Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 1 Posted on April 19, 2009 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector - Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Review 2 - Defining the right owner - a cautionary tale:3. Epson Home Cinema 700 Special Features - Projector Lamp Life - Doubles as a Widescreen Business Projector - SD Card Slot - USB Input4. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector – Physical Tour 1 - Appearance - Control Panel - Home Cinema 700 Inputs5. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector – Physical Tour 2 - Home Cinema 700 Remote Control - Home Cinema 720 Lens Throw - Home Cinema 700 Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens6. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 1 - Home Cinema 700 Picture Quality - Out of the Box - Flesh Tones - Home Cinema 700 Black Levels & Shadow Detail7. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 28. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 3 - Shadow Detail Performance9. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 410. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 5 - Epson Home Cinema 700 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports11. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 700 Brightness - Epson Home Cinema 700 Sharpness - Light Leakage - Home Cinema 700 Image Noise - Home Cinema 700 Audible Noise12. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Calibration - Color Temperature - Basic Settings - RGB Settings - This results in the following gray-scale balance:13. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Projector Screens - General Screen Recommendations:14. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Competitors - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Panasonic PT-AX200U - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Optoma HD71 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z60 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Optoma HD65 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Epson Home Cinema 720 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. InFocus X9 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. BenQ W50015. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Warranty16. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 700: Bottom Line - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Pros - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Cons - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Typical Capabilities17. Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 700 Projector Specifications Home Cinema 700 Picture Quality - Out of the BoxThe Epson Home Cinema 700 does very nicely out of the box. Skin tones are actually very good, for a low priced projector. Those skin tones are just a touch on the warm side (redish), but it is slight, and easily corrected. Shadow detail is very good, and black levels – well, as already mentioned, that’s the achilles heel of this Epson, but then Epson built this projector primarily for those who can’t fully darken their rooms. All in all, the 700 does nicely out of the box, and only improves slightly with calibration. Flesh Tones Once calibrated, skin tones no longer has a slightly redish cast and are nicely neutral. In fact they are impressively good for a projector designed not for the enthusiast/hobbyist, but rather for the less critical viewer. From Lord of the Rings – images of Gandalf, and Arwen (SD-DVD). Almost all screen images in this review can be clicked on for a much larger version. The Arwen photo above was a scene deep in a forest with lots of green, which softens the skin tones. The Home Cinema 700 picks up on that shift to green nicely, especially where it is more evident toward the top of her face. Moving to Blu-ray source material: First, Daniel Craig as Bond, in Casino Royale, under three different lighting situations. The first image is full sunlight on his face, the second is in an airport, with flourescent lighting, and the last of the three, is filtered sunlight (shade). Bottom Line: Skin tone performance is pretty impressive for a true, low cost, entry level projector. I’ve seen less accurate skin tone results from a number of projectors costing a whole lot more. But, then, I did say skin tones were very good. Home Cinema 700 Black Levels & Shadow DetailThe 2000:1 contrast claim for this Epson (and yes, it does have a dynamic iris), is a low number by today’s standards. While a high contrast number is no longer a really accurate indicator of black level performance, in this case, it is. Some say, that if you have a moderate amount of ambient light, it negates the advantages of a projector with great black level abilities. That isn’t quite correct. Place two projectors of equal brightness, side by side. If one has much better black levels, even as you turn the lights up, it will still do blacker blacks. The more ambient light, the less noticeable the difference, but the difference is still definitely significant. And that’s why I refer to the Home Cinema 700 as a home entertainment projector – not a home theater projector. It is expected to work in a world which isn’t pitch black. Still, further improvement of black levels would have made for a better projector. On the other hand, that’s why Epson sells that Home Cinema 720, which only costs between $200 and $250 more. I’ve cut down the number of images relating to black levels and shadow detail, as compared with other reviews, because you’ll get the point rather quickly, and doing a whole lot more dark images won’t tell you any more, than these few. We’ll start with the The Fifth Element image of the Starship. As you can see, the exposure is fairly normal (not noticeably overexposed), yet you can see that the blacks of the background are not as black as some other images below. Here’s the same image, dramatically overexposed, which gives you a good perspective as to the black level performance. Note how bright (lightness of the background space, and of the letterboxing at top and bottom) is, relative to the overexposed starship. Projectors with much better black levels would produce similar brightness in the starship, but with much darker space background and, also brighter letterboxing: Home Cinema 700 5th element starship largeHome Cinema 700 5th element starship over largeHD71 5th element starship largeHC1600 5th Element starship largePreviousNext 1. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector - Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Review 2 - Defining the right owner - a cautionary tale:3. Epson Home Cinema 700 Special Features - Projector Lamp Life - Doubles as a Widescreen Business Projector - SD Card Slot - USB Input4. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector – Physical Tour 1 - Appearance - Control Panel - Home Cinema 700 Inputs5. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector – Physical Tour 2 - Home Cinema 700 Remote Control - Home Cinema 720 Lens Throw - Home Cinema 700 Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens6. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 1 - Home Cinema 700 Picture Quality - Out of the Box - Flesh Tones - Home Cinema 700 Black Levels & Shadow Detail7. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 28. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 3 - Shadow Detail Performance9. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 410. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 5 - Epson Home Cinema 700 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports11. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 700 Brightness - Epson Home Cinema 700 Sharpness - Light Leakage - Home Cinema 700 Image Noise - Home Cinema 700 Audible Noise12. Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector Calibration - Color Temperature - Basic Settings - RGB Settings - This results in the following gray-scale balance:13. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Projector Screens - General Screen Recommendations:14. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Competitors - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Panasonic PT-AX200U - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Optoma HD71 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z60 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Optoma HD65 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. Epson Home Cinema 720 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. InFocus X9 - Epson Home Cinema 700 vs. BenQ W50015. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Warranty16. Epson Home Cinema 700 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 700: Bottom Line - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Pros - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Cons - Home Cinema 700 Projector: Typical Capabilities17. Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 700 Projector Specifications Epson Home Cinema 700 Projector – Physical Tour 2 Epson Home Cinema 700 – Image Quality 2