[dreamstate]

So i went to see the sharp today.Thought i'd have a huge problem finding PJ's that i could actually demo.Not so.Found a place a 5minute walk from home that has the sharp9000 seleco ht300,Ls110,crt's etc etc.The first PJ i saw was the sharp...so here is what i saw...horrible blacklevels and muted colors and dismal brightness.But here's the kicker,the guy that helped me said that it was a brand new unit and uncalibrated.So here's what i need to know from you sharp owners.Out of the box are the blacklevels/brightness the same for you?The sharp was bieng projected onto a studioteck 1.3 gain 110inch diagonal screen and i brought dark city along to demo the PJ with.Right from the start it was a big light grey nightmare.When he went into the PJ's menu the boxes were bright and contrasty,but the movie was really looking bad.So is this really just due to the PJ bieng uncalabrated?Does the picture improve dramatically when calibrated?

 

[Tom Cambell]

let me guess, he wanted you to pay full retail for his "value-added" caveat?


the sharp is very nice and can be made better by calibrating it. the blacks should be about as good as they get for DLP. using a filter and calibrating it should make it even better.

 

[dreamstate]

Well Tom he quoted a price of 17,000cdn to me but i won't be paying MSRP on a PJ.Momma didn't raise no fool and i will only pay the cdn equivalence of the lowest internet price in US dollars from an authorized dealer.Do you have the sharp Tom?I ask this because i would need to know from an actual owner what the picture looks like out of the box and then calibrated.ie:how the blacklevel/brightness/color looked before and after and if what i saw(horrible blacklevel/brightness/color) was normal.Thanks for the reply.

 

[Joseph Clark]

Sounds like you saw the Sharp in just about the worst possible viewing conditions. You don't mention how it was connected - composite, s-video, component - or what the source was - DVD, DBS, VCR. Get a demo of the Sharp with a good component connection, using a good DVD or HiDef satellite or broadcast signal. I think you'll have a completely different impression.


Out of the box, at factory defaults, you should see a stunning, bright and brilliantly colorful picture on the Sharp, if the viewing conditions are the least bit favorable. What you probably saw was a poor source, over poor cables, using the wrong input.


If the demo place will let you, try adjusting the Sharp using the suggestions on this forum. For example, set the color temp to -2, brightness to -10, contrast to +5, color to +3 and watch a DVD connected to the Sharp with a good component cable.


No projector you'll read about in this forum is flawless, but you got a BAD demo of the Sharp.

 

[dreamstate]

Joseph,we were watching the dark city DVD fed to the sharp by component in a fully dedicated theater.The PJ was uncalibrated and at facory defaults.

 

[gtimbers]

I believe the black level setting on the sharp is 0 ire, and not adjustable. Many DVD players, on other sources normally output 7.5 ire. some are switchable and some are not. A mismatch here could easily account for the DVD's looking all grayed out and the menu's being O.K. I have seen the sharp look verry nice, so I suspect something is wrong.

 

[gtimbers]

I believe the black level setting on the sharp is 0 ire, and not adjustable. Many DVD players, on other sources normally output 7.5 ire. some are switchable and some are not. A mismatch here could easily account for the DVD's looking all grayed out and the menu's being O.K. I have seen the sharp look verry nice, so I suspect something is wrong.

 

[longshot]

It seems to me whether someone is viewing the Sharp/Marantz/Seleco it is never set up properly in our local AV Store. Why is this?

The 9000 paired with the Firehawk throws a beautiful picture. Blacks are very black and the colors are rich and vibrant. I have the Japanese 9000 and absolutely love it. Find a retailer or a fellow forum member who can demo the 9000 properly.

 

[Scott-C]

In the past month I've seen the Sharp 9000 at two different vendors in the N. VA area and was fairly amazed both times. Black levels were great, colors were vibrant, and the picture was crystal clear (progressive scan DVD player fed to the PJ via component video cables in both cases, 80" wide screen and 122" screen, both 16x9). In fact, having not seen any of the new HD1 DLPs before that day, I came away more impressed than I thought I would.


I'm not positive, but the 9000 I saw at one of the places may not have been calibrated at all (i.e. they took it out of the box, mounted it, and turned it on) and it still looked awesome.


Maybe you saw may not have been set up as well as it could be.


BTW, where in Canada did you see all these PJs? I'll be in Montreal next month and would love to check out the Seleco HT300.

 

[dreamstate]

K&W Audio in Calgary

 

[Joseph Clark]

I, too, have the Japanese Sharp 9000. I've also seen the US version - that's how I got hooked. On both machines, I have to do some serious UNtweaking to get the picture to look bad - back off way too far on the brightness or way too high on the contrast, blow out the color. Something was wrong with your demo. Are you certain you were watching with component cables?

 

[dreamstate]

That's what the guy said.This place had 3 dedicated rooms and thay had top of the line equipment in there.Their seleco crt was isf calibrated and looked fab on a huge screen.I'm going to go back after they calibrate the 9000 and the bulb has more that 6 hrs on it and see if the picture has improved.He said they wanted to wait a while to break the projector in before they calibrated it.I wanted to see the seleco ht300 in action to compare but he said that something was wrong with it and they had to return it and do an exchange.

 

[Newjack]

I have a Sharp Z9000, should I set my DVD to 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE?

 

[lkosova]

I saw a Sharp 9000 on a basic Stewart screen with a progressive dvd and it was great ,out of the box with no adjustments made. The blacks were black. Colors were vibrant. reds were really red. White was white and gray was gray. Skin tones surprised me and looked natural.


I think something was wrong!!!


post back when you see the Seleco!!


Larry Kosova

 

[Bill d]

Dreamstate...

My Z9000 out of the box was the exact opposite of what you experienced.

Must have been defective!!!

 

[the bomber]

Ditto for me. awesome right out of the box.


Bomber

 

[Fleinbach]

I have a Japan 9000 for 2 months now. It was a spectacular picture out of the box. The only problem I have is with flesh tones. in the shadow areas of faces the color is a little green at times. I've watched 106 hours of movies so far and some do not exhibit this while others do. Wish I knew how to correct this.


But over all whites are brilliant white, red is deep red, black level is great.

 

[Mark Slone]

I checked out the Sharp 9000 at Palm Audio Video in Huntsville, Alabama expecting to be blown away and was surprised by how poor the apparent contrast was. The black level was good but all the scenes appeared washed out (muted colors), and the image was dim. I kept asking if they thought the image was dim or dull, but they didn't think so. At this point I wondered whether my eyes had adjusted from the outside (bright, overcast day).


The projector was in a nice room, but not absolutely dark and they were driving it with an interlaced component DVD. It was a 120" diagonal 1.78 ratio 1.3 gain Stewart screen. I didn't notice a lot of artifacts on the DVDs, so I thought the de-interlacing was good.


Comparing the Sharp's image to my Davis 450 clone at home (HTPC), I would say the Sharp's halo was much smaller and darker, and of course the pixels weren't as visible. I project onto a 93" diagonal 1.85 ratio 1.0 gain (home made) screen and the 450's image is brighter (400 hours on the lamp) and I see much better contrast than what the I saw in the Sharp. I was not able to compare them side by side.


I would be surprised if the fact that it was an interlaced source could hurt the contrast, so I have to believe they had somehow set it up poorly, on too big a screen. Amazing, but it did save me some money, as seeing it made me very happy with my 450.


For reference, the best image I've ever seen was from a Vision One 9" tube CRT projector. If the Sharp had come close to that awesome image I'd probably own it right now. (I had an old Electrohome 7" CRT at one time but it was too much of a hassle.)

 

[antsinger]

Perfect out of the box!

US Version.

 

[step]

Mine was great out of the box. It's possible to have the DVD player to output a signal that is too light though- progressive looked correct on mine, the DVD (RP-91) when doing interlaced out was distinctly brighter for some reason and would have required either adjustment on the 9000 or (I never bothered trying) there is some sort of black-level adjustment on the player itself.


It really should look at least decent. Oh yeah, and while great out of the box, I don't want to imply that has prevented experimentation.


-Step

http://www.stepniczka.com/theater.html