projectors shift

There is source resolution and there is pixel resolution. In the end, as we go about categorizing and defining these products, the practical question is what makes a 4K projector 4K? HDR in particular does have the potential to alter the viewing experience for the better, though more so with high-light-output flatpanel TVs than with projectors, which do indeed struggle with hitting the highlights in an impactful way. My last projector was Epson Pro Cinema 9350 and have no clue on that lag time. And the results? At this point the physical resolution of the chips in these two models has nothing to do with perceived image sharpness. Weve brought this guide together to help you do just that. Has anyone addressed the durability/longevity of phase shift DLP projectors? What is moving is the XPR lens (x4) synchronously with the RGB settings of the DMD chip. Here are a few further things to consider when deciding on the right 4K resolution projector for your needs. This is simply not the case. Talk To Our Experts. The big question is, can you see the difference between a projector using authentic native 4096 x 2160 resolution chips, and a projector using two-phase pixel shifting on a native 2716 x 1528 chip? projectors Optoma - I wonder if the differences between the phases affects refresh rates in the various 4K formats like 60hz etc and if it impacts input lag in anyway? I reckon it should be a spec of the projectors so when we use your site's screen calculator ( been using for years! Youre full of horse malarkey if you actually think youre capable of making that happen. The 5' images in this test were used simply for comparative evaluation of the projectors when they are both projecting the same size image. dlp projectors projector projektorit disadvantages Because it's obvious. In this case digital noise is a factor - the lower the noise the cleaner and sharper the picture looks. Both projectors are upscaling a 1920 x 1080 signal to a 4K-like image. There are other contributing factors on a projector that affect what you perceive as image sharpness. I just hate how they have to come out with so many different formats to keep people buying their products. Thanks for this article, I am staying at 1080p for a few more years. Thanks for taking the time to share your insights and clearing up this (potentially) confusing topic for many. I don't think politicizing tech by using fundamentalist and tech liberal is helpful at all. In addition, one of the biggest factors influencing what you see as image detail and sharpess is contrast. Now that doesn't mean that a projector with superior contrast or more accurate color won't be deemed superior in overall enjoyment.

For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. Jim, After studying the operation of the XPR module with its pixel shift to achieve an apparent resolution of 4K, I think that the micromirrors cycle of the DMD chip is the same as in FHD. Good question. Hey Evan, Since you are talk about the differences between a 2 and 4 phase chip, does that mean they can easily change the 2 phase chip to a 4 phase chip in the future for 8K on the .66 chipset? And in this regard the UHD50 tends to edge the UHD60 with an overall lower noise factor. Its all down to your individual perception of value and how much 4K content youre watching. Take for instance cheap plastic lense used in expensive 4K Sony projectors. The VW285ES's pixel structure is so small as to be almost invisible, but on very close examination you can detect the pixel pattern.

When you consider you can get a 4K enhanced projector such as theBenQ W2700 for as little as 1360 compared to the native 4K UHD starting point of 5,000, you can see why this option has gained so much attention. I bought my dad an Epson 5040UB last year and I recently bought an Optoma UHZ65. Total waste of money, earth resources and will result in huge electronics waste over the coming years. Only Pixel shift 4k projectors? At the opposite end of the spectrum are the tech liberals who believe that if the projector takes a 4K signal and does something to make it look like an exciting, high resolution 4K picture on the screen, that is really what it's all about. Sure, good contrast comes from other things too, such as the light source (type, efficiency, etc. The original 4K signal is first down-converted to much lower HD resolution before being fed to each HD image panel. This article was very specifically about comparing the perceived image detail of 4K-resolution projectors vs. 1080p-resolution projectors that accept 4K content, make use of HDR and wide color gamut encoding, and use pixel-shifting to bring more perceived detail to the screen. At this distance the UHD60 and the UHD50 look the same, at least in terms of detail resolution. Viewing the pictures close up, at a distance of 12 inches from a 5-foot wide image, you can see an obvious difference in pixel structure. The projector can only do so much: if youre not feeding in 4K content, expect to receive a poor quality reproduced image rather than a wow-factor 4K image.Further, the type of content youre watching on your projector also matters. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. If you want to get the most out of your projector, take a moment to wrap your head around the different ramifications of this jargon dense as it might be. But as always it comes down to the overall optical path.

But this is simply not the typical desired set up in consumer home theater. The two-phase shift in this implementation tends to blur any hint of a discrete pixel matrix. This does not mean the pictures look identical. Why is this? Time and time again weve been surprised by new models and the seriously impressive images they can achieve.When you take the steep price difference between these models and the native 4K alternatives, into account, its really worth giving them their dues.Resolution: 3840 x 2160 pixels (achieved through pixel shifting)Total pixels: 8.3 million, Not to be confused with: Native 4K DCi resolution. 720p to 4K conversion (as you might experience coming from a cable box on certain channels) is more complex and not always quite as clean, though most set-top boxes will perform a conversion from 720p to 1080i or 1080p before sending it to the display -- probably with worse results than if you let the display do it. But hey ho I don't think it would be something the manufacturers would reveal. This is a fantastic article. The revolutionary technology of pixel-shifting has injected a lot of controversy and confusion into the world of 4K projectors.

What does 4K on the panel mean? Time and time again weve been surprised by new models and the seriously impressive images they can achieve. So as your move back your perception flips and the Epson 4000 looks like the sharper of the two projectors. And this is true no matter if you are displaying a native 4K video signal, or if you are displaying regular HD 1080p and having the projectors upscale it. Thus, in theory, if the number and size of discrete pixels has anything to do with it, the VW285ES should be able to resolve more detail than the UHZ65, assuming the three chips on the VW285ES are perfectly aligned.

The minimum HDMI cable size you need to deliver basic 4K, therefore, is a 10.2Gbps cable. And rest assured, those features are the ones responsible for the better contrast noticed in the article.

Ive been leaning towards the Optoma UHZ65, but has anyone actually played games on this sucker? Small differences in image detail which are obvious when examined close up become insignificant or even invisible when you sit back to enjoy a movie in a typical theater set up. Viewing distance is a huge factor in perceived resolution.

It is not surprising that the PX727-4K can deliver more 4K detail from a 4K signal, but it is surprising (to me anyway) that it can even upscale HD 1080p with a higher apparent level of precision. Fortunately, the 1080-line to 2160-line conversion on most TVs and projectors today is excellent, aided by the fact that it's a simple doubling. Any conclusions reached based upon the number of discrete elements in the panels are erroneous, For the person talking about 110" screens, you're right, 4K is not for you. My gut says when 8k or 7680 pixel displays and content arrive that the human eye will not be able to notice a difference in appearance to 4k at a normal viewing distance 1.0 or greater vs screen diagonal size. Hmmm. Visible pixelation (the screendoor effect) on lower resolution projectors was supremely annoying and desperately to be avoided. Rob - I agree with your comment above. Joe, all TVs and projectors must by definition upscale or downscale a video signal internally so that it matches its native display characteristics, though some, like the native 1080p Epsons that accept 4k/HDR, do give you the option to manually turn off the pixel-shifting enhancement with 1080p signals and just view those signals organically via the 1080p chips without processing. 4K UHD resolution is the consumer market standard. Thanks for the article.

No problem we have an experienced installation team who can install your projector, screen, display and audio. But let's not be so eager to jump on the 'megapixels/resolution doesn't really matter' train that we forget that micro-contrast and fine detail are what more pixels and higher resolving power make possible.

You know JVC and Epson will finally release a native 4k chip only in a year or so to add their next E-shift technology to take them to 8k when they already have this developed now. Even the current JVC and Epson models that use two-phase pixel shifting on 1080p chips can produce pictures that come a lot closer to replicating a full 4K picture than one might imagine possible--sometimes they can even beat the 4K UHD DLP chips in the subjective impression of image sharpness. I despise these Companies playing this game.

It often connotes that there is something inauthentic and undesirable about the pixel shifting technologies and the 4K projectors that use them. This four-phase pixel shift is remarkably potent as far as rendering detail is concerned. A system is only as good as its weakest link. And they are all capable of producing impressive 4K resolution pictures. This preoccupation with the physical devices is unfortunate since it causes the unsuspecting consumer to get fixated on what is the least relevant aspect of 4K projection technology (at least as far as home theater is concerned) -- which is the number of elements on the device. Different manufacturers use different terminology to describe this technology. The UHD60 with its 0.66" chip and two-phase shifting produces a distinct pixel structure. So these two models compete directly both in resolution class and price. But also the level of digital noise, the image enhancement video processing, the color balance and saturation, and the optical precision of the projector's lens, all contribute to making a 4K projector's picture great or less than great. Let's put these two projectors side by side and take a close look. 4K UHD resolution is the consumer market standard. Thats QUITE a twist on what the article was saying. Even though there is little news here that hasn't been mentioned in passing in the individual reviews over the last few years, I find it very timely and extremely valuable to have this summary and real-world assessment available. And yet, even with tiny pixels and huge PPI numbers, the higher resolution photograph is obviously superior and anyone can tell that there is more information.

(So the low-end 4K projectors are not terrible the way some low-end 720p projectors were). If you are displaying still complex graphics in large scale, with viewers being particularly close to the image, the incremental resolution that can come from native 4K chips (like that which can be seen close up in the Sony VW285ES vs Optoma UHZ65 comparison) can be both visible and relevant to the application. It's well organized, well written, objective, and well supported with concrete examples. In reality, pixel shifting has produced rapid advances in picture resolution at prices far lower than you must pay for projectors that have native resolution 4K chips. And at this distance, the pixel structure of the two projectors is obviously different. There are projection applications that WILL benefit very directly from native 4K resolution devices.

This is a a great write up but I question the use of a small 5 foot screen. The UHD60 has two-phase pixel-shifting to double the number of pixels on the screen while the UHD50 has four-phase shifting to quadruple the number of pixels. It is the resolution and resolving power of micro-contrast that is a direct byproduct of fine detail retrieval. I recall a decade ago when Dan from Marantz did demos of their 720p DLP vs some then new 1080p projectors that the better lens and contrast of the Marantz yielded an image that was strongly preferred by most. If the scaling electronics are good, you'll get a good result with your 1080p content. The differences might be more obvious. Different manufacturers implement this technology in slightly different ways, but for a very rudimentary explanation of the tech it essentially overlays two HD images on top of each other (depending on the projectors panel / chip), shifted by a half a pixel up, down, left or right quickly so the naked eye cant detect the shifting. With these two projectors, with respect to detail definition itself, there is very little if any discernable difference between the two pictures, even when viewed close up. Pixel shifting was and probably still is used as a con game to convince people to buy a projector they thought they were getting instead of what they were actually getting. Got your head around the resolution terminology? But according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), a projector being described as 4K UHD must have at least one HDMI input that can accept a native 4K UHD signal, and be capable ofdisplaying each individual pixel of the 3840x2160px (8.3 million pixels) count on screen. So the bottom line is that there are many important factors that contribute to a 4K projector's success. It might be fine with static images but movement causes visual problems. Then Texas Instruments released an 0.66" 4K UHD chip with a physical mirror matrix of 2716 x 1528 which uses two-phase pixel shifting to create 8.3 million pixels, which is 4K UHD. I appreciate the thoroughness and the acknowledgement that not everything involving picture quality is about the number of pixels. The difference here is that native 4K projectors have roughly eight million distinct pixels on their panel to start off with, while pixel shifting tech starts with a lower number of pixels and creates the higher number by using the source image and processing it.

And as we know, high contrast makes a picture look sharper. Native 4K projectors are not cheap, theres simply no getting around that. And the simple fact is this: we can no longer glance at an image on the screen and know the physical resolution the chips in the projector like we could before. Weve made no bones about the fact that this is not native 4K. Strict fundamentalists will say the term should be reserved exclusively for projectors that have native 4K imaging devices and that no pixel shifting machine should qualify. Question, do all 4K projectors automatically (default attempt) upscale all 1080p content? In this case the UHD60 is higher in contrast than the UHD50, and in many scenes this contributes to the perception of it being the sharper of the two projectors. Now, before you go dropping me a flaming email, I am NOT arguing that native 4K imaging devices are irrelevant, or that native 4K devices cannot be a critical feature in a projector. Is there is any visible difference in image sharpness? ), optical system, and so on, but from a UHD point of view, HDR and Wide Color Gamut are mostly the ones that make good contrast and definition! In point of fact, Digital Projection, Inc. just staged a demo of the first 8K projector in Las Vegas at the NAB tradeshow this week. It uses four-phase pixel shifting to create 8.3 million pixels. I know that we are limited on any 8K media, but having the equipment now only will keep disc media alive because there is no way they can stream this yet and 4K up sampled to 8K would be excellent.

This is the 4K resolution used by the cinema and video production industry. In the world of consumer 4K, UHD TV's the TV's panel has anativeresolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. This is true of the ViewSonic PX727-4K as well which uses the same 0.47" chip. This occurs in the first scene, where detail in the straw hat and the subtle texture of the leather jacket are more successfully resolved by the VW285ES. At any normal viewing distance beyond 1.0x the screen width, the differences in perceived sharpness of upscaled 1080p material is entirely attributable to factors other than the physical resolution of the chips. There is no sense of discrete individual pixels. "Different manufacturers implement this technology in slightly different ways, but for a very rudimentary explanation of the tech it essentially overlays two HD images on top of each other (depending on the projector's panel/chip), shifted by a half a pixel up, down, left or right quickly so the naked eye cant detect the shifting. Good informative post Evan. This article is terribly one side and doesn't mention any of the negative side effects of image shift like the shimmer and artifacting you can see when there's a ton of motion on screen. So the VW285ES looks subjectively sharper and more three dimensional despite the fact that there really is no additional detail in the picture. Popping in the 4K HDR disc Lucy gives us a good test sample for video as it is loaded with fine details in hair, leather and cloth fabric, etc. Certainly contrast is a critical one--both with HDR and SDR. Let's now consider the display of an HD 1080p picture rather than 4K HDR. In other words, in this case we have a projector that many will dismiss as "faux-K" actually beating a "true native 4K" projector in perceived image sharpness. Depending on the individual model, some projectors pixel shift twice, some do so four times with the former having a more convincing 4K effect in areas of the image where their is finite detail such as small text. In point of fact, the effect is somewhat of a hybrid, with some elements in the picture looking sharper on the PX727-4K, and other elements looking sharper (or at least as sharp and more three-dimensional) on the Epson 4000. The short answer is yes, you will enjoy enhanced detail with 1080p content on one of these 4K-friendly projectors. Move up close, however, and you can see pixel structure.A picture generated by either the 4K DLP chip or by the 3LCD 4K-enhanced models will certainly appear higher in resolution than a standard HD 1080p picture from a distance of 1.3x the screen width. You get maximum benefit from 4K projectors when using them on 100" or larger screens, depending on your viewing distance. In this regard it is extremely similar to the PX727-4K. But 110" screen from 10-12 ft away and you can barely make the difference. A screen of reasonable size with a standard black felt frame will usually hide it, but if you project on a wall or maybe have a screen with a fine bezel it's just there.

(Don't believe us, come and check it out for yourself in our bat cave dark4K Demo Room.). Let me be more specific, would all the 1080P videos that I am used to watching on my epson 1060 appear to be more crisp and be automatically enhanced? Epson followed using pixel shifting on 1920 x 1080 3LCD chips. When it is used in this manner it is counterproductive and serves no good purpose. This was a radical new approach to getting substantially higher picture resolution out of native 1920 x 1080 D-ILA chips.

On the UHD50, when you are at the same distance of 12 inches from a 5-foot wide screen, you can detect an extremely subtle hint of pixel structure, but it is nowhere near as distinct as on the UHD60.

Thats over 8 million separate pixels, giving four times the detail of Full HD.While some other brands of projectors are advertised as being 4K capable or True 4K, they actually use lower-resolution 1080p or 2K panels. I think the conclusion of this article is this: We didn't need 4k for home use at all. With 4K DCI, the total number of pixels projected is around 8.8 million or in other words, four times as many as the previous digital projection and editing standard of 2048x1080px, 2.2 million pixels.To be deemed to have native 4K DCI resolution, the projectors display panel must have this pixel count and reproduce each individual pixel on the screen. And it always looks better than native 1080p would. Faux-K is great. Heres a quick guide to HDMI cables for 4K resolution formats :Basic 4K less than 10-bit colour, no HDR =10.2Gbps.Standard 4K 10-bit colour, no HDR =11.1Gbps.Advanced 4K 10-bit colour or higher and HDR =18Gbps.You can find out more about home cinema cabling in detail in ourcabling guide.Finally, check out a range of4K projector screensto complete your setup and ensure that none of the details from the image is lost to visual noise created by screen material structure of non 4K screens such as standard matte white. Combined with HDR - we now have affordable projectors that can display pixel correct images at 2-3 times the size of a 75" TV - enabling massive size home theaters and 4K simulators at affordable price points. I honestly found it such a distraction in dark scenes that I've gone back to a 1080p projector. However, with HD 1080p we once again encounter a big difference in contrast, except this time the VW285ES wins. While this used to be a hugely important spec in the projector business, it is no longer an issue of consequence in the world of pixel-shifting 4K for home theater projectors. In our first test, we will compare projectors using the two new 4K UHD DLP chips. So it does not produce 8.3 million pixels, and Epson has never represented that it did -- they market this class of projectors as 4K-enhanced. Anyone in the projector biz could tell at a glance just from looking at pictures on the screen what the native resolution of the projector was. What is this? This is a different comparison entirely. Thanks for the reply Robin. The bottom line is if you're happy with the large home theater image you have regardless of tech, who cares. Now, let's back up to a more practical viewing distance. Just wondering, I recently had a Optoma uhd51 which uses the 1080p chip of which the picture was really nice but could not get over seeing the black ( grey light) spillage from around the picture. So when we back up from the screen to a viewing distance of 1.5x the screen width and put on some 4K HDR material, the Epson 4000 actually appears to be a bit sharper than the PX727-4K. Think too about the projector in the context of your unique setup. Then, before it reaches the projector lens, the images apparent resolution is boosted using so-called pixel-shifting technology. In the end, this comparison illustrates that contrast is a huge mitigating factor that can outweigh the perception of image detail, sharpness, and clarity. Once again, we start by doing some pixel-peeping close up, from a distance of 12 inches on a 5-foot wide screen. The first point is to consider the content.

But every 4K projector you buy will end up scaling up to 4K to fill out its pixel count with a 1080p signal, whether it's a native 4K JVC or Sony, a full-4K DLP projector that does pixel-shifting, or an Epson with 1080p chips that doubles the pixels with Epson's enhancement. Subscribe now to never miss a thing from ProjectorCentral.com! These partial frames are projected in quick succession, building up an on-screen image with a 4K UHD pixel count.The video highlights the benefit of native over upscaled. Both have discernable discrete pixel structure, but the pixels on the UHZ65 are (by comparison) larger and more well-defined. Let the buyers and sellers beware! To be honest I use just a pull down screen as it's in my living room.

Understood-people have complained about it for years, but the alternative would be to go with a more current 4K DLP where it's not as obvious or a 4K three chip projector. When comparing these projectors there were obvious differences in detail and image sharpness. A 30 inch computer monitor that you look at from 3 ft away - sure. Thanks for your comments, Felix. On a 120 screen sitting 9-10ft away, the resolution increase of my Epson 5040UB compared to my older Panny PT-AE8000U was very noticable, and worth the upgrade.

In this movie there are definitely certain elements in some scenes which are rendered with slightly more detail on the VW285ES. Interestingly and curiously, the editor of this article has chosen to compare just one part of the 4K UltraHD specifications, the resolution (which is lets say about 1/3 or even just 1/4 of UHD), and actually leaves out the MAIN and MAJOR part of it, the HDR and Wide Color Gamut (WCG), which, if you read and document yourselves, youll find out is actually what makes UHD new and best, and makes images look so good! Please call for details. All of these 4K projectors regardless of chip type are able to create images in a class that is legitimately understood as 4K resolution.

Excellent, thanks! In default Cinema presets, when displaying HD 1080p source material, the VW285ES is much higher in contrast and saturation than the UHZ65. However, at the same time, the hair detail in the Scarlett Johannson close-ups appears to be better defined on the UHZ65. In the world of consumer 4K, UHD TV's the TV's panel has anativeresolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels.In the world of 4K UHD resolution projectors, the projector achieves this resolution by using a technology called "pixel shifting.

Yes, the PX727-4K is the sharper of the two.

So the HC 4000 paints two slightly offset 1920 x 1080 images per frame while the PX727-4K paints four. So not only does native 4K imaging have a set of applications for which it is uniquely advantageous, 8K does too, and it is coming sooner than you think.

Dont the mirrors move and pixel on/ off color changes have to fire 4 times more than a native 1 to 1? When you take the steep price difference between these models and the native 4K alternatives, into account, its really worth giving them their dues. The writer's conclusion -- that the differences in perceived detail are fairly minimal -- suggests that buyers are free to focus more on other factors that will improve the image quality (higher rated contrast, better rendering of HDR for example) or improve the set-up or user experience (powered lens functions, etc.). Manufacturers are therefore able to apply the 4K UHD resolution label to devices that dont have this pixel count on their display panel but do have it on the screen.

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. So we all grew up KNOWING that the "native" resolution of the chips was directly related to ultimate picture quality on the screen. And even in home theater, if you have a much larger than typical screen and you like to sit in the front row of a movie theater, the incremental picture resolution from a native 4K projector may be visible and relevant to you. Its also judgement as to what you deem as acceptable in terms of the price gap between the native and non-native 4K projectors. I think may people will agree that resolution was the first but not necessarily the most impactful feature of the UHD format. Why is that?If you have to qualify the statement that your projector is 4k..It would be much simpler to have 4k and 4k compatible or 1080p+. Since "4K" is all about resolution, it is not surprising that so many folks have been preoccupied with native 4K vs. pixel shifting 4K, and debating the merits of each. Price:Now were onto the real reason why this technology is so popular. True 4K, provided color and contrast are of similar high quality is still a different and better beast. Once you back up to a viewing distance of two feet from a 5-foot wide screen (that is, 0.4x the screen width and a lot closer to the screen than anyone would want to be when watching a movie), all hint of visible pixel structure disappears on both projectors. Likewise, we've seen something similar in a few single-chip 4K/UHD DLP models that use the 0.47-inch 1080p DMD before applying XPR pixel shifting for 4K; there's a mode where you can turn off the 4-phase pixel shifting and just view the output of the DMD prior to the shifting. They most certainly can be. Hey Evan, Great write up, really getting the discussion going. This means all the AV devices in the setup, any switchers, splitters, AV receivers and, of course cabling.Achieving the right level of data transfer speed with 4K content is a bit trickier than it is with standard HD. That holds for all 4K compliant projectors that rely on pixel shifting -- whether we are talking about a 1080p projector that doubles the pixel count for something in between 1080p and 4K resolution (like the Epsons), or a full 4K projector that puts all the pixels in a UHD signal on the screen using pixel shifting (ie, all the single-chip 4K DLP models). Different manufacturers use different terminology to describe this technology. This is due to a combination of factors - as you move back from the screen the advantage the PX727-4K has in rendering fine detail becomes less visible so contrast becomes a more dominant factor in your overall perception of the picture's sharpness.

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