Runco LS-5 Projector - Image Quality 4

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Art Feierman

Overall Color & Picture Quality

❮ ❯

A mix of additional images to show off the Runco LS-5:

From the DVE-HD test disc:

Back to movies - here's a couple from Star Trek and a couple more from Casino Royale:

Runco LS-5 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports

OK, the LS-5 is far from the brightest projector out there in its brightest mode. In fact it only gets up around 800 lumens, while we consider an average bright mode to be 1000.

On the other side, its colors and overall picture look better in "brightest" mode than most projectors can do in "best" mode.

The LS-5 is not a projector for the family room, and sports and HDTV is a good reason why. It's not designed to tackle any really siginficant intentional ambient light. This puts the LightStyle LS-5 projector in line with a variety of projectors in that $4K to $12K price range, including the all the Sony and JVC models.

In a dedicated theater, like mine, though, not a problem. My theater with its dark everything has lots of down facing lighting in the back, and I can have a party going on, with plenty of light to see each other in the back half of the room, while sports still looks great.

❮ ❯

For this review's non-movie images, some shots from the last couple of Superbowls, and some from Lady Gaga and U2 concerts. (My kind of stuff - BTW, the U2 360 tour - saw them last week from the floor. Amazing concert)!

Over all, the Runco projector has plenty of "pop and wow" in the proper room. That my friends will all attest to. The thing is, with light/white walls, ceilings, etc, the 800ish lumens are going to run out of power to cut through any significant ambient light.

Bottom line for HDTV, and Sports Viewing with the Runco LS-5 Projector:

The bottom line is this. The LS-5 projector will do an awesome job in a dedicated home theater (or comparable dark room), with great color. Want to move out into more of a family room? Then the LS-5's probably not a good choice, but Runco has a solution - their LS-HB (for high brightness), for, I believe, just $1000 more.

I must say, with the LS-5 I'm enjoying viewing sports in essentially a "best" mode, with all the skin tones looking great - no typical slight green push in other projectors Dynamic or livingroom modes. Sports looks as good as movies when it comes to color. Too bad the LS-5 lacks creative frame interpolation for smooth motion. That would have been a nice extra. BTW I have been watching sports with SatCo turned on.

Two last images: Lady Gaga and Bono (both taken with some ambient light allowed)!