Digital Projection's new E-Vision WXGA 600 projector is the most versatile single-chip DLP unit I have seen to date. It is extremely quiet and bright. The user-changeable four- and six-segment color wheels are amazing, allowing you to dial in just the right amount of performance needed for each unique presentation environment. The price point, at $5,995 MSRP, is $15,000-$20,000 less than comparable projectors currently on the market. Needless to say, I was highly impressed with the E-Vision projector. Let's take a more detailed view.
From the outside, the E-Vision has a simple, sturdy, elegant black rectangular metal case with the white Digital Projection logo on top. The locations of the lamp and color wheel access door and input panel have been well engineered. The door to the lamps and color wheel is on the top of the projector, allowing very easy maintenance access for either table-top or ceiling-mounted installations. The input panel is on the side and includes all common consumer and professional inputs.
This unit is amazingly quiet, so quiet in fact, the first time I turned it on I had to walk up to the projector to verify that it was running. To illustrate how quiet it is, I took noise measurements starting at one foot from the back exhaust fans with a reading of 53.3 dB; at five feet it was 41.4 dB, and at 10 feet it was 38.3 dB. When you run the projector in ECO mode or in single-lamp mode, the projector gets so quiet you can hardly hear it. To put this in perspective, the room I was testing in has a noise floor (naturally occurring room noise) of 36.6 dB. For comparison our currently installed projector in the same room registers 64.8 dB from one foot behind the exhaust fan.
While the low noise and simplistic, elegant design of the projector are nice, image performance is obviously what really matters and this is where the projector really shines.
All of the single-DLP projectors I have previously examined are not completely capable of reproducing the full color spectrum of red, blue and especially green. The trade off in reproducing the full color spectrum from a single-chip unit is lumen output, or as we say, brightness. With the E-Vision you have the option of deciding which color wheel you want to select. In single-chip DLP projectors, the color wheel is core to the imaging process. It is used to convert the white light into individual colors. In most single-chip units the color wheel is fixed or very difficult for the end-user to access. The ability for end-users to change the color wheels in the E-Vision is huge-especially when you need to color match it with existing three-chip DLP or LCD projectors within the same environment.
Since this projector comes with the two color wheels, I treated the testing as if it were two separate units, performing each of the tests for each color wheel. To verify the colors and calibration of the projector, I used a professional calibration system we have for color matching our onsite projectors. Once the calibration was complete, I connected a Blu-ray player and watched clips from four different movies. The unique nature of each clip really highlighted the projector's strengths and weaknesses.
Ease of Calibration
Both the four-segment and six-segment wheels are very easy to calibrate. Digital Projection provides a full-featured menu accessible with the remote control, as well as a scaled-down IP network menu structure. The IP menu provides you with basic control of the projector. One simple function of the IP menu is that you can remotely turn the unit on and off without the need for the remote control. This is extremely nice when the projector is installed on the ceiling or in a rear-projection room. In addition to on and off commands, the IP menu will also allow you to select inputs, adjust image brightness, contrast, and sharpness, as well as a few other parameters.
The internal menu has the extended color correction and light curve menus needed for calibration. On most units in this price range, you are only provided red, green and blue color adjustments. With the E-Vision, you have white level adjustment for both high white and low white balances. You also have access to a color correction menu that I have typically only seen on projectors costing more than $30,000. The ability to adjust high and low white balance levels makes it possible to keep the white balance consistent over most of the visual range of the projector.
Four-segment Color Wheel Image Review
The four-segment wheel comes installed right out of the box. The calibration process exposed its weakness: its inability to fully reproduce the green color spectrum. (See figure 1.) While this is noticeable in the calibration report, it was not as noticeable in the image review I conducted.
The image was bright and crisp, exactly what I expect in a 6,000-lumen DLP projector. The contrast was a bit lower than I had expected, mainly due to its powerful output. The bright portions of the image can, at times, overpower the darker more subtle shades. The color depth and reproduction are very accurate with only slight differences in vibrant oranges and reds. This minor issue would only be a problem if you were using image magnification (IMAG) in your venue. And even then, it would require someone with a keen eye watching the IMAG and live action to spot the differences.
Six-segment Color Wheel
Image Review
The six-segment color wheel is packaged in the accessory box and only takes about five minutes to install. The calibration process of the six-segment wheel really shows its flexibility. In the pre-calibration pass with all settings at default, you can already see the additional green color space missing with the four-segment wheel. (See figure 2.)
The six-segment color wheel gives comparable three-chip DLP performance with a single-chip chassis. The weakness of the six-segment wheel is a 15% reduction in light output, per my measurements. What you lose in light output, however, you gain in color depth and contrast. The color reproduction was almost exact to the original image, and the contrast really made the darker areas of the images stand out. The six-segment wheel is well suited for IMAG. There is almost no color variation between live action and the projected image. Even with the reduction in lumen output, the image is still bright and very crisp.
In the end, this is a truly excellent projector-with the four-segment wheel perfectly suited for churches not using IMAG who need a bright, clear image. The six-segment wheel is great for IMAG. It is also fantastic at accurately matching existing projector technologies. The interchangeable color wheels and price are what separate this unit from others and make the E-Vision a new and exciting technology. I highly recommend this projector.
