Shane Buettner's Review of the Marantz VP-15S1 is up at www.ultimateavmag.com

I will compare the measurements on the VP-15S1 to the measurements in the review by Shane of the VP-11S1 and post them when I have them.

Site must be down:(

Robert you may be responsible for overloading their servers. Everyone get off so I can get in:)
I wonder how there numbers compare to Gregs.

Here's the link.

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/videoprojectors/1207mar15s1/

Same 80" wide StudioTek 1.3 gain

VP-11S1:
6.0 iris; Reg Bulb; Contrast 0: 9.69fL 2423:1 CR
6.0 Iris; Reg Bulb; Contrast +10: 11.76fL 2940:1 CR (preferred)
3.0 Iris; Econ Bulb; Contrast +12: 14.35 fL 2050:1 CR

VP-15S1
Iris #1; Reg. Bulb; Contrast 0: 7.39fL 2463:1 CR
Iris #2; Reg. Bulb; Contrast +15: 11.03 fL 2206:1 CR (preferred)
Iris #3; Reg. Bulb; Contrast +15: 25.86fL 1848:1
Iris #3; Econ. Bulb; Contrast +15: 18.74 fL 1562:1 CR

Another excellent review from UAV. The Marantz sounds excellent...but the hints about the JVC RS2 in comparison are heartening to folks like me who are rainbow-sensitive.

Yeah interesting comparison on the bottom of the review with the RS2. I wish I knew of a local 15S1 to take a look at. I am suprised that he mentioned the HD100 seemed sharper. I could have sworn the 15S1 had a better lens. Plus with a single chip there wouldn't be any MC.

It is a good read, for sure. It does confirm what millerwill and I found out when we measured my 15S1's output: that the contrast setting on this projector has a very real impact on the projectors brightness and CR. His iris 1 reading was at 0 contrast while he took two readings at iris 2, with 0 and 15 contrast, and those yielded dramatic differences in both brightness and CR while keeping the absolutel black the same.

I didnt read his praise on the RS2 to mean it was sharper, but I assumed it to be that its on/off contrast ratio prowess was very evident. Ill have to reread that again, Cameron, but he certainly seemed to have his jaw down on how bright and black it(RS2) was simultaneously. 8)

The little blurb on the RS2 has got me back interested in it.:)

The Marantz sounds nice but I just don't think it'd be bright enough for my use. It would at first but seeing as I'm at 875 hours on my rs1 bulb I plan to use my next pj for at least as much and if I am starting out low in lumen output then I am thinking it'd be too low closing in on 1000 hours.

What I need is a high on/off and ansi CR pj that has decent (but not too much) light output, has 3 chips and doesn't cost 15+k.:) Someone make this happen...soon. heh

Catdaddy,

I guess he doesn't exactly say sharpness. In one spot he says the combination of punch in light output and resolving power has him believing the JVC is a bit more detailed. I guess there is more to detail than just sharpness.

He also says the JVC looks more detailed.

I can't speak for Shane but I have had both of these projectors in my room and I thought the JVC was a tad sharper as well. Since the JVC is brighter, I say it probably has a lot to do with perceived sharpness. Just like brighter projectors tend to bring out more flaws.

If you go up to the screen and look at pixels, the Marantz wins hands down. You start running into convergence and CA issues with the JVC and pixels look far more blurred and undescript.

The JVC cannot resolve a single pixel on/off burst either, just a dark gray splotch whereas the Marantz (like other 1080p DLPs) has no issue at all here. Both can resolve nyquist though with both horizontal and vertical luma.

Cameron,

Ive always been a believer that its the RS1's brightness and CR that accounts for it ability to make even the faintest film grain appear noticeable. A turn down of brightness,or even an ND filter, makes that grain go away. I would suspect its similar with the RS2, as Kris and Shawn refer to.

Without a doubt the JVC projectors are very revealing .. likely because of brightness and insane CR, but like those guys also report when you look at pixels its hard to beat the Marantz because it is a single chip DLP and of its optics, which as Greg Rogers believes is its best attribute.

Rob,

I bet you cant go wrong with the RS2. 8) Like I had posted on a couple of other threads, though, I really have no idea when/if Ill be receiving the RS2 to demo/compare from Jason. He offerred it to me a few weeks ago, after he had just received them, but they have been selling them and he has been busy and since it is just for me to look at I really cant have any expectations.

One of my local stores carry the HD100 but they still have their HD1 up.

From what I understand of the RS2 though, its brightness is a lot closer to the 15S1 than it is the RS1.

It seems to me, from reading Shane and Thomas Nortons, review/evaluations of the 15S1 that they spent more time with the projector in iris 2 at contrast 15, than they did with it at iris 1 with contrast only at 0.

As you know from Greg Rogers comments he feels that iris 2 settings on the Sharp 20k and the Marantz VP15S1 arent really good because it sacrifices too much CR for too little brightness gain.

Just in Thomas Nortons measurements alone, in iris 2, with all the other settings identical, a 15 adjustment in contrast resulted in (if I remember correctly) a 25% increase in brightness with no change in black level (thats a 25% increase in brightness AND CR for changing contrast setting from 0 to 15) while they only report an iris 1 setting at contrast 0.

At those contrast settings (iris 1, contrast 15, 22, or 33) they could have had much better CR with brightness approaching those of the iris 2 numbers

I believe Tom is doing his measurements with whites clipping just above 235. Some people do this, others don't. I don't. My measurements are always done with the full grayscale preserved to 254.

I am currently using Iris 1 in high lamp mode and it is bright and has excellent contrast. The RS-2 is still a bit brighter though, even in low lamp mode.

Kris, what size/type of screen are you using and, more importantly, when will your 15S1 review be up?

I have a 120" diagonal StudioTek 130 (G3). So my screen is a bit on the big side. But my room is 100% light controlled and utterly pitch black. EVERYTHING is black.

The 15S1 review is just about done so it should be very soon. Just some formatting left to do. But I have 4 reviews turned in right now that haven't been published so I'm not sure how fast it will go up even after it is turned in.

It does seem like there has been a lag on your reviews, Kris. I thought it was sometime ago you reviewed the 11S1 and the BenQ W10000 but they have just shown up on the site.

Hopefully they can get those reviews in there while the projectors are at recent release.

I believe the color divergence in red and green on the VP-15S1 in the Measurements section of the review was because it used the Rec. 709 [HD] color gamut.

Compare that to Greg Rogers VP-15S1 review, showing the colors almost spot on. Greg used Rec. 601 (SMPTE-C) color gamut which, according to Greg, is what is being used by studios and engineers even on HD material. Kris Deering confirms this in the W10000 thread on his review.

Until studios switch to Rec. 709, Rec. 601 is the proper color gamut to use when assesing projectors color accuracy. When they do switch, projs. will need to have accurate color gamuts for 601 (for DVDs, some sat and cable), and 709 (for HD, some sat and cable). Good luck to them.

My 15S1 is sitting here sealed up in its box waiting for me to mount my screen and sort out some other stuff.

This has given me plenty of time to read through the threads on AVS Forum as well as the many reviews trying to reassure myself that it work satisfactorily with my 60x141 Carada BW screen. Some say it’s plenty bright, others say it’s only for small screens. It seems the more I read the less I know. It would appear that the 15S1 has the capability to put out more lumens than the JVC RS2 (my second choice) but the CR suffers.

I’m aiming for 12 fl (which seems to be a generally agreed upon reasonable number).
If I’m interpreting the measurements Jason Turk posted correctly, economy lamp and wide open iris should give good light levels but at reduced CR. So, why is the CR affected by the mechanical blocking of light? My simple mind thinks that while the absolute level of light changes, the ratio would be constant but apparently this is not true.

I’ve not seen much on using the 15S1 wide open. Is this because the measured CR isn’t very good? For a given lamp and iris setting, does the CR increase with a larger screen because the absolute intensity at the screen is lower?

Do I worry too much? Any info is appreciated.

I have a client using the VP15S1 on a 188" diagonal screen. Surprisingly enough, it looked fine. I don't think brightness is the issue it's being made out to be.

Richard