Mitsubishi HC5 vs. Sharp XV-Z30000 as a single PJ solution - Page 3

Yes, I saw that $2350 lot. I am willing to wait a little longer for a better deal. I saw ~$2180 on Japanese Yahoo auction, but can't bid there right now for various reasons. Of course, I will get you all the fullest report on Z30000 when I'll get one It will be projecting on a 84" DNP Supernova 08-85 screen.

My Sharp XV-Z30000 will arrive in 2-3 weeks. The screen however, will arrive in 4-6 weeks, unfortunately.
Why did I choose it over Mitsubishi? Well, I knew in theory the advantages a good DLP provides over LCoS: better sharpness due to lack of convergence (though chromatic aberrations are still present, green/magenta lines around pixels - this is solely dependent on the quality of lens), better intrascene contrast at average scene luminance level >30%, better motion resolution, much better 3D (lack of crosstalk and less flicker). I only needed to see it with my own eyes. So I went and saw Mitsubishi HC9000D vs. BenQ W7000 side-by-side. Perhaps the viewing conditions were playing against Mitsubishi because due to incomplete darkness the lower black floor of Mitsubishi wasn't as noticeable as it could've been. But the image put by W7000 was indeed sharper, more vibrant and didn't lose to Mitsubishi in depth. It was surprising to say the least knowing Mitsubishi had ~20000:1 native contrast and BenQ W7000 has ~1000:1. After all, brightness and vividness of colors gives a great punch to the image. One thing that I wasn't impressed with with both projectors was motion resolution: 480 lines for both projectors. I hope Sharp XV-Z30000 has better processing than W7000.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1014030/fpd-benchmark-software-for-the-professional-information#post_20673945
Test 2.mp4 Make sure you have 1080p60 output, deinterlacer enabled, all image enhancements disabled.

The test is correct, it shows full 1080 lines on my CRT monitor. BenQ is not the only one with blurry motion. There are reports of Mitsubishi HC8000 to have visible ghosting. Please, feel free to run this test on your Optoma. Run Test 2, please.

No, I won't be able to return it. I will test lumen output in 3D and drop in brightness, don't worry. I wouldn't expect it to equal W7000 in brightness though. http://www.projectorreviews.com/sharp/xv-z30000/performance.php#bright
Edited by Elix - 3/14/13 at 7:01am

I got the Sharp and was very disappointed in it. I sold it and placed an order on HC5. I was also considering Sony but that plastic lens and sharpness uniformity issued scared me off.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1386035/sharp-xv-z30000-3d-dlp/360#post_23177770
Basically, 2 things:
- Large input lag;
- Off unfixable colors.

There was also uniformity issues with my unit.

I finally received HC5 yesterday. In short - the 2D picture of the HC5 is in a completely different league compared to Z30000, no contest. I wasn't able to test 3D yet. Later I will post impressions and pictures and will say why I prefer Mitsubishi.

I am not going to say "I should've went with the HC5 in the first place" because in the end, I had the chance to compare both projectors in my own setup. That's worth a lot.

I paid 2150$ for Z30000 and the same price for HC5. Now Z30000 is selling for 1800$ and the same price has been spotted several times for HC5. Z30000's initial price was 5000$. HC9000's (the same as HC5) initial price was 8000$.
I calibrated the shiet out of Z30000 when I had it and yesterday I saw only HC5's OOTB settings ("Cinema" preset). I only tweaked gamma a bit by eye (not everyone should do it but only those who know what they're doing). Mitubishi's picture is much more accurate and refined.

Sorry for being selfish. Instead of coming right back with the feedback I've been enjoying my new HC5 for entire weekend. There are a lot of things that have been said about this projector already but let me state the things that for me makes this projector a much better option than Sharp XV-Z30000.

When I first turned on the projector I was stunned. Man, what a difference. I came up close and began analyzing what is different, what factors gave me that first impression. In short, they are:
- Better blacks, more contrast;
- Wow, those colors are beautiful!
- Smoother, more refined image due to absence of dithering and higher pixel fill rate (less visible pixel structure).

Now let's talk about some aspects in more detail.

Brightness. This projector is BRIGHT. It gave me 21 ftL on my 80" unity gain screen with normal lamp mode (same as Eco on other PJs), iris half-closed, cinema filter engaged and color temp set @ 6500K! The picture was as bright or brighter than my previous plasma! I had to close down the iris further otherwise I was squiting my eyes on the bright scenes. I tried the max brightness mode (high lamp, full oped iris, cinema filter disengaged) and this was madness. The image was brighter than a cranked up LCD... That's a lot brighter than I could get with Z30000. I missed the opportunity to measure ftL back then but I may take measurements if anybody asks me to. One of the reasons why the image looks so bright might be good color saturation, as opposed to Z30000's.

Black level. Well, I wouldn't say phenomenal. But you must understand that it's very hard to surprise me in this regard as I'm used to perfect blacks on my CRT monitor. However, to make some point of reference I'll say the blacks of HC5 with iris half closed, with a new lamp, on a matte white screen, in an untreated room, are better than on any LCD monitor or most LCD TVs (except some high-end ones). It might even rival my previous plasma (GT20). The blacks are much better than on Z30000 even with engaged dynamic iris. They are low enough that you're not distracted on fade-to-black scenes.

Contrast. What do blacks these low and that much brightness gives us? Correct, GREAT contrast. You should've seen that uncontrollable smile that creeped on my face when I first saw the image. Partially that was due to contrast, both intrascene and on/off. Yes, the ANSI contrast is truly remarkable on this projector as well. I am not able to push it to its limits (which is about 450:1) due to limitations of my room but it is high enough to get punchy images on bright scenes. Even though Sharp's ANSI is supposed to be higher, I can't remember thinking the same way about it.

Colors. This was my main quarrel with the Sharp. OOTB the colors are very pleasing. They are still far from the standard, but unlike Sharp, the oversaturated colors are easily fixed via CMS (I mean luminance here, not hue/saturation). Unfortunately, chromacity coordinates are not easily fixed, meaning that CMS is still half-useless. But trust me on this, oversaturated and larger volume on CIE graph is better than undersaturated and lacking volume on CIE graph. I am still working on getting to standard by using software CMS (AgryllCMS & madVR).

Convergence. My unit isn't the best sample, I presume. I wasn't able to get very good convergence and on some parts of the image it is better than on others. Best case (1, 2). Worst case (1, 2). (caution, large images) Despite this, it doesn't bother me much even that I'm using it for general PC work (like now).

Sharpness. Event though the convergence isn't that great the sharpness is very good. It is uniform throughout the screen, which tell us about the lens quality. Due to VERY high pixel fill rate I can't see the pixel structure unless I stick my nose to the screen. That's a very large plus for me because I'm watching from a close seating distance (< 2m). It has already been said how an LCoS projector be more pleasing for reading text. It is like a free anti-aliasing filter imbued inside the projector, but not at the expense of detail. I can only wonder how sharp this projector can be with ideal convergence.

Input lag. Not stellar, but better than Sharp XV-Z30000. Sharp gave me a minimum of 59-71 ms of input lag. Street Fighter IV was unplayable. On HC5 I measured 50-70 ms with FRC off (1, 2, 3), 110-140 ms with FRC = True Film (1, 2, 3) and 180-220 ms with FRC = True Video (1, 2, 3). I wonder what all that variance means. This reviewer measured 42 ms and I tend to trust his reviews. It certainly feels like 42 ms and not 70 ms (like on Z30000). I set audio latency withing audio decoder to compensate for lag in different FRC modes. These test videos are very helpful for that: http://www.editorsean.com/blog/49-audiovideosynctest. And I always turn FRC off for general PC usage. It doesn't feel any worse than my G20 plasma. Although it is quite noticable after 0 ms on CRT.

Color, brightness uniformity and bright corners. Nothing to complain about. White is uniform and beautiful. The black rectangle shot is overexposed, I currently can't see what is seen on the picture.


Gradation. Outstanding! The best I have seen among digital panels. Smooth, clean gradation without grain or irregular stripes. Not ideal line on my CRT monitor (could've been better at IRE < 20) but better than on Sharp XV-Z30000 for sure. This is the place I like to test gradation (among other things): http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/gradient.php. Note that this is with OOTB settings (Cinema preset). I didn't tinker with gamma yet.


There's a lot more to say about this projector but for now I'll conclude with this. I keep saying to myself that I got a 8000$ projector for 2000$ and it soothes my heart. Right now I'm a happy mother-videophile-cker.


Edited by Elix - 5/20/13 at 12:02pm

Yep. Here you may find a nice description of ventilation system: http://www.cine4home.de/tests/projektoren/MitsubishiHC9000/HC9000Test.htm (1.3.3. Light Engine & Ventilation).