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Epson Pro-Cinema LS9600e Projector Review – Calibration and Settings

Posted on March 13, 2015 By Ron Jones

Pre-Calibration Grey Scale

Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre-calibration, best mode):
Level  Natural Picture Mode -Color Temp
30 IRE 7333K
50 IRE 7050K
80 IRE 7015K
100 IRE 6885K

Before we provide our settings, let’s see what we started out with: Pre-calibration of the Natural picture mode, these are the color temperatures over the grayscale range

Pre-Calibration Brightness and Color Temperature

LUMENS AND COLOR TEMPERATURE AT 100 IRE
PICTURE MODE OUTPUT*
Dynamic 1147 @ 6928K
Living Room 745 @ 9203K
Natural 898 @ 7079K
THX 708 @ 7076K
Cinema 779 @ 8201K
B&W 776 @ 5868K

* Note:  As discussed in the pervious performance section, the actual brightness values may be on the order of 10% higher than listed in this table (for comparison to our other home projector reviews), due to differences in the light meters being used.

These measurements were all make with the power output set to High (or Extra Bright) while the default power setting is medium for some picture modes (see below).

Basic Settings

Settings for Measurements (default values are in parenthesis)
Cinema Dynamic B&W Cinema Living Room
Contrast = (0) 0 0 0 0
Brightness = (0) 0 0 0 0
Color Saturation = (0) 0 0 (-10) 0
Tint = (0 for all) 0 0 0 0
Color Temp = (default) (2) (0) (-2) (4)
Dynamic Contrast =
(HS=High Speed)		 HS HS HS Off
Settings for Measurements (default values are in parenthesis)
Natural  THX
Contrast = (0) 0 0
Brightness = (0) 0 0
Color Saturation = (0) 0 0
Tint = (0 for all) 0 0
Color Temp = (default) 6500K 6500K
Dynamic Contrast =
(HS=High Speed)		 Off Off

Lens Iris is 0 (fully open) for all picture modes. All other settings at default (untouched).  Zoom at mid-range and power mode on High unless noted otherwise. Note that the default power mode (i.e., equivalent to Lamp Mode on conventional projectors) is on Normal (also called Medium) by default for Natural, Cinema, B&W Cinema, and THX picture modes.

Calibrated Grey Scale

Calibrated color temps, 20-100 IRE
20 IRE  6312
30 IRE  6588
40 IRE  6607
50 IRE  6581
60 IRE  6501
70 IRE  6494
80 IRE  6476
90 IRE  6429
100 IRE  6430

The calibrated Natural picture mode produced the grey scale shown in this table.

dE averaged 1.2 and the maximum dE was 2.3 at 60 IRE.

Average gamma =   2.27

NOTE: Using the preset -1 setting for gamma yields an average gamma of 2.27.  Projectors with high native contrast ratio, such as the LS9600e, allow use of a somewhat higher gamma, which is why I increased the gamma a little by using the -1 preset.

 

Calibration Settings

Calibration settings:
Natural  Quick Cal of Dynamic
Offset (0)
R = +1 R = 0
G = +3 G = 0
B = -1 B = 0
Gain
R = 0 R = 0
G = -2 G = -7
B = -5 B = 0
Gamma -1 0 (default)
Lumens at 100 IRE  809*  1064*

* Note:  As discussed in the pervious performance section, the actual brightness values may be on the order of 10% higher than listed in this table (for comparison to our other home projector reviews), due to differences in the light meters being used.

The RGB calibration settings shown in this table are for the fully calibrated Natural picture mode (2nd column) while the minor change to the green gain for the partially calibrated Dynamic picture mode (3rd column) removes some of the excessive green tint that is present when using the factory default settings for this picture mode.

 

The RGMCMY settings for the calibrated Natural picture mode are as shown in the screen shot below.

Epson LS9600e - Calibration-3

For the Quick calibrated Dynamic picture mode the factory default settings (all zero) were used for the RGBCMY adjustments.

Calibration Comments

Grey Scale:  The measured grey scale values for 10 IRE (near black) are not expected to be as accurate as for the higher levels and is not shown above.   The LS9600e, like many other projectors including Epson UB series, only has adjustment for gain and offset for the 3 primary and 3 secondary colors.  This limits the ability to calibrate the grey scale for color temperature that remain constant at 6500K across all IRE levels.

Gamma: The default gamma setting was a little lower, with an average of 2.19, than I like for a projector with a high native contrast.  Therefore, during the calibration I changed the default gamma value, found under the Advanced picture settings – gamma menu, from  0 to -1 in order to increase the gamma.  The resulting gamma averaged 2.27  from 20 IRE to 100 IRE and varied between 2.25 and 2.30 over this same range.  A calibrator has the option of making more specific gamma corrections using the projector’s custom gamma adjustments, where it should be possible produce whatever gamma value or curve is desired.

Contrast Adjustment:  The 809 calibrated lumens reported above for Natural picture mode are with the projector’s contrast adjustment set to 0.  For my own use I would lower the contrast setting to -3 in order to display whiter-than-white levels – i.e.,  a little above the video standard reference white level of 235.  This reduces the calibrated lumens a little to 767.

Epson Pro-Cinema LS9600e Projector Review – Performance 3
Epson Pro-Cinema LS9600e Projector Review – Summary