IN76 Home Theater Projector: Image Quality

Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons

Over recent years, one way InFocus has set itself apart from the competition in the home theater projector market, has been their focus on maximizing "out-of-box" performance. Some of the very best projectors in almost any price range that I have had the opportunity to evaluate, have had to be color calibrated to really perform at their best. Also, I should note, that if you measure a projector in its best mode, you won't get the best specs, like highest brightness. Once you calibrate most projectors (either professionally - figure $300 - $1000+) or do it yourself with a $40 - $50 calibration disk, and an hour or so of your time, you will find with most projectors, that overall performance improves, often dramatically. (Note, you won't get as good a result with that $50 disk, as having a pro do it, but it should get you much of the way to "best" performance.).

This Hi-Def image of the Chrysler Building at dusk, is from Over America, a D-VHS tape, with 1080i resolution.

The InFocus Play Big IN76, for example is rated at 1000 lumens, a bit lower than most of the competition, yet when we measured it, it was one of the brightest projectors in class.

Perhaps even more important, though, I have come to expect really excellent color accuracy out of the box, good enough that you shouldn't need that disk, just plug in, and enjoy.

In the case of the IN76, I was actually surprised that the out of box color performance was not virtually to "dead on". It was still closer than any other projector I have reviewed in the last year, but off just a little. In measuring the color balance, and looking for a perfect 6500K, I found the InFocus to be a little low (leaning slightly toward red). It was a very straight forward calibration to correct the error, but more to the point, overall, the colors were extremely well balanced and flesh tones were very good, even with no calibration. This differs dramatically from some others, most notably the Optoma HD72, one of my very favorite projectors. The HD72 is not a projector that is ready to fully enjoy "out of box". It sorely needs a basic calibration to get rid of the noticeable greenish caste that can make flesh tones visibly uninviting.

With the InFocus IN76, instead, the vast majority of users will be extremely pleased with what they project, without touching a thing, and I see that as a strong selling point. Despite my constant advice in reviews to encourage people to buy calibration disks, and invest a little time, it becomes apparent that very few buyers do spring for a disk, and even less for a pro calibration.

So lets get serious about the strengths and weaknesses of the IN76 image quality. These first images concentration flesh tones, and the IN76 does just great! Here are a number of images designed to show of the IN76's ability to accurately capture flesh tones:

And of course, my favorite image found on almost all reviews, Arwen from Lord of the Rings:

We've already congratuated InFocus on good color accuracy, but I want to point out, that after first looking at the IN76, as noted, I was surprised it was off as much as it was. I took the opportunity to touch base with a couple of other reviewers. And not surprisingly, the consensus was that their units were virtually dead on, more accurate than the unit I had. After much reflection I am lead to believe that my unit may have a lamp that is off a bit in its color (lamps do vary from unit to unit, but some more than others), or there might even be a problem with the IN76 itself.

So, despite very acceptable out of box color (better than the competition), this unit I tested may not be a good as most buyers can expect. I have already contacted InFocus for a 2nd review unit, so I could see if it performs even better. I'm hoping that will happen sometime in May, and I will update this review with the results.

Another aspect is contrast ratio, and more to the point, the ability to generate "blacks". For years, the contrast ratio has been the indicator of how close to black a fixed pixel device like a DLP or LCD projector, LCDTV or Plasma display, could get. Today, however the contrast ratio is only an indicator, as some manufacturers (mostly LCD home theater projector builders) use "AI" (artificial intelligence - in a primitive sense), to improve black performance and increase contrast. There is a fudge factor there, with AI, however. In some scenes it may make a significant difference, in others, none at all.

So from a viewing perspective, the IN76 which claims 3000:1 contrast ratio, seems to be one of the best performing Darkchip2 projectors when it comes to achieving excellent black levels. From a comparison standpoint, on the type of scenes where AI does little or no good, I found the InFocus IN76 projector to perform as well as the Optoma HD72, which claims 3500:1 contrast (and 5000:1 with AI engaged).

Below are two images of the same frame from Lord of the Rings. The first is exposed normally, and the second is badly overexposed. (I've used this pair of images in other reviews). The idea is to show how well the projector handles shadow details. By overexposing the 2nd image, you can look into the dark areas on the right and lower right and see what detail is really there, up on the screen. My digital camera cannot match the dynamic range of the projector, so if bright areas are exposed normally, shadow detail is lost. Here you can see in the second image that there is excellent details in those dark shadow areas.

Black levels were very acceptable (although definitely not up to the more expensive DLP projectors using the Darkchip3). As an added bonus, those very dark grays that represent blacks are neutral in color, whereas many projectors tend to shift the blacks off center, and you might note that they are slightly redish, or brownish, or bluish, etc. (I may have just invented 3 words -sorry). So, it's blacks are neutral, comparable or better than other Darkchip2 projectors and visibly better than any of the LCD projectors in the price range, with the possible exception of the Sony HS51A.

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Gamma is another interesting area that separates projectors. Not only do you need colors to be correctly balanced, but you need colors to be in the correct proportion relative to how bright they are. Imagine breaking down the brightness of a color (or gray) into 10 sections from darkest to brightest. Ideally the difference between each should be the same. But if one projector's first step up from black is less than another's, then near black areas will be almost indistinguishable from the black, and you lose the detail. Projectors that pack the lower ranges too close together, and do the same for the whites and near whites, tend to look contrasty and lose details.

The point of all this, is that I found the IN76 to do an excellent job in terms of the gamma. Now this is a determination without the benefit of measurement, but I spend at least 10-15 hours of general watching on each projector I review. For example, I found the IN76 to provide better highlight detail in the extremely bright areas, than on the competing HD72. The InFocus scores very well here.

I found that the IN76 did extremely well in terms of preserving highlight details. In this regard, I definitely observed that the IN76 did a better job on near white area detail than the Optoma HD72 when viewing them both side by side.

Color saturation - the intensity of the colors, is something you can easily control on every projector, and with the IN76 projector, sure enough, there is a color saturation control (Color). I found the default to be slightly undersaturated (again this could relate to a possible problem), but adjusting it up a few points provided the saturation I was looking for. The image below shows the InFocus IN76 on the left, and Optoma's HD72 on the right, The difference in color saturation is noticeable, however adjustable. (The InFocus IN76 is in default settings, the HD72 in the Brilliant Color 4 setting (see more below).

Now we get into InFocus's choice of DLP chips, and something called Brilliant Color which are "preset" balances of attributes that Texas Instruments provides at least with their new Darkchip2 that is 1280x768 resolution, that I mentioned in the overview. With Brilliant Color, a user can quickly change the setting from 1 - 10 each more intense (for lack of a more precise term) than the one before. I really liked this feature in the Optoma projector. Mind you, nothing Brilliant Color offers, can't be accomplished by adjusting contrast, brightness, saturation and other settings, and the InFocus IN76 has all the controls, its just that Brilliant Color makes things so easy! (No it will not cure something like the Optoma's tendency to produce a slightly greenish cast image.)

Just to clarify, the InFocus has its own set of presets - more in the General Performance section when we look at menus, but they call theirs CRT, Film, Video, BrightRoom, etc. It's simply that machines with Brilliant color also have those, plus these extra adjustments you can dial in.

Quicktip: A purist would want a perfectly calibrated machine, and no matter with what presets they start with, the end result would be one final group of settings, producing the "perfect" image. Having dozens of presets would mean nothing. For most people though, its nice to be able do decide that this preset, or that one, provides richer colors that they like better, and I like that.

So, while Brilliant Color is a nice convenience which I really like, ultimately, in my opinion it doesn't improve a projectors best performance, it just makes personal preferences easier to fine tune.

Here's another side by side (Starship explosion from Starship Troopers), against the Optoma, with the InFocus on the left, You may also click on the image for a much larger version:

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No image overshoot

This is more of a performance area item than Image Quality, but I want to start here. The IN76, as mentioned is a native 1280x720 resolution projector, that is the correct 16:9 aspect ratio of HDTV. Others like Optoma and Mitsubishi are using the 1280x768, which means the shape is not a perfect match for a home theater screen (16:9). As a result, those using the 1280x768 chip will slightly overshoot your screen at the top and bottom. Not by much, but if your screen doesn't have a black border of about 2" or more, you might see some light on your wall above and below. While I have worked with several projectors with that odd aspect ratio, and didn't find it to be a problem (both of my screens have fairly wide border/frames), I'm personally more comfortable with the idea of true 1280x720.

HDTV image quality

The IN76 looked "simply fabulous" on HD sources. I watched the usual HDTV (Leno, NBA basketball, Discovery HD, and was never dissapointed. I also viewed a couple of D-VHS tapes outputting 1080i. Immediately below is an image from the Over America HD tape. The image is extremely sharp.

You can click on this image to view a much larger version:

More Images

Here are a number of additional images. For as well as my digital camera is able to capture, and your computer, to reproduce them, you should still be able to tell that the images from the IN76 look good, and right!

Overall, the IN76 provides a well balanced image between dark and light areas, and in the image above, you get that feel of a bright sunny day, something that many projectors tend to mute giving you more the feel that the image was filmed on more of a hazy day.

In summary, image quality of the IN76 projector is most impressive!

Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons