Pro Cinema 4030 Calibration

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Art Feierman

MEASUREMENTS AND CALIBRATION SETTINGS

Calibrated Improved Dynamic
	Natural - In User 1	"Quick-cal" Dynamic
Offset (0)	R=14	R=0
	G=-3	G=0
	B=0	B=0

Gain (0)	R=-7	R=0
	G=0	G=-10
	B=-14	B=0

Gamma	0 (0)	0 (0)
		Column Content
Lumens	543 @ 6402K	1270 @ 7838K

To the left are Mike's settings at the end of his calibration of the Pro Cinema 4030 projector. These should provide results very close to 6500K on your 4030. True there is lamp variation, and the lamps shift slightly as they age. The right column is our quick-cal - basically we look at the brightest mode, and "improve it." The trick is to get the best picture possible without sacrificing significant brightness. In this case, as Mike points out, the improvement cost less than 10% of brightness.

Mike's notes: As it was with the 6030, Dynamic is very high in green, low in red at 100 IRE, despite the decent color temp shown on the previous page. Knocking green down helps quite a bit while dropping lumen output less than 10%.

General Calibration Settings

Image Control Settings [defaults are in parenthesis]
	Cinema	Dynamic	B&W Cinema	Living Room	Natural
Contrast = (0)	0	0	0	0	-1
Brightness = (0)	0	0	0	0	0
Color Saturation = (0)			-10
Tint (0 for all)
Color Temp (default)	0	0	-2	3	6500
Auto Iris =	Off	Hi Speed	Off	Off	Off

Auto Iris is Off for all measurements.
All other settings at default (untouched)
Zoom at mid range and Lamp mode on Normal unless noted otherwise.
Lamp is on ECO by default for Natural, Cinema and B&W Cinema.

As you can see, most modes were very close to right on for these settings.

Before After Color Temperature Comparison

Color Temp: Calibrated Natural Mode, Saved in User 1
	Before	After
100 IRE	6872	6402
90		6419
80	7210	6523
70		6479
60		6493
50	7757	6470
40		6444
30	7871	6478
20		6395

This is the same data shown on the Performance page. Note that the overall color temp is very close to the targeted 6500K. The original color temp, as you can see is a lot cooler, so a bit thin on reds, stronger on blues.

Comments about the Calibration

Mike provided his commentary from his experience calibrating the Epson Pro Cinema 4030 projector:

Most of the comments made about the 6030 apply to the 4030 as well. Lumen output is lower than the 6030, except when at full telephoto zoom. Grayscale is okay right out of the box and is similar to the 6030 in this regard, with too much red and blue in the higher IREs, while being deficient in green. However, it calibrated very well. Unlike the 6030, the gamma setting in the 4030 was right on (0 equaled 2.2). There are extensive gamma settings available, but gamma is so consistent, most people won’t need to use them.

The Quick Cal of Dynamic reduces the green that’s apparent in whites, but each decrease in Green Gain causes a drop in lumen output and eventually starts to looking red with light grays.

The color gamut is quite good by default in Natural mode, better than the 6030, with both Yellow and Green closer to the Rec. 709 target mark than they are in the 6030. Green was still off in hue and saturation, and Blue and Cyan were oversaturated. The other colors only required slight adjustment. Skin tones ended up looking good and like the 6030, you can always use the skin tone adjustment if you like a little more or less red.

I would add to Mike's last comment that it's not uncommon for me to adjust that skin tone adjustment back and forth between settings 2, 3, and 4 to compensate for differences in the content. If I find the skin tones to have a touch of green, I reduce, if a touch too much red, I increase the setting. Most of the time, I don't bother.

Additional Calibration Information for our members

Our new site is just going live a day or so after I write this. The new site will even publish additional calibration information that we haven't in the past (well very rarely). That extra information will be only accessible to our members.

That additional information will include before / after CIE charts, other graphs and charts generated by Mike's new ChromaPure calibration software. The Members area will be open for business just before Thanksgiving 2013, about 10 days after this review goes live.