Help decide Sony SXRD/Epson 7500/JVC Rs10

The VW60 is a little old by now compared to the 7500 or RS10. My personal suggestion, you may want to look at either the Epson 6500UB (BIG bang for the buck), or step up the the JCV RS20. Any of your choices will make you happy, but the VW60 lags behind the other two slightly now.

Of the VW60, 6500UB, or RS10, I would choose the 6500UB or 7500UB because they have full calibration control for the color managements system. The black level between these three are going to be close, and the 6500UB can get VERY bright if you need it, and is very flexible for placement.

The next big step from there is the JVC RS20, which is much more expensive.

Dan

After demoing the 6500, rs10 and 20 in my theater and seeing the vw60 in two stores -here is my take -

Sony - too much money

Epson 6500 - Best PJ for the LEAST amount of money. Very good blacks, accurate colors, pretty bright and the fi is nice on animated and older movies. (but useless for all other movies)

RS10 - Incrementally better in every single category than the 6500 except for color accuracy and no fi. I thought usable sharpness was a push. When I was looking the 10 was $1000 more (street) than the 6500.

RS20 - Same as the 10 but with CMS for colors and better blacks on mostly black scenes. $1500 more than the 10.

Nothing better than demoing the units to see what looks best to you in your budget. I would not pull the trigger until the new jvc units come out as well. If you lean towards the RS20 I would also demo the Planar 8150.

See the epson forum. I dont think you will find one person without a problem in that forum. Some people have been through SIX different units. That is unacceptable to me. Even if the unit was the all time greatest projector for 2500 bucks, its not worth the hassle.

AV Science stopped selling the Epson Pro 1080UB at one point, after getting in too many with unacceptable convergence. Eventually, QC improved and AV Science began selling them again.

Yes........... fine..... be back right in a minute excuse me I have to check out some boring stuff..

I have viewed the JVC 20 and Epson 7500 side by side. They were both calibrated. The JVC does have somewhat better blacks than the Epson. The perceived sharpness on the Epson seemed better than the JVC but that can be open to debate. The key question is the price difference worth it for you. My suggestion is to wait a few weeks. There will probably be a new Epson shown at Cedia next week and we know a new JVC is coming.

Stopped by a Star Power store this past weekend and saw all three projectors. While the JVC HD350 was really nice, im not really sure if they set up different units to push you one way or another. The JVC was brighter with lights on while the Sony vw60 and Epson 7500 looked to be washed out. For me it looked liked the JVC was show cased. You never know. I have also looked at the Sony HW10 at BB and looked way different with better blacks than the VW60. Any ideas if stores set up different projectors to look better than others or is it just that the JVC is 10X better than ther other two projectors?

That could be due to bulb age, or how they setup the projectors. The Epson is a bright projector, even in fully calibrated mode, so it should have cut through the light at least as good as the JVC. They should both be comparable in this regard, all else being equal.

One thing I can say about the JVC is that it seems that first time quality is better than the Epsons. I went through three Epsons to get one that was dang near perfect. At least Epson is GREAT to work with in this regard. They ship you a replacement projector overnight, and you just send back the one you like the least. You can repeat this as often as you like.

Dan

I had reviewed these two projectors extensively over the last 6 months as I also debated on both. I personally think JVC's picture, blacks, brightness and reliability are superior to the 7500 and with the clearance price, it was a no brainer.
You can read many reviews and comparisons and most will tell you the JVC is worth the extra money which at this point is only about $500 more

I did notice a difference in black levels between the Epson and Jvc with jvc being better in that area. Colors where really nice on the Sony. For some reason the Epson wasn't set up right and looked washed out. Also, he stated that the Jvc has only been out for 3 months and will not have a replacement. Is this true?

NO! The RS10/HD350 is about to be replaced by the HD550 (not sure what the RS model number is), showing at the upcoming CEDIA event. The HD350 came out last year (I went to the UK launch on 26 September and IIRC deliveries followed a month or so later).

Every time I have been to Star power it has always been like that. Shady!!! is there any difference between the Rs10 or HD350? Saleman also stated the RS is commercial and HD is for home use.

He was at least honest on the difference between the RS10 and HD350, though IIRC the RS10 has a 12v trigger output and the HD350 doesn't.

I was vacationing in Scottsdale the end of last year and happened to see the Starpower they have there. Since I was in the process of building my dedicated room I dragged the family in to check it out. My wife could not escape the HT build even when we are out of state. Ha! What a beautiful place. We have nothing like that in Oregon. I forget how many rooms they had set up with PJ's. 3 or 4? We saw the RS1, RS2 and the Sony 200 in that order. Can't even imagine what their overhead was. Very nice place. Too bad they did not put some of their money into training their reps. The one we had new nothing about the new JVC units that had been released. I am not sure how they messed up the rooms either but the Sony 200 we saw last and it was washed out and blurry. The rs1 and 2 looked great but the sony looked like a $500 pj. You would think they would have their most expensive pj set up the best? The guy also swore The Incredibles was out on bluray. I lost all respect for him from there out...

That's funny you said that. They have a Sony VW200 in a bright room with a 50" Screen that looks like crap.

It will be even more confusing sifting through all the owners on this thread who will try to convince you that their pj choice is the one for you to make.

On the upper left of this page is a button that says AV Science Store, call Jason and he will help you choose a pj appropriate for your situation.

The good news, all of your choices are very good projectors and the 2009 model of each which should be released starting this week at CEDIA will be even better!

We have them here too in Dallas. Not overly impressed in general with them altho I do agree, their B & M locations are generally nice. Their price quote for a middle atlantic rack was nearly $900 (no, I'm not kidding) more than what I could get it for online. I understand their need to make money but they priced themselves out of a sale.

Aint it the truth. Should have our current and past set ups in the sig so folks can see potential bias. Of course you would also have to add personal preferences as well so you know their perspective of image. Are they RBE sensitive, gamer guy just cares about lag, Blacks Blacks Blacks, colors junkie...

As one can see it is very hard to compare projectors since stores do often push certain models. I was lucky to see a shootout between the JVC 20 & the 7500 Epson. Both were professionally calibrated. This is, I believe, the key to comparing units. I liked both. The JVC did have slightly better blacks but I felt that the Epson looked a tad sharper. Both were very bright in a dark room on a 120" inch screen. The other big difference is price and only you can decide if the differences are worth it. It was not for me.

I was lucky enough to have the Epson 6500 and the RS10 in my theater at the same time. I spent a couple of days going back and forth with different movies and type of content. Takes the guess work out of it. I can only hope to have the same opportunity on my next upgrade.

I don't know how the prices compare in the US, but personally I think Sony VPL-HW10 and the upcoming VPL-HW15 are serious contenders compared to the Epson 6500UB (EH-TW5000 in Europe). The Sonys are slightly less flexible when it comes to placement, compared to the Epson models (which actually was the deciding point for me, since I have a very small HT where the projector need to be up close to the back wall, and using quite a large amount of lens shift).

But comparing picture quality, even if the perceived contrast of the current Epsons is great, I still think the SXRD-technology has an edge, which may be due to the much better fill rate. The Sonys also have panel convergence adjustment, which assures a crystal clear picture that you'll be lucky to get with Epson, which often is a little bit off when it comes to panel convergence. You may also find that the color uniformity may be lacking somewhat in an LCD based projector compared to the SXRD or LCOS-based projectors.

So even if you found the VW60 lacking a bit, I would suggest you take a look at Sonys VPL-HW10 and the upcoming HW15. The VPL-HW15 is said to be better still than the VW80 (based on testing on a HW15 pre-production unit). If you want FI, the HW-models are out, but I rarely use that function on my Epson anyway, since movies get an unwanted "reality show"-feeling using it.

It is quite true that Epson has had trouble with their new projector line (based on the new chassis). I am one of the people that have already had my unit serviced with unacceptable results, and I am now changing it to a new unit.

I really think you shouldn't dismiss Sony too fast, though. See my post above.