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395 Posts
Guys,
Hate to give you this teaser as it will be several weeks with all my HT upgrades before I will have a final review of this projector, but I just purchased the JVC G150CLZ and from what I can tell thus far, it is a fantastic projector. My primary HT is literally in several little pieces as we speak due to all the upgrades, so for now, the best I could do is project on a creme colored wall for now with only a PC and DVD source readily available. As all my HT pieces get reassembled over the next several weeks, I will be able to sample other sources as well as project on a real screen. Also while this will be my third major HT configuration or upgrade over the last five years, I am far from an expert, but probably as well informed as your average HT enthusiast. With those caveats out of the way, here goes:
Configuration: The G150CLZ bundles the standard lens which is 2:1 to 3:1 zoom with 50% offset with the projector. The lens does come in a seperate box which is good for shipping purposes. Other lens options are offered.
Pricing: Received what was an incredible deal to me, well below what another forum member referred to in another thread as dealer cost on this projector and even below list price for the G15. The deal was too good to pass up for me.
Assembly: Assembling the lens to the projector is straightforward but far from trivial. This is obviously a critical element of the projector, hence it requires delicate and careful handling. It also requires unscrewing the front of the projector which can be mentally daunting. You could always pay someone else to do this assembly for you, but particularly in my case at my price point, bundled assembly was not offered. Fortunately I've been on the inside of every projector that I have ever owned and found it to be very straightforward given other similar work that I have done in the past. The documentation could have been better around the need to remove the back lens cap (in addition to the front lens cap) which I originally did not do, but I caught the error quickly.
Picture Quality: Jaw dropping good on a creme colored wall straight out of the box with no adjustments. I have never seen better in a digital projector. Creamy film like smooth, yet also very sharp and detailed with no calibrations.
Color: Was most impressed with skin tones which are sometimes difficult to dial in. Out of the box (no calibration yet), this projector is as accurate on skin tones to my eye as I have ever seen. All colors appeared vivid and on the money with no sense of push in any given color. Particularly using the PC RGB input, the G150 colors actually looked better to me than the colors on the laptop I was using. Projector is promoted as being D65 standard gray scale reproduction in cinema gamma mode.
Blacks: Blacks appeared very good to me with lots of shadow detail, although it did look as though it could be dialed in even better with calibration.
Pixels: First, no dead or stuck pixels at all! Secondly, with my nose against the wall, I could not make out any pixel structure on a roughly 6 foot diagonal picture (although my final screen will be over 10 feet diagonal). No eye strain of any kind either during or after viewing.
Contrast: Projector is promoted as being 600:1 and while not verified, the contrast looked considerably better than what I've seen many other places. Not sure how much my creme colored wall helped or hindered.
DVD: Saw detail I hadn't seen before with the few DVDs I could even access at this moment in my remodel. The best I've ever seen a DVD picture appear giving a real film-like presence to my eyes on the S-video connector no less. Could not connect through component input for the time being due to my cable availability. Would not accept the DVD progressive out signal, but worked magic on the DVD interlaced signal.
PC: Accepted and synched quickly/effortlessly on every screen resolution and refresh rate that I could throw at it including 1280 by 1024 and 1600 by 1200. Ran some PC video sources at both resolutions and was floored by the 1600 by 1200 images.
Fan Noise: Did not measure it, but it was much quieter than the G15, G11s I've seen. No hush box required from my perspective.
Deinterlacing/Scaling: No visible artifacts for the time being, but did not really put it through it's paces here with any flag troubled DVDs. Used internal scaler only and it performed well.
DVI: Did not try this input, but looking forward to testing this connection soon. Just happy to have this input availability. Not certain if it is HDCP compatible or upgradable at this point.
Biggest knocks so far:
- Way too bright out of the box in my little test set-up. With all other lights out in my test room, the reflection from the wall literally lit up the entire good sized room. There are a couple of projector light control options that I need to play with further before drawing final conclusiosns here.
- Clunky, boxy look is not the most stylistic and it may need a enclosure of some sort just to have it fit the decor of the room.
- Uses BNC connectors for almost every input whereas my previous projector did not. Minor issue, but will require either converters or new cabling for me.
- Less than 100% offset will necessitate an upside down orientation with the ceiling mount. Minor issue, but last projector had 100% offset which was easier for a ceiling mount from my perspective.
Can barely wait to get all the new HT upgrades done. Based on what I've seen thus far, this projector should take care of me for many years to come.
Big Grins Thus Far Here
Mark
Hate to give you this teaser as it will be several weeks with all my HT upgrades before I will have a final review of this projector, but I just purchased the JVC G150CLZ and from what I can tell thus far, it is a fantastic projector. My primary HT is literally in several little pieces as we speak due to all the upgrades, so for now, the best I could do is project on a creme colored wall for now with only a PC and DVD source readily available. As all my HT pieces get reassembled over the next several weeks, I will be able to sample other sources as well as project on a real screen. Also while this will be my third major HT configuration or upgrade over the last five years, I am far from an expert, but probably as well informed as your average HT enthusiast. With those caveats out of the way, here goes:
Configuration: The G150CLZ bundles the standard lens which is 2:1 to 3:1 zoom with 50% offset with the projector. The lens does come in a seperate box which is good for shipping purposes. Other lens options are offered.
Pricing: Received what was an incredible deal to me, well below what another forum member referred to in another thread as dealer cost on this projector and even below list price for the G15. The deal was too good to pass up for me.
Assembly: Assembling the lens to the projector is straightforward but far from trivial. This is obviously a critical element of the projector, hence it requires delicate and careful handling. It also requires unscrewing the front of the projector which can be mentally daunting. You could always pay someone else to do this assembly for you, but particularly in my case at my price point, bundled assembly was not offered. Fortunately I've been on the inside of every projector that I have ever owned and found it to be very straightforward given other similar work that I have done in the past. The documentation could have been better around the need to remove the back lens cap (in addition to the front lens cap) which I originally did not do, but I caught the error quickly.
Picture Quality: Jaw dropping good on a creme colored wall straight out of the box with no adjustments. I have never seen better in a digital projector. Creamy film like smooth, yet also very sharp and detailed with no calibrations.
Color: Was most impressed with skin tones which are sometimes difficult to dial in. Out of the box (no calibration yet), this projector is as accurate on skin tones to my eye as I have ever seen. All colors appeared vivid and on the money with no sense of push in any given color. Particularly using the PC RGB input, the G150 colors actually looked better to me than the colors on the laptop I was using. Projector is promoted as being D65 standard gray scale reproduction in cinema gamma mode.
Blacks: Blacks appeared very good to me with lots of shadow detail, although it did look as though it could be dialed in even better with calibration.
Pixels: First, no dead or stuck pixels at all! Secondly, with my nose against the wall, I could not make out any pixel structure on a roughly 6 foot diagonal picture (although my final screen will be over 10 feet diagonal). No eye strain of any kind either during or after viewing.
Contrast: Projector is promoted as being 600:1 and while not verified, the contrast looked considerably better than what I've seen many other places. Not sure how much my creme colored wall helped or hindered.
DVD: Saw detail I hadn't seen before with the few DVDs I could even access at this moment in my remodel. The best I've ever seen a DVD picture appear giving a real film-like presence to my eyes on the S-video connector no less. Could not connect through component input for the time being due to my cable availability. Would not accept the DVD progressive out signal, but worked magic on the DVD interlaced signal.
PC: Accepted and synched quickly/effortlessly on every screen resolution and refresh rate that I could throw at it including 1280 by 1024 and 1600 by 1200. Ran some PC video sources at both resolutions and was floored by the 1600 by 1200 images.
Fan Noise: Did not measure it, but it was much quieter than the G15, G11s I've seen. No hush box required from my perspective.
Deinterlacing/Scaling: No visible artifacts for the time being, but did not really put it through it's paces here with any flag troubled DVDs. Used internal scaler only and it performed well.
DVI: Did not try this input, but looking forward to testing this connection soon. Just happy to have this input availability. Not certain if it is HDCP compatible or upgradable at this point.
Biggest knocks so far:
- Way too bright out of the box in my little test set-up. With all other lights out in my test room, the reflection from the wall literally lit up the entire good sized room. There are a couple of projector light control options that I need to play with further before drawing final conclusiosns here.
- Clunky, boxy look is not the most stylistic and it may need a enclosure of some sort just to have it fit the decor of the room.
- Uses BNC connectors for almost every input whereas my previous projector did not. Minor issue, but will require either converters or new cabling for me.
- Less than 100% offset will necessitate an upside down orientation with the ceiling mount. Minor issue, but last projector had 100% offset which was easier for a ceiling mount from my perspective.
Can barely wait to get all the new HT upgrades done. Based on what I've seen thus far, this projector should take care of me for many years to come.
Big Grins Thus Far Here
Mark
