BenQ HT1075 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Art Feierman

Mike calibrated the BenQ HT1075 projector. Below we repeat a lot of the measurement results reported on the Performance page, but here we add the calibration settings Mike determined in completing his calibration of the HT1075. Let's take a look at the numbers:

BenQ HT1075 Pre-calibration Settings

BenQ HT1075 Pre-calibration - Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Cinema	Bright	Standard	User 1	User 2
Contrast (50)=	49	47	49	49	49
Brightness (50)=	51	50	51	51	51
Color (50)=
Tint (50)=
Gamma=	(2.4)	(BenQ)	(2.2)	(2.2)	(2.2)

As you can see above, Most of the controls are pretty close with 50 as default and few changing by more than 1 or two, and those really are fairly small increments.

NOTE: Default Color Temp is Normal for all but Bright, which is Lamp Native. Brilliant Color is ON by default for all modes. Cinema mode is in Eco lamp mode by default. User 1 and 2 are equal to Standard mode by default.

Lamp Mode=Normal (unless noted otherwise)

All other settings at default (untouched)

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom):
Cinema	2049 @ 6732, 1284 in Eco lamp mode (default)
Bright	2446 @ 7458
Standard	2079 @ 6866
User 1	2079 @ 6856
User 2	2079 @ 6854

Lumen Output (Eco Lamp, Bright): 1560

That's hefty brightness for an Eco mode, but again, color isn't very attractive in Bright mode, so better to stick to Cinema or Standard, and run full power - better picture, more lumens!

Color Temp over IRE Range (Best Mode)
	Cinema
30 IRE	6687
50 IRE	6734
80 IRE	6729
100 IRE	6732

NOTE: Cinema has the best balance, just slightly better than Standard.

Effect of zoom on lumen output (Bright mode):
Zoom out	2554
Mid-zoom	2446
Zoom in	2331

2554 is the maximum lumens measured. Note that as we occasionally comment, we do not measure ANSI lumens (measure 9 points from center to corners, and average. Rather Mike takes an average around the center of the screen, and we simply use that, in conjunction with reporting all brightness measurements at mid zoom, except for reporting the maximum (in this case Bright mode) measured at wide angle to have a "brightest number".

Since Mike changed from old equipment and software to newer gear/software at the beginning of 2014, projectors now measure just about 10% brighter than his old gear. Back then our numbers were below most other reviewers, and now their a bit higher.

BenQ HT1075 Calibration

Calibration settings for User 1:
Gain	R (100) = 101
	G (100) = 100
	B (100) = 99
Offset	R (256) = 256
	G (256) = 256
	B (256) = 256
Lumens at 100 IRE: 2018 @ 6733

Calibration settings for User 2:
Gain	R (100) = 101
	G (100) = 93
	B (100) = 99
Offset	R (256) = 256
	G (256) = 256
	B (256) = 256
Lumens at 100 IRE: 2202 @ 7608

Calibration of best mode: User 1 with Cinema setting except Gamma is set on 2.2.

Mike did a "quick-cal" of Bright mode and put it in User 2. Note that the adjustment was limited to a drop of green gain from 100 to 93, which did remove a good chunk of the excess green.

Problem is, by doing so, the projector is barely brighter than Standard mode which looks a lot better, or, the 2000 lumen calibrated Cinema mode in User 1.

Calibrated Color Temp over IRE Range
20 IRE	6574
30 IRE	6476
40 IRE	6524
50 IRE	6471
60 IRE	6508
70 IRE	6512
80 IRE	6522
90 IRE	6496
100 IRE	6603

Average gamma = 2.18 Nice!

Mike's General Notes

I did a Quick Cal of Bright, but even a slight reduction of green causes the lumen output to drop more than 10% and does not improve the green cast enough to make it worth it in my opinion. Considering you can get almost 2100 lumens in Standard mode, the extra 100 lumens you get by dropping the green in Dynamic is of little value.

Mike's Grayscale Calibration Notes

Grayscale by default in every mode but Bright (which uses the Lamp Native color temp instead of Normal like all of the other modes) was among the best I’ve seen. As expected, Cinema mode had the best default grayscale, but Standard was close behind. As you can see from the calibration settings, there was minimal adjustment to Gain and no adjustment to Offset needed to get an exceptional RGB balance. Delta E was 2.4 or less from 20-100 IRE before calibration and improved to 1.0 or less from 20-90 IRE (with a maximum of 1.7 at 100 IRE), after calibration. The 2.2 gamma setting provided a smooth gamma graph with an average of 2.18.