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Epson Pro Cinema G6900 WU Projector: Picture Quality 2

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Art Feierman
PRO CINEMA G6900 PROJECTOR - PICTURE QUALITY PAGE 1:   Shadow Detail HDTV and Sports, Overall Picture Quality

G6900 WU Projector - Dark Shadow Detail

I've definitely got no complaints about the G6900's ability to reveal dark shadow detail.  It does a very fine job.  That's not surprising, as, when well designed, it's easier to spot near black dark shadow detail on projectors that aren't stellar at having great black levels.  In other words, like many "crossover" projectors, The G6900 WU has so so black level performance and really good visibility of dark details.

For your consideration are a few images, including the night sleeping scene from The Hunger Games.  It's a great image to use, and the Epson handles it really well.  And of course, we have the Casino Royale night train scene as well.  Look to the shrubs beyond the railroad tracks on the right and into the darkest parts of the woods. Nicely done!

Epson Pro Cinema G6900 for Sports and HDTV

Let's start with sports.  This is a dream projector for watching sports - and I've watched quite a bit, including using this projector in my theater all lights on, for our annual Superbowl party.  As my lights are all in the rear, this projector barely noticed, or I should say, people in the room certainly didn't notice.  There was plenty of ambient light for the social gathering of almost twenty people in the room.

The Epson Pro Cinema G6900 WU had no trouble filling my screen with a bright, vibrant, and sharp picture for the entire game.   No one could really notice any dilution of the picture due to the ambient light, but that's what having roughly 10 times the brightness needed for a darkened room will do for you.

Sports measured just over 4200 lumens (mid-point on the zoom).  By comparison, the non-sports HDTV images seen above, were taken with the calibrated Theatre mode (which was placed into User 1)   Even calibrated, the Pro Cinema G6900 WU still yielded over 3500 lumens  at full power.  (For our party, we ran the projector in Eco, for the quieter fan noise, since we certainly didn't need all of the available lumens.

Yes, I used Sports mode for Superbowl party despite it not being calibrated.  Sports was also used for the football images you are viewing in this player.  As I said earlier, all the modes look at least very good, without any adjustments.  BTW sports was normally (including the Superbowl) viewed with CFI (creative frame interpolation) for smooth motion, turned on.

G6900 WU Projector: Overall Picture Quality

The short version will do.  This Epson projector produces very good to great color depending on mode, but it's the massive amount of brightness that really sets the Pro Cinema G6900 apart from Epson's less expensive projectors.  True, a number of them, including the Epson UB's can put out over 2000 lumens in brightest mode, but let's say that this Epson is easily more than twice as bright as the brightest other Epson's in the home lineup.  That of course does not include the two less expensive G series projectors, the G6550 WU and G4855 WU.

Viewing movies in rooms with some ambient light works out great.  In such environments much of the difference (not all, for sure) between projectors with great, good and so-so black levels is negated. Mind you, if you don't need all the lumens, but do have a room with ambient light, you can use grays surface screens, as was done in the old days, to lower black levels a bit.

This Epson Projector is built though, for that living, media, bonus, family room where it can dazzle you with  a great picture thanks to both brightness and vibrant colors, virtually unfazed, by modest, or even moderate ambient light.  It's going to take one really over the top room in terms of light, to get this G6900's picture to suffer.  That's why the slightly less powerful white G6550 is headed to my near impossible living room.

BTW there are plenty of bright commercial projectors out there, but one difference is that Epson made sure they put a few bells and whistles into these three G projectors, that maximize home viewing (such as CFI for sports), and the iris to help out with black levels.

Can't wait until my G series is installed, more for you then.

When it comes to the picture itself, let's consider the G6900:  Too bright, plus having unimpressive black levels should keep this projector out of a dedicated home theater, but, then, it was never intended to live there.  The Pro Cinema G6900 WU, though has no trouble mastering most other rooms that you could place it in.   It sports a great looking picture that can survive a good deal of ambient light when paired with a proper screen for your room.

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