Dangbei Mars Pro 2 DBOX02: test / review

Measuring color fidelity (colorimetry) is not a subjective question, it is something completely measurable. This measurement is carried out with a device (colorimeter, spectrometer, ...) which measures the difference between the real color and the displayed color. This difference is expressed in delta E (abbreviation: dE). A dE greater than 3 indicates a deviation perceptible to the human eye.

The dE must therefore be as low as possible but projectors rarely have a dE lower than 3 out of the box. They are often between 5 and 10, only a calibration can correctly adjust the colors.

For a perfect calibration, you must call a professional. I give you my parameters which correspond to my situation. These settings might work for your situation but it is not a guarantee, so take them as an indication of the direction to follow.

The brightness for a projector is absolutely crucial. The brightness is measured in ANSI lumens and the values provided by the manufacturer are very often higher than reality.

I measure the brightness with a lux meter and I convert my measurements into ANSI lumens in relation to the projection surface. You thus obtain a real value.

A video projector, even if it is bright, cannot compete with a television. The contribution of light (natural or artificial) will have the effect of drastically reducing the contrast of your image. With a brightness lower than 1000 ANSI lumens, the projector must be used in total darkness.

Contrast (on/off) is used to measure the difference between white and black. This measurement gives an indication of the ability of a projector to produce a good rendering in dark scenes.

A contrast lower than 500:1 should be considered as a very low contrast and the consequence will be especially visible in dark scenes where you will lose details. This is less of a problem for sports, bright films or even cartoons.

A low contrast ratio does not mean that a projector is not usable, you just have to be aware that for films like Aliens, dark scenes will no longer allow you to distinguish details.

Many projectors use a frequency of 60 Hz, which means that they broadcast 60 frames per second. Many films were designed to broadcast 24 frames per second. This means that for each second, the film does not have enough frames to fill the 60 frames broadcast by the projector.

This most often results in a jerkiness in the image. Some projectors are able to attenuate this jerkiness with a motion compensation system (also called MEMC). If you abuse this compensation, you will get what is called the 'soap opera' effect which makes the image a little artificial like the TV series of the 80s.

The projection distance determines the size of the image and the size of the image is determined by the projector's throw ratio. If a projector has a throw ratio of 1.2, it will have an image width of 83 cm with possibly a gray border.

The distance also plays a role in the brightness because the brightness decreases with the square of the distance. A projector placed at 4 meters will therefore lose 4 times more brightness than a projector placed at 2 meters.

Keystone image correction does not modify the projection cone, it resizes the image inside the projection cone. This means that in the event of a significant correction, you will see a large gray border appear around your image.

I use several types of music tracks to illustrate the sound quality of the projector but the rendering will always be limited by the recording device. Since I always use the same device, you will be able to compare the difference on the same basis.

I regularly use well-known songs protected by copyright to illustrate the sound quality of a video projector. It therefore sometimes happens that YouTube decides to block my videos for these reasons. In this case, you can listen to the soundtracks directly on YouTube and hope that YouTube has not completely blocked my channel.

To be able to play in good conditions with a projector, the latency must be low. Latency is the reaction time between pressing a button on your controller and the reaction on the screen, this latency is expressed in milliseconds and is also called 'input lag'.

I measure this latency with a specialized device. To be able to play fast-paced FPS-type games online, you need to obtain a latency of less than 30 ms. For games where the reaction time is less important, a latency of less than 100ms should be suitable for most situations.

I generally test ShadowRunner from Geforce Now on my Nvidia Shield except when this is not possible. I'm not used to playing with a controller, so I'm not very good at it, but the point is to show the projector's ability, not mine.