Where in the San Francisco Bay Area can I view the current crop of quality digital projectors i.e. Sony Pearl, RS-1 etc in reasonable circumstances? I have a Magnolia nearby in the east bay, but they only have a mediocre Sharp projector displayed.

The San Ramon and Emeryville Magnolia stores both had Pearls as of two weeks ago. The Magnolia in Best Buy in Dublin and Walnut Creek both have Sharp 12Ks.

I doubt you'll find the RS-1 anywhere for a while.

Carl, I'd be glad to demo the RS-1 for you (and any other BAAS folk) when I get it, hopefully w/in the next couple of weeks.

Hi, Ron,

Thank you. I will take you up on that when you get it.

I went to Magnolia in San Ramon to see the Pearl. I haven't really been into projectors, I have a Sony VPH 1271Q CRT for many years which my wife has been hounding me to get rid of (no WAF).
I really liked the picture on the demo machine. The salesman didn't have any hi def stuff that would work, but the DVD's upscaled looked plenty good. The Pearl still doesn't quite come up to CRT standards, but not enough disadvantages to say it is completely outclassed by my CRT on all fronts and I can see the advantages shifting to the projector (silence, compact size and ergonomics). The Pearl still shows a grey green cast on some scenes, you can see the brightness of the background light wash even on all black scenes. I have always loved the Sony visual recipe that comes with their better sets for a couple of decades now. I guess some people would call it soft, I would call it a lovely, shimmering film like quality that neither overly enhances or detracts from detail and a color palette that has enough of both grayscale and color without too much of either. It looks just a little plasticy, but I don't think I would care after watching it for a while one way or the other. All in all, I was favorably impressed. If the RS 1 can do a little better than this, it would probably make me yield to the WAF on the CRT, but the Pearl actually looks good enough.

You have to be careful with these big box demo stores. They almost always have them setup for substandard performance. Take them with a grain of salt. Ideally if there is a forum member in your area with one, you will hopefully be able to get a better representation of what they are capable. I still wonder how people but these things when they see them 1/2 setup. They are a lot of money to not be blown away.

cjfwbw,

The salesdroids at the San Ramon Magnolia are almost totally clueless. They don't know didly about the Pearl in their demo room. One of them told me the Sony rep told him it was incompatible with the 1080p output of the Sony Blu-Ray player.

They do have a Blu-Ray player in that room connected to the Pearl (via component) and if you try a few combinations, you'll get it working. Tell the salesmen that you're just browsing and they'll leave you alone. They prefer to stand around talking among themselves rather than help customers, it seems.

If you go back, close the door and turn the lights off to get a true impression of the Pearl's PQ. Find the remote (it's usually hidden behind the components in the cabinet below the screen) and go into the menu and change a few things. The droids usually have it set to dynamic mode with the iris turned off.

Heh, Heh, thanks, Jerry for the advice. I admit I am not very experienced with digital projectors. I did see tzucc's JVC DILA with panamorph during a subwoofer demonstration, and it was certainly superior to my CRT from what I could see. Also, my comments are really off the cuff with what I saw. The sales guy couldn't get the blu ray to work, but I did view the projector in an all dark room. I did not have a negative impression at all, just comparing what I saw with my current middle of the road CRT. I am looking forward to seeing Ron's JVC when he has it set up.

Carl, I'd be glad to demo the RS-1 for you (and any other BAAS folk) when I get it, hopefully w/in the next couple of weeks.

I guess that means the next BAAS meeting is at your place.
Can't wait for that one.

I just wanted to check and see if anyone has observed the new JVC in the SF Bay Area?

I haven't seen one yet.

I just wanted to check and see if anyone has observed the new JVC in the SF Bay Area?

A few of us have them. I don't know of any store demos though.

So invite them over! :)