Optoma HD33 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Art Feierman

Naturally, we calibrate every home theater that we review. The Optoma HD33received the usual treatment. This time, Mike got to calibrate it before I really started watching the HD33.

Our calibrations, including the Optoma HD33, are normally limited to a grayscale calibration, along with brightness, contrast, color saturation, tint (where applicable), etc. Only in very special circumstances will we calibrate the individual colors, in which case we discuss why.

Let's take a look at the numbers:

Optoma HD33 Color Temperature

Color Temp over IRE Range (Cinema mode)
30 IRE	7130
50 IRE	7170
80 IRE	7037
100 IRE	7334

Before we provide our settings, let's see what we started out with: Pre calibration, these are the color temperatures over the grayscale range:

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom)
Cinema	1138 @ 7334
Bright	1148 @ 7369
Photo	1117 @ 8486
Reference	1138 @ 7352
User	1146 @ 7350

Optoma HD33 Basic Settings

Basic Settings
	Cinema	Bright	Photo	Reference	User
Contrast	(8) 8	(9) 8	(5) 6	(2) 8	(2) 8
Brightness	(-2) 0	(-2) 0	(-3) 0	(-2) 1	(-2) 1
Color (N/A with HDMI)
Tint (N/A with HDMI)
Color Temp	(Warm)	(Warm)	(Warm)	(Warm)	(Warm)
Gamma	(Film)	(Graphics)	(Video)	(Standard)	(Standard)

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 adjustment.

Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):

Lamp Mode= Bright (unless noted otherwise) NOTE: The Image AI lamp mode is the same brightness as Bright lamp mode.
All other settings at default (untouched)

Optoma HD33 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration): User
20 IRE	6271
30 IRE	6460
40 IRE	6519
50 IRE	6509
60 IRE	6416
70 IRE	6445
80 IRE	6485
90 IRE	6669
100 IRE	7162

Average gamma= 2.21

HD33 RGB Settings

HD33 Post Calibration settings:
Gain	User
R	(0) 4
G	(0) -2
B	(0) -1
Bias	User
R	(0)
G	(0)
B	(0) -1

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

NOTE: Grayscale calibrated pretty well, with the exception of the big imbalance at 90 and 100 IRE. Delta E, which was less than 1.0 from 20 to 80 IRE (an excellent result), jumped to over 9 at 90 and 100 IRE. This might improve with more hours on the lamp, but it’s still a lot worse than most new projectors. The lack of Color and Tint controls make it impossible to improve the skin tones, which are a little too red. Turning on any level of PureColor just makes things worse. The CIE graph is better than a lot of DLP projectors that have undersaturated or yellowy-greens. I prefer the slightly oversaturated greens.

Ultimately, the HD33 produces reasonably good color, even better if calibrated. It should prove more than satisfactory for the HD33's target market. They have the higher end HD8300 to compete against higher end home theater projectors.