This blog will be short (well, short for something I write)!  I’ve already posted an article on the new configurations of the Ensemble HD, and the new pricing.

The long and short of it is this:  The Ensemble HD continues to be the only fully integrated projector based home theater system on the market.  And one designed for a quick and easy installation!  As such, what are now three different models, have no direct competition.  They do, however, “compete” with systems put together by folks piece by piece, making separate decisions on projector, AV receiver, 5.1 surround sound speaker systems, programmable remotes, etc.

For those not up to the challenge of getting knowledgeable about each of those products, the Ensemble HD provides a solution that’s pretty straightforward, and offers excellent performance.  

One of the more brilliant aspects of the Ensemble concept is the ease of installation.  With the front left/center/right speakers built into the motorized 100 inch screen casing, the rear speakers in the projector cradle, and provide wiring channels that can be quickly mounted, and painted with your ceiling or wall paint to blend in, a full installation is typically about 5 hours or less.  In other words, going that route you might save a couple thousand dollars compared to a full installation of separate components where you end up opening the walls and ceiling to run the wires, and all that entails.

Here’s what’s new for 2009:

First, the entry level version - the Ensemble HD 720, remains the same product.  The only notworthy difference is the drop in price from $4999 to $4699.  $300 isn’t a whole lot, but, every bit helps.

Far more significant, the old Ensemble HD 1080 which featured the Home Cinema 1080 projector has been replaced by the Ensemble HD 6100.  The 6100 projector is the replacement for the old 1080, and is a bit brighter, has higher contrast, slightly improved black levels and a few other minor changes.  The biggest news for this transition is pricing.  The old Ensemble HD 1080 cost $6999, while the new improved version drops a whopping $1000 to $5999.

Finally, for those into performance, Epson corrected what was in my opinion, a mistake, which was not to offer a version of the Ensemble HD last year featuring their ultra-high contrast 1080 UB projector.   Problem solved with the introduction of the Ensemble HD 6500UB.  You can now have the top of the line version (of the Home Cinema lineup) for $100 less than the old 1080 - for $6899.  You get a dramatically higher performance projector for less than last years model.

For the 6100 and 6500UB, you also get another dollar saving benefit - These new Epson’s offer lamps that are rated 4000 hours in high power mode, compared to 1700 on the older ones (and the 720).  In the long run, that will save many hundreds of dollars.

That’s about it!  

With the lower prices, and the 6500UB projector option, I’m an even bigger fan of the Ensemble HD now.  (And I do own the old 1080 version, which is my “2nd theater.”  The Ensemble HD is installed in my testing room (had to move out a file cabinet, and add a small futon/sofa.)

Check out the more in-depth “mini-review” of the new Ensemble HD systems on our main site.

I’m going to keep almost all of this piece to the home theater side of what was shown at Infocomm 2009.  There was far more action - as expected, on the business side, with many dozens of new biz projectors.  Hey, this is a home theater blog, so I won’t bore you.  I will add an article about Infocomm 2009 to the website late next week, discussing a number of the new business projectors as well as, in general LED light source projectors and 3D projector solutions.  3D is getting A LOT of attention in the commercial space, but I figure we are still a few years off before we see any real move toward 3D in our homes.  

Where to start?  Hmm!  Vivitek, a not overly well known Taiwanese manufacturer was showing an LED lightsource based projector, the H9080HD.  I should have a review unit late July, and publish (hopefully) in the  first half of August.  Vivitek, while somewhat obscure in the US, is making a big play.  They were talking about building a line up of about 20 projectors (business, education, home theater, combined). If they do that, it makes them a major player, at least in the depth of their lineup.  Stay tuned!

For the Vivitek  H9080HD, I’ve seen conflicting specs on brightness - I’ve seen both 800, and  1000 lumens claimed, 100,000:1 contrast ratio, and 50,000 hour life on the LED light source.  Note, the LED based projectors tend to have very high contrast, and seem to appear brighter than conventional projectors with the same lumen claims, as might be expected with the higher contrast. (more pop and wow?)  The H9080HD sports a 1.3:1 zoom lens, and has vertical and horizontal lens shift!  

This projector may prove to be extremely impressive.  However, with a price tag that will be well over $10,000 - they are talking $14,999 - it’s not for the faint of heart (or wallet).  

There were other LED based projectors shown, more in the business side than home, as Infocomm is first and foremost a commercial trade-show.  projectiondesign, and Digital Projection both were showing impressive LED units.  the projectiondesign one was purely commercical application, but Digital Projection might well end up with a home solution as well.  

BenQ showed their new W6000, and I’m also hoping to see a review unit from them in the next 4-5 weeks.  Fingers crossed.  I’m a fan of BenQ DLP projectors having owned a couple a few years back.  I like the W5000 and have great expectations for the W6000.  

I’m especially excited about the W6000, as it provides something I’ve been screaming for, for years, which is lots of lumens.  The W6000 is rated 2500 lumens.  If it can deliver that even if only in its brightest mode, then it’s going to be killer for those wanting big screens, and especially sports fans who don’t like viewing their favorite game in the dark.  

The W6000 will have to be considered as exceptionally bright for a home theater projector (figure only a few under $10,000 home theater models in the last few years are particularly bright - Panasonic PT-AX200U, Optoma HD81-LV and HD8000-LV, come to mind and that’s probably most of them).  Getting beyond that, it should be impressive in other ways, starting with black levels.  The W6000 claims a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, which certainly puts it in the “ultra-high” contrast projector class.  As to pricing, let me get back to you on that.  MSRP I believe will be $3999 (or $3995), but that doesn’t provide a good indication of what it will sell for.  I suspect it will be under $3000 street price, with the big question being how much under $3000?

BenQ also talked about an LED based home theater projector, but don’t expect that one until Q1 of 2010. (that’s their target).  The LED projector is designated the W30000 and would seem to be the logical replacement for the  current W20000.  LED projectors are coming out expensive, so it just may end up that the W20000 will remain in the lineup, with the W30000 costing a chunk more of your hard earned (insert favorite currency - Dollars - Euros, Yuan, etc.)

The W30000 claims 100,000:1 contrast and a 20,000 hour lightsource (LED). 

As soon as I have a decent idea about pricing, on the new BenQ’s I’ll get back to you all, with more info.  

Panasonic was closemouthed regarding what new home theater models they might have this fall, and Sanyo wasn’t much better.  With Sanyo, the indication is that we may not see new models, but upgraded versions of the existing.  Of course they have 3 home theater projectors in the current lineup, so we might see a new one or two, I just don’t have a good feel for what they will do next.  Keep in mind that there is another dynamic going on.  Internationally, Panasonic - or rather their parent - Matsushita is buying Sanyo.  How that might affect both companies’ future plans for home theater projectors will remain to be seen.

Epson was showing their new Ensemble HD versions, but I won’t go into that here.  I’ve just posted an Ensemble HD mini-review on the website, and will do a blog on them tomorrow.  Suffice to say, the primary news is that there are now Ensemble HD systems featuring their newest home theater projectors, the Home Cinema 6100 and Home Cinema 6500UB.  Oh yeah, lower prices, too.  

Optoma was there with their little Pico PK101 which we recently reviewed, and a number of new business projectors, including some high powered DLP’s (at least one was rated 5000 lumens).  There was also some 3D buzz, but nothing concrete to report on.

Samsung, was talking about their new SP-A600, a low cost DLP.  See my previous blog for some info on that one.  Yes, I’m still trying to land an SP-A800 or even better the new SP-A900 for review.

Let’s not forget InFocus, who was recently purchased by a company owned by one of the founders of eMachines (computers).  InFocus didn’t have a booth, but was showing new product at their hotel suite, across the street.  Looks like InFocus is going to focus on the higher part of their home theater line.  So you can expect products like the X9 and X10 to disappear, without models to replace them.   

They showed one new Home Theater projector, and they are apparently very serious about it.  Gone is the fancy “flying saucer” shaped design, with InFocus opting for a more traditional look that is more box like.  This allows them to share the cabinet with projectors designed for the business side, and that reduces cost and price.  The forthcoming home theater projector should be truly impressive.  As many of you know, the InFocus IN83, despite rather mediocre black level performance, is a favorite of mine - it’s bright and has exceptional picture quality when it comes to color accuracy and “film-like” look and feel.  Despite the blacks, it’s one of my favorite projectors to watch.  The new projector, however, finally has a dynamic iris (as well as a manual one).  That should make it competitive in terms of black levels with all but the most exceptional.  If they can maintain the great picture, plus a dramatic improvement to black level performance, then it should be one helluva projector!    This one is high up on my “must review” list.  If I recall correctly, review units are a couple of months out.

Well, that’s enough for now.  I’ll be sorting through all those thumb drives, and CD’s that I was given at the various booths, with all the press releases, and specs, and likely have a second blog, with more products, in a couple of days.  Hang in there!  -art

The other day, I received an early engineering sample of the Samsung SP-A600.  I fired it up yesterday for the first time. 

Now I’ve got a quandry.  Whether to do a review on this unit, or send it back and wait for a late pre-production unit, or a full production projector.

We expect some issues with pre-production projectors, and many can be anticipated, such as the brightness.  Pre-production projectors tend not to be as bright, for example.

However, most pre-production units tend to have good color tables, often the final version that will appear on the production units.  That’s not the case with an engineering sample.

Turns out the engineering sample has two major flaws.  The first problem are color tables that provide poor “out of the box” color and picture quality.  I’m talking really poor, including way over the top reds (everyone - every race - appear to have a brand new sunburn.

I’m pretty sure Mike can calibrate the projector for really good results, but worry that, first of all, as they finish the color tables, the calibration settings we provide would prove to be worthless.  Feedback tells me that a lot of folks plug in our numbers, rather than spending for a professional calibration.

The second issue is with the HDMI, which does have a problem locking on to the source.  I have had to unplug the hdmi cable, typically a couple of times (with 1080p) to get the projector to find the source.

Mike will take a look at the unit.  After that, we’ll decide whether it makes sense.  

What I can tell you about the SP-A600 is that it’s a DLP projector, it’s 1080p, and it’s slated to have a $1999 MSRP, and probably sell for around $1799.  It’s a cute, small projector with a shiny black finish to the cabinet.  Black levels look typical for lower cost 1080p DLP projectors - not bad, but no match for the more expensive ultra-high contrast 3LCD projectors and a couple of the better DLPs (I’m thinking projectors like the PT-AE3000, the Epson 6500UB, the Sharp XV-Z15000 and BenQ W5000).

I can say that I’ve now got the SP-A600 producing decent color, after adjusting it by eyeball.  It’s still not great, but perhaps is best described as about as good as a typical production projector that I describe as having “decent”, but not particularly good out of the box color.  I imagine that the production versions will start out with better color than I just came up with after adjusting by eye.  Of course Samsungs higher end projectors - the SP800 and SP900, under the direction of Joe Kane, are known for extremely good color.  Let’s hope this projector turns out to be a lot like the higher end models. 

Stay tuned for an update.  -art

I just bought a new HDMI switcher, and since I do get a number of emails with questions about switchers, I thought a blog was in order.  From a practical standpoint, I brought in the switcher to review, because it looked like it would solve some problems for me.  Turns out, it solved them, and I’m trying to work out a great deal on the review unit.  I’ve done a review of the unit, which was posted a few days ago, you can check it out here: Octava HDMX42

OK, Before I start, keep in mind that I’m getting a little out of my depth here.  I’m certainly no expert on HDMI swtichers, but I use them (need them).  There are various reasons for needing one, and it looks a bit like this:

1. Lack of an AV receiver that offers HDMI switching

2. You have a device with HDMi switching, but it doesn’t have enough HDMI inputs

3.  Perhaps, like my old THX certified Marantz, it’s DVI, and not fully HDMI 1.3 compliant.  (or it could have HDMI but still not 1.3 compliant).

4.  In my case, I have not only multiple hdmi sources, but also multiple (2) displays hooked up at the same time, and need a solution that can not only provide the hdmi source material to both, but also can separate out the audio (digital Toslink fibre-optic), to send to an audio receiver or pre-amp.

Bottom line:  people who use HDMI switchers do so, because they don’t have any other gear with built in HDMI switching, or it’s outdated.

OK.  Since my equipment changes out frequently, and I’m using several HDMI sources, I’ve always had to use switchers.  In my main theater I run my own JVC projector, and also need to switch to whatever home theater projector I’m reviewing.  Because my receiver can’t do that, I had to go switcher.  Because only video goes to the two displays, and audio must go to my receiver, I need a switcher with a digital audio out (TOSLINK), as well.   

I’ve been using 2 switchers for the past couple o years, in my main theater.  This is due to my separate digital audio requirement.  Because I have 3 and sometimes 4 hdmi source devices, I would have liked to have a 4×2 switcher.  At the time, though, I couldn’t find one with a separate digital audio out, so I ended up with a pair of Gefen switchers - one is a 4×1 (4 in, 1 out) which lacks the digital audio fibre-optic output.   I combined it with a Gefen 2×2 which did have the digital audio out.  The end result, it works for me.

However, my Gefen switchers are HDMI 1.3 compatible, but not HDMI 1.3 compliant.  To clarify, if a device is 1.3 compliant, it accepts HDMI 1.3 and knows what to do with it.  My Gefen’s though, being only HDMI 1.3 compatible, means they can talk to a 1.3 device, but not handle all the features (ie. Deep Color, CEC, etc.).  Instead my Gefen essentially tells my HMDI 1.3 sources - “Hey, do me a favor - I can’t handle all that HDMI 1.3 stuff, so just send me stuff that is HDMI 1.2.   And that’s how my gear works.

Unfortunately, I realize I can’t live much longer with only HDMI 1.2 compliance.  One of these days, I’m going to get my hands on some Blu-ray discs with Deep Color, and I’ll be expected to report on how good it is.  So shopping I went.  One of my readers had mentioned to me a switcher he bought, and it was close to what I need, so I looked up the company, and sure enough, they had exactly what I required - an HDMI 4×2 switcher - fully 1.3 compliant, and with a digital audio output.

OMG!  It works!  True, I don’t have any Deep Color content to test it with, nor do I use CEC, but as the guy who fell off the top of the Empire State Building was heard saying all the way down:  ”So far, So Good, So far, So Good, So far…”

The interesting thing about switchers is that what appear to be similarly featured switchers, are all over the place in terms of selling price, from well under $100 to many hundreds, and that’s for basic ones.

The one I just reviewed, the Octava HDMX42 is what they call a Matrix switcher (in that it can do different routing (send this source to that output, and that source, one source to two displays, or other combinations.  The Octava sells for $349. They have less expensive ones as well, with less features. -art

I’ve been playing with the XV-Z15000 for more than a week now.  The Sharp XV-Z15000 projector is Sharp’s low cost 1080p DLP home theater projector.  When first announced it had an MSRP of $2999, but it seems to have dropped to $2499.  Either way, online pricing tends to be around $2000, mostly a little more, though I have spotted a few prices just below $2000.

I often talk about projectors that are particularly enjoyable to watch, regardless of details relating to color accuracy, black levels, etc.  I will say, that many of those that I pronounce very enjoyable to watch happen to be DLP based home theater projectors.  The Sharp XV-Z15000 definitely fits into this category.

All considered, with this Sharp projector, the whole of its performance easily exceeds the sum of its individual abilities.  

OK, obviously I am enjoying watching it.  I’ve watched many movies, as well as some NBA playoffs on it, and while it isn’t a really high performance - ultra-high contrast projector in terms of black level performance (despite the high contrast claim), , it does perform splendidly.  The feature set is typical DLP.  

At first watching, I immediately thought of it as a poor man’s InFocus IN83.  (OK, the colors aren’t quite that accurate, but, like the IN83, I tend to think something like:  Wow, great projector - now only if it had better blacks, and …  And it always seems brighter, or perhaps I should say “punchier”  than the measurements would indicate.

The basics - DLP projector - 1600 lumens claimed (no, it doesn’t really have that kind of power, but not bad),  30,000:1 contrast ratio. The zoom is a manual 1.2:1 (typical of most DLP projectors.  This Sharp projector is on the smaller side, and is finished almost completely in black.

Out of the box performance is pretty impressive in terms of accuracy, but can be improved.  Interestingly, no separate gain and bias controls for the primary colors, just a single control for red, and one for blue (sorry green, you just didn’t make the cut).  There is, however a CMS - color management system for fine tuning individual colors.  (We normally don’t calibrate the individual colors.)  Even without using the CMS, after calibration, color accuracy was Very, Very, good.

Brightness is pretty average, especially in a price range dominated by 3LCD projectors.  We clocked 355 lumens in best mode (post calibration), with the manual iris stopped down (High Contrast option).  At the other extreme, with Bright Boost on (think Brilliant Color), and Dynamic mode, the XV-Z15000 measured 1055 lumens.

As to how that compares to the competition, the Sharp can’t match the horsepower of the BenQ W5000, perhaps it’s closest DLP competition.  Compared to the best selling 3LCD projectors around its price, it can’t match the Epsons in brightest mode (nor in best), but is about the same as the Sanyo Z3000 in brightest mode.  

Technically, the 355 lumens in best mode puts it below most of the competition, HOWEVER, Mike measured with manual iris on High Contrast, and as with other such projectors, we find that opening the iris all the way, provides more in extra brightness, than it costs in black level performance.  With that in consideration, the XV-Z15000 starts looking very typical in brightness, in the mid-400’s along with most of the competition (the PT-AE3000 is a little short of that, and the Mitsubishi HC7000 and Sanyo Z3000 a bit dimmer still.  Only the more expensive Sony HW10 is dramatically brighter in best mode.  All in all, this Sharp projector has to be considered average in brightness.

I’m still playing with Iris 2, the dynamic one.  It is not a fast adjusting iris, but it does seem to be smooth, more than I can say for some others.  More in the review.

Definitely the dynamic iris is doing a bunch of compression of bright areas.  I had on one of the Star Trek movies the other night (Blu-ray), and in the beginning, when the credits were coming up and the background is a star field, you can see the whole star field brighten when each credit comes up, and dim when it fades away.

Black level performance is probably sufficient.  It’s not going to give the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB a run for the money, and probably not the Panasonic PT-AE3000.  It might come close to the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 though.  I’ll start doing my side by sides with either the Epson or Panasonic (Panasonic I think) tonight.  (I’ve decided on the Panny, because I’ve been using the Epson so much (between side-by-sides, and the old de-focus, and CFI aspects).

I can tell you this.  The Sharp can fill my 128″ Firehawk G3 in best mode (with iris to high brightness, not high contrast), and does well enough with some ambient light, in dynamic mode.  

The NBA playoffs looked outstanding on the Sharp.   Dynamic mode has one of the best color balances of any projector recently reviewed, when comparing Dynamic modes.

The gamma (setting 1, recommended by Mike after he calibrated), seems a little low, so some might prefer 0, but, with one, the projector is particularly good at handling those sunny days, giving you that bright - sunlight bouncing off of sunlit faces look that even my JVC RS20 can’t do quite as well.

OK bottom line - so far:  What we have here is a really nice $2000+ 1080p projector, with the usual limited placement flexibility of most DLPs.  Offsetting that is an especially good looking image, and great shadow detail, but only average (so far) black level performance.  

I really wish I had a BenQ W5000 here to compare the 2 DLP projectors.  I think the Sharp XV-Z15000 just might be able to give the brighter BenQ a decent run for the money, overall.  I expect the Sharp may slightly best the BenQ in terms of black levels.

Enough - relax, I’ll try to post the full review on the weekend, but probably it will be next Monday.  

I’m impressed!  -art

The VPL-VW70 supposedly replaced the VW60 at the end of last year, although VW60’s still seem to be available.   I’ve had the VPL-VW70 here for a couple of weeks now, and have logged a good 20 hours of viewing, almost all of it after Mike calibrated the projector.

Let’s start with what the Sony VPL-VW70 represents.  It is the big brother of the Sony VPL-HW10 which we reviewed back in December.  (Both projectors were announced at the same time, at CEDIA last September.)  

The MSRP of the Sony VW70 is $7999, which is pretty pricey, and actually $500 more than the JVC DLA-RS20 (and JVC’s essentially identical HD750), which grabbed top honors in our 1080p Comparison Report.  That said, there definitely seems to be more discounting on the Sony, as JVC more tightly controls their distribution (or so it seems).  As a result, in many cases the VPL-VW70 will be less expensive, perhaps a full $1000 or more less, than the JVC.  (Prices however, online, seem to be all over the place, for the Sony, while it’s very difficult to find a JVC online.)

From my viewing, the Sony does a very nice job on black levels.  It, like the Sony HW10 relies on a dynamic iris to get darker blacks on dark scenes, and of course, it does the job.

Here’s something to think about, regarding black level performance, but requires some clarification, which I will get into:

Doing side by side comparisons with the JVC RS20, I first adjusted the two projectors to get as close as I could to the same brightness.  This was eyeballed when viewing some relatively bright scenes from different movies.

Having done that, I started viewing the usual dark scenes - the starship from The Fifth Element, various scenes from Casino Royale, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Space Cowboys, etc.

Most impressively, in the darkest of the scenes I viewed, notably the ones with virtually no fully bright areas, the black levels of the two projectors were near identical.  In almost all cases the JVC had a touch darker blacks, but it varied from close, to very, very, close.  The JVC projectors (also LCoS design), do not use a dynamic iris, and this is why come comments and clarifications are needed.

There are two practical reasons for wanting the best black level performance:

1.  If the black levels are so-so, blacks are visibly a medium-dark gray, rather than an extremely dark gray.  This is true not just of inside the projected image, but any letterbox areas as well. As such they are a distraction.

2. Projectors with inferior black levels produce images that are less dynamic looking, even forgetting the actual brightness of the blacks on your screen and room conditions.

OK, the Sony VPL-VW70, as noted, uses a dynamic iris.  This allows the projector to lower the black levels down visibly, essentially solving most of #1 above.  The black areas appear pretty black, and are less of a distraction.

The downside is that by using a hefty amount of dynamic iris, that doesn’t deal with issue #2.  It is clear from my viewing, that this is the case.

With the Sony and JVC side by side, on the typical bright scene there is virtually no difference in brightness. Both projectors were setup with lamps on full power, but closing down the manual iris of the JVC about half way, to achieve similar brightness to the Sony (which measured just over 350 lumens in best mode - less than half of the JVC’s 775 lumens).  In reality, I had to choose between two iris settings on the JVC - one which resulted in the image a touch brighter than the VW70, the other a touch dimmer.  Had I decided to do this again, I probably would have set the JVC so it was a tad dimmer.

I would have made that change, because of the effect of the dynamic iris on the Sony.  

While that VW70’s dynamic iris shuts down significantly when it can, to lower black levels, something else happens as well (true of all dynamic iris projectors), and that is, that the brightest areas drop in brightness as well.  In other words, when we started, if a scene was mostly bright, with some black, the blacks of the Sony would be lighter than that of the JVC, but the whites would be the  same.

Feed them both a scene primarily dark, with minimal fully white or bright colors, and the iris closes down.  The blacks get blacker, but the whites and bright reds, etc. lose a chunk of their brightness.

So, you end up with the dark areas being nicely dark (for issue #1 above), but the whites and brights lower, and the scene looses a chunk of its dynamic abilities.  This is not a good thing, but it is something that always happens with a projector that uses a dynamic iris.  If Sony (or others didn’t allow the iris to close down, if there was just a tiny amount of white somewhere in the scene, then the dynamic iris would rarely get a chance to work at all, and when it would, it wouldn’t be able to close down very far at all (for almost whites).

Bottom line.  The blacks are nice and blacks but those dark scenes with some bright are compressed, the bright areas now seem a dim compared to the JVC sitting along side.  

End result - similar blacks, but noticeably compressed bright areas with the Sony.  For this reason, the JVC has to be considered stronger overall in terms of black levels, as the black to white difference - real contrast, is much greater with the JVC!

From a practical standpoint, though, for many people, #1 is the more important aspect of black levels. - That’s why many enthusiasts go with gray and high contrast gray surfaces - to lower the black level, without worrying too much about the drop in brightness of the brighter areas.

One last thought - you can turn off the dynamic iris - set Dynamic Black to Off, and that stops the compression of the image dynamics but it also results in brighter blacks - more typical of a less expensive projector.  Most wouldn’t notice the compression of dynamic range without something like the JVC along side for comparison, still, the iris does take away some of that “pop and wow”.

OK, let’s leave that alone for the rest of this blog.  I’ll repeat and discuss further in the review.

The Sony VPL-VW70 has excellent color - it starts out good, gets even better with calibration.  On paper, the calibration results are absolutely excellent - we were able to get a very tight grayscale almost perfectly centered around 6500K, with a variation of less than 200K from 20 IRE to white (100 IRE).  (BTW, that’s tighter than the JVC).  When you see the side by side images of the Sony and JVC, however, you will see subtle differences, but both, I would say are comparable (if a touch different) in terms of skin tones, and overall color performance.

The Sony is very flexible in terms of placement - not the best, but should be fine for almost everyone considering one.  There’s a reasonable amount of vertical lens shift, and the zoom lens is 1.6:1.  The Sony can be ceiling mounted or, in many rooms placed on a rear shelf, though some folks, going with relatively smaller screens may find they can’t place the projector far enough away to shelf mount in the rear of their room.  BTW, like the Sony HW10, the VPL-VW70 has its control panel and its inputs on the side - the left side, if looking from the front of the projector.  Some folks like the inputs on the side.  It works for me, for example, with my RS20 (which has them on the opposite side.  Lucky for me, when one enters my room, they see the other side of the projector, so no cables.  If I had the Sony, they would enter on the cable side.  In other words, whether the side mounted inputs work for you depends on your room setup and projector positioning.  It shouldn’t be a “make or break” issue though, there are far more important things we consider.

Sony, as always, offers extensive control of the image, with several features not normally found on the competition. Of note, this includes:  Panel Adjust - which is sweet.  This feature comes down from Sony’s far more expensive VPL-VW200.  Panel Adjust allows you to physically adjust the LCoS panels (yes, Sony calls them SXRD), to get best alignment of the pixels.  Unlike systems like JVC’s which are digital, and can only improve alignment when a panel is more than 1/2 pixel off, the Sony works at fractions of a pixel.  The end result is excellent pixel conversion on this review unit, it is slightly better than my own JVC RS20, which is particularly good (with no panel - vertically or horizontally, off by more than 1/4 of a pixel.)

Sony even allows you to align different parts of the screen differently, however, only Mike played with it, so I’m not prepared to state if changing one “quadrant” forces some change on others.

Sony offers frame interpolation on their $15,000 VPL-VW200, but chose not to bring that down to the VW70.  Too bad!  In the EU, Sony offers the VW80 (and possibly the VW70 - but I don’t think so).  The VW80 does have Sony’s motion flow which does the frame interpolation to 120hz.  Sony offers that feature on a lot of their LCDTVs.

Brightness - ah, here it comes you say… And I respond - “yup”.  I am a believer that most projectors just don’t have enough lumens to go around, in their best modes, to do a moderately large screen - 110″ or larger - well.  The VW70 is one of those.  Sony home theater projectors have typically been less bright than most of the competition, and the VPL-VW70 is no exception.  For example, in our recent 1080p comparison (which the VW70 did not arrive in time to be included, though I mention it, including that it is the one significant projector missing from the report), the Sony would be the second dimmest of the 9 projectors in that group (counting the Sony).  It’s 366 lumens are a jump up from the 100 lumen less bright Sharp Z20000, but it’s not close to any of the others.  Of the other seven, the next two least bright models are the Planar PD8150 and the BenQ W20000, and both are more than 100 lumens brighter than the Sony.  Of the remaining 5 projectors, all produce more than 700 lumens - all are at least twice as bright as the VPL-VW70.

Now, the VPL-VW70 can just survive in best mode, in my main theater - filling my 128″ Firehawk G3 (high contrast gray - relative gain of 1.3) , but it is definitely marginal.  And that’s with a brand new lamp.  After say 500 or 800 hours, no way the projector will survive my room setup.  Considering that most lamps lose about 50% brightness by the time they reach their official life of 2000 hours (at full power), the VW70 is a projector that is going to work best with 100″ diagonal screens or smaller, but, no doubt some will push it to 106 or 110″ diagonal screens.  Of course you can go with a higher gain screen, but then you have to deal with those trade-offs - center brighter than corners, narrow viewing cone, etc.

All considered, the Sony does produce a great picture.  As noted, the heavy iris work does lower black levels so that they aren’t objectionable in terms of letterboxing, etc., but doing so, does cut back noticeably on the dynamics of those darker images with bright areas.

As of right now, I see the projector more as serious competition to JVC’s RS10 or identical HD350, and the BenQ W20000, than the JVC RS20.  BTW, the Sony after calibration should have better saturation than the RS10, in that the RS10 is a bit oversaturated on some colors, and lacks the full CMS (color management system) of the RS20 which can correct for that.  Sorry, no RS10 sitting around here for direct comparison.

I have already taken a lot of side by side images (bright and dark scenes) against the JVC RS20, and plan to do some with the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB, which is the least expensive projector I have here, with excellent black levels.  Mind you, I don’t believe the 6500UB overall, can match the Sony in terms of picture quality, but, it may be a case of people considering the two based on price, knowing they can get something far less expensive than the Sony, that also has impressive black level performance (and more lumens).

Oh, btw, I really love the Sony remote control.  Well laid out, plenty of range.

OK, that gives you something to think about.  Look for the full review of the Sony VPL-VW70 in less than a week.  -art

OK, I’m a bit late on this one, but finally ready to put the CFI issue to rest.  

For those new, I’ve written a number of blogs on creative frame interpolation, and some of the issues.  Of the four projectors we’ve seen with CFI, Epson had some problems, which have been discussed. Epson has just released their new firmware, to deal with the issues. This blog looks at the performance of the new firmware in terms of creative frame interpolation, and also talks about the process of upgrading.

Below I’ll discuss the  Epson Home Cinema 6500UB (click for review) and Pro Cinema 7500 UB’s 1.09 firmware, how to upgrade to it, and what you can expect.  

There are too many modes (3: low, normal high), times too many types of source material (24fps, 24fps over 60, standard 720p and 1080i, standard DVD, standard TV etc.) to play with them all, but I believe I have most of the answers - or at least my opinions on what most people are asking.

First, How to upgrade your 6500 UB or 7500 UB:  (Sorry international folks, I don’t have a handle on what Epson is doing in the UK or elsewhere with the TW5000 etc.  If you know please post.)

I do know Epson is sending out firmware upgrades.  They apparently, alternately offer to take back your projector and send out a replacement (not necessarily new, but none are that old).  

To send it in, call Epson - your PrivateLine phone number is best.  (It came with your projector on a credit card sized card).  With their replacement program they pay all the freight.  

If you want to tackle it yourself, ask for the firmware upgrade.  I discuss that in more depth, below.

Creative Frame Interpolation v. 109

My take is that Epson concentrated on two things:  Improving the performance of the Low setting, and changing the way their creative frame interpolation works with a 24fps source. (ie. most Blu-ray movies) 

The CFI Low setting is what you are going to want to use for just about everything except gaming.  Epson recommends Normal and Hi for video games, but that’s it.

Note, if you are one of those who really likes that “live digital video” “soap opera” “extreme depth” look on some content, then rest assured, it is still there in the High setting and to a lesser extent, Normal. -art

When watching 24fps, Epson’s Low setting now works well.  Side by side it performs about the same as the Panasonic in Mode 1.  Both projectors provide visibly smoother motion when the camera is panning.  Artifacts (which all CFI seem to exhibit) are much less frequent and normally below our radar. I’ve watched a number of movies and like it.  There is the slightest difference in the feel of the picture, compared to no CFI, but that has to be expected.  If you liked the “live digital video” or “soap opera” look that the older firmware had, you can still have it in the Normal and High settings.

The major thing that Epson did, was switch their handling of 24fps to 96, instead of 120.  They are now creating 3 frames instead of 4, between every two.  That’s just fine.  They also did that to Normal and High as well as Low.

24fps over 1080i 60 - HD movies coming over 1080i.  This is still a problem.  Epson strips back the 60 to 24fps (reversing the 3:2 pull-down), before doing the creative.  Even the Low setting has a lot of artifacts and still is jerky.  Forget it.  If you want to watch movies over HDTV, you’ll want to turn CFI off.  Epson continued to go from 24fps to 120.

Standard 1080i 60 - The Low setting is improved here as well.  Less artifacts.  This is the easiest mode - only creating one frame between each pair.  Works very well.

Epson says it has done things in Normal and High modes that make them better in terms of artifacts, but fundamentally, they work as before.

I watched sports on HDTV - NBA playoffs, in both Low and Normal.  I could spot a bit more artifacts in Normal, and preferred Low.  I can see this as a personal choice, however.  The difference between Low and Off is noticeable.

In summary, Epson, I believe, has made their CFI competitive with that of the few other projectors to offer it so far.

It still doesn’t cope well with 24fps movies over 1080i, but, then, for example, Panasonic doesn’t strip back to 24, so still has the 3:2 judder when they tackle that combination. (In that case, if you insist on using CFI, the Panasonic is the better of the two.

GETTING THE FIRMWARE UPGRADE:

Epson is sending out firmware 1.09. It consists of a pdf with pretty good (and pretty complete) instructions, those of you pretty comfortable with installing things should not have trouble.  There are three others - zip files including an app that has to be renamed from .eee to .exe.

BTW, no Mac solution.  That made my life more difficult, I’m a bit rusty with PC’s.

Cables are going to needed.  You can download the firmware into the Epson by serial cable, or of your PC doesn’t have one, from USB.  For the USB solution, that requires probably installing a USB-Serial driver on your PC.  Epson provides links to two sites with usable drivers.  Downloading was very straightforward.  I only tried out the second site they listed.

SERIAL:

You will need to find a serial to serial cable (standard DB9 connectors), female on both ends, or if you can only find a male to female, then you’ll need a gender changer.  My local Radio Shack had only the male to female ($19.99) and a gender changer ($9.99).  You will also need a null modem adapter.  That was $10.99.  Conceivably you could find the right cable wired for null modem, but probably only at a place like Fry’s.  

USB:

Ok, our two PCs don’t have serial ports, so I used a USB to Serial cable ($34.99 - at Radio Shack).  Again, I needed the gender changer, and null modem adapter.  

When it came to configuring the serial port, I got lost, or at least lazy.  I called Epson.  The support person walked me right through it, in a couple of minutes.  He knew his stuff.

Oh, please note, upgrading the projector flushes out everything - all your settings, even lamp life, so write everything down.

Bottom line - it’s doable for those that get along fairly well with computers.  At worst, get the cables you need, get ready, and let Epson walk you through it.  That’s a good plan.

Finally!  I’ll let you guys chat over your own findings, and share opinions.  This is an area where subjective choice comes into play.  I know that some find CFI to have a much larger impact on their viewing, than it does for me.  

OK, that’s it.  

Now I’ve got to start my Sony VW70 first look blog.  -art

I have now installed the 1.09 firmware upgrade for the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB and Pro Cinema 7500UB, and have preliminary comments regarding the CFI - creative frame interpolation changes.  What a difference!

OK, but first, some of you probably noticed - we had some major problems with the Projector Reviews website today.  It’s mostly fixed now, and should be fully restored in a few more hours (5/6).  

Back to the Epson creative frame interpolation.  After getting the new firmware 1.09 installed, I wanted to immediately establish how different it would perform compared to the original CFI.  

I am pleased to report initially, that the improvement is dramatic.   Mind you, I’ve hardly played with it, but I started off using The Dark Knight on Blu-ray.  The two scenes I used were from the opening.  The first is the original zoom in shot, of the buildings.  With CFI off it’s not hard to see the continuous, slight jerkiness as the windows came closer and the building on the right zooms past.  I then set the CFI to Normal (the middle position) and watched again. Everything was very smooth.  You can still detect that it’s not perfect, but it is nice and smooth, a major improvement.

Next I viewed at the end of the robbery, the school buses going past.  As each bus goes by you can see the motion artifacts - the “blurring” of the window frames of the buses.

Turn CFI on, and voila’ it’s gone, you can now follow a single window and it’s “clean” without that blurring - almost a doubling.

Bingo!   That’s exactly what was hoped for.  At least in the Normal setting, any motion artifacts caused by the CFI have proved to be very minor, which I would have said the same thing for the Panasonic PT-AE3000.   I have yet to try and spot the differences between Low, Normal and High, but did look quickly at Normal’s performance on one of those scenes, and it too, was much smoother than CFI off.

Next!   The “live digital video” look (soap opera look).  The way over the top affect we saw on the original Epson’s is gone.  I do believe I can see a slight amount in Normal in my viewing, but nothing that I objected to.  I think this is a tendency of all CFI to 120, it has to change something.   Bottom line, looks good so far, but I will spend a lot more time.

Lastly I have not yet tried HDTV, and especially movies coming across on HDTV.  No reason to expect any issues with standard HDTV, but movies (that start as 24fps) converted to 60 for HDTV, completely drove the old firmware crazy, the picture was definitely not something you wanted to watch with CFI on, not even in Low.  

From what I’ve seen so far, I expect that the movies over HDTV will be good too, certainly Epson recognized the problem.

After a bit move viewing, probably tomorrow night, I’ll put the Epson up against the Panny for some side by sides with the CFI.

Gotta run, that’s it for now.

PS.  Sony VPL-VW70 in review.  First look blog will likely be tomorrow night. -art

Epson has just emailed me the new 1.09 firmware, with “fixes” to their creative frame interpolation.  This is just a heads up.  I’m going to try to get around to installing it tomorrow, and see how much better it is. 

I had hoped that Epson would send it to me in installed in a Pro Cinema 7500 UB.  That would have let me run the 6500 UB with old firmware, side by side with the 7500 UB with the new version.  Alas, I’ll just have to take one last look at the CFI on the 6500 UB, then do the upgrade, and observe again.  Not as good, but any major improvements should be obvious.  

And, I do have the Panasonic PT-AE3000 here so I will compare that with the 6500 UB with the new firmware.

Expect my first blog with my findings, probably Monday or Tuesday.  -art

I had originally hoped to to have reviewed Sony’s VPL-VW70 in time for the 1080 Projector Comparison Report, that published last month.  Alas, it was not to be.

The good news is that Sony has shipped me a VPL-VW70 which arrived today.  The unit will be calibrated in the next 48 hours, and then I’ll be working full steam on the review.

Look for one of my “first look” blogs for this Sony projector over the weekend or early next week. (Relatives in town - playing havoc with my workload.)  -art