TEST BENCH

The Wolf Cinema DCX-1000i has a 6,500-K color temperature mode, but it averages 5,924 K from 20 to 100 IRE, a rather low measurement that results in a reddish picture. After calibration by a Wolf rep, the projector's color temperature and tracking were essentially perfect, averaging 6,479 K from 20 to 100 IRE and varying from the 6,500-K standard by no more than 72 K. Color-decoder errors through the HDMI input were almost nonexistent - red was down about 2%, and blue and green were perfect. Through the component input, red was down about 10% and blue about 2%, while green was dead-on. At Wolf's factory calibration, the set's red, green, and blue primary color points were as close to the SMPTE HD specification for digital TV colors as I've ever measured.

Wolf Cinema sent the DCX-1000i because that's what it had available; the company admitted that this projector is overkill on my 108-inch 2.35:1 screen and said that usually it would recommend the DCX- 500i. Indeed, even at the lowest bulb power setting (700 on a scale of 1,000) and the tightest iris setting (9 on a scale of 0 to 9), the projector still delivered 22.4 ftL of luminance from a 100-IRE pure-white field - my preferred brightness level in my light-controlled home theater.

Contrast ratio after adjustment of brightness and contrast controls was 1,866:1. Just for fun, I opened the iris all the way up and cranked the bulb power up to 1,000; this combination of settings delivered luminance of 142.3 ftL at 100 IRE, a level so bright it was painful to look at on my "small" screen. Even at this super-bright setting, the contrast suffered little, measuring 1,674:1, which means the contrast will hold up well on a much larger screen. These contrast numbers aren't competitive with many of the projectors we measure, but the black level is still quite satisfying overall.

Wolf Cinema says it finetunes the gamma on its projectors for a film-like look. The onscreen menu said the gamma was 2.6, but it looked more like standard 2.2 gamma.