LED/DLP and LCoS

[W9TR]

I auditioned the Runco 750 LED/DLP at a local Minneapolis HT dealer last night. Great guys there. They were very helpful and they know their stuff. It was a great experience, and one that also highlighted the challenges with the technology. First, the picture was stunning. I saw it on a 106" dia 16:9 screen. It was very bright and had excellent contrast. The black levels were good, but not great compared to a CRT. When there was anything else on screen, it didn't matter becuse the inter-scene contrast was so good. Way better than the best CRT projectors. The motion processing was outstanding, which you'd expect from Runco. Very smooth. I did see some color fringing and breakup on scenes with isolated medium to bright objects on a dark background. Greyscale and chroma tracking were spot on. This technology has incredible promise. I'd expect the technology/cost maturity curve will catch up very soon.

I also saw a JVC RS 25, and overall it had a better picture than the Runco, at least to my eye. It too was stunning. The black levels were better than the Runco. While not yet at CRT levels, the black levels were low enough you could easily get deep into the movie without noticing them. I think the Runco motion processing was better. Most importantly, the JVC didn't suffer from any of the single chip DLP issues the Runco has. The JVC was plenty bright, but I think the Runco is brighter and has the JVC beat on overall contrast.

Overall I could live with either, but the new crop of JVC's are so attractively priced it would be hard to justify the cost of the Runco. I'm pretty sure there is an LED/DLP projector in my future, just not at this juncture.



Tom

[metaphacts]

Interesting report. I would suggest that to evaluate LED/DLP as a technology you might want to see a bit more than the entry level LED.

As for the JVCs, no doubt the best values in the industry. But as a technology partner and having the very latest from JVC in house for development, they are really not close to the best LED/DLP implementation.

YMMV

[W9TR]

Interesting report. I would suggest that to evaluate LED/DLP as a technology you might want to see a bit more than the entry level LED

Absolutely! I've missed a couple of years of CES, CEDIA, and InfoCon, so I'm behind.

I guess it's all relative wrt entry level. At $15k for starters, I'll have to wait for trickle down to kick in a bit before I jump in. I would love to see some better examples of what the technology can do, because even with the Runco I can tell there is great promise here.

[Masterlu]

A CRT convert is among us!

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Absolutely! I've missed a couple of years of CES, CEDIA, and InfoCon, so I'm behind.

I guess it's all relative wrt entry level. At $15k for starters, I'll have to wait for trickle down to kick in a bit before I jump in. I would love to see some better examples of what the technology can do, because even with the Runco I can tell there is great promise here.

I was referring more to the Runco as the entry performance level, though it is also the entry price level for LED. Imo, the liquid cooled engine is the more capable platform from which to build an LED projector. But alas it costs more too.

Certainly price will come down. More importantly for us would be increased light output. Our preferred light sources are xenon and LED. There's a light output/price gap between our xenon and LED platforms that we would love to close.

Curious too as to what single chip artifacts you saw in the LED. First time I've heard that about the Runco.

[W9TR]

Ivan,
The G70, if it stays on the ceiling, will become a backup. The new crop of LCoS projectors do many things better. It is really just the black levels, think space shots with only stars in the background, that are still much better with CRT. Move a sunlit spaceship into that star field and the LCoS wins.

Meta,
Yep, I understood your post. I'm hoping in another 4-5 years the LED/DLP price performance curve will put a killer PJ within my reach.

What I saw with the Runco was some color fringing on the edges of objects with medium APL. The scene in Gladiator with the candle flame showed some color fringing around the flame. It wasn't prominent, but it was there.

[W9TR]

The G70 came off the ceiling on Monday night. A JVC RS 50 took it's place. The RS 50 does many things very well. Whether it is more film like is still TBD as I need to run it for awhile before I calibrate it.

Ivan, you may be the last CRT man standing in this particular forum!

[metaphacts]

Originally Posted by W9TR

Ivan, you may be the last CRT man standing in this particular forum!

My guess is that when Ivan goes, he'll go big or go home. We'll be waiting - and it won't be an LED or an LCos.