Projector Reviews

Setup and Tests
Setting up the Black Pearl was no more difficult than any digital video projector. If you have any experience at all with such projectors and it takes you more than an hour to get right (for a tabletop installation), you're out of practice.

On my standard assortment of test patterns, the Black Pearl displayed excellent resolution via HDMI but merely satisfactory resolution via component, particularly at 1080i. Its grayscale performance was good out of the box in the Low color temperature setting, but calibration made a worthwhile improvement. (All of my viewing and tests were performed following a full calibration.)

The peak contrast ratio was superb with the Advanced Iris feature engaged and about average for a good digital projector in manual iris mode. The peak light output was satisfactory in the Low lamp mode but considerably greater in High, as you would expect. The High mode may be useful if the projector is used on a screen larger than mine (78 inches wide, 1.3 gain).

The Black Pearl's video processing left little to be desired, either in upconverting 480i source material to the projector's native 1080p or in deinterlacing 1080i to 1080p. It sailed through all my standard-definition upconversion tests, falling short only a bit in processing video-based (2:2) sources and showing some minor jaggies on the waving-flag test. It correctly deinterlaced 1080i to 1080p, including proper handling of 3:2 pulldown. But the projector did show a trace of moiré and a few ripples on the Vatican wall and staircase in chapters 7 and 8 of Mission Impossible III on Blu-ray when the player was set to output 1080i.

For more details on the resolution, color, contrast, and overscan results, plus a list of the settings I used during most of the review, see "Measurements."