*Official* Epson Home Cinema 8100 owners thread!

Thumbs up, Pringals! Appreciate it!

This is my 1st projector, so I can't wait to see what people have done to their settings. I've gone thru all the menus, but have no clue what to change for motion, noise, iris, super white and then all of the color options. What is the best calibration disc to use?

Great work, Pringals!
I've only calibrated with THX Optimizer and the SD Video Essentials so far. The THX Optimizer is from the BD version of Terminator 2. This is the only BD that I know of with THX Optimizer on it.

This is my fifth projector, but the first one where I've ended up with a higher number on my contrast setting than my brightness. I think with Natural mode I ended up with 4 on contrast and -1 on brightness. My theater has a black ceiling, dark purple walls and dark carpet with dark curtains around the screen. Letterbox bars are really black with the 8100 in this environment. I use it with the iris on. I've left superwhite off. It appears to dull the whites too much. As long as you're not cranking your contrast up too high I wouldn't think it would be necessary to use Superwhite, unless I'm misunderstanding its purpose.

For those with upconverting DVD players, how much of an advantage are you seeing? I'm using a PS3 and honestly I can't see a difference after calibration. The scaler in the 8100 is very good apparently. I'm using standard power for all settings except one, where I tweaked Living Room mode for movies and put it in ECO. It's still very bright on my 126" screen.

Also, I mainly use Living Room color mode in standard for sports. This is amazing for NFL games. Dynamic actually is too bright with the lights off.

Love this pj. I'm using Living Room mode for TV and movies. From the Spears and Munsel Disc I've got the Brightness at +5 and the contrast at -13. Projecting on HC Grey Screen 100" from 14' away. My walls are light beige and the screen wall is dark brown (ceiling's white). I'm running in ECO mode as well. Have been fooling with the color temp and skin tone settings a lot. Right now I'm at 6500K w/ the skin tone setting at 1. That's it for now and all this is subject to change, but overall, very pleased w/ this purchase.

I love it, been tweaking a little the past couple of days with the DVE Bluray (man what a convoluted mess) anyway.. . Brightness and contrast were WAY off, after a few adjustments, the picture clarity is much better...............still tweaking.............

*placeholder post*

Once my 8100 hits 125H, I will properly color calibrate with my EyeOne colorimeter.

I will post menu settings and my ColorHCFR files.

Please note: this may not be until mid JAN (I presently have about 75H on it and Christmas is upcoming-- I have to travel some).

tril

Way off...? So what did you come up with...?

They are still talking prices over 'there'...anywho, I am shooting from about 11/12 ft on to a 90in matte wht(1 or 1.1 g). Ceiling mounted on 8ft ceiling...lens down about 10in. Eco mode, theater 1, brightness -6, contrast 0, overscan auto, iris off. That's it so far. Only watched sdvd upped thru my oppo980 to 1080p...pretty good job...look great. I will have my oppo 83 bluray installed by the weekend...that will be jawdropping because some of Nemo sdvd was awesome looking even with it being upconverted.

normal power, superwhite off, auto iris, Brightness +11, Contrast -14ish Theater black 1

Normal and bumping up the brightness...wow. What sz screen you shooting on and are your settings for ambient light/windows, tv. movies...? You must like it bright. I am in eco mode and still find it bright for a 11ish ft throw to a 90in screen. To each is own I guess.

About 2 weeks ago I spontaneously purchased a 8100 because of the BB deal at the time. This is my first LCD projector (I've only used DLPs before) and I am very happy with it for movie watching (BR).

However, I noticed some color seams around text when displaying a computer desktop. So I made some test patterns (attached) and took some closeup pictures (attached). I noticed the following things.

1. As you can see, there is noticeable color separation in both horizontal and vertical direction, especially in the lower right corner.
2. The upper left corner seems to have less contrast than the rest of the image.
3. All horizontal lines are somehow blurry.

I am not sure whether these things are caused by panel misalignment, chromatic aberration of the lens, or both.

I am projecting on a 135" screen. The projector is placed on a low table with the center of the lens approximately at the same height as the lower edge of the projected image, using only vertical lens shift of about half the shift range.

I would appreciate if you could try my test patterns on your machines and post some closeups of the corners and center.

Thanks!

 

Epson8100_ColorConvergence_White.zip 386.7236328125k . file

 

TestGrids.zip 57.0634765625k . file

 

Epson8100_ColorConvergence_Black.zip 209.6923828125k . file

Yep all these screen shots in threads with clearly visible panel misalignment causing blurred edges just freaks me out about this whole 3 panel lcd thing. I want this projector so bad...but am having very serious doubts about this tech. Look in the panny Ae4000 thread I see them exact same thing with pics posted on that unit as well.

I will use mine with HTPC 100% of the time. So this is a great concern for me.

I am setting my display up by gray scale pattens supplied by the DVE Bluray. 11.5ft throw to a 92" Elite 1.0 gain. It seems that +11 for brightness is best when coupled with the cut in contrast, no blooming whatsoever on the white end and only minimal on the black. My room is totally dark, black screen wall and ceiling, dark gray side walls.............

Yup looks like your panels are off by at least a couple pixels. My first 8100 was also off by about two pixels. I exchanged it the new one is much better. If you can I would exchange it, if not call epson for a replacement. I didn't want to exchange mine but now that I did sure am glad.

I started a thread on this issue and also have a post in the other thread here are some links to them.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1202956

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...177582&page=24

Attached is a grid pattern, it is made up of single white pixels surronded by three black pixels

BTW was your box damaged? my first one looked like it had been dropped a few times, corners were smashed.

 

Grid1.zip 23.8486328125k . file

Now this is my 1st projector, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I'm also projecting onto a wall, while I decide on a screen. I have hooked up my 8100 w/ component and hdmi to see if I had bad cables. On HD football and basketball when the pic is of the field or court, it is almost like there is a stationary item there. Kind of like screen door effect, but when the screen moves real fast this item remains there. I will try and take some pics this wknd, because I know I'm not explaining it well. The artifact stays there when there is a lot of motion. Is this normal on sports? Do I have the image too big? Help please. I wonder if I should try to exchage it at BB and see if this is a defect. Other HD stuff, like shows look great, it's just sports.

Could be your wall paint. (texture from roller)

move the pj a little while its projecting if the artifact doesn't move with the image its the wall.

It may be a stuck pixel or a dust blob.

Thanks datobin1.

Yes, my box is slightly damaged on one side, as if it had been standing on that side and something heavy was put on top of it, or it has been dropped. Unfortunately, Epson boxes do not have any foam cushioning inside, only folded cardboard.

Looks like you were very lucky with your replacement unit, with only 1/2 a pixel misalignment. Did you take the picture from your new unit at the center or corner of the screen?

If it is not too much to ask, could you use my test patterns and post a few screen shots of your unit (corners and center, if possible)? I think we all would be glad to have some reference images from a "good" unit that we can compare to ours.

I believe that credit must go to BB. I just returned my unit with 100 hours on the lamp. I notice that I was having keystone effect with my image. A call to Epson confirmed that the unit was defective, and they offered to replace it for me, but i said I will try BB as it was still within the extended period they are now offering. I had the unit for three weeks. BB just exchange the unit without any problem, all they asked what was wrong.
My question is how many owners have a perfect rectangular image?
The new unit is better, no damage on the box, but when I get home from work I will do some fine tuning..

Both of the 8100s I had/have, had a perfect rectangle.

I also have some trapezoid/keystone distortion of the image. The top of the image is about 2 inches wider than the bottom. (Both projector and screen are leveled.)
In addition, the image is slightly tilted to the left, so I had to extend the left front screw foot a bit to get it straight.
Together with the color divergence problems I posted above, all of this looks like the LCD panels in my unit are somehow out of whack. I think I'll need to get a replacement from BB.

If you can give Epson a call and see if they have a solution for your problem. it's good to know what's wrong so you can look for it in the future. With mine, it was the V and H lens shift problem. Also, By all means exchange it, just make sure they have one in store.

Well, many owners have until the end of January to return/replace if purchased at BB...including myself. I used 'pattern' and everything is straight. I have some blurriness around text edges with sdvd...have yet to hook up my new br player...will do that this weekend.

What are definite signs of messed up panels if that's the case...can we get a 'what to look for' list please. This is my first lcd pj and if it's messed up, unless way obvious, I would not know.

Anybody know how to read the packaging label/codes to determine week of production...which lot or batch. I ordered mine prior to Thanksgiving and picked up a week later at store...it had to be ordered/shipped and I chose store rather than home delivery. Anyways, I would like to know if this is second or third run of the unit. Maybe there is a pattern to the units being out of alignment/problems.

Just wondering if this looks normal to all the 8100 owners out there. Is the lens supposed to be slightly slanted/crooked looking? (it has bugged the hell out of me since the day i opened the box).
I have no problems with the image quality really, except for the lcd panels might be slightly off like a few of ya'll have discussed.

I know its a crappy photo, but it was taken on my back with a iphone.

Thanks

heres mine on Iphone camera Rangebob

This is my first pj with lens shift. I have less than 10 hrs on this so far, but every time I go to use it, I have to recenter the picture. I also find the lens shift is touchy. I'm ceiling mounted in the basement. I was thinking the drift may be due to vibration from foot traffic on the floor. Is this typical?

Rick

Thank you very much Grishi.