InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance

InFocus X10
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons

There's lots of information about the X10 to cover in this section. These links will allow you to quickly get to any topics of interest to you.

InFocus X10 Menus
InFocus X10 User Memory Settings
X10 Remote Control
X10 Lens Throw and Lens Shift, Pixel Structure...
SDE and Rainbow Effect
InFocus X10 Projector Brightness
InFocus X10 Light Leakage
InFocus X10 Audible Noise Levels
X10 Projector Screen Recommendations
X10 Calibration
Image Noise
InFocus X10 - Other issues

InFocus X10 Projector: Menus

The InFocus X10 home theater projector has what appears to be an the same set of menus as the InFocus IN83 we reviewed less than two months ago. Instead of repeating everything in this section, here's a link to the IN83 menus description. Use the back button to return to this page.

InFocus X10 Projector: User Memory Settings

Like the IN83, the X10 has three user savable memory settings.

 

In addition there are two others - ISF Day, and ISF Night, password protected memories accessable by ISF certified calibrators.

InFocus X10 Projector: Remote Control

The InFocus X10 home theater projector also comes with the same remote control as the IN83. Here's the full rundown:

The relatively small InFocus X10 remote control fits nicely in your hand and is backlit by blue LEDs. To engage the backlight, press the trigger on the bottom side of the remote. The backlight nicely illuminates the graphics on each button, but at the same time makes it harder to read the text description right above each button. That means it's in your interest to learn those graphic Icons.

From the top. All alone on the top row, is the On/Off switch at the top center. Press once to turn on, once again, to turn off. If you have pressed the button once to turn the projector off, pressing it a second time cancels the operation.

Just below are four buttons in a diamond configuration. On the left side of the diamond, is the menu button, which opens the menus (or pressing it once they are open, closes the menus). In the center are the up and down navigation arrow, and on the right, the Enter button. I favor menu systems that use four arrow keys instead of the InFocus's two, as that seems to save a few keystrokes, but since you really aren't going to access the menus often, it's hardly worth quibbling over.

Towards the bottom are three more rows of buttons, here are the buttons by row:

First row, left to right: Resize, Overscan (overscan is used to eliminate noise around the edge of images, typically found on standard TV resolution broadcasts, and often on HDTV broadcasts of non HD material. It does mean that the image is no longer one for one pixel mapped, so it does affect apparent sharpness slightly). On the right is the Source button, which will have the projector search for an active source.

On the middle row, you'll find a Custom button - a nice touch, you can program it to handle the favorite function of your choice. In the middle, is a auto image button, letting the X10 do its best, and on the right, the Preset button which will let you choose your favorite preset, to match what you are watching.

The last row has three source buttons, you can define them to the specfic sources you have hooked up, out of the much larger number of inputs available.

All considered a very nice, but not exceptional remote control.

I should note that the InFocus does not automatically adjust the apect ratio as the sources change. For example, if you are watching HDTV in 16:9 mode, and switch to a regular TV channel, you'll manually have to change the aspect ratio, but pressing the aspect ratio button on the remote until 4:3 ratio appears.

InFocus X10 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens Shift

This InFocus is another "classic" DLP when it comes to lens attributes. The zoom is your basic 1.2:1 ratio, providing very limited placement flexibility (1.2:1 zooms are found on most DLP projectors). This provides about 2 feet of placement flexibility with a 100" screen. By comparison 3LCD (and LCOS projectors), typically have 2:1 zooms - about 10 feet of placement, which means typically anywhere from the middle to the back of most rooms.

That makes the X10 suitable for ceiling mounting in most rooms. Be sure to figure out where you need a projector to go in your room, before purchasing.

The X10 lacks adjustable lens shift, making it unsuitable for shelf mounting, but, again, that's true of almost all DLP projectors.

The actual placement range, for a 100", 16:9 aspect ratio screen is from approximately 13.5 feet, to 16.1 feet, from the screen, measured from the front of the lens. Fixed lens shift for that size screen will place a ceiling mounted InFocus (measured from the center of the lens), is about 17.5 inches. This means that the lens of the projector will be 17.5 inches above the top of the screen surface.

This amount of lens shift, works great in rooms with fairly high celings but creates problems in rooms with less than eight feet of height. For a 7 foot ceiling (such as a basement might have), if your projector (lens) is only 12 inches below the ceiling, then, for a 100" diagonal screen (49" high), that puts the bottom of the screen surface at about 25 inches from the floor - a little low if you plan two rows of seating. Still, for an 8 foot ceiling that number increases to about 3 feet, which many consider close to ideal. Bottom line, if you want a rather large screen, say 120" diagonal, to consider the InFocus X10, then ceiling height becomes a huge factor.

InFocus X10 Projector: SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility

As is typical for 1080p projectors, and DLP ones in particular, SDE - Screen Door Effect is not an issue. The high resolution of 1080p makes pixel size dramatically smaller than that of 720p projectors (whose pixels are 2.25 times the size). Combine that with a DLP projector's less visible pixel structure (at any resolution), and what you have is a projector, that, at normal seating distances, poses no problem. You can still make out a little bit of pixel structure in things like movie credits and on overlayed graphics (such as sports scores, and stats), but it's really not an issue. Only the few LCoS projectors (primarily from JVC and Sony), have less visible pixel structure.

RBE - Rainbow effect is more problematic. For the very small percentage of us that are sensitive to the rainbows (normally easiest to spot when fast moving white or near white objects move across a dark background), the X10 is typical of a 1080p DLP projector, with its 4x seven segment wheel. Now, a number of other 1080p DLP projectors have 5x wheels, and the high end Optomas have 6x. Partially offsetting the X10's slightly slower wheel, is the use of seven segments, instead of the more common 4 or 5. As with watching the IN83, I found the rainbow effect to be minimal. I never see it in scenes that are well lit, but it does occasionally show up for me, in those dark action scenes. The X10 is very good in terms of minimizing RBE, but not the best. Still, having owned DLPs previously, the X10's RBE for those sensitive should be more than satisfactory.

That said, if at all possible, if you are shopping for your first home theater projector, it's to your advantage to find out, before a purchase, if you are sensitive to the Rainbow Effect, at all. You know the problem - trying to find a local place where you can see projectors demo'ed.

InFocus X10 Projector: Brightness

When it comes to dishing out the lumens, the X10 is rather impressive in its best mode, although its more average in brightest mode, for those trying to cut through a fair amount of ambient light, say, while watching sports or typical TV, where really dark scenes are infrequent or rare.

OK by the numbers: Before any calibration, other than adjusting Contrast and Brightness, with Color Temp set to 6500K, and Brilliant Color off, and iris fully open:

Gamma=Film, 819 lumens          
Gamma=PC, 940 lumens
Gamma=Video, 803 lumens
Gamma=CRT, 787 lumens
Gamma=Bright Room, 820 lumens

Interestingly, the Bright Room mode, wasn't brighter than Film but the gamma is markedly different. Turns out PC mode is the brightest, and easiest bright mode to get a good calibration on, according to Mike Rollett who does the calibrations for us.

After a basic calibration (see details below in that section) of Film and PC modes we arrived at measurements of:

Film: 810 lumens (very nicely bright). This makes it, I believe, the brightest of any of the lower cost 1080p projectors, in best mode. Of course, if too bright for your room, you can reduce brightness with the iris. Lowering the iris from 100, to 55, for example drops brightness about 17%. Figure brightness down 50% or more with the iris closed to the 0 setting, although we didn't measure that.

PC: To get maximum lumens for the PC mode, turn on Brilliant Color (which increases brightness about 20%), and Select Native for the Color Temp instead of Film (good for about a 17% gain) and the end result is an impressive 1312 lumens. Using Native Color Temp does give you a slightly cooler (shift towards blue) image, than the 6500K setting (still around 7100K average), but many, including myself, tend to favor that, when dealing with ambient light.

I personally recommend Brilliant Color off, unless you need every last lumen. Brilliant Color adds some punch, but overall picture quality isn't quite as good. Hey, go with what you like. With Brilliant Color off you are still down around 1100 lumens, which is about average for 1080p projectors in brightest mode. the 1312 lumens, with Brilliant Coor on, is very good, but still shy of some of the competition, such as the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB, which can put out almost 1700 lumens in brightest mode.

Finally, when Mike is doing the measuring and calibrating, he tends to come up with "brightest mode" lumen measurements a little lower than I do, that's because I'm willing to leave a little excess green in the picture, as it helps cut through ambient light. His final picture quality, therefore, is a touch better than mine, but it probably costs him 5-10% in lumens. Bottom line, if you need all the lumens, and push the PC mode a little further, it's possible that the InFocus X10 can probably exceed 1400 lumens.

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InFocus X10 Projector: Light Leakage

Once again, we have here, an InFocus projector that leaks light out the lens, outside of the image area, including some lens refactions, mostly to the top right (like the IN83 - so we weren't surprised). The leakage, however, is rather dim, and should not be a problem. It's possible that if you have white walls, you might notice it when you have a really dark scene, but I judge it, overall, not to be an issue of note.

InFocus X10 Projector: Audible Noise Levels

Another "noisy" DLP projector. InFocus rates it 30 db in low power, and 33 in full power. The fan noise is there, the pitch however is nicely low. These noise levels are typical of DLP home theater projectors, and high enough that they will bother a few people. I can point out that my Sony PS3 used as my Blu-ray player, has even higher fan noise, as, likely is your heating/air conditioning, if you have the usual forced air system.

Consider the noise levels to be an issue, if you have previous experience with DLP models and have been bothered by the noise in the past. Also, if the projector ends up mounted 4-5 feet above your head (as in very close), it may be a mild annoyance. Of course you are only going notice on those completely or almost completely quiet scenes. Few are really bothered with noise levels like those of the X10, in full power mode, but, I do run across people who reject almost all projectors but those with specs 6 - 10 db quieter. They are a very small percentage of the enthusiasts. I seriously doubt a more typical consumer will care.

InFocus X10 Projector: Screen Recommendations

Darkchip1 is the issue. With only OK black levels, combined with an extremely bright projector in best mode, you've got enough lumens to spare, that I will definitely recommend a high contrast gray surface as my primary recommendation. Of course you need to consider your room, wall colors/brightness, screen size, etc. If you are going large - say 120" diagonal or more, then the black levels will not be as bright (or if you close down the iris), but at full power, in best mode, with a white matte surface, those letter boxes at the top and bottom of most movies, are very medium dark gray, a long way from black. They are definitely visible - almost bright, on very dark scenes, so that makes a HC Gray surface a good choice to get the black levels under control.

As usual, my first choice would be the Stewart Firehawks; G3 or SST, depending on placement distance. For those on a budget though, the Firehawks are generally out, as they are very expensive.

Elite and Da-lite both have excellent HC Gray surfaces. Da-lite has two to choose from, one of which, the CinemaVision, has a positive gain of 1.1. Elite's HC gray has less "HC" high contrast, and is very light gray, so it has less affect than most others, however, it's an excellent compromise, and the lowest cost solutions of those I'm well familiar with. It's a very good match for mid to larger sizes, say 110" or bigger. Just about every one makes HC gray surfaces though (Draper, Grandview, Vutec, Screen Innovations, etc). Even Carada has one, and it's one of the less bright, (and only available as a fixed wall screen - no motorized or pull-down). The Carada might be the ideal choice if you choose to go with a smaller screen - no larger than 100" diagonal.

Of course matte white screens will work fine, but the HC grays let you address the entry level DLP black level issue, rather nicely.

InFocus X10 Projector: Measurements and Calibration

First here are the measurements "out of the box" for best mode, with lamp at full power. Those settings are Color Temp set to 6500K Gamma set to Film, Brightness to 64, Contrast to 18, Brilliant Color off, Lamp on high, and iris fully open.

White (100 IRE): 6422K
Light gray (80 IRE): 6289K
Medium gray (50 IRE): 6192K
Low gray (30 IRE): 6292K

Over all, a little to the warm (reddish) side (lower than the ideal 6500K), but close.

Post Calibration:

Brightness = 64
Contrast = 28
Color Temp = 6500
Gamma = Film
Lamp mode = Hi

Plus these changes to the RGB settings:

Gain: R=50, G=48, B=49
Offset: R=48, G=49, 49

As you can see, not much to adjust!

OK, remember we're loooking for D65 color which is technically 6480K (most just refer to 6500K as I doubt anyone can see a 20 degree shift in normal content.

Here's the bottom line on post calibration color accuracy:

White (100 IRE): 6514K
Light gray (80 IRE): 6533K
Medium gray (50 IRE): 6593K
Low gray (30 IRE): 6566K

Now those are truly great numbers! Virtually dead on. And they are reflected in the beautiful skin tones and color overall!

I should note that below 30 IRE, where our equipment is less accurate, there is a slight warm shift (lower number) but even at 20 IRE, that was still holding at 6311K.

X10 Image Noise

The InFocus X10 does just fine in terms of image noise. Background image noise is modest - better than the average DLP, and comparable to most 3LCD home projectors. No issue at all with jaggies, and motion artifacts are handled well, response is pretty fast.

Bottom line on Image Noise - unless you encounter some content with a strange cadence (I don't test all the cadences, just the standard), the InFocus X10 does just fine here. Scratch this off your list of possible concerns.

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InFocus X10: Other issues

There's one thing I've been noticing, and reporting on more of late, and that is whether the projector can sense the correct aspect ratio. I seem to find projectors fall into three categories:

1. Does nothing - leaves the aspect ratio where it was last set. If you were watcing in 16:9, and then put on something in 4:3, you'll need to manually switch the aspect ratio.

2. Attempts to adjust - as above, but will switch on its own, but with only some success. I do believe I've encountered projectors than can pick up on a change, when the source changes to one with a different aspect ratio, but most often they won't catch and adjust if you go from, say an HDTV channel to one with 4:3 aspect ratio, because it's the same source.

3. Simply more successful than #2, especially with channel changing

The InFocus X10 at least as far as I can tell, does not automatically adjust to different aspect ratios, as some projectors do (JVC and Epson, definitely). This isn't that uncommon, but it means that if you are watching the TV with an HD channel, and then switch to a regular channel with 4:3 aspect ratio, you get a stretched image, etc. I find this always to be a nuisance. One nice thing, though, is that you should be able to setup the Custom key on the remote as a one touch, for one direction - either setting up 16:9 or 4:3 on the button, so that you don't have to toggle through the aspect ratio menu in both directions.

InFocus X10
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons