Mitsubishi HC7000 Projector Calibration-1

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Art Feierman

We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. It is a pretty standard calibration, there's always more that can be done by some of the "hi-end" calibrators.

Mitsubishi HC7000 Projector - Color Temperature

As mentioned elsewhere, out of the box grayscale balance, is a little warmer than the ideal 6500K. (That means stronger reds.) Here are the measurements:


30 IRE (dark gray)	6017K
50 IRE (medium gray)	6148K
80 IRE (light gray)	6231K
100 IRE(white)	6209K

That's not bad for " out of the box", and it is watchable, but really does need improvement to appreciate the full potential of the Mitsubishi HC7000.

Below we get into the various settings and adjustments, and report on the grayscale balance, post calibration.

Basic Settings

In addition to calibrating Red Green and Blue for a correct grayscale balance (6500K), there are a number of other settings that come into play. Typically Contrast and Brightness (white balance and black balance), need to be done first. Color saturation and gamma also need to be adjusted. With some projectors even Tint comes into play, although with most, the Tint control only works with the lower quality inputs (composite and S-video). It should be noted that the Mitsubishi HC7000's gamma settings impact the color balance, so it's important to do the gamma at the same time, or rather, before the final grayscale adjustments.

Our settings (numbers in parens are the default numbers):
Gamma
User mode	High = -1
Medium	-1
Low	0 (These numbers are based on starting with the Cinema gamma setting.
Contrast	-1 (0)
Brightness	3 (0)
Lamp Mode	Standard (unless noted otherwise)
Iris	On
Color Saturation	-6 (0)
Tint	-1 (0)

Zoom at mid-range, All other settings at default

Post Calibration Grayscale

The end result of our calibration was excellent:
White (100 IRE)	6490K
Light gray (80 IRE)	6522K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	6425K
Dark gray (30 IRE)	6514K

The HC7000 produced truly excellent results, with only a 60 degree temperature shift from white to dark gray:

We created our settings in User 1 in the Color Temp area. We used the Warm color temp as our starting point You can choose Warm, Medium or Cool, you cannot start with High Brightness.

The color accuracy really showed, when watching the HC7000!