[flanders]

Hello to all , I have been reading this site for some time now and am so impressed to know that their is help to pretty much any question is thrown out there. My question is , is the marantz 12s1 clearly have a better picture then the sharp 9000. I had the opportunity to see the sharp in action and was blown away by it. But was unable to find the marantz to veiw it and was also curiose to know what improvements can we expect on these new hd2 chips picture wise?

 

[anthonymoody]

Hi Flanders,

As for the HD2 chips, some say we'll be seeing better blacks/contrast...others are not so sure. In any case, we'll see sometime likely this fall.


I chose the Marantz over the Sharp. I demo'd the Sharp standalone, with a Faroudja NRS and a Runco PFP (both standalone deinterlacers/scalers). I also demo'd the Marantz. The Sharp improved noticeably (to my eyes) with the outboard scalers. The NRS was the (slight) better of the 2. The improvement was mostly in getting rid of jaggies on the edges of objects. It was noticeable to others in the room as well.


Standalone, you could see jaggies on the Sharp from about 1.5 screen widths away. WIth the processors, you could get much closer - even up to .5 screen widths away before seeing any jaggies, and even then they weren't as bad as the ones the Sharp produced.


Also, the worse the source the bigger the impact of the better outboard scalers. Good progressive DVDs look quite nice when fed directly into the Sharp. However, SD cable/satellite, VCRs are much improved with the outboard scalers.


So why'd I buy the Marantz? It basically has the primary processing chips of the Faroudja NRS built into it. It has a sealed optical path (the Sharp does not) and in the demos I saw produced an outstanding, filmlike picture.


However, as you've probably read the Marantz has had some problems of its own, particularly a pesky flicker every now and then. We've recently been directed by Dan Miller of Marantz to take our PJs to our dealers to be fixed. That word came out in the last couple days. Dan is still in the special guests forum and there's more info there.


Hope this helps,

Tony

 

[studiowest]

Can't comment on the new HD2 chips but I have a 9000 and have seen the Marantz.


Both pjs use the same TI chip and have wonderful pictures. The Marantz, with its internal Faroudja chip set and the Sharp using an external Faroudja processor have pictures that I find indistinguishable. The Sharp, without external processor has a great picture but not quite as smooth and solid feeling as an NRS fed unit. Before I saw the externally processed picture I would have been very happy with the standalone Sharp (and would have saved $3K).


If it's possible, spend as much time as you can with both units, get a feeling for which picture you prefer and if you don't, go with the dealer with whom you feel will be better to deal with in case of problems.


Richard

 

[John Moschella]

I agree with most of what Tony said. I also demoed the Sharp and Marantz. I liked the sealed optical path, the focus control is very precise and well made, and of course the built in Faroudja makes my HTPC obsolete.


With respect to the posters question



Quote:

Originally posted by flanders My question is , is the marantz 12s1 clearly have a better picture then the sharp 9000. I had the opportunity to see the sharp in action and was blown away by it.

I will say that if you watch mostly DVDs and have a good progressive player then the PQ will be close. There is also the difference in the throw distance between the two units.


Despite all that if I were you I would go out of my way to find a demo. Don't take mine or anyone elses word for it.


John Moschella

 

[MagnusB]

Can any of these two projectors now take a HTPC feed without rescaling it?


///Magnus

 

[antsinger]

The Sharp will on the VGA input.

 

[anthonymoody]

In the special guests forum Dan had some words about this. I'm not an HTPC junkie so can't say much, but from the sounds of it, the answer with the Marantz is 'no' but you can apparently come close to pixel perfection nonetheless. Pls see Dan's response for more info.


And John is completely right. DVDs with a good progressive output (the Panny RP56 comes to mind) will look amazing on the Sharp. If you watch other sources, the Marantz picture looks better (to me) than the Sharp standalone and essentially the same as the SHarp+NRS. Spend lots of time demo'ing - it's fun and will make you feel much better about whatever you ultimately purchase.


TM

 

[imagamejunky]

I spent some time demo'ing both the sharp and marantz. Both had beautiful pictures with a high def signal. The marantz looked better to me with a dvd player than the sharp. The marantz has the faroudja built in and a sealed optical path. The marantz also has a flicker problem that appears to offend only some of the owners. I talked with some people who don't have the flicker problem (or don't notice it). I spent 2 months kicking around which one to go with and finally bought the marantz. It should arrive soon.........hurry..............hurry............I can't wait.

Hope this helps.

 

[John Moschella]

Imagegamejunky,


I just got my keeper Marantz two days ago. So far after 4 hours of watching and I have not see a single flicker. With the loaner I had I would have probably seen 5-10 such flickers over the same time. All looks good so far.


John Moschella

 

[anthonymoody]

john,

glad to hear it!

tm

 

[DanHouck]

It looks like Marantz is stepping up to the plate and taking care of the problems. Bravo for them and bravo for this forum which you can be assured, made it happen.


When Marantz adopts the new technology explained in the TI tech paper, I think that is going to be a projector that is extremely hard to top for some time to come. In the mean time, once the fix is made on the current generation, I suspect we'll be reading a lot of posts from very happy Marantz owners and drooling over some great screen shots.


Dan

 

[David600]

I suggest the use of the PHILIPS Q50 from Hong Kong, which has progressive ntsc and pal and FAROUDJA DCI chip. amazing combo with the SHAR9000, with superb colors.

 

[hhelmut]

I don´t want to bother anyone, but still in my opinion I would chooose neither the Sharp or then the Marantz. But this is very personal opion, based on the fact, what I have to pay for this units and the results they show. But please see, this is a very personal opinion.


hb

 

[AnonymousCoward]

HH, please speak freely. I will beat the dogs off of you, if necessary.


If you imported from Japan, what would your tarrifs be in CH?

 

[vdelauz]

WOOF!