Mitsubishi HC6800 Projector Calibration and Settings

We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. We perform contrast, brightness, saturation and other image adjustments, as well as a grayscale balance. A complete professional calibration can go even further, but the settings we provide generally offer a anywhere from a slight to dramatic improvement, compared to the "out of the box settings".

5/28/2010 - Art Feierman

Mitsubishi HC6800 Color Temperature

 

These are the measurements, taken "right out of the box." Mike chose Cinema as our starting point for a "best" mode. Cinema is also the same as the two user savable modes: Expert 1, and 2.

To start, the HC6800 looked very good, though not really on the money. Color temp was a little cool (more blue than red), but not much in the brighter areas, moving to neutral to wam (more red than blue) in the lower ranges.

Color Temp over IRE Range (Best color temp):

Medium Color Temp:

30 IRE – 7929K (dark grey)
50 IRE – 7236K
80 IRE – 6540K
100 IRE – 6583K (white)

                                                    

For those interested, here are the color temperature measurements (and lumens) for white (100 IRE), for each of the preset modes, as reported on the Performance page.

Lumen Output at various Color Temps at 100 IRE:

Medium= 687 @ 6583K           
High Brightness= 946 @ 7864K
Cool= 573 @ 9459K
Warm= 652 @ 5937K

 

 

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Mitsubishi HC6800 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.

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):

Settings for measurements, all color temps:

Contrast= -2
Brightness= 3
Color= -1
Tint= 0
Gamma= Auto (unless noted otherwise)
Color Temp= Medium
Lamp Mode= Standard (unless noted otherwise)
Iris= Off
All other settings at default

 

 

Mitsubishi HC6800 Post Calibration Grayscale

When done with the calibration, the HC6800 achieves color accuracy about as good as any other projector recently reviewed, including the JVC DLA-RS25

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):

                                    AVMemory 1

20 IRE                        6602K                                   
30 IRE                        6472K                                 
40 IRE                        6489K                                   
50 IRE                        6492K                                   
60 IRE                        6516K                                 
70 IRE                        6554K                                 
80 IRE                        6528K                                 
90 IRE                        6420K                                 
100 IRE                      6307K                                 

Average gamma=         2.18           

 

Gamma settings:

Mike put it this way. The default gamma is almost dead on, averaging 2.18, with unusual tendencies.

Dynamic Iris

The dynamic iris is nicely done. I've found it to be one of the least noticeable out there. In fairness, though, the blacks, being not that spectacularly black, might indicate that the range of the iris isn't particularly great. And in that case, it's easier to make iris action a bit less detectable.

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Mitsubishi HC6800 RGB Settings

These are the adjustments we made to Red, Green and Blue for the grayscale balance.

                                                                                                                      
Calibration of best mode is saved on AV Memory 1.
Default settings for all is 0. 

You may only choose from Cool, Warm or Medium as a starting temp in User.  Medium color temp as reference in User. 

User 1 gamma is set with RGB at 6 on Low, Blue at –1 on Mid.

                        AVMemory 1                                               
Medium Ref. Color Temp, User 1 Gamma                                               

Contrast:                      R = -1                                                           
                                    G = 0                                                                       
                                    B = 0                                                           
                                                                       
Brightness:                   R = -16                                                           
                                    G = 0                                                                       
                                    B = -31                                               

Output at 100 IRE:             578                       

Since the High Brightness cannot be adjusted, we could have created an alternate "brightest mode, with other combinations, although that would have kept maximum brightness under 800 lumens. We'll leave that to you.


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