Share your Epson Settings

[ROSS.T.G.]

I thought I would start a thread where we can share our settings, whether calibrated or using a default picture mode. I own Spectracal and an X-rite meter and have calibrated several times over the last year. Every time I check my settings the numbers are way off since the last time I calibrated. My last calibration showed very accurate numbers, my grayscale de was 1.24, gamma was 2.36 and all colours were below de 2. I checked again Saturday and my grayscale shifted to 6800K. I also will check grayscale several times during a calibration and it really fluctuates. I also get a much dimmer image at 10fl. I always test my projector after the calibration with the Spears disc and the results are horrible. The darkest end of the grayscale shows near blacks as a purple/red tint and the whitest whites a weird red tint. Again the software is telling me it's accurate and I am getting crazy gain and bias settings. For example BGAIN is -20. I researched some reviews on the 5030ub and their offsets were much different with only minor adjustments to grayscale.

This led me to research online and found an article from HD Guru reviewing the same X-rite meter I have compared to his much more expensive meter and he said this is common for these meters. He stated most cheaper meters will often make the image worse even though the software shows accurate readings. He performed the evaluation on a Sony projector in the same price class as the Epson. He stated that unless you have a very good meter it's best to stick with a factory default setting such as THX.

Since I have always calibrated my displays I reached out to Michael Chen who is a well known THX calibrator and asked him some questions. I wanted to know how often I should calibrate the 5030ub. He said projectors should be calibrated every 800 hours and since I have my own gear he said I should calibrate every 300 hours. This too me is ridiculous. I enjoy getting the most out of my projector but since my 5030 is my main display I would need to calibrate every 2 months.

Because of this I decided to reset my 5030 and use the THX default mode with only a change to the sharpness, using the advanced sharpness setting. What a difference. Every single disc I have watched looks better. I flip back and forth from the default and calibrated picture and the default THX mode looks more accurate. It also has much more depth (thanks darbeevison) and brighter at 17fl.

My point is why pay someone $400 to come and calibrate your projector if it shifts so much every 800 hours. I spent a good amount on my calibration equipment and now it's virtually useless.

I've had my Epson 5030ub now for 1 year and now I am finally really enjoying it in the default THX mode.