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Hitachi CP-SX5600W LCOS

525 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by barryz, Oct 19, 2004

barryz

Discussion Starter · Oct 18, 2004

I registered with this forum about the time I bought a Hitachi CP-SX5500W LCOS projector (1365x1024) a few years ago. This is an excellent projector but with one major flaw; a too high colour temperature (about 10,000 degrees) and a slight purple cast. I spent many hours messing around with the controls in service mode and commenting on my impressions on this forum. There were many threads on the subject of calibrating this projector, but I can't find any of them in the archives. I guess they've been deleted.

I now find that Hitachi has released an upgrade, the CP-SX5600W with similar specs, but can't find any reviews.

The obvious question is, has Hitachi fixed the purple cast in the new model? Also, is there any effective and affordable software available to calibrate the old SX5500W? As I recall, someone was liasing with Hitachi on this problem to create a fix, but can find no information via the forum's 'search'.

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toddalin

· #2 · Oct 18, 2004

We went from a 5500 to a 5600 and to tell the truth, really can't tell any difference. On the 5600 we did add the dichromatic filter from Milori and while this does reduce the color temperature, it cut the light output fairly substantially. It certainly helps the blacks. The DILARD for the Hitachi was a bust and while I do have their Colorfax, I've never used it. The contrast ratio for the 5600 is really no better than that for the 5500, about 500:1.

BTW, I saw a Qualia 004 the other day, and other than the 16:9 ratio, the picture was pretty much that of the Hitachi in respect to fill factor and sharpness. Unforetunately, the Qualia was huge compared to the Hitachi, $20,000 (vs, $5,500), and bulbs (rated at 2,000 hours) were $3,000 (vs $429) a pop.

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Tryg

· #3 · Oct 18, 2004

barryz

check out the new CANON XEED SX50

it's supposed to come in around $4k and should be much better engineering than Hitachi

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barryz

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 19, 2004

Hi! Toddalin,

Now I remember! - Milori and DILARD. I was getting so obsessed with tweaking the Hitachi I decided to give it a rest for a while. It was a losing battle and the quality variation in most of the program material made a mockery out of such tweaks.

I now use a Da-Lite Hi-Power 2.8 gain screen, 'Cinema' gamma setting on the projector and all colour, contrast and brightness controls at zero. When the source material is good, the picture is good. When the source material is not good, the picture is not good.

I find most movies through my HD set top box (usually broadcast in 576p) are very watchable (from the technical point of view, of course). The colour and definition is significantly better than standard broadcasts and much better than most of the advertisements that annoyingly interrupt one's viewing. 'Mission Impossible ll', broadcast recently in 576p displayed an impressive amount of detail and strong, natural colour through the DVI connectors. That was quite a revelation. Didn't realise 576p could be that good.

I'm amazed that Hitachi's upgrade to the SX-5500W is not much of an improvement. Have they not been listening to the feed back?

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barryz

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 19, 2004

Tryg,

The Canon XEED SX50 looks very promising. Can't find any 'hands on' reviews, but this looks like the sort of machine that Hitachi could have given us with the SX-5600W (if they'd had the expertise!). I'm a great Canon fan. I've been using their 6 megapixel D60 DSLR for the past 3 years and have on order their new 20D which appears to be a vast improvement yet again. They know what they're doing, so I'd expect the SX50 to live up to expectations.

I'm particularly impressed with the individual colour adjustments for RGB and CMY. I'm assuming these are user controls. If they are, that opens up the potential for perfect (okay, near perfect) calibration, precisely what the Hitachi is lacking. I'll be eagerly awaiting the first reviews of this projector. Sounds like another winner for Canon and the consumer.

Another disappointment I have with the SX-5500W is the de-interlacing engine for 1080i. It doesn't seem state-of-art. That is, the moving parts in the image break up into quite visible horizontal scan lines. I hope the Canon SX50 does a better job in this respect.

Slightly off-topic, do you happen to know if all 1920x1080p broadcasts are (or will be) anamorphically compressed 1440x1080p? If that's the case, then virtually the full HD standard can be received by this projector. All that's required is an ISCO lens to unsqueeze the image. That of course increases the over all cost dramatically. I believe the top of the range ISCO lll lens costs about as much as this Canon projector.

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