Ok, this is round 2 of my review and I have found out some VERY important things that I hope will help others. I was a bit frustrated with my RS10 when I first got it because it seemed I had to tweak settings a bit too much depending on what I was watching and feel that once a projector is "set", it should accurately portray what the intent of the image was meant to be, whether it be a movie, T.V. show etc. and I was finding myself tweaking things WAY to much depending on what I was watching. So, just when I was getting ready to pack it up, I discovered my PS3 was only transmitting 1080i to the projector which started me on an investigation that saved me and my RS10 and turned it from an "ok" projector to a fantastic one.
As it turns out, I could force my PS3 to use 1080P, but then it would pixelate really badly. Long story short, it turns out my 25' HDMI cable was not up to the latest HDMI 1.3 specs. I bought a new cable, plugged it directly into my PS3 (vs. through my receiver) and WOW...what an incredible difference this made, in everything. Clarity of the picture, color, shadow detail...I mean everything looks 10x better. Next step was to play my normal DVD's through the PS3 instead of the upconverting DVD player I have and another steller difference. Why...well by going through the PS3, the color space was 12bit instead of 8 and the PS3 upconverts content to 1080P/60 instead of 1080i and yes it makes a huge difference...so if any of you are using a regular DVD upconvert player with this thing...ditch it. Also, if you are using a blu ray player other than the PS3, see what colors you are getting across when your player upconverts, the PS3 will upconvert to 12bits while my regular DVD player came across as 8 bits and 1080i. The main reason I used my old DVD player was because it has IR that works nicely with my universal remote.
The other great discovery I found was that by using a calibration DVD of my own, I was able to fine tune the settings and it turns out that pretty much the default settings other than a contrast setting of +7 and a color setting of -1 is pretty much perfect for all my content. The only thing I have to have for another preset is when I am watching Dish T.V., I have to bump the brightness down to -5, but that is the only thing. I highly recommend against trying to get a certain "effect" like cinema or the like because what may look good on one movie will not look so good on another...watch it the way it was intended to be watched by properly calibrating it to begin with and let it be.
Please check your info button and make sure it is coming through the way you think it is, if it is coming through as a 1080i source, I found it doesn't handle the 3:2 pulldown that incredibly well and got better results setting my Dish receiver to 720P instead (removed the jaggies that would occur from time to time). Also, check how many colors are coming through, 12 bit is far superior in shadow detail and overall quality than 8 bit is.
Get a movie that is 1080P/24, like the new Batman movie, or Blade runner blue ray and be prepared to be absolutely blown away. Also, I would recommend getting your own calibration DVD as it helps you fine tune tint, color and contrast settings. I also made the mistake of originally setting my contrast too high and brightness to low and it crushed all the shadow details...if you use a calibration DVD, it will help you set contrast just right.
Another trick I found that was very helpful in making sure it was calibrated right was to bring up a calibration image I created that has a gray scale, color gamut squares and pictures of faces so you can verify that skin tones are coming through correctly. It was just a .jpg I displayed through the PS3 and it helps you fine tune which gamma, temperature, etc. to use. Which the defaults by the way turned out to be pretty much the best which is comforting to me...I didn't understand why when you pay 4K for a projector that it should be so far off that someone needs to seriously tweak it to get it to look "right"...so minor adjustments only were needed. I just use the 6500K setting and as stated earlier modified contrast, color and brightness slightly, tint ended up being spot on at 0...but again, using your own calibration DVD these will help you get it just right.
Also, for those of you considering an RS20, I found the flesh tones and such to be just fine...what is different about the JVC's is that they tend to over saturate the colors a little bit and it is a byproduct of the technology they are using...I don't think you can make that go away with the RS20 anyway...but I could be wrong...but bottom line this projector rocks....if you have the right cables!
As it turns out, I could force my PS3 to use 1080P, but then it would pixelate really badly. Long story short, it turns out my 25' HDMI cable was not up to the latest HDMI 1.3 specs. I bought a new cable, plugged it directly into my PS3 (vs. through my receiver) and WOW...what an incredible difference this made, in everything. Clarity of the picture, color, shadow detail...I mean everything looks 10x better. Next step was to play my normal DVD's through the PS3 instead of the upconverting DVD player I have and another steller difference. Why...well by going through the PS3, the color space was 12bit instead of 8 and the PS3 upconverts content to 1080P/60 instead of 1080i and yes it makes a huge difference...so if any of you are using a regular DVD upconvert player with this thing...ditch it. Also, if you are using a blu ray player other than the PS3, see what colors you are getting across when your player upconverts, the PS3 will upconvert to 12bits while my regular DVD player came across as 8 bits and 1080i. The main reason I used my old DVD player was because it has IR that works nicely with my universal remote.
The other great discovery I found was that by using a calibration DVD of my own, I was able to fine tune the settings and it turns out that pretty much the default settings other than a contrast setting of +7 and a color setting of -1 is pretty much perfect for all my content. The only thing I have to have for another preset is when I am watching Dish T.V., I have to bump the brightness down to -5, but that is the only thing. I highly recommend against trying to get a certain "effect" like cinema or the like because what may look good on one movie will not look so good on another...watch it the way it was intended to be watched by properly calibrating it to begin with and let it be.
Please check your info button and make sure it is coming through the way you think it is, if it is coming through as a 1080i source, I found it doesn't handle the 3:2 pulldown that incredibly well and got better results setting my Dish receiver to 720P instead (removed the jaggies that would occur from time to time). Also, check how many colors are coming through, 12 bit is far superior in shadow detail and overall quality than 8 bit is.
Get a movie that is 1080P/24, like the new Batman movie, or Blade runner blue ray and be prepared to be absolutely blown away. Also, I would recommend getting your own calibration DVD as it helps you fine tune tint, color and contrast settings. I also made the mistake of originally setting my contrast too high and brightness to low and it crushed all the shadow details...if you use a calibration DVD, it will help you set contrast just right.
Another trick I found that was very helpful in making sure it was calibrated right was to bring up a calibration image I created that has a gray scale, color gamut squares and pictures of faces so you can verify that skin tones are coming through correctly. It was just a .jpg I displayed through the PS3 and it helps you fine tune which gamma, temperature, etc. to use. Which the defaults by the way turned out to be pretty much the best which is comforting to me...I didn't understand why when you pay 4K for a projector that it should be so far off that someone needs to seriously tweak it to get it to look "right"...so minor adjustments only were needed. I just use the 6500K setting and as stated earlier modified contrast, color and brightness slightly, tint ended up being spot on at 0...but again, using your own calibration DVD these will help you get it just right.
Also, for those of you considering an RS20, I found the flesh tones and such to be just fine...what is different about the JVC's is that they tend to over saturate the colors a little bit and it is a byproduct of the technology they are using...I don't think you can make that go away with the RS20 anyway...but I could be wrong...but bottom line this projector rocks....if you have the right cables!
. I'm getting to the point of just pulling the plug, canceling the order and moving on.
