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Epson Home Cinema 3020 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Art Feierman
Our calibrations, including the Epson Home Cinema 3020, are normally limited to a grayscale calibration, along with brightness, contrast, color saturation, tint (where applicable), etc. In this case, we did also adjust the CMS.  The affect was subtle, as you saw on the HC3020's performance page mode comparisons. I'm referring to the many mode photos of the blonde woman from the Victoria Secret fashion show. Below you will find our standard settings changes, along with Mike's (our calibrator) comments about the calibration process and results.

Epson Home Cinema 3020 Color Temperature

Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration, best modes)
Cinema Cinema (Eco lamp) Natural
30 IRE 6194 6972 6279
50 IRE 6378 7112 6403
80 IRE 6632 7356 6654
100 IRE 6692 7353 6741

Before we provide our settings, let's see what we started out with: Pre calibration, these are the color temperatures over the grayscale range.

As noted on the performance page, Eco Cinema is a touch "cool".  If you are not calibrating, I simply recommend lowering the color Temp control from the default 6500K to 6000K.  Easy!

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE
Dynamic 1925 @ 6852
Living Room 1602 @ 7633
Natural 1402 @ 6155, 923 @ 6912 in Eco lamp mode (default)
Cinema 1402 @ 6166, 923 @ 6849 in Eco lamp mode (default)
Auto 923 @ 6704

I pretty much ignored the Auto mode.

I like to know where I am, mode wise. Some folks will be perfectly happy using it.Most movies cause it to drop into Cinema mode, etc. Besides, I like the Living Room mode, the way I have it set up, a lot better than Dynamic, and it's not that much less bright. That means I still have plenty of brightness when desired or needed.  Folks that just want to enjoy, not play with settings probably will be perfectly happy with Auto.  Your call.

Epson Home Cinema 3020 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. In the case of this Epson most of these default settings were fairly close to ideal.

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis)
Cinema Dynamic Living Room Natural
Contrast 0 0 -1 0
Brightness 0 0 -1 0
Color Saturation 0 0 0 0
Tint 0 0 0 0
Color Temp 6500 6500 7500 6500

Auto Iris is on Normal by default.
All other settings at default (untouched)
Auto picture mode has none of the above adjustable settings as it uses its light sensor to switch to whatever picture mode works with the ambient light conditions.
Zoom at mid range and Lamp mode on Normal unless noted otherwise.

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