Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 22,000:1

Gray scale, color, and color tracking measurements for the DLA-X3 were performed within the first 40 hours of lamp life. The projector was calibrated using the Film preset with the User 1 6500 selected Color Temperature and a custom gamma curve based on the 2.3 Gamma Correction Value. Contrast measurements were performed later, at approximately 130 hours of lamp life.

The full-on/full-off contrast was measured in different Zoom and Lens Aperture configurations in the Lamp Power High mode. The highest contrast was achieved with minimum Zoom and the Lens Aperture fully closed. Contrast measured about 22,000:1 with the projector dialed in for the optimal home theater viewing in my room (near max zoom and Lens Aperture at –6), which is how I used it during the review period.

Using the 6,500 color temperature preset, the color temperature averaged closer to 5,500 and varied between 5,000 and 5,900. Unlike most projectors, the DLA-X3 was strong in red and low in blue, while most projectors are usually exactly the opposite. With some minor adjustments, I dialed in the color temperature to nearly perfect 6500K and D65 for the white point, with the average Delta E from 20 IRE to 100 IRE under 2, which is excellent.

Since the DLA-X3 doesn’t have a color management system (CMS), I had to rely on its out-of-box color performance. The red, green, and blue primaries were decent in the Standard setting of the Color Space control, but green had a hue shift toward blue. The secondaries didn’t fare quite as well, with magenta being a bit undersaturated and leaning quite a bit toward red. Yellow was also undersaturated, with a red tint. Thankfully, the balance of the primaries and secondaries seemed to work out all right, with natural fleshtones and colors that didn’t appear oversaturated. As I mentioned in the review, I later coupled the DLA-X3 with a Lumagen Radiance Mini-3D video processor and achieved a nearly perfect Rec. 709 color gamut. There are several video-processing solutions on the market that you can use in lieu of an onboard CMS that may be worthwhile if you’re looking to get the very best from your display.—KD