Tested a couple of of 4K UHD content today on the Z1; Oblivion and The Huntsman. Dynamic laser modulation still flickers the light output up and down from time to time, but I am confident this issue will be resolved in a firmware update from JVC. Might actually be a defective on this particular unit as others are not seeing this the way I am. On "The Huntsman" UHD, in the scene where the snow queen first "preaches" to her newly kidnapped kid-soldiers, the image brightness was going up and down 3-4 times during this scene alone... Other than that a number of other image parameters are very impressive. I´d say my overall impression is that the projector really makes out a "35mm/70mm filmlike" or "organic" type of image, especially when all image processing is turned off and in "natural" mode. I guess the native 4K in combination with the very stabile laser light (except again laser modulation issues...) calls for this appearance. Film grain as well as subtle details are more clearly depicted than I have ever seen before from a digital (home cinema) projector...Sharpness, color reproduction (rec709) as well as image movement stability is really impressive as well. Light output is also quite good, but as stated before, this projector will probably work best on a <10ft wide screen so that the fixed iris can be tuned down a bit and thus obtain better absolute blacks. On my 13 feet wide screen, absolute blacks are not currently "there" as I need to keep the iris open to produce enough light output (+ high laser mode), but I have still not had the unit calibrated so it runs a default 2.4 gamma so this might be possible to improve on quite signicantly. Perhaps not the absolute black itself, but the detailing, currently somewhat "black crushed" at times, is certainly most lightly possible to improve on.
Is there an easy way to get updated when (if?!) new firmwares arrive or do we have to keep an eye on some webpage somewhere?
There is nothing wrong with your unit. I have had two units now. Both have the exact same problem you are describing with the dynamic iris. And I have seen other mention it too, even if they are not overly bothered by it. It's promenent in any material that switches back and forth from dark to bright content. The best way I can describe it, is that the Laser is just a half a second to late in making the adjustment. It's like one frame behind. So you are not alone, this just needs to be tweaked by JVC. If JVC will get a firmware update out to address this issue, and possibly tame the fan noise slightly, the unit would be just about flawless.
@AVSCraig, I have actually been emailing Chris about my unit and your unit. My unit measured out almost identical to your original findings, of just shy of 2300 lumens / max Laser / iris open in natural mode. So what was done different, so now you have 2800 lumens? What mode was that measured in? The 500 lumen difference is a huge deal to me. Also, I have looked at that Accucal screen report and some of those numbers don't make any sense. They show the EN4K material at 0.84, but when I shoot my fabric with a Minolta LS100 and then compare it to a sample of Studiotec 100, which is a Refernce 1.0 gain, that gives my EN4K fabric a gain of 0.7. This is also exactly what sound and vision measured when they reviewed the EN4K screen as well. ThanksChris
Craig noted he used High Bright, not Natural mode.
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