Mitsubishi HC5000 vs Panasonic AE1000 vs Sony Pearl vs JVC DILA? (1 Viewer)

[Chris PC]

The newest generation of front projectors are looking good. If anybody has any experience with any of these, please feel free to comment. The Pearl is shipping, and I believe the Mitsubishi will be shipping soon. Not sure about the Panasonic and I don't even know the model number of JVC's latest D-ILA projector, but the announcement that a new D-ILA should be forthcoming from JVC at some point was made in September. I personally don't like DLP and these LCD and LCOS projectors are apparantly delivering good performance in terms of contrast. I saw a Sony Qualia 004 in action once, and I know the Ruby has been out for about a year or so at $10K USD. Most of the above projectors I list in the subject should street for under their MSRP's of around $5K.

Is anyone else interested to see what these new beasts have to offer?

 

[MatthewA]

I've been looking at the Sony Pearl for awhile, but I've not yet seen any reviews of the unit.

 

[Tim Glover]

Here ya go....but warning, the review is VERY detailed, but excellent.

http://cine4home.com/reviews/project...VW50Review.htm

 

[Chris PC]

Yep, I saw that. Very good review. Those cine4home folks are thorough. Gotta love it. I am waiting for their review of the Mitsubishi HC5000BL

 

[MatthewA]

Thanks. It looked a little too technical but at least I know it's worth picking up.

Now to start the saving of money...

 

[Chris PC]

You can skim the tech stuff and just take in the general impression of the projector. They definitely like it.

 

[Tim Glover]

Projectorreviews.com has the the Mits 5000 and is prepping their summary. Should be any day now.

 

[Chris PC]

So far the reviews have been ok, but not enough comparison between other similarly priced projectors, and not enough specifics about how much of an upgrade or improvement the contrast/black levels are vs the current crop of lcd projectors like the Sanyo Z4/Z5, Panny AE900/AX100, Hitachi PJ TX200 and Sony HS 51A (HS60).

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

As long as it is LCD technology, I continue to be concerned about panel discoloration as the projector ages ...

Will the problems that have dogged the technology for the past 5 years or more still be there? The discoloration/polarizer issues were still there even in the last generation.

Regards

 

[Klaus Nabinger]

I think this problem is solved already with the inorganic LCDs... That can be found on the new HC5000 from Mitsubishi.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

I certainly hope so ... but we won't know until we see some hours put on these units.

I've been hoping they fixed this for 5 generations of projectors now ... nothing yet.

Regards

 

[Shane Martin]

I saw the Mits and the Pearl at Cedia. The Panny wasn't hooked up to anything. The JVC was in another building so I didn't see it.

Of the 2, the Pearl by far the best looking of the bunch. The only thing that was close(I've heard the JVC was better) was the Optoma H81 1080P DLP. It was fitted with a scope lens and had a huge 150"+ screen. The PQ was astounding. The Pearl was jaw dropping as well.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I've had XGA DLPs for the last 5 years -first a NEC LT150, then an HT1000. Both have been extremly satisfying and RBE hasn't been an issue for me (though the higher wheel speed on the HT1K was a noticeable improvment in this regard).

I got the Pearl I ordered in yesterday and was able to get it up for about 4 hours. I've never been a big LCD fan before- even the lowly little LT150 put out what I felt was a more impressive image than any of the LCDs I've seen up to and including the current Sony 720p (HS51?). DLP has just always seemed to put out the more dynamic image of the two technologies to me.

That said, I don't see why anyone would not be extremely happy with something like this Pearl in their HT. Right now, on a new bulb and the lamp set to high, it looks plenty bright to me on just a DIY blackout cloth screen.
How this pj will behave in the future after several hundred hours is a good question- but after reading so many horror stories of misconvergence and color uniformity (neither of which I have noticed yet) I think either I had the extreme good fortune to get a super QC'd unit, or else the complaints are mostly in the line of test pattern geekery. After a cursory adjustment to just the basic image controls (color, brightness,contrast, gamma, iris, etc) I was blown away scene after scene after scene.
Some material that I had felt was A+ reference before looks a little more limited now, with room for improvment (Alien in some scenes, for instance looked much grainier and edgier than it did on my HT1K) however the better CR (on/off and intra scene) is definitelyt appreciated. If the upcoming JVC Dila trumps what I'm seeing here handily, that truly will be something special to see.
I had been watching HD DVD on the HT1k (1024 x 768) and was fairly happy as HD DVDs , even downscaled, are better than the best dvds. Watching them on a native 1080p pj is a whole 'nother experience entirely though.
The Searchers just looked insane. Just about everything looked like I was viewing it in a state of the art, studio lot theater. Unreal.


The only 'issue' I've seen so far, image-wise, that I can even comment on is the bright corners. Both the top right and bottom left corner are noticeably brighter when viewing an all black screen. Now the real issue becomes, how often do you watch an all black screen? Also, though I haven't tested this yet, I think that any area of contrast within the image will invalidate or mute this perception (i.e white credits on a black background) I'll have to try this tonight and see- but as of right now, the bright corners are not something I see having any appreciable effect whatsoever in regular viewing.

As for color uniformity- the only way I expect to see this in a noticeable fashion is with B&W material- and even then ith would have to be 16:9 AR - since that would stretch across the entire screen. I'll put up some widescreen B&Ws tonight to test this out.

Based on asthetics & first impressions, the Pearl looks every bit a monumental bargain/achievment/product. I never expected that this level of performance would be available at the price points it is, this soon. I think the only reason there aren't 500 threads about this pj in every forum is that so many people dropped twice as much on the Ruby last year, or already upgraded a 720p earlier this year.

I haven't decided whether or not I'll be keeping it, but that will come down to issues beyond sheer image quality. On that score, its pretty much an out of the park home run as far as I can see now. The placement restrictions might become the deal breaker for me. I'll have to see how well that wears over the next week or so.
Otherwise, If you can swing the cost of, and placement limitations, for the Pearl, I can't imagine anyone having any regrets (as long as QC issues don't crop up somewhere down the line).

 

[Tim Glover]

Pretty cool Paul. Screenshots man....screenshots. We love em!

 

[Chris PC]

http://www.cine4home.de/tests/projek...HC5000Test.htm

try a translation web service

Actually, this google seems good...

http://translate.google.com/translat...&hl=en&ie=UTF8

Except it misses the end!

 

[Bob_L]

FYI, Babelfish will translate the entire article.

 

[Paul_Scott]

guess I started gushing too soon. Found my first major flaw with the Pearl last night and it is the much discussed color uniformity. It was sadly evident when I threw up the first B&W movie- right side of the screen has a slightly greenish cast, left side appears fine - maybe a little cooler and skewing towards magenta.
its very subtle and I doubt 1 in 20 people in a blind test would pick it out if they were told to look for something- but its there.
Its a shame too, as in the previous 8 hours or so of viewing color and HD material I couldn't see any issues whatsoever with the image- it just looked sensational on everything I threw at- but I love classic movies and this might be the deal killer right here. Especially if this is a condition that will exacerbate over time.

Good thing I decided to get it from a place with a liberal return policy

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

In the Ruby, there is a 200+ point grayscale adjustment (or something like that) in the service menu. Is that available on the PEarl?

The 200+ point adjustment is available at 0% output ... 10/20/30 ... etc to 100 making it a 2200+ point adjustment if needed.

Regards

 

[Paul_Scott]

I think I read over on AVS references to a 300 point adjustment for the Pearl. No way I'll be mucking around with that in the service menu, as for one thing, I think you need access to specialized equipment to actually do the job right. I think Wm Phelps, or others have said that it is a long exhausting process and would most likley not yield 100% better results. I think a few memebers were trying to talk him into offering the service though- he didn't seem to eager to want to get into it at $500 per servicing though.

Plus I would be curious if there is drift after that as the panels age or exposed to heat over the long term, etc.

I don't know if this will truly be the deal killer for me, or if I can just learn to mellow and live with it. I'm not eager to give up the positives of the pj, which are many, that's for sure. I'll have to force myself to make room for some quality time with some classics this weekend to get a better idea.

 

[Chris PC]

Gotta link for babelfish that works? I tried it and it doesn't work for me. (Edit, ok I got it to work this time).

Two things are interesting about the Mitsubishi.

1) The internal video processor could be useful.

2) There is no dual-iris system which is disappointing.