Projector Reviews Images

Epson Home Cinema LS100 Laser Projector Review – Calibration Settings

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Art Feierman

Epson Home Cinema LS100 Laser Projector Review – Calibration Settings: Calibration Presets Notes, Best Mode Calibration, Brightest Mode Calibration

Epson Home Cinema LS100 Calibration Presets Notes

The LS100 has 4 presets (Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Cinema, & Game. For my dark room calibration, I used Game mode (Quiet mode). I used Game mode rather than Cinema because its color gamut was slightly better (more on that later).

Quick note about the 3 lamp modes (Normal, Quiet & ECO). The fan on Normal seems to be a little louder than my Epson 5030 on Normal. Also, having the LS100 in front of me may add to the perceived loudness. Quite mode is the second brightest mode and is also the quietest. ECO is the dimmest, but oddly louder than quite mode.

Best Mode Calibration for 1080p and REC709 – Game Mode

Cutting to the chase, this LS100 had one of the worst looking gamuts I‘ve seen in a projector. Now, the model I was given for evaluation was a pre-production unit, so it is possible things will improve with retail versions. As I mentioned at the top of my notes, I used Game mode because the gamut measured slightly better than Cinema, but it’s still quite poor.

Some of the issues are common to other projectors like red, blue and magenta being under-saturated at 100%, but over saturated at 20, 40, 60 and 80%. Yellow on the LS100 is in the best shape. It’s green and cyan that are the most troubling. Cyan showed 60, 80 and 100% saturation levels all sitting on the 80% target. As green saturation increases, it moves towards yellow with the 100% green far from its REC.709 target. You could clearly see that green in the SMPTE color bars looked more lime-green in tone, almost dayglow. Calibration did little to improve these issues. I had to be careful because just the smallest adjustment could make things worse.

Epson LS100 Game Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
Game Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target Rec.709)
IREPre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
10 IRE7021K6771K
20 IRE6422K6529K
30 IRE6602K6411K
40 IRE6662K6495K
50 IRE6730K6470K
60 IRE6780K6531K
70 IRE6738K6538K
80 IRE6742K6493K
90 IRE6809K6552K
100 IRE6808K6557K

Measurements taken at Mid-Zoom in Quiet Mode.

Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 2.03

Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.20 @ 3192 Lumens

My target for a Dark Room gamma is 2.4, and with past Epsons, setting the gamma to -1 or -2 did the trick, but with the LS100, -2 only got me to 2.2, so that is what I used for my target. After calibration, it yielded a fairly linear gamma with a slight bump in brightness at 90 IRE and increasing brightness from 10 down to 0. Had I turned on Dynamic Black for these measurements, the low end would show slightly improved black level performance.

TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Contrast5050
Brightness5050
Color5050
Tint5050
Color Temp44
G-M Correction44
TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Gamma0-2
Dynamic ContrastHighHigh
Sharpness55
Noise Reduction60
Detail Enhancement020
RGBGainOffset
Red4651
Green5051
Blue4053

Greyscale calibration settings for Game mode.

Epson LS100 Game Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
Game Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target Rec.709)

Brightest Mode Calibration for 1080P and REC709 – Dynamic Mode

For my Bright Room calibration, I used Dynamic Mode (Normal mode). Default color temp was in 7500K range with a plus blue, minus red getting more pronounced the brighter the image got. Sadly, the color gamut was similar, yet worse, than what I saw in Game mode. Blue was extremely over-saturated, magenta at 100% was not only oversaturated, but skewed towards red. Green and cyan showed similar errors to Game mode. Cyan had 60, 80 and 100% saturation levels, all sitting on the 80% target, with green running towards yellow. After using the LS100’s CMS controls, I could improve some aspects, while others, I could not.

Dynamic-Mode-Pre-Calibration-CIE-1976-Saturation-Sweeps-(target-Rec.709)-
Dynamic Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
IREPre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
10 IRE7558K7340K
20 IRE7263K6566K
30 IRE7374K6469K
40 IRE7558K6445K
50 IRE7558K6336K
60 IRE7621K6369K
70 IRE7652K6406K
80 IRE7831K6518K
90 IRE7935K6584K
100 IRE8122K6808K

Measurements taken at mid-zoom, Normal power.

Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 1.88

Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.02 (target 2.20) @ 5168 Lumens

TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Color Temp64
G-M Correction76
Gamma00
Dynamic ContrastHighHigh
Sharpness55
Noise Reduction60
Detail Enhancement2020
RGBGainOffset
Red5050
Green4952
Blue5053

Greyscale calibration settings for Dynamic mode.

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

Epson Home Cinema LS100 Laser Projector Review – Calibration Settings: Calibration Presets Notes, Best Mode Calibration, Brightest Mode Calibration

Epson Home Cinema LS100 Calibration Presets Notes

The LS100 has 4 presets (Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Cinema, & Game. For my dark room calibration, I used Game mode (Quiet mode). I used Game mode rather than Cinema because its color gamut was slightly better (more on that later).

Quick note about the 3 lamp modes (Normal, Quiet & ECO). The fan on Normal seems to be a little louder than my Epson 5030 on Normal. Also, having the LS100 in front of me may add to the perceived loudness. Quite mode is the second brightest mode and is also the quietest. ECO is the dimmest, but oddly louder than quite mode.

Best Mode Calibration for 1080p and REC709 – Game Mode

Cutting to the chase, this LS100 had one of the worst looking gamuts I‘ve seen in a projector. Now, the model I was given for evaluation was a pre-production unit, so it is possible things will improve with retail versions. As I mentioned at the top of my notes, I used Game mode because the gamut measured slightly better than Cinema, but it’s still quite poor.

Some of the issues are common to other projectors like red, blue and magenta being under-saturated at 100%, but over saturated at 20, 40, 60 and 80%. Yellow on the LS100 is in the best shape. It’s green and cyan that are the most troubling. Cyan showed 60, 80 and 100% saturation levels all sitting on the 80% target. As green saturation increases, it moves towards yellow with the 100% green far from its REC.709 target. You could clearly see that green in the SMPTE color bars looked more lime-green in tone, almost dayglow. Calibration did little to improve these issues. I had to be careful because just the smallest adjustment could make things worse.

Epson LS100 Game Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
Game Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target Rec.709)
IREPre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
10 IRE7021K6771K
20 IRE6422K6529K
30 IRE6602K6411K
40 IRE6662K6495K
50 IRE6730K6470K
60 IRE6780K6531K
70 IRE6738K6538K
80 IRE6742K6493K
90 IRE6809K6552K
100 IRE6808K6557K

Measurements taken at Mid-Zoom in Quiet Mode.

Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 2.03

Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.20 @ 3192 Lumens

My target for a Dark Room gamma is 2.4, and with past Epsons, setting the gamma to -1 or -2 did the trick, but with the LS100, -2 only got me to 2.2, so that is what I used for my target. After calibration, it yielded a fairly linear gamma with a slight bump in brightness at 90 IRE and increasing brightness from 10 down to 0. Had I turned on Dynamic Black for these measurements, the low end would show slightly improved black level performance.

TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Contrast5050
Brightness5050
Color5050
Tint5050
Color Temp44
G-M Correction44
TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Gamma0-2
Dynamic ContrastHighHigh
Sharpness55
Noise Reduction60
Detail Enhancement020
RGBGainOffset
Red4651
Green5051
Blue4053

Greyscale calibration settings for Game mode.

Epson LS100 Game Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
Game Mode Post-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target Rec.709)

Brightest Mode Calibration for 1080P and REC709 – Dynamic Mode

For my Bright Room calibration, I used Dynamic Mode (Normal mode). Default color temp was in 7500K range with a plus blue, minus red getting more pronounced the brighter the image got. Sadly, the color gamut was similar, yet worse, than what I saw in Game mode. Blue was extremely over-saturated, magenta at 100% was not only oversaturated, but skewed towards red. Green and cyan showed similar errors to Game mode. Cyan had 60, 80 and 100% saturation levels, all sitting on the 80% target, with green running towards yellow. After using the LS100’s CMS controls, I could improve some aspects, while others, I could not.

Dynamic-Mode-Pre-Calibration-CIE-1976-Saturation-Sweeps-(target-Rec.709)-
Dynamic Mode Pre-Calibration CIE 1976 Saturation Sweeps (target-Rec.709)
IREPre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
10 IRE7558K7340K
20 IRE7263K6566K
30 IRE7374K6469K
40 IRE7558K6445K
50 IRE7558K6336K
60 IRE7621K6369K
70 IRE7652K6406K
80 IRE7831K6518K
90 IRE7935K6584K
100 IRE8122K6808K

Measurements taken at mid-zoom, Normal power.

Average Gamma Pre-Calibration: 1.88

Average Gamma Post-Calibration: 2.02 (target 2.20) @ 5168 Lumens

TypePre-CalibrationPost-Calibration
Color Temp64
G-M Correction76
Gamma00
Dynamic ContrastHighHigh
Sharpness55
Noise Reduction60
Detail Enhancement2020
RGBGainOffset
Red5050
Green4952
Blue5053

Greyscale calibration settings for Dynamic mode.

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

Latest Reviews

February 25, 2024

Introducing the Hisense C1: A cube-shaped 4K UHD lifestyle projector with an RGB triple laser light source and integrated JBL ...

February 19, 2024

The BenQ X3100i is a 4LED, 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160p) 0.65" DLP short-throw gaming projector that offers a BenQ-rated ...

January 20, 2024

The BenQ V5000i is a $3,499 smart ultra-short throw 4K projector with RGB triple laser source. Ideal for vibrant, bright ...

January 2, 2024

The BenQ HT3560 is a 4K UHD projector offering vibrant colors and advanced features for $1,599. It offers a manufacturer-rated ...

© 2024 Projector Reviews

crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram