Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance Posted on November 1, 2010 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Review-2 - Home Cinema 8700UB Lamp Life - Epson Super-Resolution - 2.1:1 Zoom Lens3. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - Appearance - Home Cinema 8700UB Control Panel - Input/Output4. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour-25. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour-3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Remote Control - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Lens Throw6. Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens7. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - Flesh Tones8. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-2 - What is all this fuss about black levels9. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-3 - black levels comparision10. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-4 - black levels comparision11. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-5 - Shadow Detail Performance - Epson 8700UB comparision12. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-5 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB - Overall Color & Picture Quality13. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-6 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports14. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-7 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports15. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-8 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports 216. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Brightness - Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom): - Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode): - Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration – Best mode): THX17. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance-2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Sharpness18. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance-3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB: Bottom Line Sharpness - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Sharpness 2 - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise19. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Calibration and Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Color Temperature - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Basic Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Post Calibration Grayscale: THX mode 20. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Calibration and Settings - RGB Settings - Brightest Modes21. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Projector Screens - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Screen Recommendations22. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors - Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Epson Home Cinema 8350 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. HC6800, HC700023. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sanyo PLV-Z4000 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. BenQ W600024. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sharp XV-Z1500025. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors4 - Home Cinema 8700UB vs. JVC DLA-RS15 and DLA-HD250 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sony VPL-HW1526. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors5 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Panasonic PT-AE4000 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. LG CF181D27. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Warranty28. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - The Bottom Line29. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Review Summary-2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Typical Capabilities30. Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Specifications In this section we consider the brightness, sharpness, and image noise of the Epson Home Cinema 8700UB home theater projector. Also considered are the physical attributes of light leakage and audible noise Epson Home Cinema 8700UB BrightnessThe numbers below were recorded by Mike before and after calibration. They were taken with the original pre-production 8700UB projector. We normally anticipate that full production projectors will be a bit brighter. Since the original work with that first projector, Epson sent us a full production 8700UB. True to expectations, it measured brighter. With the projectors set up, side by side, the newer projector produced approximately 9.4% brighter than the first. I did not remeasure all the modes. Since I presume that the newer projector is more typical in terms of lumen performance, each of the original measurements has been increased by the 9.4%, for your convenience. The original numbers are in (). Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom): Dynamic 1203 (1100) @ 7472 Living Room 1079 (986) @ 8148 THX 503 (460) @ 6898 Theatre 454 (415) @ 7852 Theatre Black 1 465 (425) @ 6558 Theatre Black 2 414 (379) @ 5261 x.v. Color 472 (431) @ 6512 While both Theatre Black 1 and x.v. Color modes both have a good color temp number at 100 IRE, they are both too red in the grayscale balance. THX mode is the “Best mode”, and this year can be fully calibrated, which could not be done with the older Epson 8500UB THX mode. Uncalibrated, THX mode measured 460 lumens on the pre-production unit, and should therefore compute to 503 lumens on the production 8700UB. In brightest mode – Dynamic mode, the production 8700UB measured 1203 lumens. Low lamp will drop the brightness of the projector by approximately 22.5% (from 460 lumens down to 357 lumens on the pre-production model) Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode): Zoom out 1256 Mid-zoom 1100 Zoom in 837 The impact of the numbers above show that there is significant impact to where you mount, in terms of distance from your screen. If you are going large screen, a closer mount will give you more lumens, but there are other trade-offs. Also figure most lenses aren’t at their best at their absolute extremes. Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration – Best mode): THX 30 IRE 6753K 50 IRE 6718K 80 IRE 6682K 100 IRE 6898K That’s a good set of numbers – pre-calibration! The target is 6500K. The slightly higher numbers indicates a just slightly cool image (a bit more blues than reds). This is a slight shift, and further corrects with calibration. Note how consistent the color temp is, across the IRE range. (Note, below 20 IRE the color temp gets warm, so both our 8700UB projectors here exhibit a bit of red in the blackest blacks, which is visible in some of the longer exposure images in this review Post calibration, the pre-production projector clocked in with 18 less lumens, a total of 442 lumens for “best” mode. Our “quick-calibration” of Dynamic mode – which is designed to improve color as much as possible without sacrificing a lot of lumens, should yield a brighter than average 1194 lumens on the full production projector, and with even better color. Sports looks great! I’ve got some football images of course, for your consideration. Please check out the video summary of this review for a good demonstration of how the Home Cinema 8700UB performs in the real world. You’ll see a video that pans my room with two windows partially open, and sunlight coming in. The view will swing around and then show you the image – in our quick-cal(itbrated) dynamic mode, under those conditions. The Calibration page will provide the settings we used. That includes basic settings as well as gain and offset. We will revise, with numbers from a production projector if there are color table changes, between this unit and full production ones. I don’t expect that to be the case, though. 1. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Review-2 - Home Cinema 8700UB Lamp Life - Epson Super-Resolution - 2.1:1 Zoom Lens3. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - Appearance - Home Cinema 8700UB Control Panel - Input/Output4. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour-25. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Physical Tour-3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Remote Control - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Lens Throw6. Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens7. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - Flesh Tones8. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-2 - What is all this fuss about black levels9. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-3 - black levels comparision10. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-4 - black levels comparision11. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-5 - Shadow Detail Performance - Epson 8700UB comparision12. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-5 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB - Overall Color & Picture Quality13. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-6 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports14. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-7 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports15. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-8 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports 216. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Brightness - Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom): - Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode): - Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration – Best mode): THX17. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance-2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Sharpness18. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance-3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB: Bottom Line Sharpness - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Sharpness 2 - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise19. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Calibration and Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Color Temperature - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Basic Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Post Calibration Grayscale: THX mode 20. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Calibration and Settings - RGB Settings - Brightest Modes21. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Projector Screens - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Screen Recommendations22. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors - Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Epson Home Cinema 8350 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. HC6800, HC700023. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sanyo PLV-Z4000 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. BenQ W600024. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors3 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sharp XV-Z1500025. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors4 - Home Cinema 8700UB vs. JVC DLA-RS15 and DLA-HD250 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Sony VPL-HW1526. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Competitors5 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. Panasonic PT-AE4000 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB vs. LG CF181D27. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Warranty28. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector - The Bottom Line29. Epson Home Cinema 8700UB – Review Summary-2 - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector: Typical Capabilities30. Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8700UB Projector Specifications Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Image Quality-8 Epson Home Cinema 8700UB Projector – Performance-2