It has been a long long journey in getting the RS1. When I started thinking about jumping the CRT ship, my online research led me to this projector, knowing it was the only possiblity(being that I'm allergic to DLP). Upon seeing it, I knew I had to have it, my Barco 808 didn't look nearly as good. So instead of saving, I knew we'd be selling our house(and the CRT and screen along with it) and would get a good profit from it. Well naturallly hidden closing costs and fees robbed us of all but a fraction of what we were supposed to get. So with the new 147in high power screen already ordered, I had to get the Sony AW15 720p for a little over $1000 as a temporary measure. I was pleasantly suprised to find it a bit sharper than the CRT, but the black level was greatly wanting. So now after months of saving, I finally have the RS1!! Here is my take.
-BTW that was a long paragraph to reflect how the whole ordeal has felt, a lenghy run-on sentence.
Of course it arrived at 3PM yesterday, and I had to go to work at 5, so I barely had time to get it aligned on the screen before I had to leave.
Well it's twice the size of the little Sony, and less than half the size of my old CRT lol. The first thing that struck me was how much brighter it is than the Sony, this lends to the amazing black level this thing has. Even with the lights on low, the image is uneffected for the most part. It has a native contrast ratio of 15000:1, and in a very rare occasion, professional reviewers note that when calibrated it's actually more like 17000:1(usually displays fall very short of their stated spec, this one is conservative)!
I really haven't watched much on it yet. The starfields in Star Trek Deespace Nine on DVD come alive! On the Sony the stars were barely visible, on the RS1 they are bright and vibrant, smaller stars that are now visible and lend a tremendous sense of depth. Starfield scenes in sci fi movies are said to be the worst sufferers of low contrast sets, and sets that use a dynamic iris, I clearly see that now.
The difference of 1080p over 720p at my screen size is incredible. Add to the fact the Sony was slightly defocused to hide the intrusive screendoor. In terms of sharpness it's worlds above the Sony, and galaxies beyond the Barco 808 lol. The first thing that I saw was the menu in my HD-DVR, it was more clearly defined than ever! I calibrated with Video Essentials, not much was needed, just bumped the color up a few knotches.
As for individual impressions of what I've seen: I watched a couple of Star Trek Deep Space Nine eps last night as it was late, and the improvement was already there to my amazement! Not just the starfields, interior shots, everything was sharper and less 'merky' looking.
The first real material I plugged in after calibration was 300 on Blu Ray.
On the Sony, it looked good, but the inherent grainyness of most of the movie kept it looking decidedly two dimensional. I didn't expect a great deal of improvement, but again I was amazed. Despite the visible grain, the whole thing has a rich detailed sharpness than lends an incredible 3D quality to the image! The scene where they watch the Persian ships smash on the rocks at night was breathtaking, despite the darkness, and digital rain, the Persian ships can be seen for miles in the distance at sea. The daytime battle scenes are amazing, the crimson of their outfits stands out more than ever. And thanks to 1080p24 output of the PS3, the motion is incredibly realistic.
Next was Spiderman 3. I work at Best Buy as most of you know, and our main attraction are Samsung TVs with 120z technology, on which we screen Transformers on HD-DVD and Spiderman 3 on Blu Ray. These are by far the best looking sets there, even if I'm still skeptical of the look of their automotion deal. Well, I remebered a specific scene on that TV on Spidey 3, and I watched it on the RS1 just to compare... the RS1 reveals more detail and sharpness than a 52in Samsung at 147in!!!!! A close up of Sandman in the subway reveals more detail in his face than I've ever seen. And the 1080p24 effect is much more natural looking than the 120hz found on that TV!
So more than ever, I'm convinced front projection done right trumps anything out there. So after tomorrow I've got 4 days off in a row, in which I'll be watching alot of HD material and give my take on what games look like on it!
BTW, if anyone is interested I'm listing my Sony AW15 for sale on AVS forums for $750 with free shipping, only 1000 hours on the bulb.
