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Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Art Feierman
  1. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review
  2. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-2
  3. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-3
  4. Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System
  5. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-4
  6. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality
  7. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-2
  8. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-4
  9. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-5
  10. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-6
  11. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-3
  12. Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail - 2
  13. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-10
  14. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-9
  15. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System Review: General Performance
  16. Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift
  17. Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration
  18. Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise
  19. Other Cool Features of the Epson Ensemble HD 1080
  20. Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD Home Theater System
  21. Home Theater Installation: Smooth installation from there on out
  22. Home Theater Installation: Hooking everything up
  23. Home Theater Installation: And, finally: Calibration, then - All Done
  24. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A Complete Home Theater System Review: Summary, Pros and Cons
  25. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects
  26. Epson Ensemble HD1080 Projector Specifications

Most of the images in this review can be clicked on for a larger, higher resolution version (except for equipment images).

In this section, I have gone into the image quality performance of the Epson projector itself - the Home Cinema 1080 - with about the same level of detail of any other projector I've reviewed. I must say though, that while you may find the details found here to be interesting, and possibly enlightening, the only real important point is that this projector is one of the better lower cost 1080p projectors available, and works extremely well as part of the complete system. It's easy to debate the fine points between projectors, but the typical buyer of this system will be more than pleased with the picture quality.

Home Cinema 1080 Projector: "Out of the Box" Picture Quality

Not bad, not bad at all! Like virtually any other home theater projector, the Epson Home Cinema 1080 projector's "out of the box" image quality will improve with calibration. Due to timing, I found myself watching the system for about a week, and at least 15 hours of viewing with the default settings. The best movie mode - Theatre Black 1, using the default setting, produces pretty impressive color, if slightly oversaturated. The color is not dead on, but skin tones look pretty good, and the gamma provides very good balance between dark, mid, and bright areas. Few projectors have better "out of the box" color performance in their best movie mode. Moving to the other settings though, you immediately see the need for some real improvement. Living Room mode definitely needs to be recalibrated, and Dynamic, which is just that - the brightest setting, is way strong on green, a common technique to get the highest lumen measurements. Further, overall, green is somewhat oversaturated in all modes. Whites take on a slightly yellowish green hue. As with other projector reviews, when the Dynamic mode (or whatever other manufacturers call it) is off significantly, my goal when calibrating, is to tame it a bit, sacrificing a bit of the brightness as a compromise, in exchange for better color. This is very successful with the Epson Ensemble HD's Home Cinema 1080 projector. Bottom Line: All-in-all, the Epson's best mode is very watchable, but the brighter modes need some work. If you don't want to pay your dealer to calibrate it, at least get one of the calibration discs, either the AVIA dic, or the DVE-HD disc which we recently reviewed. It will be worth the hours or so of your time, and both are designed to be usable by non-technical folks. Plan B, so to speak, would be to get your system installed, and then simply use the data we provide from our calibration (General Performance section), and set up a few User memory modes with our results. There will be variation from projector to projector (mostly due to variation with lamps - and how many hours they have on them), but for the most part, our results should make you extremely pleased with your system!

Skin Tone Handling

As mentioned, Theater Black 1 - the best mode, does a very respectable job on skin tones. After calibration though, they are gorgeous. Not the best I've ever seen, but downright excellent. As to the best - post calibration, that honor goes to the InFocus IN83 recently reviewed, but then, that projector, by itself, costs almost as much as the complete Ensemble HD 1080 system ($5999 vs $6999 for the full Ensemble HD 1080).

Remember, when considering what makes for excellent skin tones, that the perceived lighting (and the director's intent - think The Matrix), have a lot to do with it. The same person's skin tone will be markedly different in different lighting scenarios. To give you a taste of what I am talking about, here are three images of James Bond from Casino Royale. In the first one, full sunlight, the second - fluorescent lighting in an airport, and lastly filtered sunlight:

  1. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review
  2. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-2
  3. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-3
  4. Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System
  5. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-4
  6. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality
  7. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-2
  8. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-4
  9. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-5
  10. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-6
  11. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-3
  12. Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail - 2
  13. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-10
  14. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-9
  15. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System Review: General Performance
  16. Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift
  17. Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration
  18. Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise
  19. Other Cool Features of the Epson Ensemble HD 1080
  20. Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD Home Theater System
  21. Home Theater Installation: Smooth installation from there on out
  22. Home Theater Installation: Hooking everything up
  23. Home Theater Installation: And, finally: Calibration, then - All Done
  24. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A Complete Home Theater System Review: Summary, Pros and Cons
  25. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects
  26. Epson Ensemble HD1080 Projector Specifications

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