Epson Home Cinema 705HD - Image Quality-2

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Art Feierman

The 3000:1 contrast ratio, is a pretty low number, these days, although still substantially better than the 2000:1 ratio of last year's Home Cinema 700. Black levels are just acceptable for an entry level projector.

Some say, that if you have a moderate amount of ambient light, it negates the advantages of a projector with great black level abilities. That isn't quite correct. Place two projectors of equal brightness side by side. If one has much better black levels, even as you turn the lights up, it will still do blacker blacks. The more ambient light, the less noticeable the difference, but the difference is still definitely significant, until the point where everything is sufficiently washed out that no one cares.

And that's why the Home Cinema 705HD is a home entertainment projector - not a home theater projector. It is expected to work in a world which isn't pitch black. And it's design compromises and trade-offs are in part based on that assumptions. Still, further improvement of black levels would have made for a better projector. On the other hand, that's why Epson sells 5 more expensive home theater projectors.

I've cut down the number of images relating to black levels and shadow detail, as compared with other reviews, because you'll get the point rather quickly, and, no point in "beating the point to death".

We'll start with the The Fifth Element image of the Starship. As you can see, the exposure is fairly normal (not noticeably overexposed), yet you can see that the blacks of the background