JVC DLA-RS10 - Review Summary
A summary of the JVC DLA-RS10 projector's pros and cons and capabilities.
January 26, 2009
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JVC DLA-RS10 Projector - The Bottom Line
The JVC DLA-RS10 and it's twin, the HD350, improves on the older, RS1, and slightly newer RS1x. The RS10's overall brightness is very similar to the RS1, RS1x.
Your first look at the RS10, out of the box will be impressive, but definitely a bit oversaturated. Color balance is slightly shifted towards red.
Overall, the picture quality is excellent! Black levels are, in particular, excellent, even though the more expensive RS20 does better still. Nothing else I've seen can match the RS10 (except of course, the RS2, the RS20's predecessor).
Of particular note, on most dark scenes that have some significant bright areas (that draw your eye), the difference in black level performance between this RS10 and the RS20, are likely not even to be noticed. When, however, you have really dark scene with no significant bright areas, that's where the RS20 steps up and provides a visible improvement.
Shadow detail is also very good, almost identical to the RS20. In reality, because of the slightly higher black levels, the darkest shadow details may be more evident on the RS10.
The JVC DLA-RS10, and therefore also the HD350, is a truly excellent projector, not only in terms of black levels and shadow detail, but in its natural looking colors, and overall film-like qualities. The RS10 offers an extremely dynamic looking image on dark scenes, that is hard to beat. Sharpness, while not the best out there is good, and for those concerned, or who want a little more, bumping up the Sharpness and detail enhancement settings will get you an image that appears even closer to the sharpest competition.
Placement flexibility is pretty close to the best you can find, so no issues there. The two year warranty isn't the best, but it is the "industry standard" for projectors in this class.
In other words, it's hard to find fault with the JVC RS10 home theater projector. Is it worth the extra money over some excellent projectors like the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB and Pro Cinema 7500UB, the Panasonic PT-AE3000, and the BenQ W20000? I have to say yes. Of course the two major questions that each person considering the RS10, must answer for themselves, is "how much am I willing to spend for incrementally better performance, and also, if I don't spend the extra, knowing myself, will I always second guess my decision, and potentially be sorry I didn't buy the JVC? Those same two questions also apply to deciding between the RS10 and the RS20!
OK, we've just established that the RS10 has the whole picture quality issue covered, what about the rest of the pieces in the puzzle.
Brightness, is a key consideration to many home theater projector owners. If you have a "cave-like" home theater, for full lighting control, and you only plan on a 100 inch diagonal screen (87 inches wide), just about any home theater projector has the brightness for movie enjoyment and brighter HDTV and sports viewing. If, however, you are in the 110 inch to 135" screen size range (as I am), and especially if you watch movies, but also content like sports with some lights on, then the majority of projectors simply won't work for you. For example, the old RS2, didn't have the lumens to fill my 128" screen, whether for movie viewing or sports/HDTV with some light. Others (typically LCD based projectors such as the Panasonic and Sanyo projectors, have enough brightness to work with larger screens in their brightest modes, but not in their best modes. Still others have the lumens for the large screen when watching movies in the dark, but don't have the lumens for sports/HDTV type viewing with some light on (LCoS projectors often fit in this category, along with some DLPs.
I mention all this because the JVC DLA-RS10 is solid. For the first category, the RS10 has lots of lumens for movie watching on a large screen in a fully darkened room.
For sports and HDTV viewing with some light, it is more marginal. I've definitely decided that in my large room, now that I've darkened it further during the daytime, the RS10 and RS20 definitely work for my room and tastes. I do, know, from my similarly bright RS1, that with my old setup - light walls, and more light leaking in around shades than now, that the RS10 would be just marginal for my football viewing, just as my RS1 was until the recent room changes.
The image below is from Hancock (this is supposed to be out of focus. Great colors.
My point is that the RS10 can handle larger screen sizes such as mine, in many cases, for both types of viewing. Matching it with the right type of screen for your room setup, will be very important to making it work.
Audible noise: While many find even the noisiest home theater projectors pose no problem for them, I do get a lot of comments from those who really insist upon a very quiet projector. Most of them simply don't want to hear any fan noise when there's a very quiet scene on the screen. This is compounded, particularly, if your projector is ceiling mounted, and almost directly above your head. Those shelf mounting up high, in back of their room, have the advantage of normally sitting closer to the screen, and that the shelf itself can absorb or deflect some of the sound, away from the viewer.
The JVC RS10, is extremely quiet in its low lamp mode (labeled Normal), that virtually no one should have an issue with it. With the lamp on full power (High mode), the RS10 is about average. And that means some folks will take issue with the fan noise. Not many, I suspect, but some. To a large degree this is a personal thing, as some folks just don't notice it. Many hardcore enthusiasts, though, in their search for perfection, find any flaw distracting, be it fan noise, the slightest color imbalance, so-so black level performance, etc.
I mention all of this because the RS10 will appeal strongly to the enthusiast. The good news is that, I do believe the RS10, a little quieter than the older RS1 and RS2, will be found by most buyers, critical or not, to be satisfactory even in its High lamp mode. For those that aren't, the choices are pretty slim. Mitsubishi and Panasonic projectors for example are extremely quiet, and affordable, but they aren't in the same class, in terms of picture quality.
Fancy features: Not a strength of the RS10. This JVC, like the RS20 is more about image quality than razzle dazzle. As such, it doesn't offer a dynamic iris. In fairness, it doesn't need one, nor would I call for one, but I wonder, how black could the black levels get on dark scenes if it had one? Would it be better than the RS20 without one? It also isn't capable of 120fps output from 60fps sources, but does output 96 from 24fps sources. It doesn't do creative frame interpolation. Of course frame interpolation is a brand new feature in the home theater projector market. (I do like creative frame interpolation when viewing sports, for example.) I suspect the next generation may offer some of these, but, I wouldn't trade the RS10's overall picture quality for any of these features. If I would, I'd be looking at Panasonic PT-AE3000 and Epson UB series projectors. Given a choice, I'll take the JVC's picture quality over another projector, not quite as good in that regard, but loaded with the fancy features. Most of us will.
The very bottom line: The JVC DLA-RS10 and HD350 are a couple of the more expensive popular 1080p home theater projectors. With a price tag (MSRP) currently at $4995, they are over twice the price of the least expensive "ultra high contrast" home cinema projectors, such as the Sanyo and Panasonic entries. There are a number of additional very good projectors selling from over $2500 up to the JVC's price, but I'll give the overall advantage to the JVC over any of them. Including some I think are really great values (Epson UB projectors, Panasonic) or exceptional in some areas. InFocus' combination of best skin tone handling and overall color, plus an extremely sharp image with their IN83 comes to mind as well, although that is similarly priced.
More simply stated: The JVC DLA-RS10 can be considered pricey compared to the much of the competition, but it provides the extra performance to justify its price. It may not be the very best value for your dollar spent, but it is worth every cent you spend on it.
JVC DLA-RS10 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities
JVC DLA-RS10 Projector: Pros
- The best black levels of any projector we have worked with, at any price. (Just slightly better than the RS2 it replaces, which was the former black level champ)
- Out of the box performance is very good, but can be improved further, with minor adjustments previously mentioned. Still a calibration is recommended to get the most out of the RS10 or HD350 projector
- Very good color accuracy post calibration in best mode
- Significantly brighter than average in "best" modes - not the brightest out there, but plenty of lumens for larger screens
- Manual iris allows you to dial down brightness for smaller screen, which in turn increases contrast and black level performance slightly
- Very good shadow detail performance
- The combination of extremely good color accuracy, and black levels makes for the best overall picture quality of any projector we have reviewed except for the more expensive RS20
- Two HDMI 1.3b inputs, full support for 24 fps, Deep Color, etc.
- 24fps sources (typically movies on Blu-ray disc, are output at 96fps
- Three User definable image modes (User 1,2,3) in addition to being able to modify all the predefined modes. Plus, three Custom modes each, for Gamma and Color Temp
- Good layout on the remote control, and a good backlight with easily readable buttons
- Excellent placement flexibility due to 2:1 zoom and a lot of lens shift
- Focus, Zoom and Lens shift all motorized (see special features, first page for fringe benefits)
- Very good menus
- The overall performance is definitely worth the price!
JVC DLA-RS10 Projector: Cons
- Slightly below average brightness in "brightest" modes
- A third HDMI input would be nice
- Key action on remote control is a bit iffy, range somewhat limited, you need to find the right angle when pointing for a bounce off of your screen
- Documentation is typically weak in terms of explaining a number of settings features and modes. Examples include no chart for lens shift offsets, no details about interaction of the CMS settings, no explanations of the different look and feel of the four preset gammas...
JVC DLA-RS10 Projector: Typical Capabilities
- Selection of inputs (except for the lack of an analog computer input)
- Just average lamp life - 2000 hours in High lamp power "Normal lamp mode can increase lamp life"
- Average sharpness for a 1080p projector - this can be improved however, with the sharpness and detail enhancement controls, without creating noticeable sharpening artifacts
- Documentation (I'm still waiting to see a projector that really does provide good explanations of all the menu functions).
That pretty much covers everything I can think of!
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