The Miller Channel
Yamaha DPX-1000
1-Chip DLP projector
$12,000 List
By Kevin Miller
(as appeared in Home Theater Magazine)
Yamaha, a relative latecomer in the manufacture of video display products, has done a very impressive job with their small line of DLP projectors. The company's latest model is the DPX-1000, which is one of the new crop of 1280 by 720 pixel resolution 1-chip DLP projectors utilizing the latest HD-2 DMD (Digital Micro Mirror chips). This new HD-2 or "Mustang" Chip advances the state-of-the-art in 1-chip DLP projector design with increased contrast ratios, and better black level performance. The Yamaha DPX-1000 has excellent video processing with 2:3 pull-down, and it also utilizes Faroudja's renowned DCDi de-interlacing technology for video based material like sporting events. The Yamaha is definitely a worthy contender for your hard earned home theater dough in the 1-chip DLP category.
The DPX-1000 is a sleek high-tech looking machine with a light silver finish on the body of the projector, and a darker silver finish on the lens assembly. There is a small control console on the top rear of the projector that duplicates much of the functionality of the projector's remote including: Power, Escape, Menu, Pattern, Setting, Aspect, Input, and the left, right, up and down rocker buttons for navigating the menu. The unit is fairly compact measuring 7.5 inches high by 19.5 inches wide by 18 5 1/16 inches deep, and weighs a hefty 30.5 lbs. Build quality is excellent. The remote is sleek and well laid out in its design, and thankfully has backlighting for most of the commonly used buttons. It also has direct access to all the inputs, which is very convenient.
The connection options on the DPX-1000 are fairly comprehensive. There is a suite of five BNC connectors that will do either RGBHV or three of them can be used for component video with the supplied BNC to RCA adaptors. A D4 video input using a D connector is a second component video input, but not one I am familiar with. The 15-pin VGA style input can be used for either RGB or component video or RGB from a computer. Of course, an S-video and a composite video input are on tap as well. A DVI input will be welcome news to those with one of the newer generation set-top boxes with a like output for a digital video connection. Finally, an RS-232 Port for touch panel control systems like Crestron and AMX, and a 12-volt trigger for electric drop down screens round out the connectivity of the DPX-1000.
There are a few picture enhancing features worth mentioning. The DPX-1000 offers a total of five different Gamma settings, and preset color temperature settings ranging from 5000 to 10000 Kelvins in a sliding scale reminiscent of the black body curve. Of course, several aspect ratio choices are on tap, and Yamaha has aptly named the anamorphic ratio Squeeze, although De-squeeze would technically be more correct. A choice of 0 or 7.5 IRE settings for black level is located in the Signal menu. That is a cool feature as 0 IRE is best for HDTV and component DVD sources, and 7.5 IRE is more appropriate for S-Video and/or composite video sources like cable and Satellite. I hooked up my Panasonic DVD-RP91 DVD player via S-Video as well as component video, and verified that you can lock this setting separately for each input.
Also located in the Signal Menu is a setting for the unit's internal scalar labeled Progressive Mode, which gives you the option of Auto which engages 2:3 pull-down for film based material, and Video for non-film based material like sporting events and such. I verified the existence of the 2:3 pull-down circuitry, and was impressed with the relative lack of artifacts when in the Video mode even with film based material. There are two mode choices: Standard for the brightest possible images, and Cinema which lowers the light output by nearly half, but significantly increases the contrast ratio and the depth of the blacks. Of course, Cinema is what I used for my evaluation. The company rates the light output at 800 ANSI lumens in Standard mode, and 500 ANSI lumens in the Cinema mode. This seems reasonable coming from a large 270-watt SHP (Super High Pressure) lamp.
The DPX-1000's lens functions are all electronic, which is a real convenience. The Zoom, Focus, and even the Vertical Lens shift are all done from the remote electronically. This makes these adjustments easier, and more accurate than on models where they are manual, as you are able to get as close to the screen as you wish. There is a vertical Keystone adjustment, which can be used if the projector is not correctly positioned in relation to the screen, but I caution against using this, as it degrades the picture quality by cutting off active mirrors. Careful attention to the proper placement of this and all fixed pixel projectors is as important for optimum picture quality as it has always been for CRT projectors.
The DPX-1000 uses a rather short throw zoom lens, and there are some lens aberrations as a result of that, which appear like convergence errors on a crosshatch test pattern. I noticed this when sizing and focusing the picture. The main areas of concern were the edges of the picture, although there were some minor aberrations near the center as well. Red was out by about one pixel on the left and right side of the picture, and blue was out about 1.5 pixels on the left and 1 pixel on the right vertically. Horizontally red was out by only about .5 pixel, which is not that big a deal. Honestly I couldn't see this when watching movie material either on DVD or HD, except when I looked real critically at scrolling credits.
The video processing in the DPX-1000 is quite good with excellent 2:3 pull-down, and Faroudja's DCDi de-interlacing circuitry is a definite plus when watching video based material. Setting the Contrast level on the projector I found it went into clipping or "White Crush" at about 4. I ended up settling on -10, which produced a very bright snappy picture on my Stewart Filmscreen StudioTek 130 72-inch wide screen. Since my Sencore Color Pro5000 color meter isn't totally accurate when reading light output from FPTVs, I'd have to questimate that I was getting about 15 to 16 footlamberts of light output off the screen, which is amply bright in a dedicated home theater environment.
The color decoder in the DPX-1000 is reasonably good, but does exhibit some "Red Push", which forced me to back down color a bit after having set it with SMPTE color bars from "Video Essentials". The primary colors of Red, Green, and Blue are not quite what they should be. See Mike Wood's chart at the end of the review for the details. The Yamaha actually has a feature that will supposedly allow you to change the X and Y coordinates for the primary colors of Red, Green, and Blue. You can do this in the RGBYCM or RGB section of the Color Balance menu. I made some significant changes to these coordinates, and effected some change according to measurements made with the Milori CF-6000 Spectraradiometer. On the NTSC I changed the x and y coordinates, which were set for HDTV color space to the SMPTE C coordinates, and the overall color palette of DVD pictures seem to be significantly improved. It should be noted: this is an advanced feature that should really only be used by a professional installer with the proper test equipment and training.
Pre-calibration measurements of the grayscale were fairly close to the broadcast standard of D6500. In the 6500 preset color temperature setting the DPX-1000 measured 6000 Kelvins at 20 IRE (the bottom of the grayscale), and 5950 at 80 IRE (near the top of the grayscale). As close as these numbers may seem color fidelity was still dramatically improved by tweaking the grayscale to near perfection as the color temperature was a little plus green on the bottom end of the grayscale, which is easily visible to the naked eye. Post calibration results were very impressive measuring 6550 at 20 IRE, and 6450 at 80 IRE. There is no doubt that the grayscale tracking on this projector is outstanding when professionally calibrated.
After a complete calibration of the projector I sat back and watched most of "Charlotte Gray" for the umpteenth time. There was some visible noise in the picture that I have come to associate with Contrast level on these high-resolution 1-chip DLP projectors rather than Sharpness, which is the usual culprit on digital based video sources. This was clearly visible on Chapter 31 of "Charlotte Gray", which is a rather bright scene with Sharpness set at the lowest setting, the Sharpness Type feature set to Off, and the Contrast at a reasonable -10.
With that said DVDs like "Charlotte Gray", "Monsters, Inc.", and "Training Day" looked excellent with good color saturation, and natural skin tone rendition. HDTV from my Dish Network Satellite feed also looked really good on this projector exhibiting real snap, which is the net result of good blacks and a high contrast ratio. Dark material on both DVD and HDTV looked excellent with a hint of low-level noise, but black looked black rather than a dark gray, which is why the DPX-1000 has such snap to the picture when it's setup properly.
The black level performance and the contrast ratio of the DPX-1000 is really quite good, and certainly significantly better than any of last year's first generation 1280 by 720 pixel resolution 1-chip DLP projectors. As far as I am concerned all of the new HD-2 or "Mustang" chip based DLP projectors are far superior in black level performance to any fixed pixel display technology currently on the market, and the DPX-1000 is certainly no exception to that. If you are in the market for a front projection home theater system put this one on your "Must See" list.
8/18/03
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