Projector Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—1680:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—417:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446: 480: 470 (per picture height) 720p: Out to the limits of the 1024-by-576 panel 1080i: Out to the limits of the 1024-by-576 panel

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

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

Measured Color Points: Red Color Point: x=0.621, y=0.371 Green Color Point: x=0.308, y=0.601 Blue Color Point: x=0.148, y=0.071

The left chart shows the HC900'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 6500 color-temperature mode, measures quite cool with dark images but fairly close to D6500, the accurate color temperature, with warmer images. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures better, within 320 kelvin of D6500, 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 color-filter-wheel segments. Compared to those specified by SMPTE; blue is correct, green is ever so slightly yellow, and red is fairly orange.

Using a full-field 100-IRE white (8.401 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.005 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 1680:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 417:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the standard bulb setting and the iris fully closed. The brightest image, which was achieved in the standard bulb setting with the iris fully open, produced 19 ft-L on an 87-inch-wide, 1.0-gain Da-Lite Da-Mat screen.—GM