Acer PH530: 720p Home Theater Projector Review - Image Quality-4

Posted on October 23, 2007 by Art Feierman

Acer PH530 home theater projector: Sharpness

Acer

BenQ

HC6000

Sharp XV-Z20000

Lastly, a cropped view of a computer monitor from Space Cowboys on Blu-Ray. Again, a similar image is found in most reviews, so you can compare. Readability of the type on the computer screen is the key, and the HC6000 does exceptionally well. The thumbnail to the right is the Sharp XV-Z20000, as mentioned is virtually identical but here shows a slight edge. Don't forget, all these projectors have a sharpness control. I am generally very careful to minimize artifacts caused by over-sharpening, but I do not really fine tune each one.

As I have already mentioned, the sharpness of the PH530 is not spectacular. The BenQ definitely a very slight edge, and as I've been watching the Panasonic PT-AX200U today. I'll give the advantage to the Panasonic despite the fact that Panasonic's SmoothScreen technology does sacrifice some sharpness for invisible pixels.On the left is the thumbnail image for the Acer, and on the right, for the BenQ. Of course the BenQ is an LCD projector, so pixels are more visible. Step back from the enlarged images, to compare.In some cases, I should note, the Acer does appear a touch sharper, but usually, as with the monitor scene below, it's where the higher contrast ratio of the DLP Acer, helps very small objects stand out. I don't want to quibble here, because all of these projectors have sharpness settings, and you can up the sharpness of one, and drop the other, and reverse your impressions. When you do oversharpen, though you tend to get a bit of ghosting where dark and bright meet.