BenQ W1070 Projector Calibration and Settings

Mike calibrated the BenQ W1070 Home Entertainment projector.  Below we repeat a lot of the measurement results reported on the Performance page, but here we add the calibration settings Mike determined in completing his calibration of the W1070.

1/14/2012 - Art Feierman

Let's take a look at the numbers:

BenQ W1070 Color Temperature

Before we provide our settings, let's see what we started out with: Pre calibration, these are the color temperatures over the grayscale range:

Color Temp over IRE Range (Various Modes):

Cinema/Standard/User            

30 IRE             6809               
50 IRE             6840               
80 IRE             6807
100 IRE           6905 

Note, default color in these modes is slightly cool, but not significantly so.  The color temp appears pretty consistent from bright to dark ranges.  

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom):

These numbers tell you how bright each mode is, and the measured color temperature of white, in that mode.  Note that when you switch to eco-mode, the color temp gets a bit more cool (higher number). 

Dynamic= 1786 @ 7754         
Standard= 1730 @ 6912
Cinema= 1711 @ 6913, 1109 @ 7359 with Eco lamp,
1335 @ 6566 with Normal lamp and Brilliant Color off.
User 1= 1730 @ 6897
User 2= 1730 @ 6904

NOTE:  Standard, User 1 and User 2 are identical.  Cinema is very close to them as well.

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BenQ W1070 Basic Settings

In addition to calibrating Red Green and Blue for a correct grayscale balance (6500K), there are a number of other settings that come into play. Typically Contrast and Brightness (white balance and black balance), need to be done first. Color saturation and gamma also need adjustment. In the case of this Epson most of these default settings were fairly close to ideal.

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):

Dynamic Standard Cinema User 1 User 2
Contrast (50)= 42 49 47 49 49
Brightness (50)= 51 51 52 51 51
Color (50 for all) 50 50 50 50 50
Tint (50 for all) 50 50 50 50 50
Gamma= BenQ 2.2 2.4 2.2 2.2

Mike Comments:  Can’t adjust Color or Tint with HDMI input, but there is a CMS that can be used.  Color Temp is Normal and Brilliant Color is ON by default for all modes.  Cinema mode is in Eco lamp by default. 

Lamp Mode=Normal (unless noted otherwise)
All other settings at default (untouched)

BenQ W1070 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode                     

Calibrated color temps, 20 – 100 IRE:

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration) User 1:                   

20 IRE =          6427
30 IRE =          6427
40 IRE =          6496
50 IRE =          6449
60 IRE =          6477
70 IRE =          6419
80 IRE =          6452
90 IRE =          6469
100 IRE =        6499

Average gamma= 2.16

Gamma proved to be rather good, and very close to the targeted 2.2. Mike had this to say about the gamma:   Using the 2.2 gamma setting results in an average gamma or 2.16.  The next step is 2.4, which results in an average gamma of about 2.36, which may be too dark.

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W1070 RGB Settings

To try these, open the menus, and from the Image menu, select Cinema mode.  Then go down to Advanced. Open it, then select RGB.  Place these number in, replacing the defaults.  The improvements should be pretty obvious.  We recommend you then save your settings under User 1.

W1070 Post Calibration settings:                              

Calibration settings for User 1:

Gain (50)         R = 51                                                 
                        G = 50                                                            
                        B = 49
                                                                       
Offset (256)     R = 256                                                           
                        G = 256                                                                      
                        B = 256

W1070 Calibrated Brightness in Lumens:  100 IRE: 1711 @ 6668

 That's a whole lot of calibrated lumens!       

Mike provided these additional notes, regarding the ability to calibrate different settings, limitations, etc.:

NOTE:  There was no reason to do a Quick Cal of the brightest mode (Dynamic) as it’s only 56 lumens brighter than User 1 to begin with.

The W1070 has amazingly good RGB balance right out of the box and almost perfect with just a few minor adjustments to the Gain.  If you see a little red in the light grays, you could even forego adjusting the Red gain, just turn Blue down one notch and end up with an RGB balance that beats a lot of pricier projectors after calibration.  Color looks pretty good with adjustment, but you easily turn down the Red in the CMS if you think it’s a bit too much. 

Mike reports the CIE chart looks much better than the last affordable BenQ projector he worked with:  This is a big improvement over the W1200 reviewed last year.

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NEXT: Recommended projector screens for the BenQ W1070 Projector