JVCDLA-X500R projector test: 3D Thumbnail gives its consent..

If you don’t know what to choose, ask your girlfriend. They know how to look around their neighbor’s distress and unmistakably point to a sensible solution. Want Hi End? Go for it, buy it. But you don’t have to get completely undressed. Technology is so fast in time – tomorrow the coolest model will be cheaper than the most popular today … So, the test measurement projector JVC DLA-X500R, the youngest model in the new line of cinema, we will consider the “control shot”

Before the actual purchase..

JVC DLA-X500R cinema projector

Methodology for test measurements

Testing of projector JVC DLA-X900R was carried out in a professional studio, in a completely dark room, with neutral walls, where the distortion of colors is practically excluded. The projector was clearly set to a Cima by Stewart 135″ screen – exactly in the center to display the test image with the size of 313×180 cm. Distance to the screen – five meters. Measured with X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter. The software we used was HCFR Colorimeter 3.1.0.6.

In contrast to older models, the set of modes in the model DLA-X500R is much narrower. We tested all of the presented in the projector modes: Cinema, Animation, Natural, Stage.

We were interested in the main parameters that influence the image quality: Color gamut, Contrast, Gamma Curve, Grayscale, Color Accuracy, Color Temperature Stability.

Color gamut

This parameter is probably the most obvious one and shows how much “color” is in the palette of the device. However, the two-dimensional color gamut charts don’t tell the whole truth of life. The point is that the common CIE charts indicate only the maximum saturation of each of the three primary colors red, blue, and green , and do not show which specific color combinations are reproduced.

So today we’ll try to test the projector’s true capabilities with a “3D Thumbnail,” a three-dimensional color chart.

A useful dive into literacy

Let’s get acquainted: the “3D Thumbnail” is, in fact, a three-dimensional LAB space, which has two flat vectors that measure color saturation and one vertical vector that measures brightness.

As we can see, we take A and B values as horizontal axes. The further A and B are from 0 in either direction, the richer the color.

On the vertical axis comes the L channel – the brightness channel: the lower, the darker the color, the higher, the lighter.

Three dimensional color space in contrast to the two-dimensional graphics allows you to estimate very accurately how completely the projector can reproduce all the possible colors – basic and mixed, in different parts of the image: in the shadows, in the midtones and bright areas.

Color, my mirror, tell me..

In order for the “3D Thumbnail” to give its verdict, a profile of the projector without calibration was generated for analysis.

Let’s start by comparing the projector’s color gamut to the sRGB space.

(In the bottom right corner in the three-dimensional diagram is information about the number of colors in each color space. 1 is the reference, 3 is the profile of our test projector

The semi-transparent figure illustrates the color gamut of the projector, and the color figure illustrates the sRGB space. The total number of projected colors is greater than sRGB suggests. Nevertheless, the projector does not display some of them. But this is quite normal, even a calibrated professional monitor displays 97.8% sRGB. The problem areas are blue-green and slightly red-orange.

Notice how much the projector’s color gamut exceeds sRGB in the green areas at high brightness, as well as in the mid and dark tones of red, blue, lime…just about all colors! That is the color palette of the projector noticeably overlaps sRGB.

So it makes sense to compare the projector’s coverage with the wider AdobeRGB space.

The situation is very interesting, the projector definitely does not cover the AdobeRGB space, but in some colors it exceeds it quite significantly. Notice how well the projector handles dark blues and crimson colors, as well as reds.

To tell the truth, light green and light blue colors are not so successful with the projector, but the result is very decent on the whole.

As for the picture, we already wrote about it in the visual test – it’s gorgeous, the colors are vivid and saturated, so much so that it immerses you in what is happening on the screen, as in a virtual reality.

Now let’s go to the usual CIE diagrams. As you can easily notice in the 2D charts, all modes of X500 have an extended color gamut. But now we are interested in the grayscale wedge points – the range in which the color temperature will “stray” depends on.

Natural – the dots are lined up in a snake, most of which are concentrated around 7500K. and the farthest point is at about 6800K. which means that the color temperature will vary within these limits.

Animation – here the situation is interesting, all but three dots are very clustered. In fact it means very stable, though cool temperature with small deviations at several brightness levels.

Bandstand-this mode has only two jagged dots, and the others are even more clustered than in previous modes.

Cinema – in this mode, we see a snake. The color temperature will smoothly crawl or rise, let’s see in the next group of graphs when you change the brightness of the image.

So, all diagrams – volumetric and flat clearly showed: the color gamut of the projector does not cause any complaints. The picture will be colorful and lively, at the level of Hi End.

The color temperatures of the modes are quite stable, although they are a bit cooler and tend to the greenish hue. This is a small flaw of the beta sample that came to us for testing. Though this sin can be easily fixed by adding red in the projector’s settings and in serial samples all modes’ calibration will be more precise, in what we have already seen on the example of X700R.

Color temperature

Let’s look at the color temperature of each mode in more detail. The setting determines whether the picture tends to yellow or warm, or whether the screen will have a cooler, bluish ambience. Graphs allow you to estimate how the color temperature behaves when the brightness changes in certain areas of the image.

In the graphs we can clearly see the not very accurate factory calibration of the prototype. On average, images in all projector modes were about 1000K cooler than the reference at 6500K. Precise calibration, however, clearly showed the vast possibilities of manual adjustment of the device level Hi End: it took me about half a minute to enter the menu from the remote and set the color temperature to 6500K. All calibration problems evaporate automatically.

The main thing the projector offers us is color temperature stability. Just tweak it once and you can forget about it.

Even in the Cinema and Natural modes, where the grayscale pixels form a snake, the color temperature varies in the range of +/- 500K, which is a very good indicator. By the way, the color temperatures of these two modes are almost identical.

ModeEstrada, with the exception of deep shadows, shows a perfectly stable temperature, bravo!

ModeAnimation is only one brightness level away – 3 dots don’t fall in the general harmony.

Gamma Curves

Gamma curve – another important parameter that affects the accuracy of light variations, the overall contrast of the image and determines how distinguishable details in the shadows or light areas of the image.

The reference gamma value is 2.2, deviations from the reference will lead to visual distortions. Worst case when the gamma value in shadows is greater than 2.2, and in the bright areas less than 2.2. This practically guarantees the failure of shadows and details out of the light areas of the image.

In all modes the channel gamma curves are above the reference. This is a common story for projectors and there’s nothing wrong with it.

First of all, users won’t always have an expensive screen like we had during the test. Quality screens return much more light than average screens, for them it is preferable to have such overestimated gamma curves. Factory settings of projectors, costing from 300 thousand roubles, are obviously aimed at the best screens.

Secondly, let the image be excessively bright but still readable, rather than darker but illegible in strong ambient light.

In the younger X500R model the manufacturer removed the gamma curve modes, similar to the curved S shape. Only the Animation mode reminds us a little of their existence. I can’t say it’s a bad thing, I personally rarely use S-mode. But sometimes you can come across some footage from the past life on which the normal gamma-curve does not overlay and the image loses details either in the light areas or in the dark areas.

In general, as follows from the charts, the picture in all modes will be slightly lighter than it should be, which will give additional contrast to the dark areas of the image, at the expense of its slight reduction in the light.

Another important measurement result is that the graphs clearly show that the channel-by-channel gamma curves blue, red, green show minimum stratification – a truly outstanding result that shows the utmost color fidelity in the shadows and in the lighter areas of the image.

Gamma

Now let’s look at gamma from a slightly different point of view: the graphs on the Y-axis show the gamma value. On the X axis is the lightness level of the image. I want to note that the graphs in this chapter are not a gamma curve! This is the gamma value in the different areas of the histogram shadows, midtones, etc.d. .

In other words, the left-hand side has dark shadows, and the right-hand side has lightening and brightening parts of the image. If the gamma value Y in each point is less than the reference 2.2, which means that the area of the image at the current lightness level will be paler than it should be. If the value is greater than 2.2, the image will be darker.

This kind of streaming gamma analysis is especially useful if you have dark silhouettes and light ones in the same frame at the same time: for example, a dark-striped bee buzzing on a white daisy petal. If you want to see the bee and the dewlap on the petal in all their furry glory, look at the charts below.

So, what we have seen?

Since theAnimation mode has hints on the S gamma curves, the gamma value is far from ideal. This starts off with deep and excessively dark shadows and moves smoothly into the midtones with a gamma value of about 1.8 and ends up in light tones, and in our particular case in oh-so-light tones. With this gamma at 1.5. you can still see cartoons, they don’t have as many colors and colors of light as feature films. But for normal movies, this mode is hardly suitable.

The situation is a little better in Estrada mode. Here the excessive brightness starts right from the shadows, which have a gamma value of 2.2. In the light area, the gamma reaches 1.7, not much, of course, but in general the picture will be more accurate than in Animation, and will be good for music video clips shot in flat tones..

Cinema mode has a fairly consistent gamma value throughout the entire brightness. Changes occur in the range of 1.8-1.9. The values, although not reference, are quite acceptable, considering their stability. As for the picture, it will be more harmonious than in Animation and Estrada, because the stability of the gamma provides smoothness and accuracy of light transitions from shadows to highlights.

The situation is not the same in the Natural mode. On the one hand, the gamma values are closer to 2.2, with the other values less stable than in Movie mode. Personally, I would probably prefer the Natural mode, because with this graph, the detail in the dark and light areas of the image will remain the most obvious.

RGB levels

RGB levels are one of the main tools for color calibration. Ideally, the channel values should be identical and at 100 percent. In this case, the grayscale will be neutral and the color calibration will be fine. By the deviation of channel curves from 100% we can judge if there are any parasitic colors in the image, in its separate parts – light, dark or neutral.

You can clearly see from the graphs that, like the flagship X900, the reason for the cool color temperature is the extremely low red channel values. Also, the green content is overestimated, which leads to a slight tint.

The resulting graphs not only allow you to conclude once again about the not very accurate pre-calibration of the prototype, but also immediately proceed to the manual calibration in the menu settings. And life will show up with everything in a different color.

We need to go through each mode.Estrada and Animation have quite good values for the green and blue channels, but the red values are very low. At the same time the red channel level is quite stable and does not noticeably change with the brightness level, which allows you to calibrate the projector by simply increasing the red level in the settings. But I would lower the green level a bit more.

Cinema and Natural modes are very similar, in both you also need to add more red, especially in the darker parts of the picture.

Further specifications and average values

As with the older models in the JVC range, I was not shown any contrast value by the program. This means that the X500R’s claimed contrast ratio, which is almost three times less than that of the flagship, is based on such a deep black level that the software goes into a stupor again.

Almost all modes have an average gamma value of about 1.8, and only the Natural mode is closer to the reference 1.9.

Looking at the primary and secondary color deviations we can confidently say “yes, this is the junior model in the JVC line”. The performance is inferior to the older models, although the color values are very high for a cinema projector in general on the market. It depends on how you compare: “with the boxers of your or other weight class”.

As for the cool color temperatures, that should be taken as a given in the prototype. If you like a warmer picture, just open the menu and change the color temperature setting in each mode to, say, 6000K or 5500K.

Modes: which one and why?

Let’s take a generalized characteristic of video modes. For clarity, we use our proprietary cube with the key parameters. As always, we have chosen color temperature, gamma, and gamma value and color gamut.

Natural is the undisputed leader. The color temperature and gamma are closest to the reference, and the grayscale and color dE values are quite good. I would recommend this mode for everyday work and watching movies.

The twin brother of the Natural mode is the Cinema mode. The only thing they seriously differ is the gamma value and less successful grayscale calibration, which, however, can be easily corrected with your own hands.

Animation and Variety are variations of the Natural mode with Gamma 1.8 in color temperature. Will there be widespread demand for these modes?? There are doubts. Although the Animation mode has a semblance of S gamma curves and can be useful for old and overly contrasted videos.

Conclusions

As detailed measurements have shown, the projector JVC DLA-X500R on the level of results obtained also belongs to the technique Hi End and is characterized by a clear, crisp image with natural color reproduction and high contrast. Which is not surprising, since the entire line of new JVC cinema projectors is based on the latest advances in digital video signal processing technology. We can only applaud that the manufacturer has found a way, without deteriorating the quality of the image and in 3D and 4K, to bring to market a premium product at a more affordable price.

I think it’s a very forward-thinking marketing move by JVC to push true Hi End to the wider masses in a way that no one would have dreamed of a few years ago. Almost for sure in the next turn of life the same video lovers from wide masses will already step in the highest league of Hi End….