HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration

Getting down to work I wanted to get the color temperatures up (less red) just slightly overall, not that these settings above don't produce a very good image.

The end result proved to be a truly excellent set of numbers, and corresponding color accuracy for movie watching:

Theatre Black 2, 6500K color temp, Offsets: Red - 2, Green 0, Blue 3. Gain: Red 2, Green 3, Blue 0. For viewing I normally had the Skin Tone setting at 3, or occasionally at 4.

Theatre Black 2, which I expected to be lower than Theatre Black one, had a default color temp of 6500K, but still measured cool. I only measured white (100 IRE), which was 7068. Now, I'm told that for old black and white movies, the ideal is around 5500K, so this setting would need some work, which I didn't do.

That's just a tad "cool" (bluish), but is considered very close. Adjusting Offset and Gain, can further tweak that.

Natural, which is a mode, that seems to have lower contrast, less "sizzle" provides an overall cooler (more blue) look. Overall this mode appears less dynamic - more muted than the others:

First, I want to mention that I had an interesting discussion with a ISF certified projector calibrator at CES. I have always found that most HDTV, and especially sports, tends to (in my humble opinion) look better with a color temp around 7500K, or a touch higher, than at 6500K like the movies. This calibrator, however, insisted that 6500K should still be the correct temperature. This is something I plan to investigate further. Meantime, this time, I worked with both Living room mode, and Dynamic mode, with a 7500K to 8000K range in mind.

It took some work to get good measurements, but the final results produced a very watchable picture, even if the range in color temperatures still varied quite a bit from white to dark gray. Further tweaking, of course, can tighten them up, but, it is, to a large extent, trial and error: