I went out to a local retailer in the North Orlando market today just to see what they had.... the dedicated home theater section was interesting....

Anyway - I got to see 2 projectors in a side by side comparrison... the Sony Pearl and a Sharp 720p model - sorry - I had no model number as the sales rep said that it was no longer available however the new one was about the same... I guess I should assume that it was the MK12???

The pictures were both displayed on a 103" Firehawk screen. The Sony 1080P had a beautiful sharp picture - however didn't seem very bright - the brightness was set around 65%. There was no screen door that I could see - even inches from the screen.

The Sharp blew me away with the brightness. It compensated for the lower resolution.

The Sony was virtually silent - while the Sharp has what seemed to be a faint fan noise - that completely was drowned out by even the lowest volumes (certainly within what we would consider normal viewing volumes).

The SD picture was much better on the Sony... the HD pictures were pretty damn good on the Sharp - fantastic on the Sony - however completely overshadowed by the lack of brightness... too bad really.

SD DVD (Non HD or BR) both looked great on each machine.

If I were buying today I've got to tell you - I would have gotten the Sharp - not only at half the cost, but twice the brightness as well. Noise is a huge concern for me but to me the Sharp wasn't obtrusive at all.

Now I am back to the drawing board - however I figured out today that the gain in picture quality is a nice to have over the 720 versus a must have. I can certainly live with 720 - which I wasn't sure about.

So the quest continues - looking for a great picture with very little noise. Brightness won out over the 1080p today...

Was this a good representaiton of the market as it stands today?

I went out to a local retailer in the North Orlando market today just to see what they had.... the dedicated home theater section was interesting....

Anyway - I got to see 2 projectors in a side by side comparrison... the Sony Pearl and a Sharp 720p model - sorry - I had no model number as the sales rep said that it was no longer available however the new one was about the same... I guess I should assume that it was the MK12???

The pictures were both displayed on a 103" Firehawk screen. The Sony 1080P had a beautiful sharp picture - however didn't seem very bright - the brightness was set around 65%. There was no screen door that I could see - even inches from the screen.

The Sharp blew me away with the brightness. It compensated for the lower resolution.

The Sony was virtually silent - while the Sharp has what seemed to be a faint fan noise - that completely was drowned out by even the lowest volumes (certainly within what we would consider normal viewing volumes).

The SD picture was much better on the Sony... the HD pictures were pretty damn good on the Sharp - fantastic on the Sony - however completely overshadowed by the lack of brightness... too bad really.

SD DVD (Non HD or BR) both looked great on each machine.

If I were buying today I've got to tell you - I would have gotten the Sharp - not only at half the cost, but twice the brightness as well. Noise is a huge concern for me but to me the Sharp wasn't obtrusive at all.

Now I am back to the drawing board - however I figured out today that the gain in picture quality is a nice to have over the 720 versus a must have. I can certainly live with 720 - which I wasn't sure about.

So the quest continues - looking for a great picture with very little noise. Brightness won out over the 1080p today...

Was this a good representaiton of the market as it stands today?


I'd say you pretty much hit the nail on the head IMO. I do not notice a significant increase in PQ from 1080P to 720P. Brightness is very important to me & with the latest crop of 1080P units.... they do not suffice. 720P is fine for me until a bright 1080P is introduced.

Then the question becomes - which one of the 720's is quietest?

I have the Sanyo Z5 and its real quite and has a razor sharp picture.

The pictures were both displayed on a 103" Firehawk screen. The Sony 1080P had a beautiful sharp picture - however didn't seem very bright - the brightness was set around 65%. ...

The Pearl was not setup properly. It should be calibrated at contrast 80, brightness 50, and for best PQ iris set to auto 1. Looks like someone turned up the brightness (black level) to try to make the picture brighter, unfortunately that just destroys the CR.
The Sharp blew me away with the brightness. It compensated for the lower resolution.

The Sony was virtually silent - while the Sharp has what seemed to be a faint fan noise - that completely was drowned out by even the lowest volumes (certainly within what we would consider normal viewing volumes).

The SD picture was much better on the Sony... the HD pictures were pretty damn good on the Sharp - fantastic on the Sony - however completely overshadowed by the lack of brightness... too bad really.

SD DVD (Non HD or BR) both looked great on each machine.

If I were buying today I've got to tell you - I would have gotten the Sharp - not only at half the cost, but twice the brightness as well.?
A Mark II does not have twice the brightness of a Pearl, in best CR mode it is the other way around :D , maybe you saw a Sharp 2000 or 3000 which is brighter than a Mark II or Pearl but does not have the same PQ.

IMHO there is more smoke and mirrors going on in these showrooms than Houdini ever could have thought possible.

Half the places (low end retail) I’m convinced are trying to have a FP product offering on display only to convince you to buy one of the better markup/ profit flat panel displays. The vast majority of the sales people are clueless as to FP questions and setups and in not knowing give a lot of wrong answers. All these projectors are calibrated by eye and lots of time have a plasma next to it in an unfair side-by-side comparison in rooms with way to high ambient light levels.

The high-end theater stores are going to talk down anything but the most elite products and tell you everything else is junk.

Screen selection is very important and in the above comparison could be a big factor also.

Over in the DIY screen forum we have been looking a lot at what kind of image and PQ appeals to different people, and its becoming more apparent (at least to me) that a lot of people like the OP are drawn to a brighter image and that images ability to burn thru some ambient light issues and still maintain a decent CR.

Buying a FP based on advertised specs is nonsense IMO and showroom experiences can be very misleading. Combine that with screen selection and room design each play as big a part in the end PQ as the projector and the process of finding the right projector for you just got harder again.

I think I could walk into a showroom and in 20 minutes select a plasma display I liked based around price and PQ and take it home and be very happy with my selection. A projector I see as a daunting task for many and when you do get it installed you end up second guessing yourself as you read more specs.

Lets not forget all the other factors that play a big part like zoom, throw, drop height, etc etc.

Things like pixel size only matter if you are going to sit close enough to discern them, based around how good your vision is and your seating distance 720 is good enough for the vast majority. I don’t like seating closer than 1.5 the width of the screen and most of my guests agree. Some that like to get closer never seem to notice SDE and I only have XGA resolution ie 576p.

I’m going to include two screen shots below to show a comparison I did. And I realize screen shots can be doctored and don’t show correctly everything the eye sees but the one I’m posting I feel is accurate as to what I view.
First is lifted from a web page taken by a professional of a $40k projector on a high-end screen with perfect light control. The second photo I took using my $700 XGA Sharp projector on a homemade low gain gray screen. I have no idea how the high-end projector was calibrated but mine was a combination of using a cal program and then adding in additional “pop” I require for ambient performance and what I personal like something I feel is slightly more plasma like and less film like.

I’m mainly showing this as an example that it’s not necessarily specs or $$ that produce a good front projected image. By the way, the image I offered is from a std DVD output at 480p.

http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/1019/2658110040068493142S600x600Q85.jpg (http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2658110040068493142MdAiqJ)

http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/20/2021147720068493142S600x600Q85.jpg (http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2021147720068493142OBVzGy)

I stand corrected - it was a Sharp 3000.

Even still.

By the way - beautiful screen shots.

The 3k is a fine projector. I'm using with a 106" High Power screen. After I got a Spyder2 and spent some time on the calibration forum I am very happy. I can use High Contrast Mode and have plenty of brightness. Really beautiful picture.