Quote:
Originally Posted by
sage11x
Fair enough.
In my limited time with the BenQ I was quite impressed with it’s lens. It’s certainly the best lens affixed to any of these .47” DLPs and, IMO, really showed off what the chip is capable of more so than BenQ’s own HT3550. I was also impressed by the image processing specifically the HDR Pro tone mapping. As for contrast, the Ht5550 is certainly one of the better 4K DLPs in this regard but it’s not going to be able to compete with any of the UB Epsons when it comes to contrast/blacks. A far closer competitor for the HT5550 here would be the Epson 4010. In fact, I consider the 4010 to be the HT5550’s toughest competitor.
The difficult part for me with the Epson’s is the image persistence / blur. I haven’t seen the 5050 yet but I’ve seen the models leading up to it (5040ub / 4010) and it’s a problem. Ironically, the biggest advantage of the Epson’s pixel shifting (IMO) is the way it helps combat the blur as well as reduce the rather egregious pixel gap when operating in 1080p. Personally, I don’t find the Epson’s all that sharp even with the pixel shifting is on but I’d run it anyways just to get the other benefits. Your opinion is the extra resolution of the BenQ isn’t worth the reduction to contrast/blacks. My opinion is the extra sharpness and motion clarity of the BenQ is well worth the cost to contrast/blacks. LCD based stuff looks excellent with stills and the like but as soon as you get to fast action, again IMO, the tech sort of falls to pieces.
Now, if you’re reading this with 3 VA LCD TVs in your house and you’re thinking: what is Sage on about? Don’t worry about it, you’re used to the blur. Unfortunately, I’m not. It’s why I don’t own a single LCD TV and the LCDs I do own are gaming focused monitors with ultra fast TN panels or overdriven IPS panels. Again, everyone has their priorities.
Appreciate all this.
Ive been having a tough time deciding between a 5050ub or ht5550(or even more expensive sony jvc and benq projectors) due to LCD/LCOS contrast vs dlp response time. I currently have a w1070, and am very satisfied with madvrs smooth motion(frame blending) plus a little oversharpening. much prefering it to motion via 24p, 60p 3/2, or 60p frame interpolation. On the occassion I do use a VA monitor/tv for movies the blur is very noticeable and I vastly prefer the w1070s image despite the better native contrast(4kish?) on the tcl s405 and benq xr3501 I have.
I made some improvements to get the best image I could in a non dedicated space:
-a nd2 filter to get the right light output
-an xy screens black crystal retractable screen, a .8 gain dark grey with a gain layer, to shift the contrast down and fight some room reflections.
-some black fabric on the ceiling and to the sides of the projector
With the lights off and even with bright content, the screen gets very close to the black of the masking, so I do think I could take advantage of high contrast lcd/lcos projectors. But it seems I may prefer the sharpness and motion of dlp, although I have no experience with lcd/lcos panels, only va monitors.
The current setup is a really striking image though especially for the price, with the only flaws being the cheap w1070s lense uniformity, the lower contrast and lighter blacks of dlp, and the sparkle/shimmer artifact of the screen(probably similar to the elite cinewhite material). The screens easy enough, get a dalite parallax... For the projector I know either choice features a better lense, and better contrast/blacks than what I have now, it's still tricky to make a choice between dlp and maintain the sharpness/motion clarity or lcd/lcos though.