What Is Projection Colours, Colour Gamut and the Colour Wheel? (2021 Update)

When it comes to DLP home cinema projectors, in addition to resolution and brightness, colour performance can also make the difference between a flop and a blockbuster. Seen through the human eye, colours can directly affect a person’s mood. For example, blue skies and oceans, the lush green of trees and bushes, the subtle pink of cherry blossoms and the vibrant yellow of sunflowers can each evoke special feelings while we appreciate their beauty. When enjoying films, Iron Man’s red suit, Hulk’s green skin and Captain America’s unmistakable blue suit all require accurate colour reproduction to fully immerse the audience. So when choosing a projector, colour-related specifications, including certifications, colour gamut range and colour wheel design are all key characteristics of the utmost importance.

A projector’s certifications include colour specifications, such as Rec.709 and DCI-P3, used by the broadcast and mainstream film industries. And the true key is not in the labels or specification names, but in the projector’s ability to reproduce the actual colour gamut coverage according to the specifications. This often depends on colour wheel segments, and high-end home projectors typically use six-segment RGBRGB colour wheels, with colour wheel craftsmanship and techniques further affecting colour representation. Let’s take a closer look at how we perfect BenQ home cinema projectors’ colour performance.

Common technical specifications related to DLP projectors include lumen rating, which represents brightness; contrast ratio, which measures the dynamic range of brightness and darkness; and colour specifications, which affect colour performance. Terms such as ‘colour gamut’ and ‘wide colour gamut’ may also be commonly used, though the concepts of ‘wide’ or ‘narrow’ projector colour gamuts may be less intuitive.

Simply stated, colour gamut is the range of colours a display device can show – the wider the colour gamut, the more colours it can reproduce. However, the size of the colour gamut alone cannot guarantee superior colour performance. In addition to meeting international A/V colour standards, the display device must also have low Delta E (colour difference) values.

In Hollywood films, Rec.709 and DCI-P3 are the standards for cinema-quality colours. For home cinema use, projectors that conform closest to Rec.709 or DCI-P3 colour standards offer superior colour gamuts and the best ability to reproduce the authentic colour of the film. And projectors with the lowest Delta E values* provide the most accurate colours for audiences to see precisely the colours and message the director intended, as well as the truest colours of the original film for a genuine cinema-going experience. Therefore, how closely a projector’s colour gamut corresponds to international colour standards is significantly more important than the wideness or narrowness of the colour gamut for colour performance.

✱Delta E values can be found from professional A/V media benchmark reports or from manufacturer colour calibration reports.

For more professional information on BenQ DLP projector's colour performance, please visit CinematicColor™ for Colours as Directors Envisioned

With colour gamut as an index for accurate colour reproduction, DLP projectors rely on superior opto-mechanical structures to achieve higher colour gamut coverage. Careful light source selection and colour wheel design affect the projection quality through the transmissive projector lens for colour representation to precisely meet international colour standards, with the colour wheel as the most critical component. A colour wheel is a circular disc comprised of many sets of colours such as RGB, RGBRGB, RGBW, RGBCMY, RGBCWY, etc., and it features a translucent design for the projector’s light source to shine through the colour wheel to produce rich colours in the projected films and images.

Because the colour wheel plays such a key role, it is important to scrutinise specifications related to the colour wheel. Since high-end DLP home cinema projectors typically utilise six-segment RGBRGB colour wheels, this is a specification to look for. However, a six-segment RGBRGB colour wheel still depends on the purity of colours in the six segments to guarantee accuracy and coverage of its colour gamut. A colour wheel with the purest colours can produce the most accurate colours and enhance colour gamut coverage. This is the strong suit of BenQ projectors, as they are crafted by designers dual-certified by international A/V standards organisations THX and ISF to ensure that every BenQ projector delivers unsurpassed colour accuracy for grand cinematic experiences.

For more professional information on BenQ DLP projector's colour performance, please visit CinematicColor™ for Colours as Directors Envisioned

A projector’s colour representation affects every aspect of its performance. The most critical hardware components of the opto-mechanical structure, the colour wheel segment design, and the colour coating purity are all key factors that contribute to the number of colours reproduced and the colour gamut coverage that are required to meet Hollywood’s international colour standards. Each of these specifications and technical details is important and only projector models with high colour gamut coverage can reproduce colours accurately for viewers to deeply feel the rich vividness of Hollywood movies and the emotions directors convey through colours. In addition to films, even still images with intense colours will be able to reflect BenQ projector’s ability to perfectly present the most beautiful and realistic colours.