Which JVC projector?

The X90/RS65 will look better than both the RS55 and 15. Sometimes people post screen shots and the camera they use can make the picture look much worst. But the RS66 and 65 are the best jvc projectors right now. The newer models are good also, the RS45, 46, 48, 55, and 56. The RS 48, 55, and 56 comes with eshift, a 4k upscaler. But the Sony, Epson, and Benq make good projectors too

Just got the Rs-66 and if it's a stunning picture you seek, look no further. Watched "Skyfall" on Tuesday, my jaw was dropping from beginning to end. Awesome transfer onto my 140" 1.3 gain 2.40:1 screen. The shadow detail, black level, and the unbelievable sharpness put this experience at HT Nirvana. If you have light control, the 66 will be the best option at the price. Bar none. IMHO. I had the 56 for a week, but couldn't resist the urge to try it. Absolutely no contest in my theater. Not close, and Skyfall nicely demonstrates it due to Roger Deakins' magnificent cinematography. The darker scenes sparkle with, what might have been unseen on lessor projectors, many fine gradations of shadow. Shadow that comes in so many unique flavors and textures. Almost every evening or night shot holds interest with much to see at the edges of the frame. The exquisite credit montage of memories through the eyes of Bond as he is dying, were great at the theater, and are wonderful at home. The flaming target shot gets me every time. Can't go back. But I'll have to go to work to afford the extra cash. Oh well, it's only money.

I only have sen this so far in a commercial movie theater. I suspect any HT projector will do a better job of showing the blacks and black detail than the commercial theater did and it was a good one with extraneous light not hitting the screen. To see the detail crank the gamma up to say 2.4 assuming you have an on off at the screen of around 40,000 to one. I am going to pick up a copy tomorrow doing my best to help Best Buy survive.It will be an interesting comparison when I get a 4K copy from Sony on their coming 4K server and play it back on my 4K projector,. but I wander. My point is at home this movie should be one that is much better in PQ at home regardless of it being in 1080p vs 2K or 4K in the commercial theatersand having a much wider coilor space there. does

You actually go to movie theaters still? I haven't been to a commercial theater in probably 5 years. They serve better wine in my theater..........

I saw the Hobbit recently in HFR 3D too. Sometimes I just don't want to wait until it comes out in Bluray with all Bluray's faults color and otherwise. I want to see it DCI high bit without edge processing. It also allows me to have a basis of comparision, 2K, 4K yada yada. Besides I get a senior rate and I can do it late at nightwith my bud Tom Huffman, a night owl. Besides I can help the national econom by by paying $8 for 30 cents worth of popcorn.
Edited by mark haflich - 2/19/13 at 1:06pm

Mark, Forget the popcorn. Smuggle in a flask and buy a soda instead for mixer or chaser.

Then how do I drive back? The last movie I saw with Tom started at 10:45 PM. I had enough trouble driving back in the rain and the dark sober. I drink bourbon straight. No chaser.
Edited by mark haflich - 2/20/13 at 1:20am

I rarely go to theaters now. The picture quality of most drives me nuts. We do have a pretty nice all-digital 4K cinema near by that I'll go to for the movies I just can't wait on the Blu-ray for like Batman and Avengers.

I also just got the DLA-RS66 to replace my RS20. I can't recommend it enough. The picture quality is phenomenal. The excellent contrast ratios help the images pop, the image is plenty bright to zoom the image up to a 135" 2.35:1 screen. With the RS20 and a 300 hour bulb I was running in high lamp to fill the screen...I run low lamp an -7 Iris and things look great with the 66. I have also been impressed with the 3D capabilities...I normally am not impressed with 3D at the theater but I like it at home a lot more than I thought, especially for animation. My eyes are pretty sensitive to the flicker of the glasses, but after 5-10 minutes I get used to it and all is well. And it is great that the RF 3D is universal so I bought a pair of $50 Panasonic glasses to go with the two JVCs (actually bought an extra JVC pair before I realized they were universal) for the front row and then 4 pairs of $20 Samsung glasses for the back row (suckers). For the record, even the Samsung glasses look great...just a bit dimmer.

I don't believe you can go wrong with that choice. I also recommend AVScience as a seller...the price was great, shipping is fast, communication is awesome and they have great support. Not to mention this great forum that they provide.

Thanks,

Shan
Edited by Shan - 2/22/13 at 8:54am

I would agree with everything in this statement.

I went form the RS35 to the RS66. Big difference in terms of brightness and clarity. Whereas the RS35 looked great being fed great sources, the RS66 seems to make everything look great. I also switched to high lamp mode at 300 hours on a 120 inch stewart 16:9. I now have a brighter image and the iris mainly closed on the 66.

The presets seem to be a bit more accurate and I also picked up the auto calibration function. Highly recommended.

Ya, I did the Auto-calibration as well. I was pretty impressed. Normally, I would invest in an ISF Calibration but, at least for now, I am very happy with the picture as it is. Might do ISF down the road when a few more hours are on the lamp, but this will easily hold me over. By far the best image I have ever seen in a theater, public or private.

Also, we just watched Avatar in 3D for the first time on the projector last night. Wow, that is by far the best 3D I have ever seen. If every movie was done like Avatar and every device could display it as well as this projector does, I would be fine watching everything in 3D from here on out. The additional depth just pulled you into the movie. At times, it honestly looked like we were looking through a window rather than at a screen. We were all totally floored and each of us had seen it in 3D at the theater...no comparison to my viewing.

Shan

If you can set the contrast and brightness correctly and are using one of the caslibrated probes from chromapure or Spectraca, I don't think you would gain anything you can't do yourself. ISF means the calibrator has been certified by ISF and I think being myself ISF certified that really doesn't mean much. You take a class and pass an oral exam. I think anyone of average inrtelligence would pass the exam. Are you using an external processor for the autocal?

I did the auto-calibration via the JVC Software and the Spyder4Elite. I am sure there would be some benefit to getting someone with higher quality tools into calibrate and I probably will before it is over with but, for now, I am pretty content with how things look. I'm likely going to get an Anamorphic lens so I will hold off on calibrating until I have that in place at least.

Shan

ATMOS made me go to the theater! I can't wait for ATMOS at home

In the UK the price differential between the RS56 and RS66 is 3000 UK pounds. That is over 4500 USD! These two projectors are identical other than the contrast ratio. The contrast ratio of the 56 is 90k:1 and for the 66 it is 130k:1. That is a bit under a 50% improvement in contrast between the two which sounds considerable. I have the RS56/X70 and it seems to be outperforming its spec...not to RS66 levels, but about half way between an RS56 and 66 official specs (according to my Sekonic light meter). I got lucky there.

I doubt anyone has been able to do this, but if anyone has side by side compared a 56 and 66 I would love to hear about it. Although the contrast ratio is better, it is the law of diminishing returns. You will see more of a visual improvement going from 30k:1 to 45k:1 than from 90 to 130

You mentioned the auto-calibration capability. Have you actually tried it? I played around with it and it scared the hell out of me to be honest. The instructions keep warning you that it over-writes something inside the projector and you better keep the back-up file the software creates otherwise you can never get the projector back to factory defaults. I honestly don't understand what the scaremongering is about. Yes you can over-write the internal presets with this software it seems. But we know that the projectors are NOT hand calibrated at the factory. They are built within ever increasing tightening of the tolerances as you move up the range. So what is there that you can over-write and never get back? Surely if they are all the same you should be able to get a re-initialization data file from a download site. Unfortunately this clever bit of software seems to have had so little use outside of Japan, that nobody seems to know what its doing behind the scenes.

Anyway I played with the software, saw that it does cover gamma, greyscale AND CMS. Saw that you could over-write the initial presets. Saw you could create your own colourspace definitions. Tried a couple of calibrations...got nervous and then uploaded the factory init file that the software created the first time I did a calibration. By the way, this software is primarily aimed to defining presets, and not performing an end to end calibration. The software wants you to have the meter facing the projector and NOT the screen material.

Ok so next year JVC releases the 99 and hopefully laser/LED light system instead of lamps I am tired of $600 lamps + $500 Calibration every year!!

 

One can always hope :)

$600 lamps??!! Is that what they're up to? I just bought one for my RS20 for $168 and after a few hundred hours it's still holding up well. I realize for that price I bought an el-cheap-o so we'll see how long that lasts. But I thought the stock lamps were around $350.

Yes stock lamps are $350 a piece, but i still have the RS2 so it's two lamps! = $600 with the slight discount!

Oh... yeah...

We put 50 cents per hour in my wife's cute piggy bank in the equipment room. My wife thinks it's fun, and we have money for a new lamp when we need it. Make it fun! Of course, counting that change and going to the bank wasn't fun. But it makes the money part painless. Watch a movie? Put in a buck.

The story of putting money into your wife's cute little piggy goes something like this. Starting with the day you start doing it (you will have to figure out what it is) until one year after you get married, put a penny in every time you do it, then at your one year marriage anniversary take a penny out every time you do it. You will both be dead or divorced before the cute little piggy is empty.

Do what, Mark? Do what? What are you talking about??

Yeah... cute scenario... heard that one before.