What a day !!!
The shoot out between all the projectors went well, the tests were carried out using Vutec Vu-Flex Pro sceen 1.3 gain, Pioneer 737 progressive scan DVD player with both interlaced or progressive settings,
the Silicon image Iscan Pro, or the HTPC which runs a 1.1 Ghz Athlon, G-force 2 Pro graphics card, Power DVD, and Powerstrip to give custom resolutions.
First off the Sony VW10HT which has been running for 18 months now, the sony has been set up calibrated as best we can using RGB gain and bios adjustments and Video Essentials or Referenz DVD test discs.
The image has always looked fine with good colour uniformity across the screen although black level has never been a strong point.
With interlaced DVD the picture is Ok, jaggies are visible on many scenes. With the introduction of progressive scan the image is significantly improved with better colour, improved black level and detail within the black.
The Iscan pro improved the image again with less visable jagged edges and fast moving scenes were smoother, although the image appeared softer.
Next the HTPC running 1184 x 666 resolution the projector see's a 720p signal. Best source by far, gives a more film like appearence and virtually no signs of any edging problems. Colour and black levels are also improved with more flexable colour control options.
The JVC G15 D-ILA projector appears at first glance to be a vast improvment on the VW10, the picture structure is far improved over LCD and black levels are superior, although not as much as I would have hoped for.
Forget running this projector with normal interlaced DVD, progressive is a minimum but it doesnt really show any good results until the PC is connected and running at 1360 x 768p the picture is just superb.
I found the colour very difficult to get correct, and couldn't set the brightness and contrast as I would have liked, but the image quality is excellent and no visalbe line structure from about 4' away.
Its a shame about the Fan noise, but with the right installation, correct scaleing and set up this projector would be very good.
I've never been a great fan of DLP and the rainbow effect has driven me crazy in the past, I always walk away with a headache and eye strain.
The Sim2 HT200 surprised me to how good the image quality actually is for 800 x 600. The progressive DVD showed signs of jagged edges and panning of the " Gladiator I salute you " scene from the film Gladiator had the background town moving all over the place.
introduce the Iscan and most of these problems disappear and panning being far smoother. The rainbow effect also seemed to reduce ( dont know how ).
The HTPC running 800 x 600 again was an improvement and image detail far crisper than the 480p from the Iscan pro. We tried 1024 x 768 and let the projector downscale to native 800 x 600 with good results but not a vast improvement over 800 x 600.
The colours were well balanced with reds showing as red and black is a definite improvement over the Sony, Its mainly noticable with the detail in the black level.
Overall this projector is excellent and I suggest that anyone with doughts about this unit get and see one demonstrated well. It's well worth it!!
As a bonus the HT250 was brought along, the projector had a few issues that had not been finalised but the added resolution sharpened up the image. The iscan did a very good job, but this projector needed to see a better resolution so the PC fed it 1280 x 720p which looked stunning.
The picture was instantly transformed, the detail has to be seen to be believed, the improved depth added another dimension to the picture. Everything that you wanted to see was there, and sharp.
The interesting thing was the image didn't soften as much as the other projectors did when fed with the HTPC.
I feel the Black level wasn't as good as the HT200, maybe this would be sorted out in the future, or maybe just needed more time and setting up.
While it was here a software upgrade was performed to try and get rid of some of the issues, how easy it was to do, download and install to projector, nice. At least you know if there a problem in can hopefully be fixed quickly and easily.
The rainbow effect on the HT250 is minimal, and there is talk of a new colour wheel in the pipeline ( who knows when!! ) which should help even more.
Conclusion:
Check them out for yourselves, but get a good demo!. All the projectors have good and bad points. One may suit you or your installation better than the others.
One thing for sure is the better the source the better the picture you will get, the Iscan Pro is a great easy to set up unit that improves all the above projectors, but the HTPC when set up correctly is just awsome.
I would have loved to have had a more expensive Scaler ( farouga or likes ) to compare at the same time, but hey "Rome wasn't built in a day".
Any views would be appreciated.
Sparky.
The shoot out between all the projectors went well, the tests were carried out using Vutec Vu-Flex Pro sceen 1.3 gain, Pioneer 737 progressive scan DVD player with both interlaced or progressive settings,
the Silicon image Iscan Pro, or the HTPC which runs a 1.1 Ghz Athlon, G-force 2 Pro graphics card, Power DVD, and Powerstrip to give custom resolutions.
First off the Sony VW10HT which has been running for 18 months now, the sony has been set up calibrated as best we can using RGB gain and bios adjustments and Video Essentials or Referenz DVD test discs.
The image has always looked fine with good colour uniformity across the screen although black level has never been a strong point.
With interlaced DVD the picture is Ok, jaggies are visible on many scenes. With the introduction of progressive scan the image is significantly improved with better colour, improved black level and detail within the black.
The Iscan pro improved the image again with less visable jagged edges and fast moving scenes were smoother, although the image appeared softer.
Next the HTPC running 1184 x 666 resolution the projector see's a 720p signal. Best source by far, gives a more film like appearence and virtually no signs of any edging problems. Colour and black levels are also improved with more flexable colour control options.
The JVC G15 D-ILA projector appears at first glance to be a vast improvment on the VW10, the picture structure is far improved over LCD and black levels are superior, although not as much as I would have hoped for.
Forget running this projector with normal interlaced DVD, progressive is a minimum but it doesnt really show any good results until the PC is connected and running at 1360 x 768p the picture is just superb.
I found the colour very difficult to get correct, and couldn't set the brightness and contrast as I would have liked, but the image quality is excellent and no visalbe line structure from about 4' away.
Its a shame about the Fan noise, but with the right installation, correct scaleing and set up this projector would be very good.
I've never been a great fan of DLP and the rainbow effect has driven me crazy in the past, I always walk away with a headache and eye strain.
The Sim2 HT200 surprised me to how good the image quality actually is for 800 x 600. The progressive DVD showed signs of jagged edges and panning of the " Gladiator I salute you " scene from the film Gladiator had the background town moving all over the place.
introduce the Iscan and most of these problems disappear and panning being far smoother. The rainbow effect also seemed to reduce ( dont know how ).
The HTPC running 800 x 600 again was an improvement and image detail far crisper than the 480p from the Iscan pro. We tried 1024 x 768 and let the projector downscale to native 800 x 600 with good results but not a vast improvement over 800 x 600.
The colours were well balanced with reds showing as red and black is a definite improvement over the Sony, Its mainly noticable with the detail in the black level.
Overall this projector is excellent and I suggest that anyone with doughts about this unit get and see one demonstrated well. It's well worth it!!
As a bonus the HT250 was brought along, the projector had a few issues that had not been finalised but the added resolution sharpened up the image. The iscan did a very good job, but this projector needed to see a better resolution so the PC fed it 1280 x 720p which looked stunning.
The picture was instantly transformed, the detail has to be seen to be believed, the improved depth added another dimension to the picture. Everything that you wanted to see was there, and sharp.
The interesting thing was the image didn't soften as much as the other projectors did when fed with the HTPC.
I feel the Black level wasn't as good as the HT200, maybe this would be sorted out in the future, or maybe just needed more time and setting up.
While it was here a software upgrade was performed to try and get rid of some of the issues, how easy it was to do, download and install to projector, nice. At least you know if there a problem in can hopefully be fixed quickly and easily.
The rainbow effect on the HT250 is minimal, and there is talk of a new colour wheel in the pipeline ( who knows when!! ) which should help even more.
Conclusion:
Check them out for yourselves, but get a good demo!. All the projectors have good and bad points. One may suit you or your installation better than the others.
One thing for sure is the better the source the better the picture you will get, the Iscan Pro is a great easy to set up unit that improves all the above projectors, but the HTPC when set up correctly is just awsome.
I would have loved to have had a more expensive Scaler ( farouga or likes ) to compare at the same time, but hey "Rome wasn't built in a day".
Any views would be appreciated.
Sparky.
