JVC - DLA-RS1200 / DLA-NZ500

The jvc has a nice throw. I've got it about 170 inches back for a 150inch picture. It can go much farther back and zoom in.

Oh no! Not the JVC! Oh the humanity! ... it's a great unit and nicely priced especially compared to that insanity of charging $8k for the Epson QB1000. Just pair it with a good screen. A nice retroreflective perhaps, Screen Innovations Slate? But not cheap.

Just my experience, I have the NZ500 with the Seymour AV glacial white screen. Any type of light in the room affects the picture. I think a good ALR screen is needed for this. The 500 is great for dedicated home theater. I don't think it'll be bright enough for a living room daytime projector.

If you're looking at. Projector in a light controlled room with that size budget, I'd say look at the Epson QB3000 or the JVC NZ500/700, both meet your throw and budget requirements if you're in the states. I've had Epson before and they are solid projectors. The JVC has great black levels and the Epson is brighter if you think you'll need it. I have found larger TVs to have some artifacts in their imagery and unless newer TV's have found a way round that I think a projector can still work. I have a 96inch screen and feel a projector was worth it. If my projector was to die today, the two mentioned projectors are where I'd personally be looking.

We switched from a 120" wide scope screen and jvc rs640 with Lumagen and hdfury LLDV support to a tcl 98" qm851g calibrated by ChadB, and we have no regrets. The 98" is mounted on a rolling stand with 24" of variable vertical shift. The jvc rs640 had native contrast only recently equaled by the nz900. The calibrated miniLED surpassed the jvc in every way, despite the rs640 having the benefit of excellent Lumagen DTM and DV support of hdfury LLDV. An emissive tv in your dark theme HT will offer an incredible experience. There have been excellent suggestions for improving the epson ls12000 tone mapping, but the poor native contrast will forever impact fade to black and deep black and shadow detail performance. If you must stay with projection, maybe a move to a nz500 would offer a significant upgrade and the lowest cost and least hassle. Good luck with your choice.

The JVC nz500 is the best on your list for contrast and tone mapping. What size screen are you running? Do you have easy access to the HT for a BIG tv? I ask because we switched to a 98" miniLED tv, and we are very impressed. But not everyone can wrangle a big tv into their HT. Good luck.

../../../../preview.redd.it/43cjdjzlc99f15946.png?width=1897&format=png&auto=webp&s=fe881644f86b6f387f7fa8c6815caf311cd6e000 JVC NZ500 I also looked at the JVC NZ800 and the price difference was not worth the extra charge, honest opinion

Jvc nz500 is what you want as the starting point. If you can spend more. Go nz700 or even nz800

The LS12000 shows $6100 on their website, the NZ500 can be bought for about 5500 OTD, but well see if that increases as well. I have the nz500 in a dedicated pitch black theater and the picture is stunning. Any ambient light definitely reflects on the screen and instantly ruins the picture. The 500 is going to be the best projector in that price range. Maybe you need to look into an ALR screen to help with any extra light.

You can easily get into the NZ range for JVC for 8 grand. NZ500 is something like 6 grand and the NZ700 with its 80000:1 contrast claim is $9-something.

I got the nz500 couple months ago. Picture is stunning. Super sharp, contrast is amazing. As more reviews are coming out there is nothing else in that range that competes. It's a top tier projector with a low price. Highly recommend. You can get deals well below the 6k price tag. Your only downfall is the 4k60 for gaming. But non competitive it shouldn't be an issue.

That or the new NZ700 which is a few thousand under budget, which you then can have it properly calibrated. Great reviews coming out about this new line up. I have the NZ500 and it looks spectacular, can't imagine the 700 or 800.

Most projectors don't do that, is that specialized to the JVC?

what is your throw distance? my nz500 is at 14' and i swear it's almost not bright enough for my 125" screen

JVC NZ500. Best picture for the price, nothing will come close.

Best bang for the buck in the $5k price range, jvc nz500. You might be able to spend less if you call around.

So i have a mixed use room. For sports and gaming i have an 83 inch tv with 120hz capabilities. For movies i have a jvc nz500 and a 150 inch electric tab tension screen. You get the best of both worlds.

Black level champ, it's lcos jvc.

You can snag a refurb or b-stock JVC NZ500 for not much over that budget. I'd talk to a dealer or two and see what they have. With the amount of effort you've put into light/reflection control, nothing will pay that off at the level a JVC can. Might be pushing it on lumens at that screen size, though. Does your screen have positive gain?

Upgraded from a vivitek hk2288. I was pretty happy with the vivitek but was always wanting those deeper black levels. Man am I blown away with this jvc.

Jvc nz500 or the nz700. Just came out, and lots of good things are being said about these projectors. If you set it up right, minimum throw distance, not too huge of a screen, the nz500 would be great and save you a couple thousand. You can take the savings and have it professionally calibrated, too, which is only about 400-600. I have the 500 and the picture quality is unbelievable, deep inky blacks, super sharp picture. Highly recommend it.

I just replaced my 2012 JVC X-30 with the NZ500, and I'm loving it so far! I wish the fans were a tad quieter at full power but I'm in love with everything else.

At this price point i'd probably go for the JVC NZ500. If you want the Epson go with the LS12000 instead, 90% of the performance for 60% of the price

If you watch a lot of movies with dark scenes I'd look into a jvc rs1200(nz500.) having demoed the the ls1100, ls1200, and Sony xw 5000es I would definitely spend the extra on the ls1200. I preferred the Sony to the Epsons. Better contrast and a bit sharper but that could be due to Sonys processing

I keep my laser at 74 for HDR content and I'm pretty happy with it. They could be a touch quieter in very quiet scenes though. As you say, so in love with everything else that I don't even care.

I'm coming from an epson 5050ub and I prefer the lens shift on the jvc.

People pay professionals good money to help them with answers to your questions. Equipment choice alone is barely half the equation. Good design and good integration are critical to achieving high performance. This isn't something you should just freestyle, as there are many tradeoffs to manage based on your subjective preferences. Design informs equipment choice. It's an iterative process as you converge on design and equipment choice simultaneously. Long throw projectors generally offer better image quality than UST at the same price point. UST are nice if you're worried about people casting shadows or if this is a general entertainment space hosting karaoke night and dance parties. If it's just for watching motion pictures while seated then get a long throw projector. For $5k I'd try to score a deal on a B-stock Sony VPL-XW5000ES or a lightly used JVC D-ILA projector, preferably with laser light source but if you'd rather spend less then a bulb is fine. You can find some screaming deals if you don't mind bulbs and fake 4K pixel-shifting. If your viewing distance is >10ft then it shouldn't matter. https://www.avsforum.com/forums/front-projector.252/ Fixed screens are cheaper than motorized screens. Acoustically transparent screens are nice because you can place the LCR speakers behind the screen, which not only looks better but sounds better. But this is also where you need to be careful as there is interaction between viewing angles/ screen size and speaker positions and seating distance. All have to be in harmony. Woven screens usually look and sound better than perforated screens, but this depends on the exact screen material, budget, viewing distance and preference. Like I said, there's lots of tradeoffs to manage. I'd recommend minimum 7.1.4 speaker configuration, even if you have to built it in stages as funds allow. My preference in that size room is 9.1.6 but that's going to break your budget in terms of AV processor capability, speaker count and amplification requirements. You'll want a minimum of two subwoofers. What exactly do you mean by "sound conditioning is already taken care of?"

I went from a 65" C9 to NZ500 in a fully light controlled room with a 1.1 gain silver ticket 135" screen and it's been great. The colour is very good, blacks aren't quite as good, but that's to be expected. I'm pretty picky as a cinematographer and my wife used to be a colorist, neither of us have any complaints. One day I'll calibrate it, but it's so good that I'm in no hurry. The only big thing for me and my current project is that the projector is a bit noisy for quiet scenes, that's only if you're in the back row though.

JVC and Sony are the only native 4K options under $100K. Sony is by far the best for gaming with a sub 12ms input lag and excellent all round performance. The JVC can be better for Blu-ray, especially if you're hiring a 1st class calibrator. However, I find most prefer the well rounded performance of the Sony. The new Bravia 7 (XW5100) has become my favorite bang for the buck projector.

This JVC does not have 3D unfortunately.

I saw the Sony xw5100 in a showroom with a different gain screen so it's not 1:1 but to my eye yes it was "brighter" at the expense of slightly worse but not by much color. Thats totally anecdotal though. And I also got a good deal on an open box but unused JVC so that could be biasing my eyeballs.

It's your life and your money. Do whatever you want. But you're asking the void for free advice. So IMO any TV screen would be a huge downgrade in immersiveness and audio quality in that room. If you want better image quality, get a better projector (and screen, if necessary). You're apparently in the UK so options and prices may vary. But a JVC DLA-NZ500/ RS1200 is $7k. A Sony VPL-XW5000ES is $6k. I'd choose either one of them over the Epson. A $30 EZCOO SP12H2 HDMI splitter with custom firmware can unlock Dolby Vision capability, and with an AppleTV set to always output Dolby Vision, you would see a big improvement with a lot of streaming content. A custom gamma curve and other calibration tweaks will take it even further. I'm not familiar with BenQ projector and whether you can manually force that projector into an HDR compatible picture mode in BT.2020 color space. But maybe do your research and give it a shot if feasible. That might give you the ROI you're looking for. https://www.avsforum.com/threads/alternative-devices-for-enabling-lldv-please-read-posts-1-2.3254266/#replies The next step up in price would be an HDFury device that might allow you to add the HDR info frame to automatically switch your BenQ into a HDR compatible picture mode to make the LLDV EDID trick work. https://www.avsforum.com/threads/dolby-vision-including-hdr10-conversion-w-dtm-on-projectors.3097934/#replies If the price of a new decent quality (albeit still entry level) 4K laser long throw projector is giving you heartburn, there's always the used market. You could score a deal on a used Sony laser or JVC laser or JVC w/ bulb that will serve many people well at relatively low cost. https://www.avforums.com/forums/projector-projection-screen-classifieds.90/ https://www.avforums.com/threads/sony-xw5000es-laser-projector.2541005/ A used Lumagen Radiance Pro 4240 or 4242 could be found for a few grand that will give you excellent picture quality with 4K upscaling capability and DTM for all source devices and all content no matter whether SDR, HDR10, DV or HDR10+. There are still some caveats and limitations. But picture quality is generally not an issue unless you happen to be a 0.001% videophile type person for which only OLED will suffice and you'll gladly sacrifice audio quality for it. https://www.avsforum.com/threads/new-lumagen-radiance-pro-series.2172017/#replies

I dont game on it so not worried about that, I watch football and some baseball and basketball on it and it isnt bad as far as motion. Now I do watch 4k blu rays, and it is absolutely stunning. I'm not sure if you have a local vendor, but a lot of dealers sell below msrp. I think you can get one now in the low to mid 5000 range. Reach out to a Mike Garrett at AV Science. He is out of NY. Very knowledgeable and can get you a deal. I would suggest having it calibrated, it makes a world of difference. If you don't live in Ohio area for Chad B, you can have it shipped to Kris Deering who does great work too.

None of the above... Try to find a good deal on a jvc nz500. It will offer very good built-in DTM and better native contrast for better deep black performance. Your other thread regarding a 98" miniLED would be the best and cheapest option if you can live with the screen size.

I have the nz500 and it's amazing. I wouldn't suggest anything else, especially in a light controlled room for movies and TV. Sports look good on it as well.

He's full of it. The LS12000 is HDMI 2.1 and would be much better for gaming since it handles motion better than the Sony does. Yes the black level is not as good but the Sony is not $5,000 better. If you want true 4k and better black levels than the Epson go with NZ500, which is still $3500 cheaper than his Sony.

I say JVC (as an ls12000 owner!) you will get better black levels - if that's important to you. I think from owning both the colours are slightly better on Epson. If you're a gamer then the Epson does 120hz and the latency is below 20ms - no low latency on the JVC. But only you can judge which in the end. I got a very good deal on the Epson (£2k off) so it was a no brainier. Had that not been on, I'd have got JVC in a heartbeat. [NZ500 review](https://www.projectorcentral.com/JVC-NZ500-Projector-Review.htm) [LS12000 review](https://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-Pro-Cinema-LS12000-Laser-Projector-Review.htm)