Posted on April 11, 2018 By Nikki Zelinger
Epson Brightlink Interactive Projector Review – Performance: Brightness, Contrast, Audible Noise
Of the Optoma W460’s color modes, Bright, aptly named, measured the brightest at 3,736 lumens. It did not meet its 4,600 lumen claim, but this is common amongst projectors, as most will measure within 25% of their claim. 3,736 lumens is extremely bright, and is enough to cut through even the most ghastly ambient light. This mode is, as mentioned on the last page, your “break glass in case of emergency mode” – one that is only to be used in the most dire of circumstances, as it also has the worst color.
Presentation mode performed well, measuring at 2,887 lumens. That’s enough for your typical classroom or conference room. The image holds up well against ambient light and hardly has any washout of color at all. It has decent color for such a bright mode, so unless your application requires accurate color, this may well be your preferred mode for presentations. Cinema mode is still nicely bright at 1,889 lumens – I opened the blackout curtains in my viewing space and doused the screen in ambient light, and this mode was still clear enough to see. Next time I’ll remember to take a photo for your reference.
Blackboard mode came in at 2,759 lumens, but this is a mode that you will likely never use unless you have a blackboard in the classroom. sRGB, the next best mode after Cinema, measured at 1,486, and when faced with ambient light, I could see everything on the presentation slide, but it was washed out. DICOM SIM., the final mode, measured 2,887. This is a mode for viewing X-Ray films, and it is bright enough to use in a classroom setting.
The Optoma W460 has a 20,000:1 contrast ratio. I see this kind of number on many business and education projectors, which typically translates to blacks that are a medium dark grey. From viewing it, I’d say this projector has good contrast. The blacks at least look black, and the only way to really tell is to cast a shadow on the screen with your hand, or else look at another part of the room that is, perhaps, darker than the blacks on the screen.
This doesn’t matter so much in business and education applications, save for something like graphic design, where you may desire your blacks to be, well, more black. For lessons, presentations, educational films, websites, and all other typical uses in such an environment pretty much look great. I’ve included a photo of a dark scene from Journey to Space to use as a reference for what the projector is capable of. I intentionally overexposed the photo so you could see the shade of grey I was seeing live.
The audible noise rating for the Optoma W460 is 37 db at full power, 31 in ECO mode. That 37 db rating is a tad high, and I did notice that the fans were a bit loud. Not so much as to be distracting from a presenter or video, but enough to hear. In a mode like Cinema, the projector kicks into ECO, so you won’t be hearing the fan as much in such a mode. Now, you do have the option of using a bright mode like Presentation and running it in ECO – just know this will reduce the brightness considerably.
That’s it for our Performance Page! Next up is our final page of the review, where we will summarize everything for you, and I’ll briefly discuss some of the competition.
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