Home Cinema 1080 Remote Control and Calibration

There is nothing new here. The Home Cinema 1080 uses the exact same remote control as the Pro Cinema 1080, except that it is white instead of black. It still has the same incredible IR reception. I only wish all of my remote controls worked as well as the Epson's - you would think the science of IR would have been cracked by now!

Notables include discrete On and Off buttons, direct access to Aspect, Memory and Color Modes and a very easy and intuitive Menu interface. All six inputs have dedicated direct-access buttons, something I look for on all projectors I review. The remote itself is a bit bulky and the light button is located somewhat awkwardly on the very bottom of the remote. The buttons do not automatically light up when you push a button. I think they should, since you are almost always in the dark when using a projector.

The Menu System

The Epson Home Cinema 1080 menu system doesn't differ in any meaningful way from the Pro version except for a lack of ISF features. To get more detailed info on the menu system, check out our reviews of the Pro 1080 and the 810 HQV.

Calibration – Getting Those Black Levels Right!

We calibrated the Epson Home Cinema 1080 and found that, for whatever odd reason, it calibrated more accurately than the Pro model with the exception of color saturation (CIE chart) performance. We're sure this was simply "luck of the draw" but take a look at these comparisons:

 
Epson Pro Cinema 1080 (left); Home Cinema 1080 (right)

Using datacolor’s ColorFacts Professional software to calibrate and measure the grayscale response of the Epson projector, we ran it through the battery of tests and found some interesting results

Grayscale & Color temperature Before (Epson Pro Cinema 1080):

 
Epson Pro Cinema 1080 (left); Home Cinema 1080 (right)

While not awful, the Pro model has some very distinct issues at higher IRE levels, producing a cooler image overall and the effect of a "brighter" image.

Grayscale & Color temperature Before (Epson Home Cinema 1080):

 
Epson Home Cinema 1080 (before)

As you can tell, the image was simply a bit warm (closer to 6000K than the preferred 6500K - at least until around 50 IRE). The interesting thing to note is that the Home 1080 model had a flatter response and actually seemed to represent a more balanced level of color. Only a full calibration would show the true nature of this projector, so we got down to it and began our work. Here are the results after a rather short calibration session:

Grayscale & Color temperature AFTER (Epson Home Cinema 1080):

 
Epson Home Cinema 1080 (after)

Color just about leaped into position and our overall response was more even than most projectors I've calibrated in the last year. The color temperature matched both my observations and my calibration adjustments. What I saw mimicked my observations and the results were, while surprisingly easy to attain, expected and welcome.

Unlike the Pro Cinema 1080, the Home Cinema 1080 exhibited none of the "rubber band" effects during calibration where one color or area would "stick" and create a ridge or peak in one particular IRE level.

We cranked up the Epson to around 46.3fL in Dynamic mode. Living Room yielded 22fL and Theater Black brought forth 14.3fL. Theater Black 2, the darkest mode with the deepest blacks, brought just 9fL - so you'll need to make sure you have TOTAL light control in your room when utilizing that mode. This was all from a 100-inch Stewart Studiotek 130 screen with a gain of 1.3.

We also measured the color temperatures in various modes (using 80IRE):

• Dynamic (Vivid on Pro) - 6550K (6500K setting)
• Living Room (Cinema Day on Pro) - 7475K (8000K setting)
• Natural - 6400K (6500K setting)
• Theater Black 2 (Cinema Night on Pro) - 6026K (6000K setting)
• Theater Black 1 - 7200K (7500K setting)
• Theater - 6450K (6500K setting)

We measured real-world contrast at 333:1 using 'low' brightness in Theater Black 2 mode and 1715:1 using 'high' brightness in Dynamic mode. These numbers seem lower than the Pro model, however understand that since I cannot directly compare all modes, it's possible that the test conditions changed and I was in a different mode. In any case, the system is certainly capable of much higher contrast rations when you crank up the light output of the projector.

If you are a Brightness freak - stick with the Theater Black 1 mode or perhaps Theater. If you have a completely light-controlled theater room and can control reflections, then you can certainly opt for the Theater Black 2 mode. If you do, don't forget to set your color temperature to 6500K. In my opinion, you will get the best picture by selecting Theater Black 2, setting Brightness Control to 'High', and setting the Color Temperature to 7000K (which yielded around 6425K in our tests). The measured Contrast Ratio at this setting was 386:1. If you want more dynamics, enable the Auto Iris or go for the Theater Black 1 or Theater color modes.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130

Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 Benchmark Score: 77 (with the stock Epson 1080 projector, you are going to get a decent picture)

We cannot explain the difference in HQV scoring from the Pro Cinema 1080, however we checked the Home Cinema 1080 twice to ensure our results were accurate. Both projectors were sent 480i via HDMI from a Denon DVD-3930CI.

Comments on Bench Testing

As mentioned in the note above, we have no idea how we got different results, but we certainly did. The Pro Cinema 1080 failed the Film Detail test, though it appeared to do better on the Jaggie tests and Mixed Media text. The Home Cinema 1080 passed Film Detail with flying colors and did substandard on the Jaggie tests… We'll chalk this up to something we cannot at this time establish, however both results are respectable and neither projector gives me pause for use as a scaler and deinterlacer.