Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio-2567:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio-162:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446: 480: 480 (per picture height)720p: 620 (pph)1080i: Out to the limits of the 1280-by-720 panels

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

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

Measured Color Points: Red Color Point: x=0.662, y=0.330 Green Color Point: x=0.322, y=0.650 Blue Color Point: x=0.143, y=0.058

The left chart shows the VPL-HS51'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 low color-temperature mode, measures extremely warm with dark images and almost accurate with the brightest images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures slightly better, within 1,550 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 panels. These are off those specified by SMPTE. Blue and red are oversaturated, while green is oversaturated and somewhat yellow.

Using a full-field 100-IRE white (7.701 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.003 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 2567:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 162:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the lamp set to low and the iris set to auto. The brightest image was achieved with the lamp set to high and the iris set to auto, which produced 9.701 ft-L on an 87-inch-wide, 1.0-gain Da-Lite Da-Mat screen.—GM