Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-5

Posted on November 1, 2010 By Art Feierman

OK time to wrap this long image section up (except for HDTV and sports).

The Home Cinema 8700UB – and, therefore, we can also conclude, the Pro Cinema 9700UB – while seemingly just updated versions of last years projectors, have made some serious advances:

Epson Home Cinema 8700UB - Overall Color & Picture Quality

Color handling has improved. On the bright side, although the Dynamic mode doesn’t measure quite as bright as last year’s the overall color (unadjusted) of the Dynamic mode is much improved. There’s less green dominance, almost to the point of not noticeable at all (yellows still come through a touch strong). As a result, this year the Dynamic mode, is downright watchable. With some minor adjustments as recommended by Mike, our “quick-cal” of Dynamic costs only about 8-9% of brightness and makes for even better color. I’ve actually watched content with too much light in the room, in Dynamic mode, instead of THX, and been surprised and pleased by the picture.

Finally, THX starts out as the best mode, and, thanks to Epson and THX allowing access to the color management system, fine tuning the projector based on the starting THX mode makes for the most natural color and skin tones yet, from an Epson projector. I definitely believe that the color (after Mike’s calibration of THX as “best” mode), is a touch more natural than previous models. Mike has always had a bit of difficulty in getting the slightly overdriven greens in line with the rest, on previous Epson UB projector calibrations, but not so this time. For the first time ever, I’m not going to describe Epson’s skin tone performance as being a little less natural than some other projectors. I do believe this UB, is ready to take on a couple of DLP’s and LCoS projectors in terms of a natural looking image.

Apparently a few small changes, done right, can take what seems to be a minor update, and turn it into a really improved projector. NO, those of you with 6500UB’s and 8500UB’s, you don’t need to replace your projectors. This is a small improvement, but one that will really appeal to those most enthusiastic about their home theaters.

Here’s the “crew” image from Space Cowboys – first one is the Home Cinema 8700UB, then, the Mitsubishi HC4000, followed by the BenQ W6000.