 ProjectorCentral Reviews |
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Home theater projectors -- Sharp XV-DW100U - Mar 1, 2001
Amazing Home Theater: The JVC DLA-G11U - Sep 1, 2000
Digital Projectors and HDTV Shine at CES - Jan 12, 2000
| User Reviews |
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Anthony Green - Sep 10, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
I have owned this projector for one year now. I am using an HTPC for DVD playback feeding the projector a full 1024 x 768 signal from the computer into the 15 pin RGB input and a Samsung HDTV OTA set-top box feeding into the component input. Picture quality is very good. This projector is easy to use and loaded with inputs and features. When watching a wide screen movie using the HTPC there is a horizontal and vertical position adjustments which can be found under the fine sync menu of the computer image adjustments which allows me to acurately position my image onto my 16:9 aspect ratio screen. HDTV images look great also with picture alignment allowed only along the vertical axis. |
| Suggestions: |
The Sharp projector only has a one year warranty as compared to other projector companies that have two or three year. I would like to see a longer warranty period on this product. The only problem that I have had with this projector is getting dust spots on the green lcd panel which show up as small green blobs on the screen which are only visible during dark scenes of an image. In fact when I received the projector out of the box, there was an orange colored dust spot. Even though I would do the routine cleaning of the removable filter I still had this problem. I have had the projector professionally cleaned twice since I have owned it which eliminated the spots. After the last cleaning I decided to purchase a portable hepa filter for the room and so far it seems to have solved this problem. |
| Comments: |
Aside from the occasionally dust problems, I am very pleased with this projector although I probably will trade up to a higher resolution 16:9 panel projector within a few years or maybe even look into a different display engine such as DILA. |
Chris DeGreef - Aug 17, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
Great picture and a breeze to set up. It is quiet, although I have it installed in the ajoining room projecting through a hole in the wall. The family has enjoyed it for the 1st 4 months. Then the disappointment. |
| Suggestions: |
Sharps customer service leaves a lot to be desired. The authorized server centers (at least the one I used) was unprepared to work on this projector. I doubt I will buy another product from this company and I know I will get my audio / video work done somewhere else rather than Professional TV/Video in Illinois. |
| Comments: |
The image began to turn yellow a pixel at a time. The started happening and coverered 1/3 of the image in a matter of minutes. It was a big yellow blob in the middle of the screen!
I took it right over to the "authorized" service center that I found on www.sharp-usa.com It took them a week before they even looked at it. Then they said it the part had to be ordered and it would take 2 weeks. It was the blue lcd panel, a $1000 part. Two weeks later then said they were still waiting for the part because they didn't order it right away. And the had to also wait for tools from Sharp to work on it. It is now 5 weeks into this and they have the part but are still waiting for another tool.
I find this completely annoying and unacceptable. I have called Sharp several times and although them blow smoke at me there has been no fire behind it. They say the call the service center and the service center disagrees.
I really can't tell who is not servicing the customer here, the service center or the manufacturer. Even though the product performed up to my expectations for awhile I expected it to last longer and to get better support than this.
I hope I get it back soon. |
Jim Cucurull - Jul 27, 2001
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
Rich colors, NTSC (4:3) quality, number of inputs, build quality, ease of use, size |
| Comments: |
Distributors are beginning to let these go at great prices prior to release of new models like the 9000 DLP. At around $4,500 (new, factory sealed)this is a great HT machine. |
Danny Mulligan - May 2, 2000
| Application: |
I am using it for my home theatre in my living room |
| What I Like: |
I love this projector.This is my third projector from Sharp.The projector I was using before this was the Sharp xv-s55u.The first thing I noticed about the new projector is how well it produces blacks.Black really looks black. The contrast ratio is 400.1 Dark portions of a movie are no longer a problem. The unit has four different gama settings which makes the dark scenes easier to see.You can not see any pickels at all from normal viewing distance The colors are bright and vivid. I have never scene a better picture on any television I dont have it hooked up to high definition yet so I cant rate that.I have played several movies from my dvd player and with movies like Austin Powers the picture looked as good as the theatre I should tell you that I am using a 100 inch screen with a 4.3 aspect ratio |
| Comments: |
The 11000.00 dollar asking price was a bit to high I am afraid they will lose sales because of this. I only paid 7000.00 for it.Thats my only complaint The picture approaches that of a good crt. |
Tom Strade - Apr 24, 2000
| Application: |
Home Theater |
| What I Like: |
***** Overview *****
In general terms, I’m very pleased with the Sharp XV-DW100U. The picture is excellent and the blacks are very good for an LCD. The color decoder is spot-on when calibrating with Avia. The projector may not be worth $7,500 (street…if you look hard) to some, but to me it was worth it until someone puts a real XGA DLP HT projector out. I do recommend that you should see the projector prior to purchasing it. Those of you in larger markets have the luxury of seeing it in action when properly setup. Those of us in smaller markets are sucking wind and can only hope the one dealer that has your market locked up and that will charge you near-list price has the thing properly setup. Mine didn’t and he didn’t get my business.
***** What’s Cool *****
· Fan noise is incredibly low. In fact, I think it may even as low as 35db, but my SPL meter doesn't go that low.
· Colors are terrific. Very vibrant and accurate.
· Blacks measured at 0.7 lux and whites at 220 lux…not too shabby for LCD on a flat field test from 14.5 ft onto a 92" diagonal 16:9 screen).
· Internal scaler is bypassed at native resolution of 1024x768.
· 3 color temps (they aren't published, but they are High: 10,000, Med: 9,300, and Low: 7,400)
· 4 gamma settings
· Power zoom/focus
· Auto anamorphic stretching
· Lots o’ inputs (2 RGB, 1 Component/BNC, 1 S-Video, 1 composite)
· Small and lightweight
· Bright – 1000 lumens (actual lumen rating was more like 650 with my throw on my 1.0 gain screen)
· Internal scaler is quite good when downscaling from 720P or up from 480P.
· RS232 controllable
· Nice remote control and user interface
***** Whats Not *****
· List price is absurd. I think Sharp found themselves in a quandary due to their stingy NV6 pricing. The NV6 was listed at $11,995 just before they announced the DW100U. The DW100U came out at $10,995 and then Sharp announced the price reduction on the NV6 to $10,995. Frankly, I think they will sell a heck of a lot more NV6’s than DW100Us, so they chose to keep both prices exorbitantly high and cash in on the higher margins on the ProLCD side. And they couldn’t very well price the DW100U in Sony 10HT levels as it would surely undercut NV6 sales if anyone with half a brain figured out they are nearly the same projector. Something tells me they won’t be having 500 backordered units (like Sony) anytime soon on the DW100U at this price. Then again, those of you still waiting for your 10HT are highly advised to check this projector out.
· They took the dot-to-dot feature out (it was on the NV6…it’s mother)
· They took away the ability to create a custom gamma
· They reduced the ability to accept a 1600x1200 resolution (again, the NV6 can)
· No motorized lens shift – digital lens shift is pretty cool. But only useful for non-computer resolutions that use less than the full panel after scaling. In other words, 720P is scaled to 1024x576 and permits you to shift the image up or down within the 768 lines. As would a 720x480 DVD fed resolution scaled to 1024x576. Of course 1024x768 cannot be shifted. Neither can 640x480 or 800x600 as they are scaled up to full resolution. Nor can my custom resolution of 1024x576 since the DW100U sees it as 1024x768.
· Without the Cygnus IMX, I do see faint pixel structure from 12 foot viewed on my 80x45 screen. I think DLP spoiled me and most people may not even notice. I do notice, however, and that is why I got the IMX (more on that later).
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| Suggestions: |
***** Light Meter Results *****
Factory default settings yielded a peak black level test reading of 0.7 lux, while peak whites came in at 220 lux. I guess that would make for a 314:1 contrast ratio. I tried to improve that using a couple of ND filters. ND.15 was the lightest, blocking 15% of the light flow. I’m not sure who it was on some other boards that swore by these things, but I think the image stunk. Yea, it helped blacks…it brought the lux measurement down to a .06, but it also cut the peak white in half!!! Subsequently, the whites looked gray no matter what I did. BTW – I cannot stress enough that 0.7 really isn’t too bad for most. No it is not 0.0 like CRT. Nor is it the 0.1 that D-ILA or DLP can get. But 0.7 to me looks like black…it just looks like projected black. So, if I set my windows to a black background, it looks black. But again, not inky black and you will get some light spill at the top and bottom of the image (I hardly noticed this light spill with my Davis DLS8 when I had it).
***** Cygnus IMX *****
I’m not sure what happened to these guys lately, but I'm glad projectorcentral turned me onto them again! While it’s true that the new crop of XGA/SXGA projectors coming out make pixels inherently less objectionable, I still see them on all LCD projectors. The Cygnus IMX is a neat little lens that fits over your existing projector lens. Basically, it was designed to break down the pixel structure of VGA/SVGA projectors into 4 smaller pixels. With XGA the pixels are already very small.
So why buy the Cygnus? Well, it still allows you to “blend” the pixels together to eliminate the lines separating each pixel…the screen door. The lens is very adjustable and does take some time to dial it in perfectly. However, I dialed mine to fall just short of noticeably softening the picture…this is where the pixels would actually bleed onto on another…to changing the color of the line to it’s nearest pixel. So, on a white background, the black lines become a very light gray. I’ve managed to maintain sharpness to a large degree, yet, create a more DLP-like look to the image. Meaning, if you walk up to the screen the pixels look like that nylon-soft pixel structure that DLP has. The results to me are staggering! I can stand 6 foot from my screen and still barely notice the pixels.
The major downside is that the lens requires a lot of tuning. It’s really meant for fixed installations, so if you zoom a lot or refocus, the lens will require frequent tunings. Frankly, using my custom resolution of 1024x576, I rarely need to zoom or refocus, so this is manageable. I do believe though that there have been many that have seen either the predecessor to the Cygnus IMX VT or a poorly installed IMX VT where the image is plainly blurry. This is unfortunate, as I feel the lens does a lot for the money. If you own an LCD, check them out and see for yourself. Cygnus has a 30-day money back guarantee.
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| Comments: |
******* Rant ********
Sharp continues to be a company I hate to love. Now I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but this is my third projector from them and I find myself continually attracted to some of the features they put into their units. My biggest complaint with Sharp is their quality control process (or lack thereof). I went through (3) ZW99’s back when I first bought it in 1998 due to bad pixels, green fog, etc. Now the DW100U comes to me with (2) bad green pixels…this is unacceptable. In the end, they did overnight a new projector to me straight from the factory and I got one that was pristine. But a local dealer I know had to send his demo unit back due to quality problesm as well. Come on Sharp...get with the program...clean up your QC process!
I also despise their antiquated sales model that protects inflated margins for do-nothing-know-nothing dealers (wake up and smell the Internet coffee), high list prices, poor 1st-line technical support and a tendency to slap features onto one of their ProLCD projectors as an afterthought to the initial design process…meaning they leave things out they should have put in.
Perhaps Sharp could streamline cost, yet, build a better HT projector if they would include HT-product-manager types in the design process of projectors initially released into the business presentation space. I did check both the Notevision 6 and DW100U's service manuals' and can confirm they did put a number of new/different circuit boards and IC's in the DW100U. Whether they did that to improve video performance or hinder it's NV6 capabilities to differentiate the two products is arguable. Nonetheless, this approach is truly a travesty, as I do believe Sharp could build one heck of an HT projector from the ground up if they tried. But that’s just my opinion (props to Dennis Miller for the intro and close)…
***** Conclusion *****
If you must have XGA, low fan noise, bright picture, decent blacks, support for 720P/1080i, lots o’ inputs and a great picture overall, then the DW100U may be the projector for you. Check it out first and make sure it is being fed HDTV or 1024x768 HTPC to REALLY see the projector's potential.
Regards,
Tom |
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