Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—15,180:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—251:1

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

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

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

Measured Color Points:

Red Color Point: x=0.671, y=0.325

Green Color Point: x=0.280, y=0.684

Blue Color Point: x=0.135, y=0.062

The left chart shows the VPL-VW100'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 middle color-temperature mode and the Cinema picture mode, measures slightly cool with dark images and pretty close to accurate with brighter images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures within 94 Kelvin of D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range.

The right chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue liquid-crystal-on-silicon panels in the Normal color mode. These are off those specified by SMPTE. Red is oversaturated. Blue is somewhat oversaturated and slightly greenish-blue. Green is very oversaturated. In the Wide color mode, the color points shift slightly and, for the most part, become slightly less accurate.

After calibration, and using a full-field 100-IRE white (15.18 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.001 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 15,180:1 (on an 87-inch-wide, 1.0-gain Da-Lite Da-Mat screen). Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 251:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved in the Dynamic picture setting with the auto iris setting. Standard mode and Cinema mode had the same black level but dropped peak light output by approximately 6 percent and 12 percent, respectively, from the light output created in the Dynamic mode.—GM