Hisense 100″ Laser TV Review – A 4K UHD, Smart Projector with Screen – Picture Quality 2

Hisense 100" Laser TV Review – Picture Quality 2: 4K Content with HDR, HDTV and non-HDR Movies (1080p), Sports Content

First of all, 4K Content with HDR comes across very nicely bright – lacking the dimness on some scenes that I complain about with some projectors.  As mentioned our calibration never delivered a bright rich red, so not the best projector for say a scene filled with bright red balloons and American Flags. Still, the reds are close enough that many would not notice.

There is a cool white tendency in 4K (Eric used the Sports mode to set up for 4K with HDR, which isn’t quite ideal, but which a lot of folks may enjoy.)  As is always the case, there are accurate projectors (color wise) and those that may merely look good.  Our goal is to identify the differences between them.  Think high quality speaker systems.  Some are “rock” speakers or great on jazz, classical, or great on vocal.

Truly accurate speakers should be equally good on just about everything.  Same applies here.  Just as those less accurate speakers are colored to sometimes favor one type of sound (with, without vocals, etc.), doesn’t make them unpleasant to listen to.  As a guy who sold very high end audio for almost a decade – long, long, ago, that’s the best analogy I can come up with.  This Hisense is very watchable if not especially color accurate such as nailing REC709 color, which it does not do (see Eric's calibration notes.)

Our calibration of Standard mode proves a bit more accurate than the mode for 4K w/HDR. That too is why I feel that more playing with the projector’s settings can probably improve a bit on our one attempt at 4K with HDR.  It’s rare I say that, but it does happen sometimes.

Remember please, we reported earlier in the review, that laser projectors sometimes do not photograph well (color wise), and this Hisense fits that description.  For some reason my photos definitely are coming out with a blue/purple caste that is either not there at all on screen, or barely perceptible, if looking for it.  The photos, though, have way, way, too much.

Overall, very pleased with all such non-4K w/HDR content.  Projected, Jennifer Lawrence looks great in The Hunger Games on regular Blu-ray disc.

Before I discuss the picture color, let’s talk sharpness for sports viewing.  Hisense seems to have a lot of sharpening/detail processing going on.  Perhaps a bit too much. The bottom line though is that at first glance, the Hisense seems to be about the sharpest 4K UHD projector I’ve seen.  On sports that extra processing/perceived sharpness and detail, is awesome.  It "almost" seems like I’m watching 4K despite the lower resolution.  That’s a major plus for this laser TV, relative to the competition.  Call it an pretty great sports projector.  And don't forget that the UST design and matching screen deals with ambient light rather well. That's big, since few folks I know like watching sports in a very dark room!

Wish I had some proper 4K sports to check out.  I think I may hunt around for some. I expect I will be pleased with the results when I find some.