Sony Pearl - Will it be worth the money??

Zag

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For those that feel the need to move up to a 1080P projector I'm sure the Pearl at around the speculated 4K price point, will when compared with the 1080P competition, offer fantastic picture performance for the money

However with 720P DLP machines on the horizion,for well under a grand (Optoma H70) and other good 720P DLP projectors just above this price point (H72,HC3000...) will the step up in picture performance offered by the Pearl justify the extra outlay??

Or to put it into other words is the Pearl likely to offer that much better performance to a 720P DLP machine rated at 4000:1 contrast at typical screen sizes and viewing distances???

As projectors are improving all the time I would expect the improvements to be fairly marginal and questioning the value of anything is always subjective, however the Pearl at 4 times the money of a good DLP PJ may find the market which is flooded with sub 1K 720P DLP machines tougher than expected.

Having said that though as DLP in not an option for me (RBE) it won't stop me saving for one. ;)
 
I to would like to know this. I have had my infocus 5700 for about 2 years and have been very happy with it. But now that i have a hd dvd player i fill the need to upgrade, i was not that impressed by the 720p dlp pj i have seen(in76, 7210) over my 5700.
I hope to see something special with the pearl which like zag said is now looking to be 4 times the price of my 5700.
 
I recon Zag is right. The Pearl is interesting but probably won't tempt many 720p pj owners to upgrade. The tempting aspects of the Pearl are better fill levels and good contrast HOWEVER, as far as I know, it has no horizontal lens shift and only has 800 lumens which seems a bit stingy at this level. These probably aren't big problems but if i'm spending 4K on a new projector, i'd expect a bit more of a light cannon and a bit more flexibility. I'm also a bit cynical about 1080p. I can't help thinking that the benefit with our current low def sources is likely to be fairly limited unless you can afford sky hd and even then i'm not 100% convinced because this is only capable of 720p or 1080i (please correct me if i'm wrong). Unless these 1080p projectors can perform some upscaling miracles, i'd be paying an awful lot of money for mostly unuseable extra resolution. For the time being, i'll stick with my Sanyo Z3 and maybe consider a 1080p SXRD upgrade in a year or two.
 
Voo said:
I recon Zag is right. The Pearl is interesting but probably won't tempt many 720p pj owners to upgrade. The tempting aspects of the Pearl are better fill levels and good contrast HOWEVER, as far as I know, it has no horizontal lens shift and only has 800 lumens which seems a bit stingy at this level. These probably aren't big problems but if i'm spending 4K on a new projector, i'd expect a bit more of a light cannon and a bit more flexibility. I'm also a bit cynical about 1080p. I can't help thinking that the benefit with our current low def sources is likely to be fairly limited unless you can afford sky hd and even then i'm not 100% convinced because this is only capable of 720p or 1080i (please correct me if i'm wrong). Unless these 1080p projectors can perform some upscaling miracles, i'd be paying an awful lot of money for mostly unuseable extra resolution. For the time being, i'll stick with my Sanyo Z3 and maybe consider a 1080p SXRD upgrade in a year or two.


I'm also interested in a 1080 projector the and will auditon the VW50. There's also the soon to arrive 1080 DLP's such as the Optoma H81. The Optoma has a bit more punch at 1400 ANSI complete with Genum VP for an estimated steet price of $6-$7k. It's also getting some good feedback over on AVS.

AVI
 
Avi said:
I'm also interested in a 1080 projector the and will auditon the VW50. There's also the soon to arrive 1080 DLP's such as the Optoma H81. The Optoma has a bit more punch at 1400 ANSI complete with Genum VP for an estimated steet price of $6-$7k. It's also getting some good feedback over on AVS.

AVI
Hi avi i thought the price of the h81 was closer to the $10k make, hope im wrong and your right.
 
Voo said:
For the time being, i'll stick with my Sanyo Z3 and maybe consider a 1080p SXRD upgrade in a year or two.

All things considered I'll probably do the same thing and stick with my HS60 for now. Until the source material catches up I'm not sure there is much benefit in 1080P unless you want a really large screen or sit very close a typical 6/7 ft wide image.

However if anyone has a convincing argument for an upgrade from an HS60 to VW50 I'd like to hear it.
 
According to T3 mag,the HD81 will be available november & have a price tag of £5,000 :clap:
 
Thats a little more then expected, its only $6k in the states, which is about £3.5k:mad:
 
My dealer usually docs me 20% so i`ll be happy to part with 4K :)
 
Optoma H81 1080P, external scaler, 1400 Lumens, overall a great spec but what have they done to address DLPs biggest weakness... nothing.

For me I'm more excited about the Pearl and HC5000, both of those technologies SXRD & D6 "C2 Fine" inorganic panels have made bigger leaps forward IMHO and have done much more to address their inherent weaknesses.
 
I'd rather focus more attention on the new HC5000. As far as I know it'll probably around £2500, 1080P, 5000:1 native contrast, 5Kg, 19dBs, D6 C2fine panels, 1000 lumens etc. Specs aren't everything, and it may not be as good as the Pearl but at this price point it's certainly a bit more reachable to us mere mortals :thumbsup:
 
Does the Pearl have a motorised zoom lens?
 
inzaman said:
Does the Pearl have a motorised zoom lens?

Hi Inzaman,

The "Sony 'Pearl' specs" thread (which you've probably seen) has most of the details. I'm not quite sure about a motorised zoom (the various specs I have read don't mention it so I suspect the answer may be "NO"). It DOES however have an autofocus facility :clap: which is a long overdue feature.

Regards,

Voo
 
Voo said:
Hi Inzaman,

The "Sony 'Pearl' specs" thread (which you've probably seen) has most of the details. I'm not quite sure about a motorised zoom (the various specs I have read don't mention it so I suspect the answer may be "NO"). It DOES however have an autofocus facility :clap: which is a long overdue feature.

Regards,

Voo

I cannot possibly see what use anyone would have for an autofocus feature. if you are incapapble of manually focusing a video projector I can only assume you some sort of uncorrectable sight disability in which case you would be unlikely to appreciate a focused image anyway.

All an autofocus system does is measure the distance to the screen and set the focal length as a result , its also rarely as accurate as manual focus anyway.

Motorised zoom can be handy but again if its only manual it is something you rarely have to tweak in a permanent installation and I suspect the pearl will be rather too big to pull out and set up everytime you want to use it.

1080i frame originated material (films) correctly deinterlaced will give you a real 1080p image.
 
Mr.D said:
Motorised zoom can be handy but again if its only manual it is something you rarely have to tweak in a permanent installation
Agreed, my thinking was that due to the number of pixels and depending on throw this could have the potential for a 2.35 constant height screen in my set up.
 
Being the owner of an HS60 I can see an autofocus feature being really useful. It would save me climbing up to my projector every few movies to re-adjust the focus that has gone out again..

A focus lock is all you need.
 
Zag said:
Being the owner of an HS60 I can see an autofocus feature being really useful. It would save me climbing up to my projector every few movies to re-adjust the focus that has gone out again..

A focus lock is all you need.

All an autofocus will do is measure the distance to the screen and set he focal length , it won't tweak for thermal variation , it can't tell if the focus its set results in a blurred image all it does is measure the distance. As I've said the best way to focus a projector is by eye assuming you have decent sight in the first place. Autofocus on a projector is a gimmick.
 

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