Entertainment Experience “TruVue Vango” LED Projector…A Quick Look…

Posted on 14. Jul, 2010 by Jason Turk in Product Reviews

INTRO:

So far in the 2010 model year, there have been limited choices on LED based projectors (3 major contenders to date).  However, there is now another entry to this growing market…the Entertainment Experience TruVue Vango.  The Vango is the smallest footprint LED DLP projector I have seen, though don’t let the size fool you…it is built like a tank.  It is a solid metal chassis, with clean lines and a simply design.  The inputs are located on the side of the case (with the exception of the power cord which is on the back), and of course like any good projector today has a couple HDMI, component, VGA, S-Video, composite, etc…, yielding plenty of choices for any installation.  On the same side of the case as the inputs, there are too slightly recessed rotating wheels, one for vertical lens shift and one for horizontal.  Again, these are designed to give the most flexibility to suit more installations.  The lens is VERY well made, and there are 2 choices… a standard and a long throw.  The zoom and focus of the lens is motorized via the remote control, which not only makes it easier to adjust, but allows those who want to do a cinemascope setup not to be forced to use an anamorphic lens if they do not want to and yet still be able to adjust the size from the seats.

The remote control is small and stylish, but yet simple.  There are discrete inputs, a cursor pad w/enter, menu, exit and power…that’s it.  But the way everything is done in the menu of the projector, this design is all that is needed.  For instance, to quickly access the zoom/focus, all you do is it the enter button and then adjust with the cursor (no going into a big menu and sorting through).

In the testing of this projector, I did it with the projector alone.  However this model can be purchased with an external color box as well.  This color box is like nothing on the market in that it is the world’s first 3d color box.  So what is a 3d color box?  Well with normal CMS systems, it is impossible to change a specific color, without affecting all the other colors in an image.  In addition and specifically with LED, the LED color gamut is much larger than lamp based units, but this usually means flesh-tones are not quite accurate.  Essentially you have to choose between the full color gamut capabilities of LED, or accurate flesh-tones.  The 3d color box corrects for this.  Essentially with a 3d box such as this, you can pick a color to adjust, and the box then runs….well…TONS of calculations in order to map out all the other colors.  It is a very slick system for sure.  I will also mention that later in the summer there will be a Windows utility that will allow further in-home calibration with this 3d color box…stay tuned for that.  The TruVue Vango has a mode that increases the white to give you more brightness.  Now normally it does so by somewhat decreasing the color vibrancy.  However when adding the color box, this will add the color all back in properly.  Very slick.

CALIBRATION and MEASUREMENTS:

As usual, the first thing I did was my calibration on the unit.  Out of the box the white point was quite high, and the colors oversaturated.  Fortunately, dialing the white point in was quite easy, and taming the luminance of the colors was as well.  The hue/saturation of the colors I left pretty much how they were since the color gamut of LED, being so large, is one of the benefits of the technology.  There are HDTV modes if preferred, and of course with the color box one can dial them in to a desired setting.  You can see my before/after results below.

After I did the adjustments, I did my measurements.  (NOTE:  The measurements in the below tables are all D65 calibrated.  For those wanting to watch in the max light output mode…say for sports in daytime…the light output was roughly 20% higher for both measurements). You can see from the chart below, that typical for the LED based technology, it can achieve infinite contrast when determining on/off.  However in bypassing that method, it still achieves around 8000:1 on/off…very nice.  The real beauty comes into play with the ANSI contrast…where it is amongst the highest I have measured to date.  Moreover, the light output is THE highest I have measured for any LED DLP to date.  In fact when considering that LED’s barely dim over their entire life, ultimately this can be brighter than most other sub $10k projectors made for home theater (taking into consideration dimming on typical lamp-based units).

IMPRESSIONS:

I have to say I am a BIG fan of LED DLP’s.  It is no secret that DLP in general is my overall preferred technology.  Add in the benefits of LED light source and you have a big boost in performance.  Oh, and no rainbows.  The first thing I noticed was the appearance of brightness.  Those who have seen LED virtually always say it seems to be way brighter than what the measurements are, and the Vango is no exception.  Just throwing a picture onto my test screen the image jumped out and grabbed me…quite impressive.  It is hard to put into words, but there is so much depth with LED DLP’s that it looks more life-like than most any other projector (I hasten to use the words “3d Like” since we are getting into real 3d, but basically that is what it mimics).

I should note that though I didn’t use the color box in this review, I have seen the combo setup and the color box does indeed add even more depth to the image, and a vibrancy to the colors that I have never seen to date.

SCREENSHOTS:

Well as I mentioned I am keeping this relatively short, but here are some screen captures I did of the unit in action.  There is no external processing, no camera tricks, no computer manipulation…the only thing I did was crop out the background to clean them up.  Enjoy!

Avatar Blu-ray Screenshots (Thumbnails):

G-Force Blu-ray Screenshots (Thumbnails):

CONCLUSIONS:

I said it before, I am a BIG fan of LED DLP’s.  Though still relatively expensive, the Entertainment Experience TruVue Vango is raising the bar on performance, whilst lowering the price for that performance.  It truly is a big step forward in a growing market of alternate light source displays.

Thanks for reading!

Tags: LED, Reviews, TruVue Vango