I have been using a Panasonic AE900 for a while as a stop
gap until 1080p DLP comes out (Alan uses the Ruby so we don't
want 2 on display ). I wasn't planning on doing anything with
it since it produces a great image for the money, so I just
put the Samsung on the floor and fired her up. Well low and
behold, I forgot how much I love the look of a good DLP. I
had actually put up a BenQ PE7700 a couple weeks ago, but
decided after seeing the image that the Panny was good enough
to hold me. Not the case with the Samsung. Before even doing
any adjustments on it, I was immediately impressed. Needless
to say, this morning the Panny came down, and the Sammy went
up!
I just got finished doing a quick calibration. I didn't do
anything with grayscale as my laptop died (see sticky). But
with my optical comparator I could tell that the 6500k setting
was darn close to perfect, as you would expect from something
that Joe Kane blessed. I did run my Accupel HDG3000 test generator
into it and setup both DVI and component for the standard
adjustments (I can provide those for those who need them).
Then I put in some test material. Ahhhhhh.....beautiful! The
first thing I noticed was how much depth to the image there
was. It had so much punch that I had to step back. I had been
using the LCD for so long, I forgot that they had more of
a flat look to them as compared to DLP. Of course the black
leves were substantially better, and I would say among the
best in its class. Not sure why some have complained about
them, but I have to assume that setup is playing a factor.
When I popped in Nemo, which I like to use to see the depth
and color saturation, I noticed a key thing that I had yet
to see. Nemo had detail! What do I mean? Well, most projectors
I have reviewed always oversaturate Nemo. The color almost
looks like they are glowing. On the Samsung, the colors were
still extremely vibrant, but there was detail in the image
as well. Very impressive. Part of this is I'm sure due to
the newer designed color wheel. It offers 2 different shades
of each primary color, which lends itself to vibrant, but
detailed images. The black levels were very good as well.
You can tell the contrast is high on this unit, and that this
helps the image to really stand out. You can see these details
on the screenshots.
Next I put in IRobot. Another favorite for me. What I like
to look for in this in the cleanliness of an image. No problem.
This unit was extremely clean. There was little dithering
and other digital noise. Much less than many other DLP's I
have seen. It rivaled that of the Runco's, which are known
for their clean look. Very often on DLP's, the low level details
are crushed and lost when being displayed. However, I did
not noticed that on the Samsung. I could see much more detail
on this unit than I have on many others, yet still maintaining
the deeper black levels. That can be hard to do but this passes
with flying colors.
The only complaints I had with this unit were more superficial
(ie. powering off, etc....). The performance rivaled that
of units costing many times more money. As I said before,
at $10k it was a good contender. But at the sub $4k range
it is now, this should be at the top of your list of units
to consider. I am keeping mine for a while!
Onto the screen shots! Some of the best I have done, I might
add.
Finding Nemo |
