HD70 Projector Calibration

Calibration - Getting Those Black Levels Right!

Optoma's entry level high definition DLP projector was able to be calibrated to very acceptable levels. Initial Cinema mode settings were acceptable, but as you'll see they are far from perfect and we were much more pleased with the after-calibration settings.

Initial "real world" contrast was measured at 538:1 and final post-calibration contrast was 282:1. We measured over 60cd/m2 at the screen at 100 IRE - and that was in Cinema mode!

We again utilized datacolor's ColorFacts Professional 6.0 software to calibrate and measure the grayscale response of the HD70. The results proved the old adage that "all's well that ends well". The HD70 can peform - as you'll be able to see below.

Before Calibration	After Calibration
In Cinema mode this is pretty much what the stock HD70 will deliver. Color temp has the appearance of being a bit warm and we see a 20-25% overaccentuation of red and blue.	After calibration, which was pretty smooth and painless, we get a much better grayscale tracking result with red, green and blue lining up nicely from 50-100 IRE. Further calibration and use of the Service menu would potentially allow for an even closer calibration, but we were pleased with the results.
On first blush, the luminance histogram doesn't look too shabby but you can see that it's not entirely smooth and black is somewhat crushed up to 15 IRE.	Wow, this histogram is nearly picture-perfect with clean blacks down to 7.5 IRE. Smooth as a baby's bottom舰
Color temperature was about 7300 (set to '0') with settings of 8650 (1) and 10,800 (2) possible through the use of the Color Temp control.	When we were done, color temperature measured almost ruler flat at 6500K from 50-100IRE (and only slightly deviating from that below 50 IRE)

While the initial picture looked fine, the final calibrated image was outstanding. This projector does a nice job of allowing user control of the important functions, though we'd prefer more precise control over color temperature (0, 1, and 2 are hardly a reference or standards-friendly scale).

Video and/or Audio Measurements

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results
Perfect Score is 130
Optoma HD70 Benchmark Score: 50 (While excelling in detail and a decent deinterlacer, the Optoma is a bit "slow on the uptake" so be sure to match it with good progressive scan source components)

* While the HD70 locked on to 2-3 pulldown sequences like the Film detail test, its initial cadence detection was very slow, followed by the processor apparently "learning" the edit and navigating future edits quickly and accurately.

Comments on HQV Testing

HQV scoring was average and you'll want to pair this projector with good source components like a decent Media Center PC or a higher scoring DVD player. The HD70 didn't do too hot on the AVIA Pro Moving Zone Plate tests, failing all of them (except 2-3 horizontal) and demonstrating that holding a finely detailed pattern while in motion is not something the video processing on the HD70 excels at. Feed the unit a clean progressive signal, say from a Denon DVD-3930CI, and it's smooth sailing.