Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—6,852:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—211:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 480(per picture height)
720p: 720 (pph)
1080i: 1,080 (pph)

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.665, y=0.330
Green Color Point: x=0.261, y=0.659
Blue Color Point: x=0.150, y=0.048

Measured Color Points After Calibration:
Red Color Point: x=0.640, y=0.329
Green Color Point: x=0.300, y=0.624
Blue Color Point: x=0.152, y=0.059

The top chart shows the PowerLite Home Cinema's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the 6,500 K color-temperature mode, measures very warm with dark images and less warm with brighter images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures very close to D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range.

The bottom chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue liquid-crystal panels. These are fairly off those specified by SMPTE. Red is somewhat oversaturated. Green is very oversaturated and somewhat bluish-green. Blue is very slightly undersaturated and very slightly purplish-blue. Some color-point adjustment is possible. After calibration, green is only slightly oversaturated, red is pretty much spot-on, and blue is ever so slightly undersaturated.

After calibration, and using a full-field 100-IRE white (6.852 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.001 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 6,852:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 211:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the Brightness Control (the lamp) set to Low and the auto iris set to On. The brightest image was achieved with the Brightness Control set to High and the auto iris set to On. This mode produced 8.993 ft-L with a 100-IRE field and 0.002 ft-L on a 0-IRE field for a contrast ratio of 4,497:1 (on an 87-inch-wide, 1.0-gain Da-Lite Da-Mat screen).—GM