Sony VPL-HW40ES Projector Review - Calibration and Settings

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Phil Jones

SONY VPL-HW40ES PROJECTOR - CALIBRATION AND SETTINGS: Pre-calibration settings, Post-calibration settings, General Notes, Grayscale Notes

Sony VPL-HW40ES Pre-calibration

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Reference	TV	Cinema Film 1	Cinema Film 2	User
Contrast	(90)	(90)	(90)	(90)	(90)
Brightness (50)	51	52	51	51	51
Color	(50)	(50)	(53)	(50)	(50)
Tint	(50)	(50)	(50)	(50)	(50)
Color Temp	(D65)	(D65)	(D65)	(D55)	(D65)
Color Space	(BT.709)	(Color Space 1)	Color Space 3)	Color Space 3)	(BT.709)
Gamma	(Off)	(2.4)	(8)	(Off)	(Off)
Film mode	(Off)	(Auto 1)	(Auto 1)	(Auto 1)	(Auto 1)

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Photo	Bright Cinema	Bright TV	Game
Contrast	(90)	(Max) 90	(90)	(Max) 90
Brightness (50)	51
Color	(50)	(55)	(55)	(55)
Tint	(50)	(50)	(50)	(50)
Color Temp	(D55)	(D75)	(D75)	(Custom 5)
Color Space	(BT.709)	(Color Space 3)	(Color Space 2)	Color Space 3)
Gamma	(Off)	(9)	(10)	(9)
Film mode	(Off)	(Auto 1)	(Auto 1)	(Off)

Lamp Mode=High (unless noted otherwise)

All other settings at default (untouched)

Sony VPL-HW40ES Projector - Brightness by Mode, Mid-zoom (at 100 IRE)
Mode	Brightness (Lumens)	Color Temp at 100 IRE
Reference	1497	6721
TV	1509	6723
Cinema Film 1	1497	6721
Cinema Film 2	1354	5720
Game	1722	6860
Photo	1330	5725
Bright Cinema	1592	7787
Bright TV	1616	7789
User	1497	6722

Effect of zoom on lumen output (Game mode):
Zoom out	1731
Mid-zoom	1722
Zoom in	1588

Lumen Output (Low Lamp, Game mode): 1117

Color Temp over IRE Range (Best Mode, Pre calibration):
	Reference
30 IRE	6432
50 IRE	6578
80 IRE	6711
100 IRE	6721

Sony VPL-HW40ES: Calibration

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):
	2.2 Gamma	2.4 Gamma
20 IRE	6413	6219
30 IRE	6432	6376
40 IRE	6476	6375
50 IRE	6578	6500
60 IRE	6647	6598
70 IRE	6695	6675
80 IRE	6711	6690
90 IRE	6725	6721
100 IRE	6721	6721
Average gamma	2.11	2.30

Calibration settings for User: Gamma on 2.2 and 2.4, otherwise none, see notes

Mike's General Notes

As was the case with other Sony projectors, a number of modes are almost identical when it comes to default grayscale. Reference, Cinema Film 1, TV and User modes all have roughly the same RGB balance that is excellent right out of the box. Red is slightly low and blue is slightly high in the upper IRE levels, but that’s about it. The RGB balance is also quite consistent across the entire IRE range. Delta E averages only 1.23, with a minimum of 0.6 and a maximum of 1.8. This is very good performance for a calibrated display, much less one in a preset color temp. This performance surpasses some of Sony’s more expensive models and is probably the best I’ve seen for a projector in this price range. Also, the BT.709 color space is extremely accurate with very low chromaticity error. However, as will be even clearer from the following discussions, this is not a projector for the tweaker.

Mike's Grayscale Calibration Notes

The excellent grayscale performance is needed, mainly because of Sony’s inexplicable decision to only include one adjustable color temp, which unfortunately corresponds to the brightest color temp. Usually, Sony provides the usual preset color temps (ie; D55, 65, 75 etc.), but then also provides custom color temps that use one of the presets as the starting point. Here, the adjustable color temp (Custom 5) is so low in red and so high in green that even maximum adjustments to the RGB gain and offset will not make to overall balance as good as the default D65 setting. Since there are already slightly less bright, but better color balance alternatives to the Game mode (Bright TV and Bright Cinema) that uses Custom 5, there’s no particular reason to adjust Custom 5.

Gamma settings allow for an overall gamma of 2.11 (with gamma set to Off or 2.2) or 2.30 (with gamma set to 2.4). Greyscale is slightly worse with gamma set to 2.4 as it increases red in the lower IREs, but not greatly. With both, the gamma curve starts at the target gamma at 20 IRE, then slowly drops as you move up the IRE scale.