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Brightness from 3-Chip DLP's

402 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by darinp2, Oct 22, 2004

Jedi

Discussion Starter · Oct 21, 2004

...the current issue of The Perfect Vision magazine has a review of the Sim2 HT500 Link 3-chip pj. They measured an amazing 39.5 ft-L of light output, with the contrast adjusted below white crush levels, from a pj using only a 250W UHL lamp. I hadn't realized higher lumens came with this design. Is the reason the 3-chippers are able to output more light to do with the fact that there is triple the amount of reflecting surface being bathed by the lamp, and each panel is "on" all the time, as opposed to a single panel on shared time as with a single panel machine? What a difference!

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Daniel Hutnicki

· #2 · Oct 21, 2004

I will be honest and I dont know the answer why they are brighter except besides what you said, they run more efficient than 1 chippers. However most if not all of the three chippers are very bright. In one case where someone bought the 500 Link, we recommended he go with a greyhawk as his screen wasnt overly big and we needed something to bring down the brightness

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darinp2

· #3 · Oct 21, 2004

Did they mention the contrast ratio?

I was pretty surprised by the light output of this projector also. Not blocking at least 2/3rds of the primaries at all times with the colorwheel sure does help (even though a 3 chipper should have some other losses that are smaller).

--Darin

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Jedi

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 21, 2004

..yeah, darin, 1,400:1 by their measurements adjusted for decent picture. This machine uses the HD2 and not the HD2+ chips. However, they adjusted the contrast down to roughly a 24 ft-L level, for PQ purposes, because otherwise the image was blinding on their 80" (width) screen. I imagine this pj could zoom to just about as big a screen size as anyone would want.

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darinp2

· #5 · Oct 21, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Jedi
..yeah, darin, 1,400:1 by their measurements adjusted for decent picture.

I was wondering if they would tweak it down that far. There goes the on/off CR advantage people claim against the Qualia and HD2K.

The disappointing thing is that the hardware itself is capable of so much more than this. The problem I saw was the software and not having enough controls to get the grayscale right at higher CRs. I'm still hoping they will update the software though.
Quote:

However, they adjusted the contrast down to roughly a 24 ft-L level, for PQ purposes, because otherwise the image was blinding on their 80" (width) screen.

This is something that people shouldn't be doing in their own theaters. They should use darker screens and/or a neutral density filter instead of killing the CR. I originally thought they got the lower CR because of grayscale issues, but if they got it because they are using an inappropriate screen and didn't buy a $13 neutral density filter, then I think they shouldn't have even published the 1400:1 number. Even so, 1400:1 doesn't sound out of line without a color filter with good grayscale with the projector from what I saw.
Quote:

I imagine this pj could zoom to just about as big a screen size as anyone would want.

This is true from a lumens standpoint, but they need to be able to maintain an appropriate viewing ratio to keep the pixel visibility from being a problem.

I don't think the HD2 vs HD2+ makes much difference in a 3 chipper. However, if an HD2+ version is released I would expect other improvements at the same time. Otherwise it would mean that engineering didn't do a whole lot from one model to the next.

--Darin

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Tryg

· #6 · Oct 21, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Jedi

[B I imagine this pj could zoom to just about as big a screen size as anyone would want. [/b]

if it had higher than 1280 resolution.

and for $30k

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Jedi

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 21, 2004

....if you maintain a viewing distance of at least 1.4 times the screen width, the panel structure won't be a distraction at even the largest of screen sizes. Also, with the 3-panels, pans and fast motion images are supposed to be much smoother.

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darinp2

· #8 · Oct 22, 2004

Quote:

Originally posted by Jedi
....if you maintain a viewing distance of at least 1.4 times the screen width, the panel structure won't be a distraction at even the largest of screen sizes.

I would say this depends on the person. At 1.4x they were pretty obvious to me. I would recommend at least 1.6x for videophiles, but even there I would see them at times. Even at 1.8x there is some difference in smoothness of the pixels between the Qualia and one of these 3 chippers on some stuff.

--Darin

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