Epson Home Cinema 3020 Projector Calibration and Settings 2

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Art Feierman

Epson Home Cinema 3020 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration) User 1
20 IRE	6767
30 IRE	6539
40 IRE	6410
50 IRE	6453
60 IRE	6467
70 IRE	6516
80 IRE	6576
90 IRE	6625
100 IRE	6772
Average gamma	2.17

Calibrated color temps, 20 – 100 IRE. Gamma proved to be rather good, and very close to the targeted 2.2.

Home Cinema 3020 RGB Settings

Home Cinema 3020 Post Calibration settings
	Cinema (on User 1)		Quick Cal of Dynamic (on User 2)
Offset	R	-7	R	0
	G	1	G	0
	B	9	B	0
Gain	R	3	R	0
	G	-2	G	-10
	B	1	B	0
Color Saturation	-5		0
Tint	0		0
Gamma	2.4		2.4
Lumens at 100 IRE:	1362		1742

To try these, open the menus, and from the Image menu, select Cinema mode. Then go down to Advanced. Open it, then select RGB. Place these number in, replacing the defaults. The improvements should be pretty obvious. We recommend you then save your settings under User 1.

Mike provided these additional notes, regarding the ability to calibrate different settings, limitations, etc.:

NOTE: Dynamic is high in green, low in red at 100 IRE, despite the good color temp shown on the previous page. Knocking green down helps, but the lumen output drops quickly. For most users, Living Room will have enough lumens and looks better.

We have not posted the CMS settings here, although Mike does mention them below. We understand that very few people spending under $2000 on a projector will fork out hundreds of more dollars for a calibration. The CMS improves only very slightly compared to just the grayscale calibration. The rest of Mike's comments:

NOTES: Overall, the 3020 is pretty much the same as the 3010. Almost identical lumen output (the 3010 was slightly greater in Living Room mode). Grayscale is decent right out of the box in Cinema mode, with the usual lack of red in the higher IREs. It calibrated very well (see graph), with only the big bump in Delta E at 100 IRE as the red taps out. In real world use, whites look good, without any blue or green cast. The gamma settings are more accurate than they were with the 3010, with the average gamma coming in at only 0.03 less than the preset value (2.17 vs. 2.2). Like the Panasonic AE8000, there are extensive gamma settings available, but the simple gamma setting is so good, most people won’t bother with it.

As mentioned above, doing a Quick Cal of Dynamic causes a rapid drop in lumen output. The calibrated Cinema mode’s output of almost 1400 lumens is probably more than enough for most users.

The color gamut is very good by default in Cinema mode, with only Red being off the mark. Green, in particular, is probably the most accurate we’ve seen in an Epson projector. Cyan, in particular, couldn’t be more accurate. Yellow and magenta are slightly off, but are easily improved with the CMS. The deficiency in red is something that’s limited by the projector and so the CMS can’t fix it completely. Trying to move red to its data point causes luminance to suffer, so you’re stuck with slightly orangy reds. Even so, with normal viewing, the colors looked good. There does seem to be a little too much red in skin tones, but if this bothers you, you can always turn the main Color control down.

Ultimately, the Home Cinema 3020 produces reasonably good color, even better if calibrated. It should prove more than satisfactory for the Home Cinema 3020's target market, and likely will satisfy many enthusiasts spending in this budget range.