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After having spent considerable time evaluating the Davis Cinema One projector for a couple of weeks, I can safely say that the machine by itself, while nice in many respects, may not quite be ready for prime time in terms of quality 16:9 home theater projection --at least not unassisted. While I'm sure that the Davis is a screamer on the presentation circuit because of its lightweight, compact size and bright picture, there are too many nagging artifacts to enable this machine to stand on its own four height-adjustable feet for home theater use.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that when used in conjunction with an external scaler, the majority -- but not all of the image problems were in fact resolved to my pleasantly surprised satisfaction.
Lacking component inputs and operating in a native 4:3 environment with 800 x 600 pixels (only 800 x 450 for 16:9 viewing) the Cinema One operates in a limited display environment that soon makes itself apparent when watching DVDs -- particuarly those that are enhanced for 16:9 screens. Additionally, there is no overscan present on the screen in which the image is actually bordered on the sides as well as the top and botton when watching widescreen material -- meaning even less of the available pixels are utilized. You'll notice this only when using the Cinema One with the DVDO I-Scan, because the I-Scan only uses 640 x 480 of the available pixel array. This results in barely visible (but visible nonetheless) pixel structure even at 15' or so. In particular, when looking at bright, finely detailed objects -- like the long shot of the white steam rising from the the train carrying Baroness Karen Blixen in "Out Of Africa".
Depending on the source material however, the Cinema One is capable of delivering surprising amounts of sharp detail considering the resolution limitations.
It should be noted that hue and color saturation controls are not present when using the I-Scan, further limiting picture control for the user. While the use of the I-Scan eliminated most artifacts, it also seemed to diminish the color saturation a bit, which I didn't care for.
Before conducting my review, I was urged by some of our readers to evaluate the Cinema One with a progressive scan DVD player. Unfortunately, I had no such DVD player to utilize, but even if I had, the point would have been moot. According to Davis' own technical support people, they have been unsuccessful in pairing a progressive scan DVD player to the Davis Cinema One to date.
The Davis Cinema One, connected directly via S-Video to my Sony DVP-S7000 DVD player produced a very pretty picture with two jarring exceptions:
Because there are fewer pixels, the transition between them during horizontal panning in particular is readily apparent. For instance, when watching a scene in which the camera angle rises from street level to a rooftop vantage point, the cobblestones on the street below and the brick wall of an adjacent building wriggle and squirm with a life all their own as the Davis tries to transition the movement from one line to the next. While this motion artifact is limited in the vertical plane to a point where it isn't real issue, the shimmering between the horizontal fields during panning motion up or down is a terrible distraction.
After awhile, it's something you can almost get used to -- but you shouldn't have to.
The other strange artifact apparently inherent to this new technology is something that I don't have a name for. I'll simply try to describe it as best I can. On large, lighter fields of image -- a bright skyline for example -- I noticed a very subtle distortion that takes on the appearance of water slowly cascading down a window pane, in sheets. Could this be attributable to the single color wheel that's used in the Cinema One? I can't say for certain, but I suspect that the single chip design might have something to do with it.
The image brightness of the Davis Cinema One falls somewhere between that of the Sony VPL-W400Q and VPL-VW10HT LCD projectors (closer to the latter), but the colors aren't as well saturated and don't appear as three dimensional. The very limited control set offered by the Davis menu only allows for limited tweaking -- there are no user defineable adjustments for white balance. There are four fixed color temperature settings. "Natural Color", "High Brightness", "Warm Colors " and "Warm Colors 2". When switching between the color temperature modes, the screen turns black momentarily. I could see no perceptible difference between the different color settings at all. In fairness, it could have been a problem with my review unit. However, I had no way of checking to confirm or deny my suspicions since color temperature number sets are not available.
Striking the right balance between contrast to brightness is a tricky gambit on the Cinema One straight out of the box. One thing that the Cinema One does very nicely is to create a totally uniform screen. Green fog? Huh? What's that? You'll never see any complaints about uneven color shifts on the Davis Forum. At least, not from what I've seen. Even with a totally black screen, the light output (or lack thereof) is rock solid and very impressive in its consistency. Black level is also significantly better than I've seen on comparably priced projectors using LCD technology. I adjusted brightness to the point where the picture area background matched the border areas. Star fields look SO much better with the Cinema One. Even though I didn't care for Oliver Stones' "Natural Born Killers", I was awestruck by the black sky and stars behind Juliette Lewis in one of the scenes.
I was a bit surprised by the somewhat noisey fan output. While marginally quieter than Sony's VPL-W400Q, the Davis still emits quite a racket. The fan stays on at a low speed, even when the projector is in standby mode. What's more, there is significant light leakage from the Cinema One through the exhaust and intake ports on the rear sides of the machine, which light up the areas to the immediate right and left of the projector. While the light that this leakage provides doesn't come close to degrading the onscreen image and it's something you can get used to, it might prove to be a real distraction to guests that might be flanking the projector in your home theater environment. This is one reason that I believe the Cinema One would be better off ceiling mounted in a home theater environment.
The Cinema One has a 17 degree projection angle, which proved problematic for our room. To fill our 119" screen, we would have had to place the Davis Cinema One very close to, if not on the floor itself, in the back of the room. Since this area is a walkway in my home theater, I thought it not prudent to place the projector where it would be stepped on. The throw angle and distance seem comparable to the sony VPL-W400Q, but the cabinet design doesn't lend itself to sitting upside down on a shelf. So once again -- the ceiling mount is the best way to go. Davis has a control set for picture orientation, so ceiling mounting won't pose a problem. The Cinema One boasts a plastic folding carrying handle, but it is so flimsy and spare that I don't think I would feel confident in using it. Besides, the projector is small and light enough to simply put under your arm and be on your way. The portability of this unit is perhaps its' most attractive feature next to the high brightness output and nice black level. I could see toting the Cinema One over to a friend or relatives' house to watch a movie now and then. The compact size and light weight are surprising.
The handheld "mouse" style remote is comfortable, but limited in its usefulness and not backlighted. It actually bounces the IR commands off the screen and back to the IR receiver on the front of the Cinema One. A nice item on the set-up menu item will automatically set optimum settings for the projector based on the connected source. When you first power up the unit, it "searches" for the connected programming source. Adjusting things like zoom and focus are a bit tricky using the remote, because it's easy to hold down the button too long and go past your optimal settings. Having power zoom and focus is a nice touch though -- and quite necessary with a native 4:3 display if you plan on watching both TV and DVDs. I would prefer to see a rotary control --- some sort of a wheel on the remote to more precisely control focus.
To try and provide a better evaluation for readers willing to spend more to attain better results than the Cinema One can provide "out of the box", Medical Video Systems was kind enough to also send over an I-Scan line doubler, which takes an S-Video signal, adds line doubling and other tweaks associated with external scaling devices, and outputs an RGB signal compatible with the Davis Cinema One. Be prepared to shell out more bucks to Davis though, for an additional adapter that's required, since the Cinema One doesn't sport the traditional 15-pin RGB connector like you might find on the back of your computer, for instance.
Without the I-Scan, the Davis Cinema One allows you to choose a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio, which scales the image nicely, handling the unsqueezing of anamorphic 16:9 material with aplomb (complete with the aforementioned artifacts). When the computer input is used however, that option is gone, replaced instead by a dot phase adjustment, which I could never quite see any difference with, no matter how I tweaked it. Maybe I should have used binoculars. What all this means is that when using an external line doubler, anamorphic DVDs will remain squeezed, unless you put your DVD player's internal scaler into play by setting your DVD player for 4:3 output. The quality of the anamorphic output is then governed by the quality of the scaler within your DVD player -- a somewhat less than desirable notion -- at least with my Sony DVP-S7000.
The I-Scan in conjunction with the Davis Cinema One effectively removed the shimmering artifacts between the horizontal lines, smoothing out the motion. Be advised however that the I-Scan needs to be opened up and a set of jumper pins need to be moved within the I-Scan (instructions are provided) in order to work properly with the Cinema One.
As a warning, the I-Scan "staight out of the box" in conjunction with the Davis Cinema One will produce excrutiating compression artifacts that the Cinema One simply can't reconcile. Colors were muted and muddy in appearance, clarity suffered considerably and the contrast and brightness were being overdriven to levels so horrible that they're almost beyond description. To achieve a halfway watchable picture, I was forced to turn down the "picture" control on my Sony DVD player to -5 -- the lowest it would go. Even then, much detail was lost to the overdriven, contrasty image. Another artifact present with the I-Scan connected was the loss of gradient detail. The sky, instead of smooth and non-descript, took on a very obvious gradient quality and looked spectacularly awful.
However (and this is a BIG however) after moving the jumper on the I-Scan motherboard, I was rewarded with the complete elimination of the horizontal shimmer and the clear water sheeting effect. Using the I-Scan also helps the Cinema One handle brightly moving gradient objects like fire, so that it looks more natural also. On the straight Cinema One image, bright objects tend to take on a halo and appear blocky and artificial. This becomes readily apparent as soon as the Columbia TriStar logo emerged on one of the DVDs I watched.
Bright, contrasty images wreak havoc with the plain Cinema One -- but using the properly modified I-Scan makes a dramatic difference for the better. One big complaint about the I-Scan, though... I think it's ludicrous to spend upwards of $700 for the thing and still have to open up the box to change the jumper. DVDO should have simply put two additional switches on the outside of the case where they belong.
The Cinema One thoughtfully features an optional cable TV connection and built-in tuner for an additional $130, but installing it yourself will void your two years parts and labor warranty -- so be sure and have your dealer install it first! Our review unit came without the TV tuner option so we were not able to try it. Too bad. It would have made watching the Superbowl at lot easier. If I were running the zoo, I would include the TV tuner as a standard feature, not an option, to compensate for the lack of component inputs and no HDTV.
In conclusion, the Davis Cinema One packs some fascinationg technology into a very small, lightweight package -- but not without some inherent flaws unique to single chip DLP applications. Four years ago (having not seen the LCD competition since then), the Davis right out of the box would have blown me away. However, if you're willing to pop for the extra purchase of the video adapter and some sort of external scaling device like the I-Scan -- and don't mind the tangle of cables, wires and adapters that such a setup requires, then you'll be rewarded with rich, deep black levels found on no LCD projector, and bright, sharp images -- but not as sharp, bright, colorful or smooth as we've seen on some of those same comparably priced LCD projection displays.
Personally, I would be inclined to wait until Davis designs a box that incorporates an internal line doubler or quadrupler and dispenses with the need for expensive third party add-ons in order to perform at a comparable level to their LCD competitors. DLP does offer some unique advantages over LCD -- but probably not enough to make up for the shortcomings that are bound to plague a single chip DLP design -- but they are worth considering, nonetheless.
One of those advantages however may be a significant one in terms of the longevity of the display optics. I remember reading that Texas Instruments put their micro-mirror DLP panels through a rigorous testing process that simulated 20 years of use -- and that the panels remained in perfect condition. LCD on the other hand, has not shown any kind of long term success in terms of reliability. Sony's own documentation even suggests that a few blown pixels right out of the box is something one might expect when purchasing an LCD projector. So Davis owners might yet have the last laugh after all if DLP is as reliable as TI claims.
