[MichaelZ]

My kids have been wanting to watch some older movies and I happen to have Dr. Strangelove and Young Frankenstein , which looked very good on my dwin crt. Well, good considering the transfer and them both being black & white movies. I though these would be a good test of contrast ratio, etc. for my Marantz dlp. I was amazed at how well they looked! The contrast was very good - not crt but very.very close. Me and my wife both noticed the lighting effects in Young Frankenstein, I was quite frankly, stunned. I will now include in my future tests a B&W movie to see how well a pj really does. BTW, shades of gray more clearly define contrast ratio then any other test (to my eye anyway). How do others Dila's, DLPs and LCOS measure-up on a black and white movie test?

 

[Captfluoro]

I have "The Elephant Man" as well as "Young Frankenstein" and they look great on my Sharp 9000 DLP. But if you want a reference quality B&W movie (in my opinion) get the Coen brothers "The Man Who Wasn't There". A typically weird Coen brothers movie, film noir is how it is described, but some of the closeups of the actors faces are truly breathtaking in PQ. They truly look like HDTV images. Really stunning.

 

[MichaelZ]

That was the next movie I planned to check out! I was at first a little worried about a b&w movie on a dlp but the PQ was so good I am now looking forward to some other "classics". Glad to hear the sharp also plays b&w movies great. I had seen a b&w movie on an older dlp (i.e., slower colorwheel) and it had terrible rainbows as well as other *coloring* issues, very poor contrast, etc. which made me reluctant to try a b&w on my Marantz but it passed with flying colors (er, make that grays).

 

[dp70]

I watch a lot of black and white movies on my DLP projector (NEC LT100). The only real problem is that there just aren't enough bits of luminance resolution in DVD's 4:2:0 format to represent b/w material smoothly (i.e. without creating banding/contouring artifacts across broad areas that ramp through a wide range of intensity). To be more specific, a maximum of 225 shades of grey are supported in 8-bit digital component video. In practice, many b/w transfers don't use the full range.


If you see banding problems when watching b/w DVDs, just keep in mind the problems are most likely due to limitations of the source format. The projector is usually not at fault. However, digital projectors can worsen the effect a bit, since projectors digitize incoming analog video or RGB into a new set of 8-bit components. Due to the 8-bit levels from the source not necessarily aligning with the 8-bit levels sampled by the projector, there can be some aliasing that contributes to increased contouring onscreen.

 

[Jens Dahl]

I've watched 4 or 5 b/w movies on my Toshiba MT5 recently. No problems on neither PAL nor NTSC material... looks beautiful.

 

[bublitchki]

I watch b&w movies all the time on my Plus Piano. They look great. The key, I think, is greyscale performance. Any inaccuracies in this regard will show up glaringly in b&w.


BTW, I agree that "The Man Who Wasn't There" is a stunning b&w disc--one of the best (if not the best) I've ever seen. (Love the movie, too; great performances all around, and Tony Shalhoub as the slick attorney is an absolute classic.)

 

[MrWigggles]

B&W movies and the LT150 don't mix. Plenty of contrast and plenty of rainbows


-Mr. Wigggles

 

[rlsmith]

I watch many B&W movies (I love them!) on my Infocus LP400 SVGA DLP. They look great.

 

[ckolchak]

Quote:

Originally posted by MrWigggles B&W movies and the LT150 don't mix. Plenty of contrast and plenty of rainbows -Mr. Wigggles

i know some will argue this, but i've seen a few B&W movies on my LT150 where rainbows were a complete non-issue.

other titles, exhibiting what seems to be the same range of grey, and the rainbows were clearly more evident.

i really believe something in the source material affects this, and not just the dlp technology.


i love old movies and this was a big concern for me, when it came time to lay money down for the pj.

thnakfully with a few exceptions this hasn't been a problem.


also could be my screen (which is blackout material).

yes, it doesn't have the punch a hi-power would give, but it also must be minimizing the adverse effects, too.

its a trade-off i find surprisingly easy to live with.

 

[LDoogy]

I have an LP340 and have actually been watching MOSTLY b&w movies for the past few months. Most look excellent - much better than most color movies on my 340.


I have to agree about Man Who Wasn't There being the best B&W DVD I've ever seen, and perhaps even the best overall pq I've ever seen in a DVD! An excellent movie, too.


-- Eldad.

 

[aviman33]

I've seen a few on my Lt150, and B&W looks good. Occasional rainbow, but nothing objectionable. Mostly depends on the movie. The only place I've had rainbow problems is scrolling white credits at the end of a movie.


Jon