Runco LS-7 Projector - Image Quality

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Art Feierman

Runco LS-7 images below are from either Blu-ray, or HDTV, with Lord of the Rings now available on Blu-ray, we no longer show standard DVD images. These images are not overly accurate representations of the image the LS-7 projects on the screen. There are slight color shifts, saturation differences, etc.

These images are provided to support the commentary. In reality, the projectors always look better than the images in our reviews. From a color standpoint, my dSLR camera still adds a very slight greenish shift to some photo shoots that I have not been able to completely remove. In other words, while we can demonstrate differences in black levels and shadow details of the LS-7, the photos are only fair approximations of skin tone and color accuracy.

In the specific case of the Runco LS-7, the images you see all are a bit too strong on yellow-green. It's not a lot, but when you see some gray walls etc., and notice that yellowish or greenish tinge, figure that the Runco itself lacks any such shift in color

LS-7 Out of the Box Picture Quality

❮ ❯

Stunning! While with most projectors, hooking them up, and turning them on, I'm sometimes impressed, but mostly I'm settling in, getting my take on the picture quality. Not so with this Runco LS-7. First time I set it up it just knocked my socks off. Why?

The out of the box color is just gorgeous. And powerfully bright. The short scene in The Fifth Element featuring Zork's secretary, just blew me away. The richness of the colors of her hair, and her complexion, outfit, background, definitely made for a bonafid WOW moment. I don't have too many of those, when watching the same old movies on new projectors.

Funny thing is, the way I'm watching the projector now, about 100 hours later on the lamp timer, is almost identical to the first look.

Bottom line - for this particular LS-7, the color temp seems almost dead on, if perhaps just a touch warm. (Again, note that the images are coming out a little strong on yellows and greens.

Skin Tones

I'm not sure that the overall color/grayscale as I've been watching this projector, is as dead on as some others. All's fair, though, and, of course that can be fixed with a proper calibration, (that's something - I remind you - that we didn't do for the LS-7).

Skin tones never disappointed. They always looked excellent (and without the slight yellow-green tint found in all these images). I would say that that the naturalness of the skin tones was consistent whether scenes were average, brightly, or poorly lit.

If you like the phrase "film-like" well, film-like applies nicely to every movie I watched, when it comes to those skin tones.

Next are our usual three images of Daniel Craig, as Bond, in Casino Royale, under different lighting conditions.

The point here, is that correct skin tone appearance varies, depending on the lighting. You can expect significantly different looking skin tones, when switching from bright sunlight, to nighttime, fluorescent lighting, incandescent lighting, or even lighting in the shade, or a cloudy day. Consider these three images, the first in direct sunlight, the second is a scene with fluorescent lighting, and the third, a sunny day, but Bond is sitting in the shade - indirect lighting.

Lau, above, from The Dark Knight, has a very natural looking skin tone on the screen. He still looks good here, but you can again make out that tiny bit of extra yellow and to lesser extent green.