JVC DLA-RS4910, RS49, X500R Projector Review - Performance

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Art Feierman

JVC DLA-RS49, RS4910, X500R PROJECTORS PERFORMANCE: Out of the Box Brightness, Color Accuracy, Calibrated Brightness On these two pages we'll consider all aspects of these JVC projectors in terms of brightness, both before and after calibration, as well as color accuracy. Also covered will be Sharpness (including more image comparisons of 4K e-shift3), Audible, and Image Noise...

JVC DLA-RS4910, RS49, X500R Projectors - Brightness for Different Color Modes

DLA-RS4910 and siblings Brightness, Color Temperature
Color Mode	Lumens	Color Temp (K)
Cinema	1235	6427
Natural	1205	6421
Stage	1285	6812
Animation	1285	6811
User 1-4	1205	6420

As you can see, all of the modes measure within 7% of each other, but other. User modes and Natural seem to be the same, as do Stage and Animation, as far as general modes both other features such as gamma settings, may vary, without affecting brightness.

1200+ lumens is serious brightness for a dedicated theater projector. Impressively it beats the Sony HW55ES (less money), which, just a few lumens shy of 1000 lumens calibrated has been the brightest (calibrated) of the series home theater projectors under $10,000, that we've reviewed. There are, though in that range, a number of projectors that go far beyond the 1285 lumens uncalibrated, for example Epsons can break 2000 lumens in brightest modes.

As mentioned in Picture Quality, although Stage mode is insignificantly brighter than other modes, it has the most punch. It's my choice for sports with ambient light present, even if a touch cooler in color. It has some serious "pop".

Color Temperature of JVC DLA-RS4910, RS49, X500R Projectors

Color Temp over IRE Range (from brightest to dark gray) Cinema/User
IRE	Temp in Degrees Kelvin
100	6427K
80	6454K
50	6360K
30	6272K

I agree with Mike's measurements. The default Cinema mode seems just a touch on the warm side, with skin tones a touch of extra red it seemed. Still very good for "right out of the box". Mike's calibration "cooled off" the RS4910 projector but not by much, with all the IRE range measured stayed over 6400K, with only one IRE even exceeding 6500K.

Check out the Calibration page for all our basic settings, and grayscale balance settings. Subscribers may also access the Advanced Calibration page, which has the calibration settings for the Color Management System, basically the calibrating of each primary and secondary color individually. In English - when that's done, red should be pure red, with no trace of yellow or magenta, or green...

Post Calibration Measurements - JVC DLA-RS49, RS4910, X500R

Header Content
IRE (Brightness)	Color Temperature (in K)
100	6467
90	6461
80	6495
70	6486
60	6455
50	6426
40	6559
30	6428
20	6440

Nice calibration Mike! The entire measurable IRE range from white to dark gray (20 IRE) fits within a tight 133K range. More to the point, colors look rather good in terms of skin tone handling.

Post calibration this JVC projector measured 1235 lumens. That's plenty for any dedicated home theater / cave. None of the other modes are brighter by any signifiant amount, so it doesn't quite get to "light canon" status which I consider having a bright mode with watchable color of at least 1500 lumens.

Going along with the calibration, Mike points out that Brightness should be a +5 (or perhaps +6 to eliminate crushing dark shadow detail.

I found a very slight crushing of dark shadow detail at +5, and a fair amount at the default 0 setting. Mike recommends using the basic 2.4 Gamma setting, which looked just about right, and which he says averaged 2.22, which is pretty much right on the money - with the target being 2.2.

DLA-RS4910 Projector Audible Noise

I am impressed. True it's been a while (over a year) since the last JVC projector was here for review, but it definitely seems to me - specs notwithstanding, that this year JVC managed to make their projectors quieter.

I have no doubt that the DLA-RS4910 is quieter at full power than the Epson 5030UB, and also the Sony VPL-HW55ES, although to a lesser degree.

The Bottom line though is that few will have any issue at all with the JVC running full tilt - maximum brightness, as it is still fairly quiet. Not once did I ever (sitting 3-4 feet from the JVC) feel the need to switch to Eco, due to the audible noise.

The JVC is very quiet in Eco mode - you won't find many projectors that can do better.

JVC doesn't seem to be publishing a spec for audible noise this year, at least not in the manual, or in the brochure we have here. That leaves me to guess.

I would estimate that at full power, the RS4910 and it's siblings are probably in the 26-28 db. range. Nicely done JVC!!!

JVC DLA-RS4910 Image Noise

Image noise didn't rate as well with me as did audible noise. I have little to complain about, although the RS4910 did seem to have a touch more image noise than Sony or Epson competitors, but definitely less than the only DLP I have here at the moment, the BenQ W7500, which is about half the price but a nice projector.

Where image noise becomes an issue to some extent is with the use of 4K E-shift3. Since as of this review, the various settings for eShift3 don't seem to work, I'm assuming that the default setting is 25, which should be a very low setting. I had attempted to see what raising it to 50 or 60 would do to perceived detail and sharpness, but adjusting the controls had no apparent effect. I would though, expect that by the time one cranks the controls in the 50-60 range (out of 100), that noise (including over the top contrast), gets definitely more visible. You could check our last year's video on E-Shift2, to see how "cranking it up" has a real, and significant affect on noise. If about the same as last year, you'll see everything get rather contrasty, and therefore hard looking, at 50 or above. I wanted to try it though, to see how it allowed e-Shift3 to do, compared to a true 4K projector doing 1080p content. Alas, I could only speak to using what I assume is the lower default setting.