The top-of-the-line Marantz DLP projectors have always been highly regarded. audio|video Revolution reviews the VP-12S4, courtesy of eCoustics.

The Marantz VP-12S4 is a single-chip DLP projector using TI’s HD2+ DLP chipset. It’s the most expensive Marantz S4 projector, costing a pretty $14,499. This projector comes with one of three Konica lenses, and has vertical (but no horizontal) lens shift. It has a 4500:1 contrast ratio and 700 ANSI lumens of brightness. To help with the contrast ratio, it has an adjustable iris. Two HDMI inputs are included. Also included is the Gennum GF9350 processor!

The reviewer liked the picture quality: “One of the first things I noted was that the S4 did a good job with color rendition and skin tones, and the grass field looked natural.” and “While watching “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” in HD via DirecTV’s 1080i HDMI output, I found that Marantz did a great job with scaling 1080i images as well.” But “Regular 480i TV images were not nearly as good and I noted stair-stepping or jagged-edge artifacts, although rarely to the point of distraction.” This is important to me personally because unfortunately there’s still a lot of SD cable TV to watch!

Conclusion?

There is no doubt that the Marantz VP-12S4 is one of the best single-chip DLP projectors currently on the market. Many participants in the online video forums have expressed concerns about buying any 720p video device at this time. I understand their concerns but disagree. As I stated above, I believe it will take a couple of generations of 1080p DLP chips to get performance up to levels commensurate with the resolution. Second, mainstream 1080p sources are a rarity right now and probably will be a few years to come to market. So why not get the best possible picture you can get now and enjoy it now? That is what I did. I bought the sample projector to use for my reference system.

Personally, I’m not so sure. You can get 3 chip DLP projectors for the same price. Plus, the Sony VPL-VW100 is an SXRD projector without a colour wheel, costs less, natively supports rendering and input of 1080p signals, and got a stellar review. Next year Blu-ray, HD DVD, and the PS3 hit the market, and I’m pretty sure all of them support 1080p. What do you think?

eCoustics/avrev - Marantz VP-12S4 High-Definition DLP Projector Review