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If you think “move theater quality” doesn’t mean what it used to, you’re not wrong. Many theatergoers find themselves underwhelmed by poorly maintained machinery in their local Cineplex. Add in the erosion of traditional movie theater etiquette, and you–like me–might find yourself waiting until movies come out on streaming to enjoy them from the comfort of your own home. If you can get your hands on the Valerion VisionMaster Max, the only reason to go to a theater would be to grab a novelty popcorn bucket that looks like a dinosaur head.
At mid-day with lights on, the VisionMaster Max delivered brightness and clarity of image similar to my mid-range TV. With curtains drawn, and lights turned off, it felt like being in a theater. At night-time, with the space as dark as I could make it, the vibrancy of the picture was staggering. I felt like a wide-eyed child, and “the magic of the movies” felt, for the first time in a while, tangible.
I also tried the VisionMaster Pro; the Max has a few improvements on what was already a truly excellent projector. It’s got algorithmic dark scene enhancement: images that are mostly dark have depth, but details; you can see what’s happening without losing the richness of the shadows. If the next scene is brightly lit, you don’t need to pause and adjust–the projector is always optimizing for the most optimal viewing experience.
It also has technology to cut the “rainbow effect,” that eye-straining issue where figures on the screen have prismatic color breakdown around the edges, like watching a 3D movie without glasses. The Max also has speckle reduction that makes even older movies look noticeably better, without any uncanny smoothing. Each of these individual features (and a whole host of others) makes the picture immersive, deep, and absolutely stunning. I watched Thor: Love and Thunder, which has an amvibrant, fantasy world coloring for most of the film, and then a striking black-and-white sequence. I saw this movie in theaters when it came out: it looked better on the Max.
The device itself is sleek and modern–whether you have your projector on a stand in the center of your room or installed on the ceiling, the machine is designed to enhance the aesthetic of your room. With built-in Google TV, it’s as easy to operate as any smart TV and can stream natively over wi-fi, or you can connect an ethernet cord for a staggering up-to-1GB download speed (provided your internet can even support that). Set up is intuitive, and if you’re using a projector screen, the device attempts to align the image automatically. I cast onto the largest white wall of my house, which happens to have a slanted ceiling and was built by someone who thought 90-degree angles were for losers. This means manually adjusting the display size and angle; more tedious, but the results can’t be argued with.
As far as I can see, there’s only one downside: the price. This quality comes at a premium, and you can find plenty of projectors (and most TVs) for less. But if you’re building out a home theater or are a cinephile obsessed with image quality, it doesn’t get better than this. The VisionMaster Pro also has the ability to use external lenses (coming soon), so you can continue to refine and upgrade your image without replacing the device entirely.
I know that every movie director will implore me to go see their film in theaters “as it was meant to be seen.” But when I can turn every movie, TV show, even YouTube video into an IMAX-esque experience on the VisionMaster Pro, I have a really hard time imagining that it gets better than this.
