Opto ma HD39Darbee Special Ed ition Perfo rman ce
For that fast-moving football action, which model shines the brightest?
On the HD39Darbee’s Hi-Def setting, team colours positively zing
When it comes to luminosity, the EH-LS100, at 4,000 lumens and with a 2,500,000:1 contrast ratio, outplays its rivals emphatically. This is important if you want to watch with social levels of lighting, rather than a full cinema blackout. All this intensity makes the EH-LS100 a tad noisy, though. In Quiet lamp mode, brightness drops to 2,800 lumens.
That said, picture quality is gorgeous. While this laser-light Epson doesn’t quite manage a deep black, colour vibrancy is exceptionally high – just the thing for depicting a verdant green pitch. Images are smooth and pixel-dense; there’s a beguiling photographic quality about its presentation.
Optoma’s DLP HD39Darbee doesn’t have quite as much dynamic contrast as the 3LCD Epson, but there’s still a reasonable black level on display. Optoma quotes a native contrast of 32,000:1, and its sharpness is massively impressive. To prevent edge-ringing, it’s best to keep the Sharpness setting at around 10 on the sliding scale. Image modes comprise Cinema, Vivid, Game, Bright and User.
Like the Epson, the HD39Darbee is bright at 3,500 ANSI lumens, and can be used in a room with moderate lighting. This projector is adept at sports, because motion handling is deliciously smooth. The picture doesn’t suffer artefacts as players run hither and thither. The Darbee processor comes into its own with brightly lit matches too – on the Hi-Def setting, team colours positively zing.
Given its budget price tag, it’s perhaps not surprising that the BenQ W1050 doesn’t have sophisticated image interpolation, but motion handling is good. A dedicated Sport mode gives a significant boost to the average picture level, and proves pretty effective. Fine detail is high and black levels are respectable. BenQ claims a contrast ratio of 15,000:1.
Brightness is rated at a 2,200 ANSI lumens, lower than the competition, but not by much considering its super-low price. Still, you might want to keep the curtains drawn for the best image.