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I continued to use the screen that Stewart Filmscreen was kind enough to lend me. The screen I chose
was their new GreyHawk Reference, which has a gain of .95 (the higher the gain, the brighter the screen,
with 1.0 being neutral). This screen material has a neutral gray material, which helps with reproducing
darker images, a traditional problem area for DLP projectors. As I have mentioned in my other projector
reviews, proper screen selection is critical in obtaining optimal picture quality. Make sure that you pick a
screen that is properly matched to both your projector and room. If you do not, you will never be able to
obtain the best possible picture, no matter how much you time and money you spend on tweaks and
high-resolution sources.
I connected the projector directly to a Marantz DV-9500 and DirecTV high-
definition TiVo unit via HDMI cables and then I connected to my Krell HTS 7.1
via component video cables, which allowed me to compare digital and analog
signals. The VP-12S4 had a wide range of vertical lens shift, which provided a
lot of flexibility in positioning. The focus control is manual, so you either need
two people or you need to go back and forth between the projector and screen
while you get the focus dialed in.
There are 12 picture modes: Theater, Dynamic, Standard and nine user presets. In addition, there are
many fine adjustment menus, including color temperature, aspect ratio, gamma and more. The picture
menus allow numerous adjustments that will keep the video tweaker quite busy. I found that I liked to turn
up the noise reduction a bit on some of the lower-quality sources, which appeared to be turned off on the
standard presets.
Shortly after I received the S4, Marantz announced an upgrade to the video processor. Unlike most other
processors that are hardwired, the Gennum processor is software upgradeable to take advantage of new
developments. I downloaded the software to my computer, which was connected to the projectors control
port and followed the instructions. The picture was already good, but the upgrade made noticeable
improvements and the open architecture of the Gennum makes more future upgrades possible.
The VP-12 is the only projector that I am aware of that includes its own color calibration system. The
calibration system looks like an oversized lens cap that is attached to the RS-232 port. The whole
process took me just a few minutes and was quite simple.
Viewing the Projector
I started off by watching DirecTVs high-definition channels. I kept the DirecTV
TiVo unit set to display the native rate of the channel, 1080i for most and 720p for
ESPN-HD. While watching 720p source material, the native resolution of the
projector was able to bypass all video processing. It was quite easy to discern the
varying degrees of quality of the source material. High-quality sources, such as
high-definition NFL games, looked phenomenal on the VP-12S4. Sunday Night
Football on ESPN is consistently the best HDTV broadcast of the week, followed
closely by HD-NETs NHL hockey programming in HD.
Without scaling and other processing to deal with, I was anxious to see what the limits of the projectors
capabilities were. One of the first things I noted was that the S4 did a good job with color rendition and
skin tones, and the grass field looked natural. The range of the projector was such that the natural colors
were not at the expense of vibrancy when vibrancy is supposed to be there, as with brightly-colored
jerseys, graphics or signs. As can be expected with a high-quality source, the detail was excellent on the
brightly lit scenes. Some of the shots into the crowd were dimly lit and I found a live, high-definition
broadcast of auto racing under an overcast sky. In both of these scenarios, despite the poor lighting,
there was a great amount of detail and no visible dithering noise. A slight fringe effect was noted,
although it was greatly diminished by the firmware upgrade and less noticeable than in other DarkChip 3-
based projector systems.
While watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in HD via DirecTVs 1080i HDMI output, I found that
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Marantz did a great job with scaling 1080i images as well. The range of images ran from the bright lights
of Vegas to dim, flashlight-lit crime scenes. The bright images were vibrant and sharp, the dark scenes
maintained a good amount of shadow detail and dithering noise was not noticeable. The hues appeared
to be accurate, with plenty of saturation. On all images, the gradient transitions were smooth throughout
the spectrum. Contrast appeared to be equal to the best digitally projected images I have seen, with the
darker images being particularly clean providing an exceptional amount of detail in notably difficult areas
for digital projectors.
Regular 480i TV images were not nearly as good and I noted stair-stepping or jagged-edge artifacts,
although rarely to the point of distraction. Color saturation was slightly less than on the high-definition
channels and of course the resolution was noticeably reduced. Video noise reduction was not as effective
on standard definition television as it was on the high-definition broadcasts.
I watched DVDs through both 480i component and 720p HDMI inputs. Unless
noted otherwise, my notes below refer to watching DVDs through the HDMI
input. Looking at an old favorite, The Fifth Element (Columbia TriStar), I was
impressed with the projectors high amount of detail while watching the
reconstruction of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). The gold foil walls of the room were
clearly detailed and her unnatural hair color was vibrant. When Leeloo is
making her escape, she stands on a ledge looking down the side of the
building. The image at this point is reminiscent of a properly calibrated nine-
inch CRT projector; the perception of depth and distinction between levels was
clear. Video noise on this and other DVDs was minimal. DVDs viewed through
the component connection were slightly less sharp, as though someone barely
nudged the focus knob, and had slightly more noise.
The battle scene in Master and Commander (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) is well known for
its dark details, a traditional source of difficulty. I found the S4 to do a great job. The colors seemed to be
very realistic and without any unnatural gradations. The amount of details in the darker portions of the
scene were at least equal to that of any other single-chip DLP projector I have seen and appeared to be
even greater due to the almost nonexistent visible dithering noise.
I tried to watch some of the same video clips that I watched with other projectors, so I
watched the 1,001 robots scene in I, Robot (20th Century Fox Home
Entertainment) and the scene where Frodo, Sam and Gollum approach the gates in
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of the King (New Line Home Entertainment).
As before, I found that the S4 did a great job with colors and detail and not only had
an impressive contrast ratio, but also maximized its use at the extremes by
minimizing video noise.
I spent some time going through the Silicon Optix test DVD with my Marantz DV-
9500 hooked up directly to the projector, bypassing my system to provide the
cleanest signal path. I placed the DVD player on a stand next to the projector so that
I could use short cable runs, employing component and HDMI cables from Accells
Ultra Video line. While this was my first exposure to these cables, they appear to be well-constructed and
were carefully packed. Once I got the player hooked directly up to the projector and the test disc in place,
I went through the tests with the 480i component input (unless otherwise noted), so that the only video
processing was that of the projector. The projector had no problems reproducing the full available 480i
resolution and reproduced the color bar test pattern without any flicker. The color and shade gradations
were smooth. On the Jaggies test, the diagonal filter did okay but not great, doing slightly better with the
720p HDMI signal on through mode than with 480i via component. I noticed significant improvement with
a 720p HDMI source and with the projectors video processor engaged. Despite the performance with test
patterns, the flag test looked quite good.
On the detail test, the images were sharp and not overly processed to smoothness. The 720p HDMI
image was even sharper and more detailed. With respect to noise reduction processing, I preferred a
