So, after Ran had a chance to compare his Sharp 21k to the DreamBee
(as detailed in this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=814165 )
I received the Barco Cineversum Black Wing 2, which is another JVC HD1/RS1 clone.
First thing that must be said is this thing looks good. Very good in fact.
To say pictures don't do it justice is the understatement of the year.
The pictures we all saw (and are available on the Cineversum site) make it look horrible, but they're just not telling the truth at all.
Anyway, on to my impressions and the comparison to my old faithful, the Barco BG1209s.
In all honesty, I expected the JVC to outperform the CRT in most anything except fade to blacks, and I fully intended it to be the 1209s replacement.
I have a 272cm wide Da-Lite Da-Snap Pearlescent (1.5 gain) screen.
To its sides there's a dark velvet curtain, but above and below it there's only a white wall (and white ceiling), so this is definitely not a bat cave, but better than Ran's room (which is all white)
otoh, the much bigger screen size makes everything look softer, and all the problems are much more obvious.
The source is an HTPC - currently Athlon 3000+ and nVidia 7600GT, the player is mostly TT, but sometimes PowerDVD 7.2, and Media Player Classic are also used.
So I fired the Black Wing up, and got the following results:
It was quite badly misconverged, I had to shift the red vertically by 1 pixel, but it's still bad with both the red and blue panels misconverged both horizontally and vertically, and there's nothing I can do about it.
The bright corners are a big issue here too.
In fact, I wouldn't call the phenomenon "bright corners" but rather a small area in the center that's dark..
The image at the max zoom (min throw) was a bit overly bright (in normal mode), but putting an ND2 filter made the image too dim.
And that's with a new lamp!
I experimented with the projector placement, and got it further back (around 5-5.5 meters, which is at around the mid throw range).
The bright corners certainly improved, and so has the image.
It was a bit less bright now, but still enough.
However, there's no doubt that after a few hundred hours it would be too dim...
To Barco's credit I have to say the lamp high mode is usable, as it's far from noisy.
(unlike the DreamBee)
So, how does it fare against a 9" CRT?
Poorly.
The 1209s throws such a better image - so much more depth, the low APL scenes look amazing, even high APL scenes such as the shire look so much more 3D.
It really surprised me, but it was no contest.
Yes, the desktop looked much sharper, but you barely noticed the difference in sharpness while watching a film, either on DVD or in HD.
So now I'm really puzzled - so many people here say they can barely see the bright corners (only after their eyes adjust to the darkness etc), and yet here we got 2 for 2 with this issue plain and obvious.
Bad luck?
Maybe JVC is dumping the crap shoots on their clones?
I hope not, as this would make it a sad story - paying more for QC rejects...
The end result is I'm keeping my 1209s, at least for another year.
Don't get me wrong, I think this JVC is a great projector, and it beats most digitals available today.
Imho, it's a lot better than say the Pearl, or the HC5000, or the HD81.
And if not for those bright corners, it might have been a reasonable replacement for my crt.
Alas, that is not the case.
-Roman
(as detailed in this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=814165 )
I received the Barco Cineversum Black Wing 2, which is another JVC HD1/RS1 clone.
First thing that must be said is this thing looks good. Very good in fact.
To say pictures don't do it justice is the understatement of the year.
The pictures we all saw (and are available on the Cineversum site) make it look horrible, but they're just not telling the truth at all.
Anyway, on to my impressions and the comparison to my old faithful, the Barco BG1209s.
In all honesty, I expected the JVC to outperform the CRT in most anything except fade to blacks, and I fully intended it to be the 1209s replacement.
I have a 272cm wide Da-Lite Da-Snap Pearlescent (1.5 gain) screen.
To its sides there's a dark velvet curtain, but above and below it there's only a white wall (and white ceiling), so this is definitely not a bat cave, but better than Ran's room (which is all white)
otoh, the much bigger screen size makes everything look softer, and all the problems are much more obvious.
The source is an HTPC - currently Athlon 3000+ and nVidia 7600GT, the player is mostly TT, but sometimes PowerDVD 7.2, and Media Player Classic are also used.
So I fired the Black Wing up, and got the following results:
It was quite badly misconverged, I had to shift the red vertically by 1 pixel, but it's still bad with both the red and blue panels misconverged both horizontally and vertically, and there's nothing I can do about it.
The bright corners are a big issue here too.
In fact, I wouldn't call the phenomenon "bright corners" but rather a small area in the center that's dark..
The image at the max zoom (min throw) was a bit overly bright (in normal mode), but putting an ND2 filter made the image too dim.
And that's with a new lamp!
I experimented with the projector placement, and got it further back (around 5-5.5 meters, which is at around the mid throw range).
The bright corners certainly improved, and so has the image.
It was a bit less bright now, but still enough.
However, there's no doubt that after a few hundred hours it would be too dim...
To Barco's credit I have to say the lamp high mode is usable, as it's far from noisy.
(unlike the DreamBee)
So, how does it fare against a 9" CRT?
Poorly.
The 1209s throws such a better image - so much more depth, the low APL scenes look amazing, even high APL scenes such as the shire look so much more 3D.
It really surprised me, but it was no contest.
Yes, the desktop looked much sharper, but you barely noticed the difference in sharpness while watching a film, either on DVD or in HD.
So now I'm really puzzled - so many people here say they can barely see the bright corners (only after their eyes adjust to the darkness etc), and yet here we got 2 for 2 with this issue plain and obvious.
Bad luck?
Maybe JVC is dumping the crap shoots on their clones?
I hope not, as this would make it a sad story - paying more for QC rejects...
The end result is I'm keeping my 1209s, at least for another year.
Don't get me wrong, I think this JVC is a great projector, and it beats most digitals available today.
Imho, it's a lot better than say the Pearl, or the HC5000, or the HD81.
And if not for those bright corners, it might have been a reasonable replacement for my crt.
Alas, that is not the case.
-Roman
