[Jezza UK]

This Sunday I was able to see the 11HT in action, it was set up next to (i) a 10HT and (ii) a plasma screen.


I'm interested in purchasing either a 10HT or 11HT and am a novice to Home Cinema.


No great surprises when I say that my impression of the 11HT is that it provides a picture which is both darker than the 10HT and more clearly defined than the 10HT.


The increased darkness of the 10HT is all encompassing, it makes the entire picture darker and not just the blacks and dark greys darker. I felt that as a result there was less contrast between light and dark colours on the 11HT than on the 10HT. Using the plasma screen that was set up next to the 11HT as a reference point, deep reds and oranges that could clearly be seen on the plasma screen were almost black on the 11HT. By comparison, such colours were quite visible on the 10HT (although not as clearly defined as on the plasma screen). When I say that the picture provided by the 11HT is dark I mean that that picture provides increased darkness about 2-3 times as much as is the difference between a 10HT with cinema black turned on and a 10HT with cinema black turned off.


The picture definition on the 11HT is a noticeable improvement on the 10HT. Although no match for the plasma screen and although the increased picture definition that I witnessed is difficult to quantify on paper, it is this facet of the 11HT which would have swayed me in favour of it much more so than the increased darkness.


In conclusion I have decided to purchase the 10HT and not the 11HT. The reason for this is (i) in Tokyo (which is where I am at the moment) the 11HT is c.GBP700 more expensive than the 10HT and (ii) the increased darkness of the 11HT turned me off.


I watched both the 10HT and the 11HT on a screen with 1.3 gain.


Of course, please do not allow your purchasing decisions be swayed by what I have written above - you should wait until (i) you read reviews written by professionals and (ii) review the 11HT by yourself, before making a purchasing decision. However, I thought that some of you might be interested by my first impressions.


Best regards,


Jezza UK

 

[Jim Story]

Jezza,

A few questions:

- The price of both units?

- Did you turn up the brightness or make other adjustments on the 11?

- Did you consider or compare the PLV 60?

- What about screen door (pixels) on the 11?


Anything else you can think of?


Thanks.



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Jim Story

Live long and Prosper

 

[Jezza UK]

Price

At the shop I visited ("AVAC" in Akihabara, Tokyo) new 10HTs retail for JPY398,000 & second-hand 10HTs retail for JPY340,000. At the same shop new 11HTs retail for JPY578,000 - although I understand that they can be bought elsewhere in Akihabara for JPY517,000.


Adjustements

The only adjustements I asked the guys in the shop to make were switching Cinema Black on and off on both the 10HT and 11HT.


PLV 60

'fraid not. The only other units I saw at the time was a CRT and a DLP.


Screen Door

The screen door was as noticeable as it is on the 10HT.



Only other thing I can think of to write is that AVAC were recommended to me by another user of this board and they seem a very professional outfit.


Jezza UK


P.S. - there is a month long waiting list for owning an 11HT

 

[lalittle]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jezza UK: Screen Door The screen door was as noticeable as it is on the 10HT.

Given this, I'm curious how you rate the screen door effect on these projectors in general. In other words, "how bad" would you characterize it on these projectors -- how close do you need to be to see it on how big of a screen?


Also, from everything I've read the contrast ratio for the 11HT is supposed to be either "double" or "triple" that of the 10HT. It therefore struck me as quite odd that you had the exact opposite reaction, saying that "there was less contrast between light and dark colours on the 11HT than on the 10HT." Can you think of anything that may have led to an "uneven" comparison? For example, is it possible that the 10HT was being projected on a different type of screen? Perhaps the 11HT's screen was grey while the 10HT's was white (???). It seems pretty strange that the 10HT would have better contrast when this is something that Sony specifically says they improved.


Thanks,


Larry

 

[noah katz]

Jezza,


Thanks for the info, a lot of us have been waiting to hear what the 11HT looks like.


Given that it's supposed to be a bit brighter and have greater contrast, it seems very likely that the picture setttings, in particular contrast (white level) were set very differently on the two projectors.


Is there a chance you can return for another look and ask if they would let you adjust the settings?


Thanks


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Noah

 

[Spizz]

Jezza how is the internal scaler? I read from another person that has seen the 11HT that the internal scaler still hasn't been improved and the picture still has a digital blocky look. Was this your impression?


Spero D.

 

[Jezza UK]

I'll be going back this weekend to check out the amp I want to get.


If you guys can provide a list of things to look out for then I'll see what I can do.


Jezza UK

 

[steve5097]

Try and take a copy of either Video Essentials or the Avia disk to set brightness and contrast levels. I suspect that one or both of these units was not calibrated properly.



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Steve