the next 6 weeks (with Infocomm tradeshow in the middle).  On the home theater side, I’m still trying to talk SIM2 out of one of theirs, plus I’m waiting to hear back from Viewsonic on their new Pro1800, an LCD home theater projector, and of course, BenQ’s W20000.  And that, folks is just for starters.  -art

As all of you who read my W5000 review, I found the projector to be overall, one of the best affordable 1080p projectors out there, in terms of picture quality, except for one significant failing.

That issue is high levels of image noise. I’ve been keeping in touch with the folks at BenQ, with the hopes that a new version will solve the problem sufficiently. Here’s where things stand:

The W5000 I reviewed was one of the first to have firmware version 1.08. Since then, BenQ has released 1.12.

I asked the nice people at BenQ if 1.12 solved the problem. They report a small improvement in noise levels, but are hoping to have an even better version (in the not too distant future - we hope). In fact, here’s what one of my contacts sent to me specifically:

“What’s shipping from BenQ are 1.12, and we are working on the next version which I thought will be a more significant improvement.
The one you tested it was 1.08.

What’s shipping now is 1.12.

1.12 the overscan issue is solved, but only minor improvement done on noise. We are working on even more improvement.”

Based on that response - and their recommendation, I don’t plan to take a look at 1.12, but will hold out for the next version, which - it seems, promises a significant improvement. And that would tend to make the W5000 the best lower cost 1080p DLP around, if they can pull it off. BTW, still no ship date from them on W20000 projectors here in the US. -art