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| There are 4 types of Projection Technology on the market right now with the best offerings coming from Sony and JVC in the under 30K price range. Sony call their tech SXRD and JVC D-ila or LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) The other types are DLP (Direct Light Processing - Brands like Sim2, Runco and Optoma) and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display - Brands such as Epson and Panasonic) Emerging are new 'lampless' LED technologies that don't use lamps, however you would need to weigh up the cost of a lamp vs the extra costs of an LED projector. At present they are far more expensive than a lamp driven projector this should change over time. Lamps are cheap enough these days to buy and it's highly unlikely you will get to the stage of even changing out your lamp as most people don't clock up enough hours and or they upgrade their projector before the lamp needs replacing. |
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| Higher end DLP projectors use 3 chipsets for truly a truly stunning image, however 3 chipsets isn't enough, they have to possess superior optics too. These sort of projectors usually start at around 30K and go up from there. These brands are the likes of Sim2 (Who produce single chip DLP machines now as well) Runco, Vidikron and Cristie to name the main ones. |
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| Some important aspects of projection technology:
PIXEL GAP: Something often overlooked by review sites. SXRD and D-ila from both Sony and JVC offer the best fill factor
by a good margin. This results in a very narrow pixel gap which means the pixel gap itself becomes almost invisible for
a truly enjoyable and seemless image. If you are going down the path of projection you should be looking at a large
screen of at least 120 inch at 3.5-4.5 metres, 130-150 inch at 4-5 metres etc. This is what make watching movies truly
enjoyable - the cinema experience is what we're trying to recreate here, immersion. If using projector tech such as LCD
which has very poor fill factor (wide pixel gap) think fishing line vs a pen, you are likely to see the 'screen door effect' (SDE)
at the same distances just mentioned. This results in a more artificial looking image.
In order of preference; Dila/SXRD, Single chip DLP then 3 LCD.
CONTRAST: By far, JVC have always had the best native contrast of any projection technology out there. There is a lot
of misinformation in the market today regarding contrast ratios and bogus numbers by using methods which 'cheat'
to get their results. LCD projector manufacturers are renowned for this and sadly many people are just unaware of the
true contrast measurements. |
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| Contrast is seen as the holy grail of home theatre because projectors cannot project true black as all pixels are active and lit.
They can only project shades of grey and that can vary greatly from different brands and models. The blacker the blacks, without
sacrificing peak whites (which is what a dynamic iris does in many cases) makes for the best image. At the end of the day however,
if you don't have a blacked out cinema, you cannot view the full performance of the projectors contrast so other factors such as
brightness and motion should be at the top of the list instead. In other words, there is little benefit, if any at all, of using a JVC X900
in a white room with a white ceiling. |
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Industry leading black levels from JVC. These projectors are designed for 'bat cave' cinemas
and put out a stunning ultra high contrast image. Highly recommended! |
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Resolution and Pixels: It now seems everyone is on the 4K bandwagon... Sony are the only company making true 4K home projectors with the new VW300ES and the current 500ES and
1100ES models at 11, 14 and 28K respectively. Even though these projectors are upscaling 2K Blu Ray, they do a stunning job thanks to the native 4K panel (8 million pixels) and their out
of the box colour is extremely good (probably the best in the business). And for true 4K material, gob smackingly good.. but I hear you asking, 'what 4K material?'. It's coming!
Whilst the current JVC E-shift 4K projectors do a stunning job at upscaling Blu Ray using their E-shift feature for a very smooth and seemless image with no visible pixel structure, a true
4K panel is something else again and this is reflected in their pricing. The JVC machines also accept a native 4K signal so some future-proofing there while we wait for native 4K movies
to come to home theatres...
It should also be noted that pixels do not equate to resolution. A 1080P projector has 2,037,000 pixels. A blu ray movie does not have anywhere near that in actual resolution! A true 4K
Blu Ray will look even better on a 1080P Projector, of course. |
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The Sony VPL-VW500ES is getting rave reviews all over the world! |
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| JVC's X Series projectors upscale 2K Blu Ray's using their proprietary E-Shift 3
mechanism to emulate a 4K resolution. These are not true 4K projectors but
do a great job at upscaling and combined with their superior black levels make
them a top choice in many home theatres. |
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The DLP chip contains a rectangular array of up to 8 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors; each of these micromirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair.
When a DLP chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, it's mirrors can reflect a digital image onto any surface.
Digital Cinema's all over the world use DLP technology with the likes of Cristie, Barco and NEC Projectors.
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One of the downsides of DLP technology in home cinema is rainbow artifacting. DLP projectors utilizing a mechanical spinning color wheel may exhibit an
anomaly known as the "rainbow effect." This is best described as brief flashes of perceived red, blue, and green "shadows" observed most often when the
projected content features high contrast areas of moving bright or white objects on a mostly dark or black background. The scrolling end credits of many
movies are a common example, and also in animations where moving objects are surrounded by a thick black outline. Brief visible separation of the colours
can also be apparent when the viewer moves their eyes quickly across the projected image. Some people perceive these rainbow artifacts frequently, while
others may never see them at all. Today's machines from companies like Optoma, have faster colour wheels to the chances of it happening are quite small.
So I strongly suggest you go and view a DLP projector before you buy! Further reading here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Light_Processing
The upside of DLP technology is incredible rich colour, razor sharp image, small pixel gap and good motion too. |
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The all new Optoma HD50 represents incredible value for money |
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| A good example of rainbow artifacting from a projector with a slow colour wheel. (Not from an OPTOMA!) |
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3 LCD projectors can suffer from an pronounced pixel gap that makes pixels more visible and the only way to counter this is move further back or reduce your screen size...not what home theatre is about... Some manufacturers use a pixel softening feature called 'Smooth Screen'.. They soften the pixel gap so it's less noticeable, others do not use anything to improve fill factor.
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At the end it comes down to choice, if you're back far enough and have a smaller screen size to
compensate then these LCD's are seen as good value options. |
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