honey from france...posting on avs on nz7 and nz9 that are being demoed at the Paris show ...
"Hi, I had time to go to the Paris show today and I can report on what I saw.
JVC was exhibiting the NZ7 and the NZ9. The room was not perfectly, but properly light controlled and what we saw were a few minutes from 1917, both on the NZ7 and the NZ9, a few minutes from Awaken on the NZ7 only and, on the NZ9 only, a few minutes from a documentary shot in 8K. Projection was done on a 16/9 Elite screen with 1.0 gain and base approximately 3.3 m. The person from JVC told us the wide colour gamut filter was engaged and the lamp was on high laser. We were also told that the 8K e-shift was engaged on both projectors. Also, the panels were not aligned properly on the NZ7, but they seemed to be on the NZ9. All that being said, here are my impressions:
1. Both PJs produced vey nice and impressive presentations.
2. But the NZ7 was evidently softer. Part of that relative softness was probably coming from panel mis-alignement, but part was obviously coming from the lens and the optical path followed by the light inside the PJ.
3. The contrast on the NZ7 was also much too low to my taste. The NZ9 obviously fared better, but I think not much better than an NX9, even perhaps not as well as my NX9.
4. The NZ9 was extremely clear, sharp and precise, and produced an image which looked perhaps more digital than the pictures I am accustomed to from JVC projectors. That being said, I feel the image was sharpened quite a bit and motion control was on high, but I may be wrong. Also, I was sitting at the show farther away from the screen than I am at home, so that may change my perspective on sharpness.
5. Compared to my NX9, I'd say the NZ9 I saw is more precise or sharper, but I don't feel there was a night and day difference, especially because the screen I have at home, on which I compared what I had seen with what my NX9 makes of the same scene, is possibly not as good as the screen JVC used at the show.
6. From where I was sitting (approximately 2m from the screen), I saw no e-shift artefacts.
7. There was too much noise outside to be able to judge the noise coming form the PJs. I was told by JVC that `the only official number is 24dB for low laser' and that, in higher modes, the noise is `slightly higher'.
8. Finally, everything we saw has been originally captured digitally with a resolution superior or equal to 4K. The show did not give us any idea on how these PJs behave with 4K transfers of movies captured on film, be they in color or black and white, or with 4K UHD discs which offer an upscaling of 2K encodes.
That's pretty much it.
All in all, what we saw of the NZ9 was pretty impressive, though not `perfect' (possibly because of a not yet finalised version of the laser dimming?). And I am not sure upgrading from the NX9 to the NZ9 makes sense, at least for people who don't mind changing lamps. But I am keeping my mind (and perhaps my wallet!) open and wait for Kris' review to have a real thorough and objective evaluation of the NZ9."
"I noticed the panels were not aligned in the NZ7 but were in the NZ9 because, before and between 1917, Awaken and the 8K content, various content like menus etc. appeared on screen and they contained white objects with sharp boundaries and the boundaries had thin coloured layers around them. To be honest, the panels were so mis-aligned that I noticed it instantly from approximately 2m. I then went up to the screen to confirm. Oh well, I guess that's life!
About the difference in contrast between the NZ9 and the NX9: I can only talk about one NZ9 vs one NX9, on different screens, in different rooms, and not having them side by side. That's why I have been prudent in what I said. I still feel the image I saw at home yesterday night was at least as contracted as the image I saw at the show. But I won't venture farther.
About the image popping up: yes, the image did pop up on the NZ7 and the NZ9. But I am not sure this was not due in part to `heavy' sharpening (5 or more on JVC scale) etc. May be it was also the new 8K e-shiftX, which we were told was engaged. In any case, that's one of the reasons why I would have liked them to demo. the PJs on good 4K transfers of movies shot on film, with grain. That may also be one of the reasons why they did not.
Again, my overall feeling about these PJs is extremely positive. I am just nitpicking, because it's in my nature to do and, may be, in the nature of others around here! As for me, what I saw yesterday seems to indicate that the end result of what the NZ9 does may be better, but probably not that different from what my NX9 is capable of. I mean, as far as the picture on screen is concerned, it felt more like an incremental upgrade than a revolution. If this confirmed, I may wait a few generations before upgrading. But this certainly does not mean the new PJs are poor machines."