Projector Reviews

The new HQV Benchmark DVD at 480i also looked great on most tests, but the scaled image’s overall detail wasn’t the best I’ve seen. Interestingly, the projector’s Noise Reduction control is calibrated in very fine steps, and it increments very slowly. This makes it difficult to compare Off with moderate settings. It seemed to help some, but it also softened the image a bit.

Real-World Performance
For real-world material, I like to start with Mission: Impossible III on Blu-ray at 1080i and look at the beginning of chapter 8. On the M-Vision Cine LED, the pan across the staircase looked excellent, with only minor moiré. When I set the gamma to Film, shadow detail in the catacombs was superb.

I ended up calibrating the projector twice—with Brilliant Color on and off—and I saved both setups in different memory presets. When I switched between the two presets, colors in the movie looked a bit more muted and slightly cooler with Brilliant Color on, which is counterintuitive. At this point, I wasn’t sure which I liked better, so I pressed on.

Next up was Stargate: Continuum on Blu-ray at 1080p/24. The opening star field didn’t look terribly deep, despite the low black-level measurement I obtained (see HT Labs Measures), but shadow detail in the Achilles and Russian stargate scenes was superb. I played with the Adaptive Contrast control and found that it changed the color a bit, which caused slightly orangy skintones, so I left it off. I also started to prefer the picture with the preset in which Brilliant Color was on.

On Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Blu-ray), the letterbox bars weren’t that dark. They were clearly visible in dark scenes, which comprise most of the movie. Overall detail was sharp, and shadow detail was excellent in the scene where Harry and Dumbledore search for Professor Slughorn. Both Sr. Editor Tom Norton and I agreed that the preset with Brilliant Color on looked more natural, and neither of us saw rainbow artifacts, to which Tom is particularly susceptible.

The opening belowdecks shots in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Blu-ray) offer a great test of shadow detail. As I expected, the M-Vision Cine LED’s performance in this regard was exemplary. The detail in the woodgrain and beard stubble was also superb, as were the colors of the skintones and red uniforms. As with the other material I watched, the blacks weren’t as deep as I would have expected from the measurements.

The opening zoom out into space that begins Contact (Blu-ray) looked darker than the other material I watched up to that point. In fact, it seemed darker than the letterbox bars. By this time, I had settled on the preset with Brilliant Color on, and the colors were beautifully natural, including skintones, even if they didn’t measure quite to the HD color spec.

Just for grins, I looked at Speed Racer (Blu-ray) for its over-the-top colors, which were stunning on the M-Vision Cine LED. Detail in the cityscape shots was razor sharp, and blacks looked plenty deep against the bright, vivid colors.

To check standard def, I looked at Topsy-Turvy on DVD. Shadow detail in the carriage ride to the theater was excellent. The colors of the costumes and sets were bright and bold without being overblown, while skintones remained natural. Detail was reasonably good, but it wasn’t quite as sharp as I’ve seen standard def look on a few other displays.

Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed watching the M-Vision Cine LED. Its detail is impeccable, at least on HD material. Plus, its colors are rich but natural, video processing is exceptional, and shadow detail is among the best I’ve seen in a long time. Its only shortcoming is the depth of blacks in real-world program material, which doesn’t conform to the black-level measurement I obtained, a discrepancy I can’t explain.

After spending some time with this projector, I’m convinced that LED illumination is a viable alternative to conventional lamps. It offers many advantages and few drawbacks. This particular model is among the least expensive of those that have been announced so far. If you have the right room and screen, the Digital Projection M-Vision Cine LED will deliver an engaging image that’s sure to please for 60,000 hours to come.