Epson Home Cinema 6500UB - CFI revisited with new firmware
May 6th, 2009 Art Feierman
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Greetings all!
I have now installed the 1.09 firmware upgrade for the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB and Pro Cinema 7500UB, and have preliminary comments regarding the CFI - creative frame interpolation changes. What a difference!
OK, but first, some of you probably noticed - we had some major problems with the Projector Reviews website today. It’s mostly fixed now, and should be fully restored in a few more hours (5/6).
Back to the Epson creative frame interpolation. After getting the new firmware 1.09 installed, I wanted to immediately establish how different it would perform compared to the original CFI.
I am pleased to report initially, that the improvement is dramatic. Mind you, I’ve hardly played with it, but I started off using The Dark Knight on Blu-ray. The two scenes I used were from the opening. The first is the original zoom in shot, of the buildings. With CFI off it’s not hard to see the continuous, slight jerkiness as the windows came closer and the building on the right zooms past. I then set the CFI to Normal (the middle position) and watched again. Everything was very smooth. You can still detect that it’s not perfect, but it is nice and smooth, a major improvement.
Next I viewed at the end of the robbery, the school buses going past. As each bus goes by you can see the motion artifacts - the “blurring” of the window frames of the buses.
Turn CFI on, and voila’ it’s gone, you can now follow a single window and it’s “clean” without that blurring - almost a doubling.
Bingo! That’s exactly what was hoped for. At least in the Normal setting, any motion artifacts caused by the CFI have proved to be very minor, which I would have said the same thing for the Panasonic PT-AE3000. I have yet to try and spot the differences between Low, Normal and High, but did look quickly at Normal’s performance on one of those scenes, and it too, was much smoother than CFI off.
Next! The “live digital video” look (soap opera look). The way over the top affect we saw on the original Epson’s is gone. I do believe I can see a slight amount in Normal in my viewing, but nothing that I objected to. I think this is a tendency of all CFI to 120, it has to change something. Bottom line, looks good so far, but I will spend a lot more time.
Lastly I have not yet tried HDTV, and especially movies coming across on HDTV. No reason to expect any issues with standard HDTV, but movies (that start as 24fps) converted to 60 for HDTV, completely drove the old firmware crazy, the picture was definitely not something you wanted to watch with CFI on, not even in Low.
From what I’ve seen so far, I expect that the movies over HDTV will be good too, certainly Epson recognized the problem.
After a bit move viewing, probably tomorrow night, I’ll put the Epson up against the Panny for some side by sides with the CFI.
Gotta run, that’s it for now.
PS. Sony VPL-VW70 in review. First look blog will likely be tomorrow night. -art
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May 7th, 2009 at 2:14 am
This is great news! I look forward to the side-by-side comparison you mentioned.
Do you happen to know if this (or a similar) firmware update is also available
for the European model of this projector? (Epson EH-TW5000)
I am using the EH-TW5000 myself and the soap opera look is very pronounced.
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Hi Niels,
I don’t know for sure, but I did receive an email (or two?) a couple of weeks ago, from someone in the EU who already had received a firmware upgrade. I’d say check with Epson in your country. -art
May 7th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Hi Art,
I also installed the new CFI firmware and I like the low setting even better than normal. I guess it is a matter of taste. The great thing is that CFI seems fixed with the new firmware. Waiting to see your test results comparing the 7500 to the AE300.
I also have the new Oppo Blu-Ray player and I used this player for my tests.
Regards,
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Greetings Richard,
You are ahead of me. I’ll be playing with the different modes, with different content starting this evening. It will probably take me a few days to get a decent handle on how the Low/Normal/High settings differ, on different types of source content. -art
Richard Westley.
May 7th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Hi,
What are the official changes in this firmware update?
I’m asking because people at AVS forum said that Epson second line support told them that the changes were only for the LOW setting of the FI, and you said you saw big differences in Normal setting.
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Greetings JL,
Well, the written info I received from Epson doesn’t get into the differences between Low Normal and High, but the key change in handling standard 24fps content such as a movie on blu-ray, is the shift from creating 4 frames between each pair of originals (resulting in 120Hz), to, with 1.09, only creating 3 frames, which results in 96hz.
Handling of 24fps content over 1080i/60 remains the same, as does handling of standard 1080i/60. The first of those still strips the source back to 24fps, then adds 4 frames as before. For the second, it’s still adding one creative frame between each pair of 60fps source signal.
Let me clarify something from last night’s blog - with the CFI set to Normal, I detect only the very slightest “live digital video” look. And I can say that I have seen that on every CFI solution, not just the Panasonic, and Mitsubishi HC7000 but also on LCDTVs. I didn’t play with Low yet, as I wanted to be sure to have enough difference between no CFI and CFI on my first look. Tonight will be the Epson side by side against the Panny, and I will also start comparing Low to Normal to High.
My point was, on The Dark Knight - the Normal setting looked great, (as opposed to poor, with the original firmware. -art
May 7th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Art-
I have found a major difference in LOW setting. It has no soap opera affect and is great for BD source material.
Check it out.
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Peter, that’s tonight’s project! -art
May 7th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Art:
Can you test the new firmware’s FI with HDTV Sports - specifically basketball - where there’s fast movement. I have the 6500UB and PS3 and find that when I playback high def .ts files taped from the Hauppaugge HD-PVR that if I put the FI on (even low) the picture is terrible, and players begin to look like “sprites” in a video game.
This - being one of my main reasonas for viewing - was about to push me to sell my 6500UB - so I’d love to hear your review.
Also - (assuming the new firmware works with HDTV ports) is there a way to get that “video / soap opera look” - as that is VERY cool when watching sports - i.e. can you get it on the high setting?
thanks,
Jon
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Hi Jon,
I plan to check out sports tonight as well. Should be an NBA playoff game on. I haven’t even tried High setting yet, but I would suspect it will show a bit more “live digital video” look than Normal. But, at the same time, I also expect it will not be anywhere near to what the old firmware did. Hopefully it will be subtle at best. -art
May 7th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Could you provide a link to the upgraded firmware? Thanks!
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Hi John,
Sorry, no. They sent it to me by email, not from a link. There were four files, including one pdf which was instructions. Before you ask - contact Epson. They have asked that I not distribute the firmware, they want to handle, so they can track the upgrades, and there is no registration as part of doing it, so they need to get that info directly from you. -art
May 28th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Hello,
could someone tell wich is the Epson Home Cinema 6500UB in europe? i can find the TW5000 but i cant find his twin brother.
thx in advance
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I’m not sure that the 6500UB has a EU equivalent. The 6500UB/7500UB projectors were intended for different channels - 6500UB - for online, 7500UB for local install dealers. Thus the lack of anamorphic on the 6500UB, etc. to differentiate the two models. Last year, I do know there was only the equivalent to the Pro version of the 1080 UB. (This year’s Pro - is the 7500UB). Sorry I couldn’t tell you for sure. -art
Anybody?
June 11th, 2009 at 8:00 am
Art:
Just wanted to check back if you tested the HD sports (see my May 7th post above)?
thanks,
Jon
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Sorry for the delay, overlooked this post. Yes, the low setting works well with sports, I did watch a couple of hours of the NBA playoffs with the new firmware. I will say that I consider CFI improvements (compared to none) to be slight. You will appreciate the CFI most on the background as the camera normally pans while following a player, than with objects like following the basketball to the hoop. Perhaps the key point, is that it’s no longer a bit “over the top”. Works for me! -art