Epson TW3000 HD LCD Projector Review

[The News Bot]

Reviewed by Phil Hinton
When you take in to account the vast controls for picture calibration and the very good calibrated image that the TW3000 produces, it starts to look like a real bargain. I can only recommend that if you are in this area of the market and want a projector that is capable of getting pretty close to producing accurate and extremely watchable images with acceptable dynamic range and black levels, you seek out the TW3000 for a demo. Recommended.
Read the full review...

[townsejl]

Hi there,

Just wanted to say many thanks for the excellent review. On the back of that i have purchased a TW3000 and couldn't be happier with the results.

I've messed around with the settings and am pretty satisfied with the picture, but out of interest was wondering if it would be possible to get your full set of calbrated settings. Obviously i'm aware that each unit differs, but it would be interesting to see how mine looks with your ones punched in.

Many thanks again for the review and any help you can offer.

Jamie.

[vur@AV]

Hi Phil and thanks for that review.

We have had this PJ since February (now on 820 pleasurable hours).

I too would dearly like to know your calibration settings. Failing that, I would like to use your before and after RGB color balance graphs for guidance. Was the initial graph from Theatre Black 1 which has a default color temp of 7500 and explains the blue dominance, or did you change to 6500, produce the first graph and then calibrate?

[Phil Hinton]

Originally Posted by vur@AV

Hi Phil and thanks for that review.

We have had this PJ since February (now on 820 pleasurable hours).

I too would dearly like to know your calibration settings. Failing that, I would like to use your before and after RGB color balance graphs for guidance. Was the initial graph from Theatre Black 1 which has a default color temp of 7500 and explains the blue dominance, or did you change to 6500, produce the first graph and then calibrate?

I don't swap settings with members for simple reason that they will not work in your room, with your screen and with your sources. Greyscale and cms work needs to be done with a meter and cannot be done by eye. I measured out of the box with colour temp set at 6500k in the menus. These however are not totally accurate as you can see in the results in the review. CMS needs quite a bit of work with calibration gear to get it correct.
Sorry I cannot be any more helpful, but to calibrate correctly you need to learn how to use a meter and software. A good investment for any projector owner would be one of our calibration classes.

[vur@AV]

Thanks for the reply Phil, and I appreciate everything you have said. Regardless, I too use 6500, and after tweaking by eye and having people spontaneously comment that skin tones look very natural, your RGB graph confirms that blue
is probably still dominant, so I will check that area. I have also spent ages with Avia's DVD and crude photocell.
We are in Australia and I'd love to jump in our Lear-Jet to attend a Calibration course, but fuel is expensive at present

[vur@AV]

About focus issues with this PJ, yes we too find it can drift somewhat. Luckily we do not need it ceiling-mounted.

I have found that sharpness can be truly excellent. The edges and centre can be equally sharp and with neglible color abberation if :
no lens shift is used, along with
minimal zoom (to use more of the lens' sweet spot) and
focussed so that both the horizontal and vertical borders of the pixels are equally black. Blacks seem blacker too.

Video processing seems unusually fast. It has been reported as measured at only 16ms and with HDTV I find 27ms audio delay seems about right.