Epson Pro Cinema LS10500 Laser Home Theater Projector – Advanced Calibration

Posted on October 1, 2018 by Art Feierman

Epson Pro Cinema LS10500 Laser Home Theater Projector Review – Advanced Calibration: CMS Calibration, Calibration Charts

CMS Settings for Best Mode Calibration – Cinema Mode

LS10500 Cinema Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

LS10500 Cinema Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

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RGBCMY	Hue	Saturation	Brightness
Red	0	-13	1
Green	-38	-26	22
Blue	0	-3	-6
Cyan	0	48	31
Magenta	-2	-15	-3
Yellow	9	-14	7

If you look at the before BT.709 CIE chart you can see all 6 colors are over saturated, causing all the color points to go beyond their intended targets across the entire saturation range (20-100IRE). Their hue is also off with magenta and yellow among the worst offenders. With properly functioning CMS controls however this all can be corrected and thankfully Epson supplies the LS1500 with a very effective Color Management System. If you take a look at my post calibration CMS adjustments you can see I had to reduce saturation on almost all the colors, increase brightness and adjust hue on a few of the colors. Once completed the color performance is quite exceptional.

CMS Settings for Brightest Mode Calibration – Dynamic Mode (boost lamp)

LS10500 Dynamic Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

LS10500 Dynamic Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

❮ ❯

RGBCMY	Hue	Saturation	Brightness
Red	0	-25	-31
Green	-28	-64	28
Blue	-3	-31	-21
Cyan	0	-59	16
Magenta	-7	-27	39
Yellow	-4	-23	-9

As I mentioned on the Calibration Settings page the default color gamut in Dynamic mode is a bit larger than BT.709 and because the white balance is quite green it pushes yellow and cyan towards green. After calibrating the white balance closer to D65 the all the hue errors I was seeing especially with yellow and cyan improved a lot but I still had errors with oversaturation and brightness. This is where the nicely performing CMS came in handy. Ultimately, I was not able to rein in the 100% saturation as all 6 colors over shot their targets by 5-10% respectively. What this means in real-world terms is any color that is driven at 100% saturation will be slightly over saturated. Even with this issue the overall CMS performance is excellent.

CMS Settings for 4K HDR – Digital Cinema Mode

LS10500 Digital Cinema Mode (HDR Mode 2 / Auto) Pre-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

LS10500 Digital Cinema Mode (HDR Mode 1 / Auto Bright) Post-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

❮ ❯

The one thing you need to understand about any display’s gamut, whether it’s a flat panel or projector is that even with a great functioning CMS you can’t move the color points further out making a larger color gamut, you can only move them latterly or in. The before 4K HDR CIE chart shows a color gamut which is achieving over 95% DCI/P3 saturation levels which is quite good but I am unable to move them further out to the DCI/P3 gamut. I did have to reduce the luminance (brightness) of all the colors except red. Maybe because the saturation levels are slightly low Epson tried to compensate with a higher luminance. Similarly, as with BT.709 I was able to adjust the hue of all the colors and achieve excellent results.

RGBCMY	Hue	Saturation	Brightness
Red	7	3	0
Green	-3	14	-17
Blue	6	6	-8
Cyan	0	7	-32
Magenta	8	0	-11
Yellow	0	11	-9

Epson Pro Cinema LS10500 Laser Home Theater Projector Review – Advanced Calibration: CMS Calibration, Calibration Charts

CMS Settings for Best Mode Calibration – Cinema Mode

LS10500 Cinema Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

LS10500 Cinema Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

❮ ❯

RGBCMY	Hue	Saturation	Brightness
Red	0	-13	1
Green	-38	-26	22
Blue	0	-3	-6
Cyan	0	48	31
Magenta	-2	-15	-3
Yellow	9	-14	7

If you look at the before BT.709 CIE chart you can see all 6 colors are over saturated, causing all the color points to go beyond their intended targets across the entire saturation range (20-100IRE). Their hue is also off with magenta and yellow among the worst offenders. With properly functioning CMS controls however this all can be corrected and thankfully Epson supplies the LS1500 with a very effective Color Management System. If you take a look at my post calibration CMS adjustments you can see I had to reduce saturation on almost all the colors, increase brightness and adjust hue on a few of the colors. Once completed the color performance is quite exceptional.

CMS Settings for Brightest Mode Calibration – Dynamic Mode (boost lamp)

LS10500 Dynamic Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

LS10500 Dynamic Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target BT.709)

❮ ❯

RGBCMY	Hue	Saturation	Brightness
Red	0	-25	-31
Green	-28	-64	28
Blue	-3	-31	-21
Cyan	0	-59	16
Magenta	-7	-27	39
Yellow	-4	-23	-9

As I mentioned on the Calibration Settings page the default color gamut in Dynamic mode is a bit larger than BT.709 and because the white balance is quite green it pushes yellow and cyan towards green. After calibrating the white balance closer to D65 the all the hue errors I was seeing especially with yellow and cyan improved a lot but I still had errors with oversaturation and brightness. This is where the nicely performing CMS came in handy. Ultimately, I was not able to rein in the 100% saturation as all 6 colors over shot their targets by 5-10% respectively. What this means in real-world terms is any color that is driven at 100% saturation will be slightly over saturated. Even with this issue the overall CMS performance is excellent.

CMS Settings for 4K HDR – Digital Cinema Mode

LS10500 Digital Cinema Mode (HDR Mode 2 / Auto) Pre-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

LS10500 Digital Cinema Mode (HDR Mode 1 / Auto Bright) Post-Calibration P3 Saturation Sweeps inside BT.2020

❮ ❯

The one thing you need to understand about any display’s gamut, whether it’s a flat panel or projector is that even with a great functioning CMS you can’t move the color points further out making a larger color gamut, you can only move them latterly or in. The before 4K HDR CIE chart shows a color gamut which is achieving over 95% DCI/P3 saturation levels which is quite good but I am unable to move them further out to the DCI/P3 gamut. I did have to reduce the luminance (brightness) of all the colors except red. Maybe because the saturation levels are slightly low Epson tried to compensate with a higher luminance. Similarly, as with BT.709 I was able to adjust the hue of all the colors and achieve excellent results.