Runco LS-5 - Performance 2

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Art Feierman

Sharpness

We said that the 3 chip Runco's were very sharp, but, by virtue of combining the RGB colors, there's always some misconvergence with any 3 chip projector, be it DLP, LCD or LCoS. Those more expensive Runcos were very good for 3 chippers, but the LS-5 is crisper still. This is a nice, sharp single chip DLP, and that's about as good as it gets. I note that no projector is razor sharp from center to corner. That said, this projector has good optics. You'll find center to corner sharpness to be better than most projectors we look at.

For your consideration, our usual close up images

Top left: Runco LS-5, Top Left Center - Runco LS-10d, Top Right Center - JVC DLA-RS25, Top right - JVC DLA-RS35

2nd row left: Epson Home Cinema 8500UB, center: Panasonic PT-AE4000, right:InFocus IN83

Runco LS-5

Runco LS-10d

JVC DLA-RS25

JVC DLA-RS35

Epson Home Cinema 8500UB

Panasonic PT-AE4000

InFocus IN83

Below: Close up of a computer monitor, from Space Cowboys (Blu-ray), left to right Runco LS5, Runco LS-7, Epson Home Cinema 8800UB, and BenQ W20000.

Runco LS5

Runco LS-7

Epson Home Cinema 8800UB

BenQ W20000

Runco LS-5: Bottom Line Sharpness

No sharpness issues with the Runco LS-5 projector! Period.

Click Image to Enlarge

Runco LS-5 Light Leakage

Absolutely minimal, as with the other Runco's we've reviewed. They all use the same case, so we expected no differences. Any stray light coming through the lens is very minimal compared to any typical DLP projector.

Runco LS-5 Image Noise

Not surprising, the LS-5 is very good when it comes to all types of image noise. It looked great running the assorted Silicon Optix tests from their test disc. Nothing at all to complain about. Even basic background noise, which tends to seem more visible on single chip DLP projectors than on their competition, looked a bit cleaner than the typical DLP.

Runco LS-5 Audible Noise

Single chip DLP projectors as a group, tend to be the noisiest of the technologies used in under $10,000 projectors. The good news, is that the LS-5 is better than almost all of the other single chip DLP's we work with.

This isn't in the least surprising. Consider that the physical size of the LS-5 (a large projector that shares the same physical size and case as their 3 chip models). I attribute the very reasonable audible noise to the larger case (and design), which allows for more baffling of fan noise and color wheel. In addition the noise is of a nice low pitch, no whine.

Still, there are any number of at least slightly quieter projectors (mostly LCD home theater models). If you are really noise adverse, of course, but want this great projector, two things. One: Though not the quietest around, the low pitch of the sound makes it definitely more tolerable than other projectors claiming the same decibel level. Two: You always have the option of dropping into low power mode, to quiet it down a good bit more.