[Dave777]

WOW...

First thanks to the guys at PJ Hifi and JVC for getting this event arranged. I only had a short time there so I am sure cleverer people than me can post more informed opinions later (especially Viruskiller...hope you can share some of your technical questions with us).

I had a full demo of the Pearl a while ago and was blown away. Now I am double blown away. Incredible blacks and much sharper are the two things that spring to mind. It is big and quiet and very bright.

Hopefully warranty will be increased to 2 or 3 years.

Definitely no 12v trigger.

Hugely impressive.....I bought one there and then.

Cheers

Dave

[The_Munter]

When are they available?

[Isco 3]

Sometime in February, maybe?

[UrbanT]

I can only post quickly as I'm working, but will post a more detailed opinion later. Having spent an hour watching Elliot comparing the Pearl to the JVC, the JVC is just a stunning machine. I had to rush off at 5, so will be popping back tomorrow to place my order.

As for warranty, I'm 99.9% sure I heard Elliot confirm orders this week would be receiving a 3 year warranty. I would still have bought it with a 1 year on performance alone, but 3 years is perfect.

Shame they didn't have a pile in the back room for us to take away tonight!

[Dave777]

I chatted to the JVC guys and they said they are looking at the warranty and that information should be available within the week.

Cheers

Dave

[Mkm]

Hi there,
Been a lurker for a while(!), but I've been following this with interest as I've been looking at upgrading my aging Sim2 HT200DM for some time.
Just got back from the demo and well...that was quite an expensive afternoon trip out to town
I had a demo with the Pearl last week, but any niggling doubts I had about whether the extra cash was justified were totally blown away. The detail was simply stunning.
I can also confirm that the JVC does come with a 3 year warranty. Just hope the guys at PJ's are able to get enough stock in. Speaking of which, I'd just like to thank all the guys there for the great demo!
I brought a PS3 from work, but alas, the opportunity to check out the Gran Turismo demo running in 1080p didn't come up. Hopefully, it won't be long before I get to try it out at home
Now I've just got to look at what to do regarding my motorised screen. I've currently got it rigged to the 12v port on my Sim2. Any suggestions are welcome. Elliot mentioned that some amps have them? As my amp also needs an upgrade, this is probably my preferred route as I don't have anything setup remote or RF wise (at the mo).

Cheers again for the demo and all the discussion here guys
Mkm

[Adrenochrome]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

I can only post quickly as I'm working, but will post a more detailed opinion later.

Looking forward to it.

Originally Posted by UrbanT

Having spent an hour watching Elliot comparing the Pearl to the JVC, the JVC is just a stunning machine. I had to rush off at 5, so will be popping back tomorrow to place my order.

Is it really that much better than the Pearl?

Originally Posted by UrbanT

As for warranty, I'm 99.9% sure I heard Elliot confirm orders this week would be receiving a 3 year warranty. I would still have bought it with a 1 year on performance alone, but 3 years is perfect.

3 Year warranty could well be the clincher for me.

Originally Posted by UrbanT

Shame they didn't have a pile in the back room for us to take away tonight!

Patience young man patience.

[recruit]

Originally Posted by UrbanT

I can only post quickly as I'm working, but will post a more detailed opinion later. Having spent an hour watching Elliot comparing the Pearl to the JVC, the JVC is just a stunning machine. I had to rush off at 5, so will be popping back tomorrow to place my order.

Come on Chris...were waiting !!

[UrbanT]

Right, finally had time to write a few words following my hour in the demo room.

I’ll state upfront that I’m not a technical guru, and don’t really have a deep interest in the tech involved, a basic knowledge is good enough for me. I just know what I like when I see it.

I’ve been looking for a new projector for some time, and have bought several LCD’s, including Sanyo, Hitachi, Sony (HS50 and 60) and lately the Panasonic AX100 to keep me going. To be fair, they have all offered excellent performance for the modest cost. Unfortunately, I suffer rainbows badly, so DLP has always been out of the question. The C3X is a stunning unit, but simply outside of my budget….by some margin!

I have been considering the Pearl for some time, and almost pulled the trigger twice on a purchase. The two things that held me back are the DI, even as discrete as the Pearls is, and potential convergence problems.

After all the hype of the JVC, the opportunity to compare directly to the Pearl was too good to be missed. So onto the observations.

Black Screen

The first thing that struck me was the screen when no image was being projected. The Pearl was lighter around the edge, and darker in the middle. The JVC was even over the screen.

Black Level

Through all the material we saw, both HD-DVD and SD, the JVC showed deeper black levels than the Pearl. However, whilst the black levels were blacker, the brighter whites of the JVC shone out, and simply gave the JVC picture the real punch. Elliot fed both projectors simultaneously, so could simply switch the picture by blocking the lens of either one. This made it very clear of the differences involved, although in most cases wasn’t really necessary as just watching one clip after another was clear enough.

The best example I can give is watching the opening scene to Sahara on HD-DVD. The picture looked spectacular on the JVC, with the explosions really jumping from the screen. In comparison, in this difficult dark scene, the Pearl looked a little flat. It also appeared to me that the explosions had a really vibrant orange glow, but on the Pearl the explosions seemed muted. Could this be because the scene is very dark, and the DI at work. I’m not sure.

Sharpness

Again the JVC was the winner to me. Two comparisons spring to mind. The opening scene of Harry Potter on HD-DVD. The detail in the houses and rocks was more obvious. Also, in Sin City, when the camera panned out the detail in the buildings was more obvious to me.

Moire

I’ve seen this on all the projectors I’ve owned. A clip of MI3 was played through the Pearl, where moiré was very obvious in a brick wall. Yet, on the JVC, there was no moiré at all. The Gennum processing clearly at work here.

Upscaling

Both projectors seemed to upscale SD very well.

Summary

I want to be clear, in isolation, the Pearl produces a very nice picture, and I can’t imagine too many owners being unhappy with their purchase. But in every clip I saw tonight, the JVC just produced a fantastic picture that popped from the screen, and in comparison the Pearl just seemed rather flat.

Tomorrow I’ll be popping into to PJ’s with my credit card in hand, which is the best recommendation I could ever make!

[robfitzp]

Sounds excellent. Not going to be able to take advantage of this introductory offer and had better get saving.....

How loud was it? Main gripe with my HS10 is the noise level. Any louder than the Pearl or a Optoma H79?

Cheers
Rob

[Adrenochrome]

Thanks Chris

Looks like I'll be buying this on your thoughts, so it'd better be good

[dealmaker]

If the 3 year warranty is confirmed then the case for the JVC becomes much more compelling.

[Adrenochrome]

Originally Posted by dealmaker

If the 3 year warranty is confirmed then the case for the JVC becomes much more compelling.

Agreed

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by coldmachine

Having posted earlier that I was not impressed with the soft image this machine produced I now find

1. No motorised zoom
2. No motorised focus
3. No CIH stretch
4. No screen trigger
5. No curtain/Maskin trigger
6.No seperate RGB gain and offset

I wanted to buy 2 of these, but despite an impressive claimed CR This has got to be one of the most severely limited PJs going. Who is it aimed at? What a waste of an opertunity. These features have been standard on some makes for years. The limitations are too great to allow a purchase.

None of your buying factors even appeared on my list, so I suppose the answer to your question is 'me'. I'm interested in noise, sharpness and overall image quality. And in these respects, its going to be incredibly easy to hand over the cash.

[recruit]

If it's better than the Pearl then the JVC must be a cracking peice of kit Dam this hobby !!

[dealmaker]

Originally Posted by coldmachine

Having posted earlier that I was not impressed with the soft image this machine produced I now find

1. No motorised zoom
2. No motorised focus
3. No CIH stretch
4. No screen trigger
5. No curtain/Maskin trigger
6.No seperate RGB gain and offset

I wanted to buy 2 of these, but despite an impressive claimed CR This has got to be one of the most severely limited PJs going. Who is it aimed at? What a waste of an opertunity. These features have been standard on some makes for years. The limitations are too great to allow a purchase.

Guys,

Which of these 6 things are fitted to my Sony VPL-VW10HT (or the Pearl for that matter) ??

I know my Sony doesnt have 1) or 2) and it does have 4) - but WHAT are the other things ..........and if I'm replacing my Sony why would I need them??

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by Adrenochrome

Thanks Chris

Looks like I'll be buying this on your thoughts, so it'd better be good

I just cannot believe you would be disappointed. I'm sure it won't suit everyone, as we all rate certain features in a different ways, but I didn't think you could have this level of image quality at home for under £4k this year.

I'll give you another example while I'm thinking about it. I mentioned we saw some scenes from Harry Potter on HD-DVD. I'm not a HP fan if I'm honest. The scene had the kids running over a hill, into a fair/camp site. It was all a bit dingy, and there were broomsticks flying around.

As soon as the scene was swapped to the JVC, my attention snapped in. As the kids run over the hill a beautiful sunset (sunrise?) hit the screen. The crowded scene semed to have more colour, and more depth to the picture. And as the broomsticks flew over, the colours on the capes really stood out.

For a film I'm not really interested in, suddenly my eye was drawn into the picture. I would have happily watched more at that point...

[m455954]

I was there today too and must say that the JVC is everything it's cracked up to be.

As far as motorized zoom and focus - when do you ever change these once they're set up properly?

The 12v trigger is a bit of a dissapointment, but I'll just have to get an IR trigger and program the macro on my universal remote to trigger the screen when the PJ is turned on.

Someone asked about the noise? I was sat right next to the exhaust of the JVC and had to actually lean towards it and place my ear right in front before I could hear it - it's that quiet. Mind you it does pump out some heat

Having come from a DLP (Sim2 HT200DM) the best thing for me was the lack of dithering artifacts. The picture did look ever so slightly soft - I suppose that's the 'filmlike' quality - but at no point did it distract from the stunning images, and it looked much sharper than the pearl.

We threw up some test images at one point to mess with the convergence settings and at that point you can see why the projector seems 'smoother' - you cannot actually make out any screen door - the pixels just butt right up next to each other - and this was with my face only inches from the 8' screen

I put my order in first thing on Monday thinking I would cancel if I didn't like what I saw tonight, but I'm definitely NOT cancelling

Big thanks to Elliot, PJ Hifi and JVC for putting it all together for us to play with. Now eagerly awaiting its arrival.

[kriszty]

Originally Posted by coldmachine

Having posted earlier that I was not impressed with the soft image this machine produced I now find

1. No motorised zoom
2. No motorised focus
3. No CIH stretch
4. No screen trigger
5. No curtain/Maskin trigger
6.No seperate RGB gain and offset

I wanted to buy 2 of these, but despite an impressive claimed CR This has got to be one of the most severely limited PJs going. Who is it aimed at? What a waste of an opertunity. These features have been standard on some makes for years. The limitations are too great to allow a purchase.

comming from the AVSforum you are spreading the same negative contents about the HD1, also you claimed to have seen the JVC and D80 side by side but you can't give any exact details about where ( dealer and exact Location )
So i assume that everything you wrote is a lie..... Otherwise EXPLAIN...

How comes everyone who saw the JVC where all Positive ? (cause no projector can be 100% satisfied for everyone.)

[UrbanT]

Originally Posted by kriszty

comming from the AVSforum you are spreading the same negative contents about the HD1, also you claimed to have seen the JVC and D80 side by side but you can't give any exact details about where ( dealer and exact Location )
So i assume that everything you wrote is a lie..... Otherwise EXPLAIN...

How comes everyone who saw the JVC where all Positive ? (cause no projector can be 100% satisfied for everyone.)

I've also checked AVS Forums, and there do some to be some questions over the validity of this posters claims. He has also been online since you posted, and viewewd this thread, but not answered your questions. So its fair to say at this stage that the comments should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Therefore, please keep comments on the thread to on topic discussion regarding the impressions from tonights demo's.

[Avi]

Originally Posted by Dave777

I chatted to the JVC guys and they said they are looking at the warranty and that information should be available within the week.

Cheers

Dave

Dave

Elliot confirmed that it's defo 3 years for units ordered as part of the "pre order" offer. He wasn't sure if this would become the standard going forward.

AVI

[kriszty]

Here in Holland the JVC arrives the 27th ( i hope ) coming from a Sim2 HT200dm and a Optoma H78 this would be my 5th projector ( my first non DLP ).

Just reading this kind of reviews makes the wait harder. Good news that the warranty is 3 years .

So questions about the people who saw the JVC today;

How was the overall picture ?
Blacklevel/contrast compared to a good DLP
Brightness

greets from Holland

Kriszty

[Avi]

Originally Posted by coldmachine

Having posted earlier that I was not impressed with the soft image this machine produced I now find

1. No motorised zoom
2. No motorised focus
3. No CIH stretch
4. No screen trigger
5. No curtain/Maskin trigger
6.No seperate RGB gain and offset

I wanted to buy 2 of these, but despite an impressive claimed CR This has got to be one of the most severely limited PJs going. Who is it aimed at? What a waste of an opertunity. These features have been standard on some makes for years. The limitations are too great to allow a purchase.

Well I can only disagree with your comments re PQ as the image is not soft IMO and the "digital look" of DLP is not to my taste.

As for the items on your list they are not high on my selection criteria. I was considering a Sim2 D80 but after the HD1 demo I think Sim2 will need to review their price model and fix the RBE artefacts if they want to compete.

AVI

[Dave777]

Elliot confirmed that it's defo 3 years for units ordered as part of the "pre order" offer. He wasn't sure if this would become the standard going forward.

Thanks AVI, when I had to leave the JVC guys were discussing this, but seemed confident. I bought one anyway so this is a pleasant bonus.

Dave

[theritz]

Having posted earlier that I was not impressed with the soft image this machine produced I now find

1. No motorised zoom
2. No motorised focus
3. No CIH stretch
4. No screen trigger
5. No curtain/Maskin trigger
6.No seperate RGB gain and offset

I wanted to buy 2 of these, but despite an impressive claimed CR This has got to be one of the most severely limited PJs going. Who is it aimed at? What a waste of an opportunity. These features have been standard on some makes for years. The limitations are too great to allow a purchase.

What a pathetic list of moans.........

With your Two projectors , how much time do you intend to spend zooming and focussing the image ? With my One (all together, Aaawwww...) I focussed the projector about 6 months ago, and have survived the intervening period, although I did need a week or two recuperation after the effort of turning the zoom and focus rings the 4 or 5 millimeters necessary....

Screen is fixed, no need for trigger voltage, masking is manual (the effort involved.... Oh dear). Seperate RGB gains and offsets ? The projector comes extremely well calibrated out of the box - see Cine4Home for an independent view, which validated its claimed contrast ratio - >15,000:1 at D65.

There is very broad agreement around the HT scene that this is the new video standard for digital projectors - whinging about things that have no bearing on it's image performance is pitiful.

If the features you describe as "severely limiting" by their absence in the JVC are more important to you than image performance, I think you'd find yourself in a stratling minority amongst a community which places an evident premium on image performance, which, it appears, is the community at which JVC have (happily) aimed the projector.


S.

[m455954]

Originally Posted by kriszty

How was the overall picture ?

The picture was brilliant - clean and crisp and even.

At one point Elliot threw up a full white 100 IRE test image from a lumagen processor fed to both projectors and the Pearl showd quite poor colour conformity - the top right of the image had a green tinge, the bottom right was slightly blue and the bottom left slightly pink. The JVC was white - all over the same colour.

The built in Gennum processing does a superb job with all sources. We played SD DVD to it via HDMI at 576i and the processor scaling and image processing was superb.

The best thing however in my opinion coming from DLP is the complete lack of DLP dithering artifacts.

Originally Posted by kriszty

Blacklevel/contrast compared to a good DLP

I currently have a DLP (admittedly an old one, but a good one) Sim2 HT200DM which was the best consumer level projector on the market at the time (paid £5,500 for it new) and the JVC has it beat at every level (black level, brightness etc). I haven't seen a comparable DLP to the HD1 (Optoma HD81 or Sim2 D80) but even if the performance is better, the price premium is too much for my budget.

Originally Posted by kriszty

Brightness

The demo was on a 8' wide Stewart ST130 1.3 gain white screen with the projectors about 12' from the screen and the brightness was fine. The demo room is set up to be lounge like - it's no batcave - but we had no lights on of any kind during the demo and the screen was pleanty bright.

Hope that helps,

Mark.

[T0M]

Quite early on myself BartS and Elliot were pushing JVC regarding their 'standard' one year warranty, with both myself and BartS stating it as a strong deal breaker.

I explained that after seven years of Sony ownership it would take a little bit of faith from myself to switch and so it seemed fair for JVC to show a little more faith over their product more than just 1 year!

I spoke to the same JVC chap a little later just to re-flog that same horse, and he said he would make a few calls to see if they could offer an 'extended' warranty, he said that JVC actually underwrites extended warranties sold on the high street, 'john lewis' was his example. News to me.

He went away made some calls and then it was confirmed that they would offer a 3 year warranty on all purchases up until the end of this week, don't forget they also offer a 1 yr on the bulb

Result, I was only asking for a additional premium based warranty!

He also said to me that they 'would look into' maybe offering a longer warranty as standard on this item, but no promises.

So if you want one on 3yr get in quick!

Also, spoke to the designer (Alex?) about production models vs pre-production, he intimated that the model we were seeing was built from the 'assembly line' ableit not with hundreds more, and feels it is indicitive of how the units will come out, superb.

Picture was sharp, dark black, scaled SD superbly, etc (as all the other posts suggest).

I swipped my card before leaving and am 11th on the list, just can't wait!

[Trojan]

Originally Posted by coldmachine

I hardly think CIH is a pathetic moan.

Please go away unless you have got something worth reading that is backed up by fact, pinches of salt all round. I too was at the demo tonight and what a wonderful picture this projector gives out with any source.

[Avi]

Originally Posted by recruit

If it's better than the Pearl then the JVC must be a cracking peice of kit Dam this hobby !!

Yup I'm sorry to say that as a current Pearl owner the HD1 was better in a several areas. The Pearl is still a fantastic bit of kit but "side by side" you notice the difference.

AVI

[VirusKiller]

OK. I was there for five hours! (Well, I had to avoid the M25 rush hour traffic...).

It is stunning - everything I have been waiting a long time for.

I endorse all of Chris' (UrbanT's) comments. Here are some of my own:

1) The Gennum VXP processing is outstanding. Deinterlacing of SD (PAL) and HD video and film was superb. Scaling was equally impressive - on good quality DVD transfers (e.g. Star Wars Ep. IV, Phantom of the Opera, Robbie Williams Live at the Albert Hall), I detected no ringing.

2) The JVC was considerably sharper than the Pearl. And Elliot considered the Pearl on demo to be amongst the best he has seen. Pretty certain this is primarily down to the lens. When viewing grid patterns, it was clear that the degree of Pearl misconvergence varied across the image. The HD1 misconvergence (1/4 pixel after a single red pixel correction horizonally) appeared to be linear across the panel. i.e. panel misconvergence rather than a lens effect.

3) The differences between Pearl and HD1 were much more apparent on HD-DVD than upscaled DVD. However, the JVC image simply had more depth to it for both types of material.

4) The simulaneous contrast was breathtaking. The droid scene inside the Jawa transported was a revelation in the shadow detail.

5) The colours were glorious and flesh tones were natural.

6) The JVC was simply more colourful and punchy than the Pearl.

7) When fed an 100IRE full screen signal from a Lumagen ProHDP, colour uniformity issues were obvious on the Pearl. The HD1 screen simply looked white!

On the technical side, I spent 20 mins with the HD1's designer, Alex Kobayashi, and can confirm the following:

1) 480i60 and 576i50 are accepted over HDMI.

2) 1080p24 is accepted, frame doubled to 1080p48 and displayed using 96Hz processing at the D-ILA panel.

3) 1080i50 and 1080p50 are accepted and displayed using 100Hz processing at the panel.

4) 1080i60 and 1080p60 are accepted and displayed using 120Hz processing at the panel.

5) 1080p48 is not in the EDID table.

6) JVC are looking to see if the vertical stretch feature is possible.

7) Firmware upgrades are technically possible, but I got the feeling that they would require JVC to do them.

8) The blanked off panel is a factory connection for firmware upgrades (in conjunction with the RS232C).

9) Currently, 60i --> 24p processing for the removal of 3:2 cadence judder has not been implemented. I got the impression we wouldn't get this for the HD1. More of an HD2 feature.

10) User editing of the EDID table is not possible (for 576i out of SkyHD boxes).

11) Settings such as DNR (noise reduction) and Sharpness are global memories per physical input. That means that an HDMI switching solution prior to the HD1 precludes easy per-source calibration.

I put in my order for this on Monday morning. Tonight's demo completely justified my faith in all of the pre-production reports we've been getting. The single thing that prevents 10/10 from my perspective is that 480i60 and 1080i60 film material are displayed with 3:2 cadence judder. That's it and of course this is correctable with an external video processor.

I warmly congratulated Alex on his achievement. He and his team have achieved the "impossible" - a projector with virtually no flaws. This one will sell a lot.

Joel