Runco Lightstyle LS-7 Projector Review

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Art Feierman

It's taken me 4 years to talk Runco out of a unit to review, but, at last, I present to you, the Runco LS-7 review. This Runco LS-7 projector is a 720p resolution 3 chip DLP. It happens to be the first 3 chip DLP we've reviewed in about 3+ years

Specs Preview

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Runco LightStyle LS-7 Specs
Price	15495
Technology	3 Chip DLP
Native Resolution	1280X720
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)	2000
Contrast	10,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio	1.3:1
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life	2500 hours in low power (which is only 12% less power than full)
Weight	41.5
Warranty	2 years

Runco LS-7 Projector Overview

The Runco LS-7, is one of Runco's least expensive home theater projectors! True, Runco is owned by Planar now, and Planar does make a number of sub-$10,000 home theater projectors, but this 3 chip DLP is $15,495, and is the second most expensive home theater projector we've reviewed.

The last time I reviewed a 3 chip DLP home theater projector was the original SIM2 C3X. Back then, there were very few 1080p projectors. The Runco LS-7, like that old SIM2 projector starts with lots of lumens, and that is one of the most distiguishing factors separating the LS-7 from most of the other projectors we've reviewed.

The LS-7 looked really good, right out of the box, which is a good thing! As it turned out, it looked so good, and since it's so unlikely that anyone buying one would get it from a dealer who doesn't calibrate it, I almost didn't bother to do anything but measure its brightness. Later in the review you'll see some out of the box images, compared to my calibrated JVC RS20.

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That's where things got complicated. I had just wanted to have Mike come over with his gear, and just take the grayscale measurements across the range from 20 IRE to 100 IRE (white). Unfortunately we did that in my larger theater - in the daytime. All the shades were down, but my blackout shades, do not have side channels and leak some light in the daytime. It's fine for sports but generally too bright for dark scenes in movies. Well, the dark rust colored walls were reflecting more than a touch of color to the optical sensor. In my real world, my Firehawk rejects most of that side light, but Mike's meter doesn't. The left side of the screen was picking up a good amount of rust colored reflectionsThe bottom line was measurements that are far warmer than I would have expected.