Epson HC720 Shadow Details

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Art Feierman

Despite the lack of really great black levels, the Home Cinema 720 is really very good on shadow details. In this, it reminds me very much of the $2000 Mitsubishi HC4900, currently the lowest cost 1080p projector. It too doesn't do great blacks, yet the details are there. I won't go into the "how" of it, but that's not a contradiction.

We'll start with this cropped image of a night scene in Gondor, from Lord of the Rings. This image is significantly overexposed so you can see the details in the shadow area. The left thumbnail is the Epson, the the right one, the Panasonic PT-AX20U:

HC720 LOTR gondor night over lg

PT-AX200U LOTR gondor night closeLg

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The image below is also from Lord of the Rings. The thumbnail image is normally exposed, but clicking on it will give you a large, overexposed image. Look for the details in the shed on the right, along the bottom and the wood structure on the left.