2D impressions.
Sorry for the delay in posting this but I wanted to run through several films first. I know many people will want to know if I can see an improvement over my HD950. Of course to a large extent this will be subjective as I do not have them both for side-by-side comparison. Nevertheless I am confident there are differences and I will attempt to articulate them.
It was suggested I try and set the iris so that the output is similar to the HD950. The brighter image that results from an iris opened wider will appear more punchy and "pop" more which could confuse my comparison.
However therein lay my first problem. If I set black to match the black output of my HD950, the whites were clearly brighter. If I set the whites to match the HD950, then the blacks were blacker. This confirms that the on/off contrast difference is noticeable coming from the HD950.
I should point out that my room is not treated. My walls are not painted dark (although it is an ultra matt paint). There is no velvet on the walls etc etc.
Having set a compromise with the iris (-9), low lamp, and THX preset, I then proceeded to watch a film that I had watched through completely on the HD950 already, Robin Hood. This film is actually a challenge due to the wide dynamic range of some of the scenes. But also with the beautiful and detailed scenery comes the opportunity to evaluate aspects such as sharpness.
I bought this projector for 3D being honest. I did not buy it as an update for 2D as I was already very happy. So I don't a desire to see something that isn't there and then convince myself it is. However, I can honestly say, the picture is noticeably better than my HD950.
Firstly, as already confirmed with my setting the iris, the contrast is better and it can be seen. Despite my untreated room, watching Robin Hood which is not 16:9 and so displays borders top and bottom, the black borders are obviously darker. The dynamic range of the image appears increased and I felt drawn in to the image more. Robin Hood has many scenes where parts of the image are deep in shadow and other parts of the same scene very bright. Whereas on the HD950 I did not observe some of the shadow detail on some of those mixed scenes, it is better preserved on the X7. One way to describe what I could see, is ultra-realistic. I sometimes felt I could just walk into the screen and be in the countryside.
Sharpness improvements were the biggest surprise to me. The HD950 that I had was good for sharpness although as I mentioned in a previous note, I believe the X7 holds that sharpness a bit better towards the edges of the screen. However, the X7 image is visibly and obviously sharper again. There must be more at play here than just lens focus. Is it something to do with less pixel bleeding between cells? If so we would see ANSI contrast improvements I would have thought. But however it is done, again and again I was impressed with the sharpness. This is a really appreciable difference.
So we talked about the visible contrast improvement and sharpness differences. Let's move to the often talked about shadow detail.
I then played the most recent Batman movie. I was specifically told to examine the Hong Kong night skyline scene. This is one of those scenes on the blu-ray that switches to IMAX 16:9. I had played this scene recently on my HD950 before it left my home so I had some basis for comparison. I was surprised to see that there was an appreciable improvement in the shadow details such that the skyline felt rich and lush with much greater details visible to my eye. I apologise for being so non-technical, but I can only describe the image as silky smooth. I am not referring to the motion, but it just seemed so real and non-digital as if I was observing it with my own eyes. My HD950 was calibrated but I never quite managed to achieve this.
I played various other materials to confirm my findings and it was consistent across the 10 or so other titles/scenes that I tried.
The big question for many, is, would you upgrade for 2D alone? From an HD1, I would say absolutely, but then I found a significant upgrade from the HD1 to my HD950 already. Would you upgrade from an HD950 to an X7? There is most definitely an easily noticeable improvement in contrast and sharpness, as well as other benefits in shadow areas. It is visible even in my untreated room. But it is an evolutionary and not revolutionary step. However if you have even a remote interest in 3D, then I personally believe the upgrade is well worth it.