Projector Reviews

Starting with chapter 8 of Mission: Impossible III on Blu-ray at 1080i, the pan across the staircase looked as smooth and free of moiré as I’ve ever seen. However, the disc menu was not visible in Cinemascope mode because the menu is in 16:9, so the top and bottom of the image were cropped. I had to switch to Converted 16:9 mode to select chapter 8, then go back to Cinemascope for the movie itself. Many, if not most, Blu-ray and DVD movies have 16:9 disc menus, so this will be a common problem that is no fault of the projector.

The blue band of discoloration across the top was obvious in the opening shot of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Blu-ray) as the ship emerges from the fog. In fact, I couldn’t help noticing it in any scene with light coloring at the top of the image. Otherwise, detail in things like the ships’ rigging and textures of brick and wood was superb. Shadow detail in night scenes was also top notch. The red British uniforms and green foliage were somewhat overblown, but skintones looked surprisingly natural.

Seven Years in Tibet (Blu-ray) looked spectacular, especially the detail in the sweeping Himalayan vistas, intricate textiles, and facial pores. I’ve never seen better shadow detail than in the night scene where Heinrich steals food from the temple in Northern India. Colors were generally excellent, although there isn’t much green or bright red in this movie that would stand out as being oversaturated. As before, the blue band at the top was obvious in snow scenes.

Turning to 16:9 material, I switched to Converted 16:9 mode and looked at the “Seasonal Forests” episode of Planet Earth (Blu-ray). As I expected, greens were somewhat overblown, but the browns of animals and dirt were completely natural, and detail in the texture of bark, animal hair, and pollen was excellent.

While I had that disc in the player, I also checked out a bit of the “Ocean Deep” episode. There was very little false-contour banding in the opening sequence as the sun appears from behind the limb of the planet, but I saw lots of banding when the first underwater shot faded in. Fortunately, there was little banding to be seen once this and other underwater shots were established. The black level was less than inky in the dark depths of this episode, and blacks appeared a bit reddish, as did the pillarbox bars on the sides of the image. Clearly, side masking would enhance the experience of watching this projector on a 2.35:1 screen.

Topsy-Turvy (DVD) is a 1.85:1 movie, which the Dream’E displayed correctly using its Converted 16:9 mode. Shadow detail in the carriage as Sullivan races to the opera house at the beginning was excellent, and the overall detail was as good as you can expect from standard def. The reds and greens of the Mikado sets almost glowed, but skintones were quite natural.

Next, I played an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (DVD) to see some 4:3 material. Of course, there were wide pillarbox bars on both sides of the image, and they were a bit ruddy, as was the black of space. Some of the episode I watched takes place on a planet’s surface, where the green foliage and the red in the Starfleet uniforms were a bit oversaturated. Otherwise, things looked as good as DVD can look.

Conclusion
Up until now, I’ve always been perfectly content to watch 2.35:1 movies on a 1.78:1 screen with letterbox bars, even without masking. That is, as long as the projector’s black level is low enough. But after the time I spent watching the Dream’E project 2.35:1 movies on a 2.35:1 screen, I might never be as satisfied with a 16:9 screen again.

Overall, I’m very impressed by the DreamVision Dream’E. I was originally skeptical about its ability to cleanly display 2.35:1 and 1.78:1 images through a fixed anamorphic lens. However, thanks to its first-rate processing, it performed much better in this regard than I expected. Granted, greens and reds are oversaturated (though, surprisingly, fleshtones are not) and the black level isn’t the lowest I’ve seen, but overall detail and shadow delineation are both superb. Add to that anamorphic capabilities for less than $10,000, and you have a real winner.