Sharp XV-Z20000 and JVC DLA-RS1 1080p Home Theater Projectors Reviewed: Image Quality-2

JVC RS1 and Sharp Z20000 – Brightness

In standard, single projector reviews, I normally deal with brightness in the General Performance page, but in comparisons, of late, I prefer to treat brightness as a component of image quality. Why? More often than not, the best cure for image quality being washed out by ambient light, either intentional or otherwise, is simply more lumens.

The JVC, in its best mode (remember, no dynamic iris), is much brighter almost (800 lumens) than the Sharp in its best (just over 250 lumens).  Fortunately for the XV-Z20000, it performs almost identically with their iris set to Medium instead of High Contrast.  This jumps lumens up to 367.  Even the Bright iris setting, and the Sharp still retains very impressive black levels though, set for bright, it definitely comes up rather short, and not in the JVC's class, on black levels.  With Bright iris setting, the Sharp musters up about 880 lumens (regardless of whether you choose Dynamic, Natural or Standard picture modes.

So, the bottom line in terms of brightness, is that for the Sharp to rival the JVC in black levels and shadow detail, it still needs either High Contrast, or Medium iris modes.  And, in those modes, the Sharp outputs half or less, of the lumens of the JVC in its best mode.

When you need maximum brightness, however, the two projectors are virtually identical in terms of lumens, both close to but not exceeding 900 lumens (based on my measurements).

This difference in brightness when you are looking for every last ounce of image quality for movies, gives the JVC a distinct advantage over the Sharp, especially for those planning on larger screens.  Of course when you want to put on your favorite football game in hi-def, with some light in the room, their brightness becomes a tie!