HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration Posted on October 9, 2013 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Home Theater Projector Review - Projector Highlights2. Projector Highlights 23. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour4. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector Review – Image Quality - Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones5. Epson HC1080UB Projectors: Black Levels and Shadow Detail - Black Levels6. Epson HC1080UB Projectors: Black Levels and Shadow Detail 27. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details - Epson HC1080UB (left)8. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 29. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 310. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 411. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 512. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 613. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 714. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Sharpness15. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Sharpness16. Projector Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV - Picture Quality - Bottom Line:17. Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - HC1080UB Menus - HC1080UB User Memory Settings - HC1080UB Projector - Remote Control - HC1080UB Lens Throw and Lens Shift - HC1080UB SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - HC1080UB Projector Brightness18. HC1080UB Projector – Light Leakage - HC1080UB Audible Noise Levels - HC1080UBProjector Screen Recommendations19. HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration - HC1080UB Living Room mode20. HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration 2 - Dynamic Mode - The end result for Dynamic21. Home Cinema 1080UB Measurements and Adjustments – Bottom Line - HC1080UB Image Noise 22. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector Warranty23. Home Theater Projector Review: Epson Home Cinema 1080UB LCD Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons24. HC1080UB projector vs. Panasonic PT-AE2000U - HC1080UB vs. Sanyo PLV-Z2000 - HC1080UB vs. Optoma HD80, HD8000, HD81, HD81-LV25. Home Cinema 1080UB vs. Mitsubishi HC4900 and HC6000. - HC1080UB vs. Sony VW50 and VW60 - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB vs. JVC RS1 and RS226. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB projector, Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Summary: The Bottom Line27. Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080UB Projector Specifications The Epson overall, does a very good job out of the box, but it has a couple of “screwed up” modes. Actually, really only one – Living Room. I’ll get to that below. The default Theatre Black 1 mode, what I’ll call the Epson’s “best” mode, out of the box, is off, but primarily by virtue o Epson having set the Color Temp default for this mode at 7500K. (What were they thinking – “everyone” knows that 6500K is D65 – the correct color temperature for viewing movies (black and white, excepted). I didn’t even bother to measure brightness at the default, as it didn’t make any sense to me (I imagine, though, I would have gotten more lumens than after the color temperature adjustment. With just that simple fix, the colors were far, far better. All measurements were done with lamp on full power. Keep in mind, that there is usually a 200K – 300K temperature difference between projectors in bright and low lamp modes. White (100 IRE) 6448K Light gray (80 IRE) 6547K Medium gray (50 IRE) 6261K Dark gray (30 IRE) 6365K 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. White (100 IRE) 6633K Light gray (80 IRE) 6498K Medium gray (50 IRE) 6348K Dark gray (30 IRE) 6475K 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. White (100 IRE) 6505K Light gray (80 IRE) 6678K Medium gray (50 IRE) 6730K Dark gray (30 IRE) 6870K 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: White (100 IRE) 7964K Light gray (80 IRE) 7940K Medium gray (50 IRE) 7955K Dark gray (30 IRE) 8116K 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. HC1080UB Living Room mode White (100 IRE) 8003K Light gray (80 IRE) 9765K Medium gray (50 IRE) 11,000K Dark gray (30 IRE) 11,500K 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: 1. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Home Theater Projector Review - Projector Highlights2. Projector Highlights 23. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour4. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector Review – Image Quality - Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones5. Epson HC1080UB Projectors: Black Levels and Shadow Detail - Black Levels6. Epson HC1080UB Projectors: Black Levels and Shadow Detail 27. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details - Epson HC1080UB (left)8. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 29. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 310. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 411. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 512. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 613. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB – Shadow Details 714. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Sharpness15. Epson HC1080UB Home Theater Projector: Sharpness16. Projector Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV - Picture Quality - Bottom Line:17. Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - HC1080UB Menus - HC1080UB User Memory Settings - HC1080UB Projector - Remote Control - HC1080UB Lens Throw and Lens Shift - HC1080UB SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - HC1080UB Projector Brightness18. HC1080UB Projector – Light Leakage - HC1080UB Audible Noise Levels - HC1080UBProjector Screen Recommendations19. HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration - HC1080UB Living Room mode20. HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration 2 - Dynamic Mode - The end result for Dynamic21. Home Cinema 1080UB Measurements and Adjustments – Bottom Line - HC1080UB Image Noise 22. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector Warranty23. Home Theater Projector Review: Epson Home Cinema 1080UB LCD Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons24. HC1080UB projector vs. Panasonic PT-AE2000U - HC1080UB vs. Sanyo PLV-Z2000 - HC1080UB vs. Optoma HD80, HD8000, HD81, HD81-LV25. Home Cinema 1080UB vs. Mitsubishi HC4900 and HC6000. - HC1080UB vs. Sony VW50 and VW60 - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB vs. JVC RS1 and RS226. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB projector, Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Projector: Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 1080UB Summary: The Bottom Line27. Epson PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080UB Projector Specifications HC1080UB Projector – Light Leakage HC1080UB Projector Measurements and Calibration 2