Christie HD8K vs Panasonic PT-DW10000 Shoot-Out tests at QED

QED became the first UK company to be able to put the new Panasonic PT-DW10000 and the Christie HD8K projectors to the test side by side. However whilst the Christie was clearly the finished article and looked to be around 9,000 ANSI lumens in brightness the Panasonic was only a pre-production model that appeared to produce only around 6,000 ANSI lumens at best. So not surprisingly on initial assessments of quality and brightness the Christie was the clear winner.

It certainly looked like Panasonic had a lot of work left to do in order to achieve the 10,000 ANSI lumens specification and so we very much look forward to seeing the full production model and being able to do a proper shoot-out as soon as possible.

Both machines possess the same latest generation native 1920 x 1080 3-chip DLP technology and so it was interesting to see how the different systems utilised this. By employing four UHP lamps the Panasonic was always going to be at a disadvantage in being able to meet the technical requirements of HD colour spacing and this did become quite evident with certain colours. The Xenon lamp of the Christie produced much greater colour accuracy and adjustability, and by dramatically reducing the Christie's lamp brightness very reasonable comparisons between the two machines could be made. The factory default settings on the Panasonic did look like they needed improving but once adjusted good results could be achieved.

Both machines have many useful in-built features. However only the Christie HD8K comes fully loaded as standard, including twin HD-SDI inputs channels and a stacking frame, whereas the single HD-SDI input is only an option on the DW10000 and it does not come with a frame for stacking or flying.

Because Christie have already developed brighter models of the same HD family it was an easy decision for QED to decide to invest in Christie instead of Panasonic. At this level of price QED had to be sure not only that it was investing in the very best quality but also that there was a clear vision of where the product was going, and only Christie could provide this.

For more specific technical details of the shoot-out QED's senior technician Adam Bending will be happy to discuss

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December 2006