Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Calibration Posted on January 18, 2018 By Eric Pfoutz 1. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Home Entertainment Projector Review2. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Special Features - Lens Shift - Frame Interpolation - Streaming with MHL - Miracast - 3D Capable - Built-In Media Player - Portable3. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Hardware - Overview - Inputs and Connectors - The Lens4. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Hardware 2 - Control Panel - Remote Control - The Menus5. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out-of-the-Box Picture Quality - Skin Tones - Black Level Performance6. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Performance - Brightness - ECO-Mode: Affect on Brightness, Power Consumption - Sharpness - Image Noise - Audible Noise7. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Advanced Calibration8. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Summary - Summary - Pros - Cons9. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Calibration10. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Specifications Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Calibration Settings: Calibration Presets Notes, Best Mode Calibration, Brightest Mode Calibration Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Calibration Presets Notes Note: the lamp had over 100 hours before I made any measurements and performed my calibrations. The 2150 has 4 picture presets: Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Cinema, & Natural. I performed 2 calibrations on the 2150, one for a dark room using Natural mode (eco lamp) and a brighter day mode using Cinema (normal lamp). In the past I have used Bright Cinema for my day mode calibration but this mode has a nonlinear gamma curve that is a pain to try and flatten out. Cinema and Natural both have relatively flat gammas. Natural mode seems to have replaced Epson’s THX mode from a few years ago. It even still has the color temp setting displayed in kelvin (i.e. 6500k). All the other modes use a numeric value (0 to 10). Best Mode Calibration for 1080p and REC709 – Natural Mode Like so many other projectors I have calibrated, the 2150 clips the whites ever so slightly (228 or so) in all modes and lowering contrast does nothing to help this matter. Thankfully there is super white to the rescue. Turning super white on raises the peak white performance way above the legal (video) level of 235 and almost to 255 the max for PC. This allowed me to turn up the contrast to 64 in Natural mode and still leave a little headroom with whites clipping at 238 or so. (note: do not increase contrast above 50 without turning on super white) I started my white balance calibration with color temp set to 6500K. This resulted in a nonlinear performing red, green and blue. Both red & blue stared out around 100 at 20IRE and rose to 104 at 40IRE then lowered back to 100 on their way to 100IRE. Green had the opposite curve with it starting around 98 at 20IRE and dipping down to 93IRE around 40IRE then heading back up to 98 at 100IRE. The DeltaE measured an average of 6 across the grayscale. After white balance calibration DeltaE measured at or below 2. Considering the nonlinear issue above I’d say the end results are quite good. Natural Mode Post-Calibration RGB Balance / Grayscale Tracking (target D65) IRE Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration 10 IRE 7010K 7917K 20 IRE 6446K 6828K 30 IRE 6444K 6417K 40 IRE 6444K 6429K 50 IRE 6442K 6488K 60 IRE 6488K 6464K 70 IRE 6514K 6387K 80 IRE 6562K 6528K 90 IRE 6512K 6504K 100 IRE 6553K 6481K Measurements taken at Mid-Zoom in Eco lamp. Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 2.33 Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.40 @ 1135 Lumens My target for a dark room gamma is 2.4 and with past Epson’s setting the gamma to -1 usually got me in the ballpark, with the 2150 however leaving gamma at its default of ‘0’ garnered a 2.33 average so that is where I left it. After calibration I was able to achieve my target of 2.4 average. Custom color temp for Natural mode w/6500K starting point. RGB Gain Offset Red 46 45 Green 47 48 Blue 47 46 Type Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration Contrast 50 64 Brightness 50 53 Color 50 50 Tint 50 50 Color Temp 6500K 6500K Frame Interpolation Off Off Super White Off On Type Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration Gamma 0 0 Auto Iris High Speed High speed Sharpness 5 5 Image Preset Mode 2 2 Noise Reduction n/a n/a MPEG Noise Reduction 1 0 Detail Enhancement 20 20 Natural Mode Post-Calibration Gamma Log 2.40 Average Gamma (target 2.40) Brightest Mode Calibration for 1080P and REC709 – Cinema Mode For my bright room calibration, I started in Cinema mode on normal (brightest) lamp. With the color temp set to 5 the 2150 averaged 7000k. The nonlinear red, green and blue errors I talked about in Natural mode were similar and slightly worse here in Cinema mode. DeltaE was in the 6-7 range. After white balance calibration DeltaE measured at or below 2 except for 10IRE which was 2.5. Cinema Mode Post-Calibration RGB Balance / Grayscale Tracking (target D65) IRE Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration 10 IRE 6844K 7517K 20 IRE 6759K 6335K 30 IRE 6887K 6332K 40 IRE 6911K 6354K 50 IRE 6953K 6421K 60 IRE 7017K 6471K 70 IRE 7039K 6494K 80 IRE 7057K 6516K 90 IRE 7087K 6495K 100 IRE 7039K 6507K Measurements taken at mid-zoom, Bright lamp. Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 2.23 Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.06 (target 2.10) @ 1791 Lumens My target gamma for bright room is 2.10. At the default setting of ‘0’ gamma was 2.33. Raising it to ‘1’ along with white balance calibration got me an average of 2.06 Custom color temp for Cinema mode w/5 starting point. RGB Gain Offset Red 45 46 Green 46 48 Blue 38 47 Type Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration Contrast 50 50 Brightness 50 53 Color 50 48 Tint 50 50 Color Temp 5 5 Frame Interpolation Off Off Super White Off Off Type Pre-Calibration Post-Calibration Gamma 0 0 Auto Iris High Speed High speed Sharpness 5 5 Image Preset Mode 2 2 Noise Reduction n/a n/a MPEG Noise Reduction 1 0 Detail Enhancement 20 20 Cinema Mode Pre-Calibration Gamma Log 2.06 Average Gamma (target 2.10) 1. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Home Entertainment Projector Review2. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Special Features - Lens Shift - Frame Interpolation - Streaming with MHL - Miracast - 3D Capable - Built-In Media Player - Portable3. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Hardware - Overview - Inputs and Connectors - The Lens4. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Hardware 2 - Control Panel - Remote Control - The Menus5. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out-of-the-Box Picture Quality - Skin Tones - Black Level Performance6. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Performance - Brightness - ECO-Mode: Affect on Brightness, Power Consumption - Sharpness - Image Noise - Audible Noise7. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Advanced Calibration8. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Summary - Summary - Pros - Cons9. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Calibration10. Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Specifications Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Summary Epson Home Cinema 2100 and 2150 Projector Review – Specifications