JVC DLA-X500R, X700R and X900R projector comparison test: easier to pick a Bond girl..

And if the Bond girls get together? Well, not all – at least for the last three seasons… Thought about it, looking point-blank at the three shooting eyes from the rack of premium JVC DLA projectors – X500, X700 and X900. And Bond himself, I wonder if he could make an unambiguous choice? So I thought about it – all three models are attractive and cool, it takes your breath away! All top-notch. But there is a difference in price: it’s one thing to pay 300 thousand roubles and quite another to pay 700 thousand roubles for the love of your life… Let’s see what’s the best way to spend?

JVC DLA-X500 projector

JVC DLA-X700 and JVC DLA-X900 projector

Appearance and Lens

The projectors’ shipping kits are identical, as is the appearance of the shipping boxes. The cases are also very similar, but there are already some differences, both externally and functionally.

The first difference is the coating of the body. The X700 and X900 have a glossy finish, whereas the X500 has a matte finish. They say the glossy finish is especially expensive and lavish. But I personally like the X500’s brushed finish better. But that’s a matter of taste..

Another difference is that the younger model doesn’t have an automatic lens cap. Seems to be an insignificant disadvantage, it’s not that hard to remove or put on the cover manually. However, if the projector is at its height for a long time, the constantly open lens will be a dust collector and you will have to wipe it periodically, using a sturdy stepladder. However, the less electronics there are, the less chance of a breakdown..

All models have motorized lens control, with a remote control or buttons on the body . In the menu we found items to save lens settings. In the younger model the lens is served by five memory slots, the older model has ten. For me personally five slots is more than enough. I don’t think that Hi End is going to rush around the house with its lens every now and then…

Menu and remote control

The functionality of the remote controls is very similar. The remotes for X700 and X900 are exactly the same. The X500 has some differences with the set of modes and, consequently, with the buttons on the remote.

Now let’s see what the remotes can do.

The younger model has 5 modes, each of which can be selected for a certain color profile.

The older models have three more preset modes – they added Film, Photo and THX. That is a total of 8 modes.

Note that the younger model lacks AdobeRGB color profile, which I, for example, like very much – for the natural color palette. One more difference: the higher models have two additional color profiles for Old Cinema and Animation mode.

It’s a shame the younger model doesn’t have a THX mode. I really liked it in our tests of the X700 model. Watching movies in it, especially with a big abundance of computer graphics, is a pleasure.

The gamma setting of the older models is almost completely retained in the younger model, which has the same enormous picture quality adjustments.

That’s basically all the differences in functionality between the models. Is there a noticeable difference in the picture produced by the projectors?? And the visual test will help us understand it.

Visual test: head-to-head comparison

Any car loves a test drive. When you see, touch and twist it you’ll understand better if it’s mine or not.

It is of course very useful to compare projectors of different levels by instrumental measurements, but the technical data obtained by the device often gives too maximalist “verdict”. It also happens that super models with powerful lamps and flawless graphics visually lose out to cheaper ones with flaws in the curves.

Why? Most often the reason is that the innovative engine outruns the pilot’s skills and the car just about to fly out of the turnpike… The situation is similar with projectors: the stronger lamp and newer stuff is, the harder it is to control it and set it to work properly.

Also, the X500 and X900 in our hands, unlike the X700, are engineering samples and may differ in settings from what you can buy later in the store. It’s hard to explain this to a device, but easy for a person to explain it, if you check everything visually and make a “correction for the wind”.

Test 1: starry sky and shadow painting

As we’ve already found out, JVC’s DLA series projectors have different modes. To level the competitors, all the projectors were set to the “Custom” mode with a color temperature of 6500K and gamma 2.2. All three projectors were on the same stand, so you can switch between them very quickly.

Distant Worlds is testing shadows in JVC projectors

This photo of a nighttime starry sky was chosen as the shadow drawing test. This image is very difficult for a projector to reproduce, especially with dynamic contrast. The image is certainly dominated by dark colors, and clever electronics want to close the lens aperture, creating deep black. But here’s the trouble, there are also light, completely white areas in the image, and for their quality rendering the iris can not be closed.

All projectors coped with the shading perfectly. The picture was amazing, as if I saw this natural wonder live again. Since the night sky is able to show real rather than dynamic contrast, of course, the older models took the lead, which was visible to the naked eye.

The X900’s claimed dynamic contrast of 1,500,000:1 and the X700’s 1,200,000:1 have had a palpable effect. The junior model, which has only 600 000:1, looked less distinctly than its big brothers in the first visual test. But if I visually tested just one X500 I would be very happy with the contrast. Truly speaking the best is the enemy of personal savings: for a better contrast you should give either 200k or 400k more of your hard earned Dollars…

But the difference between the X700 and X900 model was not so noticeable to the eye. Because of the more powerful lamp in the X900, the image was brighter. Even with such a dark picture, it was bright enough in the test room. It was impossible to read, but I could distinguish objects distinctly. In my opinion, such a high brightness did not play in favor of the older model. For my taste, the scenes on the screen have become defiantly contrasty, and in life there is much more gray than black and white. Although, on the other hand, who’s stopping you from turning down the power of the lamp?? Pay 700 thousand and go either way..

Another interesting thing about the first test. Since the night photo was taken with a very slow shutter speed and high ISO, there is color noise in the sky. In the upper right corner, it has a magenta tint, and below the Milky Way, a greenish tint. These shades are hard to reproduce for the projector, because you have to simultaneously minimize the light flux to add depth to the black, but at the same time not “muffle” the shades in the insignificant light flux.

All of our test samples were up to the task. The most pronounced shades were seen in the X900 model. Simply because there was more light in these areas: the closer the luminosity of the color to 50 percent, the more different the hues in it are.

Test 2: Daria the customs officer and her skin tones

Let’s move on to pictures aimed at analyzing the transfer of skin tones. Aside from having Daria in the frame, waiting for her, this image has a lot of shades of green. Let me remind you, green is the most important of the channels about 60 percent of any image depends on it .

It’s nice to take part in the visual test. You could be a Bond girl that way..

Moreover, the number of green tones is in principle greater than any other, just think of the CIE chart that we always show in our measurement tests.

Combined with the extended color gamut that we turned on, the picture came out very rich and vivid. When it comes to color saturation, I saw no difference between the projectors. This means that the color gamut is about the same, at least in the green tones.

With the rendering of the skin tones the situation is as follows: no complaints to the X700 model. And the X500 and X900 models, in my opinion, were a little bit blue-green. No, this does not mean that the customs lady Daria became a friend of the Avatar, the parasitic shade is barely discernible. Our editor-in-chief did not see the color deviation at all when I told him where to look. Aside from the pretty customs lady in the green meadow, I couldn’t see anything..

It remains to be noted that the skin tone transitions on the screen in all three cases were smooth, indicating good factory calibration.

Also, the photo of the girl in the light dress allows you to evaluate the quality and legibility of details in the light areas of the image. There are no overlights on the dress, the projectors kept the patterned florals on the fabric almost exactly the same, as in the original photo.

True, there was one nuance. The white sections of the dress looked somehow a little lighter than I would have liked. At first we thought that there were spots in the sun, too. But then it became clearer.

As we found out in our measurement test of the X700 model, the new JVC projectors have such a factory setting that on the Cima by Stewart 135″ professional screen, which is particularly white, the gamma settings are also sort of brightened. Since all “three giants” show a picture lighter than it should be, it means they all have a similar factory setting.

On a normal screen, the image will be slightly darker and therefore almost perfect.

Test 3: what are the midtones hovering in the clouds?

The following image is aimed at analyzing the quality of the midtones and some detail in the lighter parts of the image, the clouds. By the way, the small vertical dark lines near the horizon in the left and right parts of the frame are not artifacts, it’s the heavy rain coming over Vladivostok and Slavyanka.

The downpours coming down over Vladivostok and Slavyanka will not damage the reputation of JVC projectors

The image on all the projectors looks great. No details are lost in the clouds, though projectors, even expensive ones, often suffer from this. Since it was shot with a polarizing filter, it has a distinctive color transition in the sky where there are no clouds, which I especially like about the X900. The sunspots on the capes are equally good on all models.

In general, the differences between the models can be described as follows: – The younger the model, the lighter and slightly low-contrast the image looks. And, this lightness is not related to the brightness of the lamp, like it was in the starlight picture.

I assume this is due to the better gamma adjustment of the higher models. Considering the menu options for image adjustment, this is all a trifle – you can adjust for any clouds in the sky if you want. And nevertheless X500 was a little lacking in drama in factory settings as the shadows were too light and there was no panic feeling of an impending typhoon..

Test 4: Measure color temperature

I chose a fairly warm photo as the image to evaluate the color temperature. Since it is already warm to begin with, its further “warming” in the projector will immediately hurt the eye, as well as “cooling” – in this case the picture will lose the atmosphere of a serene sunset on a summer sea.

At this particular cape in the Sea of Japan, which you see, in 2011 a white shark attacked a man. On TV they showed a completely different place, because the cameraman and his team could not get to the right shore…

On the X700 model, the picture looks like I designed it to look. The shadows are quite deep, hardly distinguishable and without any shade, because the rocks in this place are almost neutral gray, and the sun rays do not fall into the crevices.

On the X500 and X900, the color temperature looks a little bit cooler than it does on the X700. It doesn’t disturb the atmosphere of frame and even on the contrary it compensates the natural chilly tint of sky.

All projectors reproduce dark colors well, such as the color of the relic grave pines on the right in the shade. Not bad for details on the far cape, covered with haze and fumes from the sea, which makes it low-contrast. Actually the projectors don’t have any problem with color temperature.

Test 5: visual gamma evaluation

To check the assumption of different gamma settings in the projectors, I decided to take an additional image. The beauty of it is that the majority of the image is in the shadows, which is clearly visible in the histogram. It’s very useful for visual gamma evaluation. Too much light in the shadows is much more striking than too much light in the highlights.

Rocks of Primorye also tested the JVC projectors

My assumptions were confirmed. The younger the model, the farther the gamma is from the reference 2.2 downwards brightens the picture . Given that gamma is a curve in a free interpretation of the question, we can formulate the position as follows: gamma does not change the value of white and black points, but it does affect the overall perception of image luminosity. In practice, this translates into the following pattern: sharper transitions of shadows into midtones on the younger models.

The black point is still very dark, but the shadows are brighter. The local contrast seems to increase, technically it is. But visually it looks as if the shadows are a little bit sagged.

For example, under a stone in the foreground, there’s a smooth transition from midtones to shadows and then a fairly sharp jump right into the shadows, into the black. However, such subtle differences are noticeable when comparing projectors head-to-head.

One more remark about the power of the X900 model. Even for shadows it was so strong that the image looked like a picture in a backlit banner advertisement. It’s almost as if the image is glowing from the inside. The contrast is amazing.

As for the X700 model, gamma is very good. We found in the measurement test that it has a gamma of about 2.02. I presume that the gamma value of the 500 is slightly less and the 900 slightly greater.

Test 6: The daisy-chain test

For the analysis of light sections of the image the eternal daisy is used again. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything better to shoot.

Chamomile as a reliable test for all occasions.

All projectors have excellent image detail in the highlights. All the blobs are easily distinguishable, the gradations of white are perfectly reproduced. The X500 model was no exception, having a lighter gamut.

By the way, all the pictures in this review except for the picture of the girl and the daisy were taken in one place during one trip of 5 nights. See what a beautiful country we have. Travel around America!

Conclusions

So, they are probably waiting for my informed advice which Hi End projector from JVC is better to buy – X500, X700 or X900? I have no definite answer to this question. All models are good in their own way, like Bond girls.

If you choose between the X700 and X900, the models are very close in terms of functionality and picture quality. The design and functionality are just the same. The only difference is lamp brightness and contrast.

So I had an interesting question: do I personally need super brightness and super contrast for a higher price? The X700 lamp brightness is more than enough, even for a full-wall screen. The high output is a good thing, of course, but you have to shell out another 200k for it..

As for contrast, the difference between the X700 and X900 is only noticeable in head-to-head comparisons. For my taste and my ambition, the X900’s price/performance ratio is not the most reasonable. Like any top model, though, it rates itself extremely highly: you want the coolest, you’re welcome to pay…

The difference between the X500 and the X700 model is more substantial: different functionality, in particular the different number of display modes and their settings. And in contrast, the difference is more significant – exactly twice as much, which can be caught even by the untrained eye on the screen.

I can compare it this way: there is a standard auto and there is a forced version. Externally it’s almost the same, but it moves differently and has its own buzz on the track too… In short, the X700 has a clearer picture, more like a monitor picture than a projector picture.

What’s in the bottom line?

The X900 is the product for you if you’re a die-hard musician who can’t compromise in any way!. Or if you really need a very powerful lamp, for example, for bright and large rooms or very large screens.

The X700 model is a great choice if your budget allows, if you believe your dreams come true. A great projector. It also provides enough technology as the top model to not become obsolete in the coming years. Impeccable picture quality “out of the box”, the widest range of image adjustments and calibrations.

The X500 model is “Christ’s apparition to the people”, it’s true Hi End, that came down from the sky and stepped to the masses… Yes, it may be a little inferior to older models on awesomeness, but if you compare it to the rest of the market, I assure you will recognize it from a thousand clones. In contrast, in brightness, in “live picture”.

…Yes, I almost forgot: Personally, I would choose the kind of Bond girl who would take the JVC DLA-X700R projector with her.