Home Theater Projector Comparison Report: Calibrating Projectors, Settings-2

5. Have the projector professionally calibrated. OK, this will cost you anywhere from a couple of hundred to even $1000 - depending on how many modes are calibrated, whether your other gear (such as your Blu-ray player) are calibrated with the projector, and so on. Most folks these days using an independent calibrator, I believe, spend $250 - $500. Those of you buying from a local installing dealer, will most likely find that the dealer has someone on staff that can calibrate the projector, or works with an independent. Lastly, a few of you - my "hard core enthusiasts," actually have your own light meters, etc., and know how to do it yourselves - I rank you guys in with the calibrators.

That's pretty much it. You are looking at projectors from under $1000 to $10,000+. With most projectors, the improvement even with #2 is visible, #3 more so, and #4 or #5, can yield downright dramatic improvements in picture quality and your viewing pleasure on most projectors.

One last note, some projectors are superb, out of the box, or rather almost as good as they can be. Almost all of those, however, have a THX mode doing that, although an occasional REC 709 type mode will be on the money.. Any miss in those modes, is likely to be limited to lamp variations, and the limits of the projector and its controls.

Our recommended settings are found in each individual review on those pages linked to above. Plug them into a user savable memory, and compare! If you like it better, then enjoy.  In that case, please let us know!