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SIM2's C3X Projector Review - Image Quality 2

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Art Feierman

Shadow details

The next pairs of images attempt to give you an idea of the range of color dynamics. My digital camera can't capture all, so there is a normally exposed image (but you lose the

shadow details, and then an overexposed photo of the same frame, so you can now see the projector's ability to resolve the details in the shadow. On the first pair, look to the dark shed or walls on the right, on the second image. See, all that detail is there.

The first starship image (above, from the 5th Element) is normally exposed and you can see fine highlight details in the various components on the ship. In the second image, I have overexposed so the camera now captures the full depth of stars and their colorings, that the viewer also sees.

I should note that the night before I started writing this, I had several friends over. One has had home theater projectors in his house for at least 6-7 years, one who watches football and movies over here occasionally, and one lightweight. All three agreed with me, in that no trip to the movie theater blew them away, like what they saw here.

Of course the Sim2 isn't perfect, and I did detect a little bit more noise in dark areas than I have seen on some other DLP's but it was perfectly acceptable to me. On the other hand,

perhaps the C3X is too good. I definitely was able to see what is probably the MPEG encoding (compression) on certain DVDs - in near black or black areas, and it was noticeable. This is something I have never noticed on lesser projectors.

It was most noticeable on the movie Zathura, which again is a sci-fi flick. In the space scenes it appeared as large moving blocks of near black. Taking down the brightness an extra step or too, made it go away, but of course it would also have cost a little loss of detail. That was the only DVD where it was blatant but I was able to spot it on others.

If you've read other of our reviews, you'll know that I look for a projector to really be able to reproduce bright sunny scenes well. Many projectors come up short, when trying to capture a day that is really bright and clear, instead producing something that looks more muted and hazy. Not this Sim2. It makes you feel the heat of the sun glaring off of objects.

One a night scene from Star Wars II, and a party at night from Starship Troopers. Again, these images attempt to give you some idea about the punchiness, and 3 dimensionality of the projected image:

Again, the image quality is just wonderful. If the budget is there, you can project the kind of image we all dream of.

If there are better projectors out there right now and there are a number of other competing projectors from the likes of Runco, Panasonic, Vidikron, Digital Projection, and so on..., I can only imagine we would be considering only fine differences in performance. Of course in my experience, you can watch a truly great $6000 projector and be blown away, and until you see a projector in this caliber, can't imagine that there could be such a difference.

Hi-Def from both my D-VHS and cable box was really sharp, and the best content was truly great.

I've viewed this image on most projectors I've reviewed, and none to date have matched the C3X in capturing the strength of the early morning sun shinning on the houses and yards. I've oft referred to the "sunshine effect" in other reviews. Most projectors come up short in reproducing one of those razorsharp clear sunny days, instead leaving you with the feeling of an almost hazy day, where the shadows aren't as clear and defining... Not so the C3X, it knows how to reproduce that brilliant type of day

Ok, that concludes this section, now for all those important other aspects of the projector, ans well as info from the calibration. click on General Performance next.

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