While Epson projectors deliver excellent performance at an approachable price, there were customers who desired more, so those customers had to explore projectors from other manufacturers that offered premium models at higher price points. Several projector enthusiasts, including myself, have pushed Epson to produce higher end in-home entertainment projectors to compete against the premium models from companies like Sony and JVC.

This year, Epson decided to do just that with the launch of the Q series line of projectors to address the needs of those looking for a premium home theater experience. The new Epson QB1000, QL3000, and QL7000 are premium 3LCD Laser home entertainment projectors that combine excellent color reproduction and upgraded video processing with class-leading brightness to maximize flexibility in various living spaces and media rooms.

In this article sponsored by Epson, we're going to explore the new Q series as they take a revolutionary approach to tackling both SDR and HDR picture reproduction.

Starting with the QB1000. The "B" in the unit model number indicates that the projector's main benefit is black level. The QB1000 delivers 3,300 lumens of brightness and features Epson’s UltraBlack™ technology which enhances black density to deliver deep, rich blacks that add depth and realism to the picture. Like the other Q-series models, this projector includes dynamic HDR tone mapping. Due to its improved black level, higher brightness, and improved video processing, the QB1000 is an excellent option for someone with a traditional dark home theater who wants to step up from Epson's award-winning Pro Cinema LS12000.

Next, the QL3000 is designed for use with larger screens. The "L" in the model indicates the projector's most notable feature is its light output. The QL3000 can deliver up to 6,000 lumens of brightness, making it suitable for larger spaces where higher brightness levels are needed to maintain picture quality.

Lastly, the QL7000 is designed to deliver a no-compromise SDR and HDR viewing experience. With a rated brightness of 10,000 lumens, the QL7000 can be utilized with huge screens in even the most challenging lighting conditions, making it ideal for large media rooms or spaces with high ambient light.

For maximum installation flexibility, the QL3000 and QL7000 are compatible with a range of Epson Precision Lenses, including short and long-throw options. Whether projecting a 130-inch screen from just three feet away or positioning the projector 60 feet back, the QL models adapt seamlessly. This flexibility eliminates the traditional trade-offs associated with room dimensions or ceiling heights.

All Q-Series models are equipped with Epson’s proprietary 32-bit QZX Picture Processor, which enables dynamic HDR tone mapping. The 3LCD panel used in the Q-Series are native Full HD (1920x1080), but the projector is equipped with Epson's latest 4K Pro UHD pixels shifting technology to produce 4K (3840x2160) on-screen resolution.

Epson also states that the projector's out-of-the-box color reproduction will be outstanding. When measured by an independent 3rd party, the Color dE (Delta Error) was just 1.45, which is fantastic. Since all models include dynamic laser dimming, they can deliver a dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1.

We could spend the entire article covering the new and notable features included in the new Q-Series projectors. To learn more about the Q-Series, check out our video interview with Rob Brennan from Epson.

Epson QL7000, QL3000 and QB1000 Projectors Deliver Game-Changing Projected HDR Picture Quality

Learn About The New Epson Units

In this video, we speak with Rob Brennen from Epson about their new Q-Series projectors, including the QB1000, QL3000, and QL7000. Leveraging Epson's decades of expertise in high-brightness commercial projectors, these models are designed to deliver stunning HDR performance even in brightly lit environments by addressing the significant brightness limitations of traditional projectors.

They offer an exceptional HDR experience and are ideal for customers seeking immersive visuals without needing a fully darkened space. These models represent the future of projection, tailored for both premium and everyday applications.

Advanced Light Sources Deliver Higher Brightness

In this article, I want to focus on their high brightness capability and how it impacts HDR picture quality and viewing content under ambient light. While Epson projectors like the 6050UB are well-regarded by projector enthusiasts for their ability to deliver deep blacks. With the Q-Series, Epson wanted to use their experience producing higher brightness light sources to push projector picture quality to a whole new level.

While most premium projectors are designed mainly for darkened theaters, Epson wanted to build projectors that would work not only in theaters but also in other locations where people want to enjoy a massive immersive image. While enthusiasts are still building dedicated theaters, many people desire multipurpose spaces that could be utilized day or night.

Those who want a massive screen in a room with ambient light often must resort to a large flat-panel TV, but these screens are usually dwarfed by the image that a bright projector can produce. Large LED walls can cost a fortune, so they are only a suitable solution for a small group of customers.

To deliver a great-looking image on a massive screen in a room with high ambient light requires a huge amount of brightness that far exceeds the capability of most home theater projectors. However, the benefits of high-brightness projection combined with good video processing are undeniable.

The first time I had the opportunity to experience HDR content on a 10,000-lumen home theater projector, I was completely blown away. The projector delivered the best-looking HDR image I had ever seen, but the unit was quite large and noisy, required 220 Volt power, and was incredibly expensive. Despite these issues, the benefits of high-brightness HDR projection were obvious.

Over the years, Epson has worked hard to increase the brightness of its professional models while reducing the size of the unit chassis and its power consumption. They utilized the experience they gained building compact high-brightness professional projectors to create high-brightness home entertainment projectors that deliver a different HDR experience than other premium projector models. The QL3000 and QL7000 highlights Epson's latest laser light source advancements.

The QL3000 has a rated brightness of 6000 lumens, which is nearly double the light output of most competitors' 3000 lumens premium home theater models while being about the same size and weight. The flagship QL7000 can deliver 10,000 lumens from a compact chassis. It is quiet and can be powered using a standard 110-volt power outlet. The QL7000 is also 1/3 of the price of a competitive 10,000-lumen home theater projector, making it an outstanding value.

The Pursuit of Native Contrast

For decades, deep blacks and high native contrast have been the most important thing when viewing content on a projector.

Native contrast defines the difference between the darkest blacks and the brightest whites a projector can produce without artificial enhancement. SDR content was mastered at lower brightnesses, which most projectors can easily deliver, so the best way to improve a projector's image quality was to increase its native contrast by improving its black-level performance.

High native contrast ensures dark scenes are rendered with rich, deep blacks rather than washed-out grays. High native contrast also preserves those subtle nuances, allowing you to see every detail in the shadows and enhancing the overall visual depth.

The Epson QB1000 caters to home theater enthusiasts with darken spaces who desire deep blacks

For those customers with screens smaller than 130” in dark rooms that crave inky blacks, Epson has introduced the QB1000. Combining high contrast 3LCD panels and Epson’s UltraBlack (UB) delivers great black level and high native contrast while still providing 3300 lumens of brightness.

While deep blacks are still critical when viewing HDR content, high brightness capability is vital in delivering a great-looking picture. The interplay between light and dark gives a scene dimensionality, making it appear more lifelike. With better contrast, colors appear more vibrant and more faithful to the creator’s intent. The deep blacks and vivid whites serve as a canvas for more realistic color reproduction.

Contrast Ratio Measurements: Useful or Hype?

Contrast ratio measurements are often used to determine which projector is better. However, these measurements often do not reflect what the picture will look like in the real world. What truly matters when viewing a projected image is perceived contrast, which is impacted by several factors, including your screen, room environment, and, most importantly, your eyes.

Normally, projector manufacturers promote their models with static and dynamic contrast ratios. Select high-end premium projectors can achieve static dynamic contrast ratio measurements exceeding 100,000:1, while it is not uncommon to see dynamic contrast ratio ratings that are nearly infinite. While these measurements sound great, it doesn't mean that when you put the projector in a real room, you can visually see this amount of contrast.

Ambient lighting can quickly reduce the visual benefits of higher native contrast derived from deeper blacks.

Another thing to consider is that static and dynamic contrast measurements for projectors are often taken using the FOFO (Full On/Full Off) technique, which does not relate to real-world viewing.

When viewing actual content, light from the bright areas of the screen bounces off surrounding walls back onto the screen, dramatically reducing the black level.

ANSI contrast measurements are a far more realistic way to measure real-world performance. To determine ANSI Contrast, several black and white squares of a checkerboard test pattern are measured to determine the max brightness and darkest black level that can be displayed simultaneously.

While flat panel displays are not greatly impacted by the room when measuring a projector’s ANSI contrast, the light that reflects off the screen can bounce off the walls, objects, or even the person doing the testing, brightening the black levels. While the change may be imperceptible to the human eye, sensitive light meters can pick up the difference.

Also, ambient lighting (windows, lamps) in the room will impact the black measurement. Even in a dark space, most projectors can only deliver an ANSI contrast ratio of around 200-600:1. While this doesn’t sound like enough contrast to deliver a good image, it probably does.

Premium projectors like the Epson Q-Series do an excellent job optimizing how their native contrast is utilized based on the content being played. For example, the new Epson ZX video processing can dynamically adjust the contrast curve and modulate the projector's laser dimming, as seen in the scene. So, while the Q-Series models like the QL3000 and QL7000 can deliver a massive amount of brightness, it doesn't mean you have to sacrifice good blacks when viewing darker content.

If a projector has poor black-level performance, doubling its contrast by improving its blacks will make a significant difference; however, if the Projector has good contrast, doubling its contrast ratio by improving the blacks further probably won't make much of a visual difference.

Remember that higher contrast on a projector does not always mean better black levels, although the two can be related. A higher contrast ratio just means that the brighter parts of the image are more colorful, and the darker parts are relatively darker.

How Perceived Contrast Impacts Real-world Picture Quality

While irises increases our eyes dynamic range, the static contrast ratio of a human eye is less than 1000:1

While the human eye has a dynamic contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1 due to our iris’s ability to adjust to different light levels, the static contrast ratio of the human eye does not exceed 1000:1. Research states static visual contrast can be as low as 100:1.

When viewing a dark scene in a dark room, the dynamic range of our eyes shifts down to make details in dark areas more visible. When viewing brighter scenes, our eye's dynamic range shifts up to ensure bright highlights are visible.

However, HDR content will often show bright highlights and dark details simultaneously, like in the real world. This means the brightness range shown on the screen could exceed the static contrast capability of the average human eye. So, if the brighter areas are large enough, your eyes will adjust to those objects, making them less sensitive to the darker areas of the screen. This is why the black squares still look dark compared to the bright white squares of an ANSI contrast test pattern. Also, if the white squares are very bright, increasing the ambient light in a room will have minimal impact on how dark the black squares appear visually.

Doubling a projector contrast ratio by reducing blacks probably wouldn't provide a visual benefit. While increasing contrast by boosting a projector's brightness, would be noticeable most of the time.

Therefore, in most applications except for a darkened room looking at incredibly dark scenes, measured brightness has a much more significant impact on perceived contrast than measured black level. The QL3000 has a rated brightness of 6000 lumens, which is about double that of most premium home theater projectors, so the perceived contrast will seem noticeably higher when viewing real-world content or an ANSI contrast test pattern, especially in a room with ambient light.

By leveraging high-lumen output, Epson ensures that the projector’s brightness dictates the perceived dynamic range, not the room’s lighting conditions. This approach not only preserves the image’s integrity but also enables a consistent and immersive viewing experience in varied settings.

The Impact of High Brightness on HDR Picture Quality

HDR content viewed on a home entertainment projector often doesn’t look as good as in Dolby Vision professional cinema. Commercial theaters are provided with content specifically mastered for the professional projector's brightness capability in that space. However, home theater enthusiasts cannot access those versions of the movies. This is why, for years, except for on a few projectors, I recommended that projector owners watch SDR versions of movies instead of HDR.

Consumer HDR content available for streaming or Blu-ray discs is mastered for flat-panel displays, which can deliver a much higher on-screen brightness. HDR content for consumer applications is usually mastered at brightnesses between 1000 and 4000 nits, but most projectors struggle to display more than 200 nits on a 120-inch screen.

Producing a good HDR image has always been challenging for most home entertainment projectors due to their limited brightness range. This means projectors must rely heavily on HDR tone mapping. The goal of tone mapping is to try to display as much of the information found in HDR content on the screen as possible, utilizing the lower brightness capabilities of the projector.

Limited video processing capability, static tone mapping, and low brightness resulted in a projected HDR picture that left a lot to be desired. The HDR image was usually too dim or flat-looking, or the highlight details were blown out.

The amount of brightness required to deliver good perceived contrast rises dramatically as ambient light increases.

The good news is that projectors continue to get brighter each year. About three years ago, the average brightness of her premium home theater projector was about 2000 lumens. Several premium home theater projectors, including the Epson QB1000, can deliver over 3000 lumens. While the QL3000 has a rated brightness of 6000 lumens, and the QL7000 can deliver an amazing 10,000 lumens. In addition to higher brightness, many projectors, including the new Epson models, are equipped with more powerful video processors and dynamic HDR tone mapping.

To accurately reproduce HDR imagery, every pixel must be displayed at a specific color with a particular brightness. Since a projector must rely on HDR tone mapping, it cannot deliver a completely accurate HDR image. As the brightness of projectors increases, the amount of tone mapping that needs to be applied to HDR content is reduced. This means that the content looks closer to what the creator intended for you to see.

Based on prior experience, I believe that the 3300 lumens produced by the QB1000 should be enough brightness to deliver a satisfying HDR image on a 100 to 120-inch screen. This is about 250 nits (cd/m2) of on-screen brightness on a Matte white screen. While this is probably too bright to watch SDR in a dark room, you can turn down the light source power. Not only would this reduce the onscreen brightness, but it would also darken the black level, which is beneficial in a light-controlled space.

The Importance of Color Volume

In addition to perceived contrast, another important component of a great-looking HDR picture quality is color volume, a concept that combines brightness and color gamut coverage. Color volume represents the total range of colors a display can reproduce across all brightness levels. While color gamut measures the range of colors a display can produce at a specific brightness, and brightness indicates how much light the display can emit, these attributes alone are insufficient for evaluating HDR performance.

A display with a wide color gamut but insufficient brightness, or vice versa, can fall short of delivering the vibrant, lifelike quality HDR is known for. Color volume bridges this gap by considering both elements together, providing a holistic view of a display’s ability to handle HDR content.

In HDR scenes, especially in movies and games, the combination of brightness and color saturation is what creates a dynamic and immersive experience. For example, chrome shimmering in the sun or the vibrant colors of neon signs require both intense brightness and the full expression of rich, saturated colors. Without high color volume, these scenes might appear dull or washed out, losing the emotional impact that HDR aims to deliver.

A high color volume ensures that colors remain accurate and vivid even as brightness levels increase. In displays or projectors with low color volume, colors often desaturate or shift at higher brightness levels, leading to unnatural or flat imagery. A projector with excellent color volume can maintain the integrity of these colors at all brightness levels, preserving the creator’s artistic intent.

So, color volume is critical in HDR content viewing because it determines how well a projector or display can reproduce the full spectrum of colors at various brightness levels. By delivering vibrant, accurate colors alongside the intense highlights and deep contrasts HDR demands, high color volume creates a truly captivating and lifelike viewing experience. If two projectors can reproduce the small gamut, doubling the brightness of one projector will double its color volume.

Colors displayed at higher brightness appear more saturated to the human eye. The quickest way to see this is to move your projector closer to your screen. As the image gets smaller, you will notice that the colors look more vibrant since the image is brighter.

Epson Q-Series Delivers Amazing HDR On Massive Screens in Nearly Any Room

With price points ranging from $8,000 for the QB1000 to $30,000 (minus the lens) for the QL7000, Epson is targeting the premium segment with this lineup. However, these prices represent exceptional value compared to alternatives like video walls which can cost significantly more. The Q series provides a blend of luxury and practicality, offering a premium projection experience without the exorbitant costs of high-end competitors.

At a recent event, Epson set up two 130” screens so I could compare the HDR image delivered by the QL3000 to a competitively priced 3000-lumen home theater projector. The HDR image looked brighter and lifelike, and the colors appeared more vibrant. While the competitive projector has a much higher rated native contrast ratio and can theoretically produce much deeper blacks, the Epson delivers a much higher perceived contrast ratio. The image produced by the QL3000 looked much closer to that of a flat panel. More brightness will ensure that HDR colors do not look flat and dull when displayed on larger screens or under ambient light. The QL3000 could easily deliver a pleasing image on screens exceeding 150 inches.

Since the QL7000 has a rated brightness of 10,000 lumens, it is an outstanding choice for someone looking for class-leading HDR picture quality on screens exceeding 180 inches. The QL7000 ultra-high brightness can deliver good perceived contrast on a huge screen, even in a room with higher ambient light. This makes it an affordable alternative to massive modular direct LED Walls. You can use a QL7000 to create a 200-inch video display for hundreds of thousands of dollars less than an LED wall.

Several projector manufacturers offer premium projectors optimized for controlled-light environments like dark home theaters. While delivering deep blacks in a dark space is important, Epson believes higher brightness is beneficial when viewing content in rooms with higher ambient light.

One of the most striking aspects of the Epson QL3000 and QL7000 is their ability to deliver "visual contrast" under any lighting condition. Human perception of contrast is influenced by surrounding brightness, and these projectors leverage their high-lumen output to ensure that visuals remain vibrant and dynamic regardless of ambient light.

This capability allows users to enjoy consistent image quality, whether watching movies, delivering presentations, or gaming.Higher brightness often delivers higher perceived contrast, and when combined with a good ambient light-rejecting screen, you could easily utilize an Epson QL3000 or QL7000 as your primary video display in just about any room.

Whether it’s the entry-level QB1000 for dedicated home cinemas or the powerhouse QL7000 for immersive, multi-purpose use, Epson has created a lineup that stands out in both performance and versatility. Epson’s goal is to provide a premium lifestyle solution for those who desire a massive, vibrant projected image in a great room or media space, day or night. Due to their ability to produce a bright and accurate image, Q-Series projectors represent a significant leap forward in home entertainment.

As TVs grow larger and video wall technology becomes more accessible, projectors must evolve to stay relevant. Epson’s Q series meets this challenge and sets a new standard for what projectors can achieve, proving that brighter truly is better.

Epson Q-Series: How Higher Perceived Contrast Improves Picture Quaity In Most Environments