Projector Reviews

The W10000 performed well on our horizontal resolution multiburst tests. Over HDMI, the luminance resolution goes out to the maximum burst frequency of 37.1MHz, with some unevenness at that frequency but no serious rolloff. The same for 720p, though with a bit more rolloff. The 480p bandwidth is also good out to the 13.5MHz resolution of that format. The projector does not respond to 480i HDMI.

With component, the 1080i response also extends out to 37.1MHz, though with some unevenness and also a little noise at that frequency. The resolution lines on the 720p pattern at 37.1MHz were also visible, but clearly rolled off. The 480p component response was down significantly at 13.5MHz, but 480i was good to 6.75MHz, the maximum frequency for this format. In all cases the color burst responses were more than adequate.

The accompanying chart shows grayscale tracking with Before (Warm setting) and After calibration results. The post calibration numbers are clearly better here, and the final x/y coordinates were also within +/- 0.004 of the target D6500 point from 30IRE to 95IRE.

The x/y coordinates for the red, green and blue color points were better than average for a digital projector. In particular, the greens were much less saturated than we usually see. The secondaries were off slightly more, but still respectable.

The 3D Color Management feature, with its separate adjustments for Hue, Intensity, and Saturation for the primary and secondary colors, can move the color points to a degree, but without precision test tools you're better off leaving them at the factory defaults. And even with the tools needed (such as our Photo Research PR-650 spectroradiometer) my attempts to move the color points using this feature proved only marginally effective. It was not possible in most cases to improve both coordinates simultaneously, and the procedure was both tedious and time consuming. If you hire a calibrator by the hour, I don't recommend adding this process to the calibration.

The PE8720 displays both above white and below black from both its HDMI and component inputs.

With 80 hours on the projector, the lamp in Whisper Mode, and the iris opened up by about 1/3, I obtained a peak contrast of 3,758:1 (22.55fL peak white, 0.006 video black on my 1.3 gain, 16:9, 78-inch wide, Stewart Studiotek 130 screen).

As noted in the review, the above setting above leaves a lot of reserve light output. The iris adjustment still has two-thirds of its range to spare. There's also a higher lamp setting. If you need a bigger screen, or need to increase the light output to compensate for lamp wear, it's there. With the iris full open and the lamp on 250W (Whisper Mode Off), I measured 40.14fL on my relatively small screen. Though this high output compromised the black level, the black level will drop to a more respectable value, along with the peak white, on a larger screen.

The W10000's overscan averaged about 3.5%, except on component at 1080i, where it dropped to a more desirable 1% on all sides.