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Epson Powerlite Pro G6900WU Projector – Picture Quality

Posted on January 20, 2014 By Art Feierman

POWERLITE PRO G6900WU PICTURE QUALITY PAGE 1:  Out of the box picture quality, Modes, Color performance, Black Levels and Shadow Detail handling

Out of the Box Picture Quality - G6900WU

All six of this Epson projector’s color modes produce at least a reasonable picture.  Dynamic,  the brightest mode, provides the least technically accurate picture, but is definitely good enough, if you don’t need precise colors, or have photo images that you want accurately displayed.

Presentation mode, and the others, however, are at least rather good looking, so that few presenters would have any issue.  Presentation mode has a dynamic look to it, but doesn’t look over the top.  Interestingly, between Presentation and Theater mode, Theater is the brighter of the two.

The sixth is Multi-projection mode, but it generally seems to be very similar although not identical to Theatre, but is designed for when the edge blending is used in conjunction with merging the image with projections from other Epson projectors.

Shown here is our same test image on all modes.  You can identify which mode is which, by looking in the upper right hand corner of each, where the mode is indicated in a small yellow box.

Color and Picture Performance

The images here, provide a basic idea of the picture quality.  All of these images in this player were taken with the projector in Presentation mode.  Presentation mode is a little cooler than Theater (slightly stronger blues, relative to reds), but is otherwise well balanced, and has lots of punch.

The image collection includes photos, and shots from Adobe Bridge showing photos and image viewer.  Other images are browser based, showing CNN, and one image of our website.

We even calibrated the G6900WU, which Mike started with Theatre mode.  While the Picture Quality is a bit more accurate after calibration, the differences are not great at all.

The Powerlite Pro G6900 WU projector is ready for almost any application that calls for both bright, and reasonably precise color accuracy.  While I’m finishing up this review I’ve got the New England Patriots playing the Denver Broncos in the NFL Division playoffs.  Denver’s Orange looks killer – in Sports mode, as does the field and the red, white and blue of the Patriot’s uniforms.

Consider overall color to be extremely good in most modes, even better calibrated, and even decent color in Dynamic, the brightest mode.  Best though is that the other modes are not significantly less bright than Dynamic.

G6900WU Black Level Performance and Shadow Detail

Epson claims 5000:1 contrast with the Dynamic Iris engaged, so you know this isn’t a serious home theater projector when it comes to black levels.  While the black levels aren’t great, even for a business projector in this brightness class, they should be adequate for most applications.  True, some bright DLP projectors will have much better blacks, but you are unlikely to find any such projectors near the price, that can do high quality color near as bright as this Epson.

When I am observing black level performance on dark scenes in a fully darkened theater, the blacks are pretty bright!

Of course, part of that is the contrast, but the other part is that I’m looking at 5000 or so lumens, 3000 roughly when calibrated.  Mostly I’m used to looking at projectors with 400 – 800 lumens calibrated, so right off the bat, this projector is about 3-6 times brighter, so that alone makes blacks pretty medium dark gray.

Shadow Detail, on the other hand, is extremely good!  That’s to be expected at this price point, and without the really deep blacks near black shadow detail is inherently easier to spot.

Epson Powerlite Pro G6900WU – Projector Tour 2
Epson Powerlite Pro G6900WU Projector – Performance