Official Mitsubishi hc4000 ONLY Thread - Page 55

@Curtard
Even though the RS-45 is the lesser model, it still should have enough contrast to get pretty close to the RS-35 on blacks in most scenes, and it actually might be a tiny bit brighter. The RS-35 might be a little sharper, but hoping JVC improved the optics again. JVC has a tendency to get a little sharper on every new generation, but the sharpest of sharp is reserved for their top-end line (they hand-pick the best convergence and panels presumably).

Even though the RS-45 has the pixel-shift convergence correction, part of the sharpness will be luck as always is with LCOS and LCD projectors. It will be interesting for me to see if this RS-45 can match or even slightly beat the sharpness of a Sanyo z4000 (the sharpest RECENT LCD on average other than a couple Mits LCD's).

@Bishopt
As far as calibration goes, things are backwards in projectors, it's very odd, but as you get more and more expensive, you often get more flaky calibration systems. I'm not sure why. I have not liked the calibration controls on Sony, and although I've never tried JVC's calibrations, I've heard they aren't the best either. It's not just JVC or Sony that has this issue, even though the Mits hc4000 calibrates easily and perfectly, the Mits hc9000d ($4000+ PJ) had a few calibration issues that are supposedly worked out in the new version. As far as the CMS goes, I'm not worried about the JVC not having a CMS, since that is just to adjust the color space, JVC comes with a REC 709 mode that has a real-near D65 color space already, and you can still adjust the gray-scale and gamma and other stuff. Although it can be annoying as the lamp ages unevenly, but we'll see. I can always grab a used external CMS if I wish, or maybe I'll just program one.

Yes, the calibration controls were adequate in the RS-35, but in the RS-50/Rs-60 the CMS side of the calibration did not work correctly as it contributed to a too large of a drop-off in brightness (with already questionable lamp quality). An RS-35 should not be sharper than the Mits, should be at best maybe almost the same, although my guess is that the Mits will remain slightly sharper.

I guess at the corners the RS-35 probably has better focus uniformity potentially, but at the center-focus point most single-chip DLP's should be sharper than almost any LCOS projector, regardless of how expensive that LCOS is.

I'd say the Sanyo z2000 will have very slightly better blacks in dark scenes where the IRIS is kicking in, but overall in some more slightly mixed scenes I think the Mits hc4000 will look better. I don't think the black-level difference between these two projectors is huge, but it certainly is going to favor an LCD with an IRIS. In bright scenes, the Mits hc4000 will run over the Sanyo easily. The z4000 almost kept up with the Mits in some ways, but the Mits still beat it, so a z2000 is a step back from the z4000, so the Mits should have a substantial lead over a z2000.

I've seen cheap projectors, expensive ones, and everything in-between, and the image the Mits produces looks like a much more expensive projector than it really is.

Regarding the hc4000's black level:
I am hoping getting the RS-45 satisfies my curiosity in the fact that if I can start enjoying certain movies more that have darker scenes, then the loss in the bright scene POP might be acceptable to me, especially since I expect the JVC RS-45 to have really rich and vivid colors.

It is going to end up a personal choice, several people have gone from DLP to JVC's and have not been bothered, but I'd say 1/4 to half of people are anywhere between slightly bothered and really bothered by leaving DLP for LCOS.

My biggest concern about the JVC isn't bright scene POP, it's actually lamp quality eating my wallet alive. My eyes can adjust to the different levels of sharpness usually, but we'll see if the JVC is sharp enough for me, I suppose it will be.

I think it's going to be a hard decision for me to keep the JVC vs. trading it in for a Mits hc7800, but we'll see how much I like the RS-45 first.

Shadow detail is a tricky thing, and people often get into arguments when I mention it (Although this thread people don't argue as much anymore, strangely enough). I think this thread is calmer now because all of us in here pretty much agree, that the hc4000 produces a stupidly amazing image for the price.

That said, shadow detail is mainly a combination of NATIVE contrast and gamma. The other potential issues affecting shadow detail are the processing algorithms (image noise reduction, banding, etc...). That can either detract, add to, or ruin shadow detail in dark scenes (or turn it into blobs). I would argue that even though DLP produces less gradiated ranges in the darkest of dark scenes, it still produces a slightly cleaner scene than some LCOS, but the LCOS will still cream it in dark scenes, there is just no way of getting around that.

Given the JVC RS-45 has much higher native contrast, after you calibrate the GAMMA the dark scenes should look better across the board, this includes shadow detail. That doesn't necessarily mean in most scenes you will SEE MORE DETAIL than a Mits hc4000, what it really means is that the detail will in essence appear more vibrant and delineated, so our brain registers it better. The detail will be less clumped together compared to a projector with less native contrast.

There is no question that if dark scenes is your end-game, the JVC is worth a try-out, but I do worry about the lamp issues. I mean I can put 3000 hours on a projector in one year because I leave it on while on my computer (I work from home half the time in my job), so I can really burn lamps fast. That could cost me $2,000+ per year if these lamps start failing too often. After 3 years, I could have bought a $5,000 projector using different lamps, so that is a bit odd.

That assumes the JVC still has the lamp reliability problems, no-one knows just yet, but it does worry me severely.

The RS-35 probably comes close enough in sharpness to make the contrast advantage make it seem a lot sharper in movies in certain scenes anyhow.

That wouldn't surprise me. One issue though is you might be watching your Mits with a sub-10 fL image, and although that isn't a huge issue if the room is super-dark, too dark of an image can affect the way we perceive contrast in some scenes. It's actually a trade off though, a darker image can appear to have better blacks to a degree, but then the brighter scenes can be lacking punch as well, and this can make things appear not to be as sharp as they really are.

Keystone distorts the image and you lose actual pixel resolution, a few clicks isn't a huge deal (say 2-4), but even at 4 clicks you can see it a little with text mostly, so that is why.
You can get away with a little, but not too much.