Marantz VP 12 S 3 Review 2
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Appearance The projector has a light gray case with a sparkly metal-flake finish. A somewhat darker bezel surrounds the larger than nor- mal lens assembly, which is slightly offset from the center of the projector. The fans exhaust warm air through the front bezel. A manual lens shift dial is located on top of the case, along with a set of operating controls. All inputs are on the recessed rear panel. Setup A 16:9 (1.78:1) screen should be used to match the projectors native aspect ratio. With a 100-inch diagonal (87 3/16-inch x 49-inch) screen, the short throw Minolta zoom lens provides a lens-to-screen throw distance of between 10 feet 9 inches and 12 feet 6 inches. The long throw zoom lens provides a throw distance of between 16 feet 8 inches and 22 feet 7 inches. Focus and zoom are manual adjustments-not available from the remote control. The mechanical lens shift function per- mits the center of the lens to be mounted anywhere between the top and bottom edge of the screen, regardless of whether the projector is ceiling mounted or table mounted. The projector can be tilted if it must be located above or below the screen, but this will cause the picture to keystone. Electronic Keystone Correction can be used to restore the image to a rectangle, but key- stone correction produces moiré patterns on closely spaced lines, so it should be avoided if possible. Connections The rear panel has six video inputs- one composite (RCA connector), one S- video (4-pin mini-DIN), two YPbPr (RCA connectors), one RGB (15-pin D-sub), and a DVI-D input. The YPbPr component video inputs accept standard-definition or high- definition signals. The RGB input accepts signals with positive or negative HV sync, but not sync on green. The DVI-D input, which includes HDCP (High-Definition Content Protection), can be configured in a menu to accept digital RGB or YCbCr signals. The latter can be set for standard or high-definition color decoding. You can select the Normal mode for DVI signals with RGB-Video levels (black at digital code 16 and 100 IRE at 235), or the Extend mode for RGB-PC levels (black at 0 and 100 IRE at 255). The black level is switched correctly, but you will want to re-adjust the contrast levels if you switch signal types. The YPbPr inputs are compatible with 480i/p, 540p, 576i/p, 720p, 1035i, and 1080ivideo formats. In addition to the usual 50, 59.94, and 60 Hz field and frame rates, the projector also displays 48 Hz 720p and 1080i signals at their native vertical rates. (I wasnt able to try that feature.) The analog RGB input is compatible with the same video formats, and 60 Hz PC display for- mats up to 1024 x 768. According to the manual, PC formats at other vertical rates will be accepted, but not displayed proper- ly. The DVI digital input accepts the same video formats and 60 Hz PC formats. The rear panel includes an RS-232C control port, and Remote Control In and Out jacks for connection to a Marantz audio component. There are also two 12V Trigger output terminals. One is active whenever the projector is turned on, and the user can specify which aspect ratios enable the other 12V output to control screen masks. The rear panel also includes a standard three-prong power cable socket and a light switch that illuminates the rear panel for changing cables in a dark room. That much appreciated feature even works when the projector is in standby mode. Controls The slender 1.75-inch-wide remote con- trol is logically laid out, but only seven of the 25 buttons are backlit. Those include the Menu, V-Mute (picture mute), Input, Aspect, Pattern, Standby, and Power On buttons. There are also six dedicated input buttons, four Aspect Ratio buttons, and four buttons that select Picture Modes. On- screen menu items are navigated and selected with a tilting cursor-pad button. There are also buttons for changing the deinterlacing mode and displaying status information. The Standby button is an annoying oper- ator trap that immediately turns off the pro- jection lamp without asking for conforma- tion. If it is pressed accidentally you must wait for the entire cooling off period before the projector can be turned back on again. The top of the projector includes an alter- nate set of buttons for on-screen menu naviga- tion,input selection, the focus pattern, andPower On/Standby. There are also Warning/Lamp, Power, and Standby indicators. The maxi- mum lamp life is 2,000 hours, but Marantz recommends replacing the lamp after 1,000 hours. The lamp is user replaceable. On-Screen Menus The on-screen menus are arranged in hierarchical levels. The Main menu includes Picture Adjust, Setting, System, Display, Config, Trigger 2, and Preset. The Picture Adjust submenu providesContrast, Brightness, Color (Saturation), Tint (Hue), Sharpness, Noise Reduction, Color Temperature, and Fine Menu. When a vari- able Picture Adjust item is selected, the menu disappears and is replaced by a sin- gle bar graph and numerical value near the bottom center of the screen, which makes it easier to perform adjustments without part of the picture being covered. When the adjustment is completed the menu reap- pears. The Picture Adjust items change depending on the input and the signal for- mat. For example, the Tint and Noise Reduction controls are only available for composite and S-video signals. The Fine Menu item produces a submenu that includes Luminance, Chrominance, Sub Control, and Miscellaneous. The first two items provide a large number of adjust- ments for detail and edge enhancement. Ill discuss those in a separate section. The Sub Control item produces a menu that includes red, green, and blue (RGB) Contrast and Bright controls, which are equivalent to the usual RGB Gain and Bias controls for adjusting color temperature and grayscale tracking. There are also Clamp Width and Clamp Position adjustments for analog RGB signals, which can be useful for signals that have non-standard timing. The Miscellaneous item produces a menu that includes DCDi ™ (On/Off), CCS (cross color suppression) (On/Off), FRC (frame rate conversion) (Auto/On), and Sharpness Filter (0-4). The Setting submenu includes Lamp mode (High/Low), High Bright (On/Off), Aspect Ratio, VCR mode (On/Off), Cinema (Auto/Off), Iris (5.0/3.0), and Black Setup. The Lamp mode changes the lamp bright- ness by switching the lamp power. The High Bright mode increases brightness by producing an overly blue gray scale and should be avoided for critical viewing. The VCR mode is for poor quality video sources. It forces the projector to use intra-field verti- cal interpolation for deinterlacing and should be left off for DVDs and most broad- cast video. The Cinema mode enables inverse-telecine deinterlacing for standard- definition film sources. The F5.0 Iris mode maximizes the contrast ratio at the expense of picture brightness. Black level setup selects a 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE black level for analog input signals, and RGB-video or RGB-PC levels for DVI signals. The System submenu selects the signal format (Auto, NTSC, PAL, 480i, 720p, etc.) for each input, but the Auto value worked fine for all of my sources. This menu also provides RGB or YCbCr (standard or high definition) selection for the DVI input. The Display submenu includes Vertical and Horizontal Keystone, Auto Adjust, Vertical and Horizontal Size and Position, and Phase. Equipment Review Widescreen Review - Issue 84 - May 2004 38 Page 2/7 #84 Master Pages 26-49 3 /22/04 4:30 PM Page 38
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Auto Adjust determines the Size, Position and Phase settings automatically for analog RGB signals. The Config submenu includes Auto Power Off, OSD Position, Language (6 choices), Ceiling (mount) (On/Off), Rear (projection) (On/Off), Color Temp Calibration, Reset Lamp Life, and Reset All. The Trigger 2 submenu selects the Aspect Ratios that enable the 12V Trigger 2 output terminal. The Preset submenu selects the Picture Mode (Theater, Standard, Dynamic, User A/B/C), Index (1, 2, 3, Default), and Gamma (A, B, C, D, E, a, b, c). The Gamma setting can only be selected for the User picture modes. Lamp Mode The Lamp mode selects the brightness of projection lamp. This is one of the quietest projectors I have measured. In the High Lamp mode, the fan noise measured only 51 dB, C-weighted at 12 inches from the front (exhaust side) of the projector. The noise level dropped below the 50 dB sensitivity of my sound level meter in the Low Lamp mode. Picture Modes Each of the six picture modes (Theater, Standard, Dynamic, User A/B/C) stores three sets (Index 1-3) of Picture Adjust set- tings and a gamma mode. These are global settings that can be used with any input. When an input is switched, the picture mode and index last used with that input are restored. Gamma There are eight preset gamma curves (A-E, a-c). The gamma curves for the Theater, Standard, and Dynamic picture modes are a, b, and c respectively. Any of the eight gamma curves can be selected for the User picture modes. The A and B gamma curve values are relatively constant (about 1.62 and 1.73respectively) from 10-60 IRE and then fall off at higher signal levels. The C, D, and E gamma curve values rise below 20 IRE (to about 2.02, 2.09, and 2.11 at 10 IRE) and are relatively constant (about 1.85, 1.75, and 1.85) to about 70 IRE before falling off. Therefore, dark image areas appear darker as the gamma changes from A to E. The a curve is much like A (about 1.64) with a slight gamma increase at the dark end. The b curve is relatively flat with an average gamma of about 1.83, and the c curve is nearly the same as C without falling off at the bright end. These are all unusually low gamma val- ues. A display gamma of 2.2 is required to produce a system gamma of 1.0, and as Ive indicated in previous reviews a system gamma of 1.1 to 1.2 is advantageous when viewing a picture with a dark surround. That requires a display gamma of 2.45 to 2.67. I prefer a display gamma of about 2.5. On this projector I preferred the c gamma curve even though E had a higher gamma at 10 IRE. I wasnt sure why until I realized that the brightest parts of the pic- ture (above 70 IRE) were compressed (too bright) because the gamma falls off at the top of the E curve. That bothered me more than the additional brightness at the dark end of the gamma curve, which makes shadow details more visible, but leaves some images a bit flat with too little contrast. There are no controls to modify the pre- set gamma curves, but the manual men- tions that special PC software can be used to create custom curves. That software was not available at time of the review. Aspect Ratios There are four Aspect (ratio) Modes- Full, Normal, Zoom, and Through. The Full mode is used to display 16:9 sources- HDTV (720p/1080i) and 16:9 (anamorphic) DVDs. The Normal mode is used to correct- ly display full frame 4:3 (1.33:1) pictures inthe center of a 16:9 screen with black side- bars. The Zoom mode is used to display 4:3 letterboxed pictures by expanding the image proportionally in the vertical and hori- zontal directions to fill the width of the screen. The Through mode displays any for- mat with less than 720 vertical lines (or pix- els) in its native pixel resolution without scaling the image. There is no mode to non- linearly stretch a 4:3 image to fill the screen. Gray Scale A custom color analyzer pod is included to automatically calibrate the projectors grayscale. The color analyzer pod snaps over the lens like a lens cap, and has a cable that plugs into the RS-232 port on the projectors rear panel. To perform an auto- matic calibration the user only needs to ini- tialize the sensor, center the lens shift adjustment, snap the color analyzer over the lens, and press a button. About 5 min- utes later the process is complete. After running the auto calibration I meas- ured a gray scale of 6601K +267/-8K from 20-100 IRE. There was a 5-8 dE (delta-E) deviation from D65 (x = 0.3127, y = 0.329) over that range. The color temperature increased to 7408K at 10 IRE with a dE of 17. I manually calibrated the Color Temperature and gray scale tracking to match D65 using the red, green, and blue Contrast (gain) and Bright (offset) adjust- ments in the Fine Picture menu. The manu- ally calibrated gray scale measured 6500K +47/-49K from 20-100 IRE, and 6702 at 10 IRE. More importantly, the gray scale devia- tion from D65 measured just 0-2 dE from 20-100 IRE, and 4 dE at 10 IRE. Black Level And Contrast Ratio An AccuPel HDG-3000 Calibration gen- erator (www.accupel.com) was used to gen- erate test patterns for measuring grayscale, Equipment Review Widescreen Review - Issue 84 - May 2004 40 Page 3/7 #84 Master Pages 26-49 3 /22/04 4:31 PM Page 40