Epson has reprised its role as projection industry watchdog in lawsuits filed this week against four budget projector brands sold on Amazon, including the popular Vankyo brand, for their failure to use industry-standard brightness specifications in promoting their products.

Vankyo, along with WiMiUS, GooDee, and Bomaker, are accused in the actions of using the term "lux" to describe brightness instead of lumens, which are measured and reported by most manufacturers according to the accepted ANSI or similar ISO 21118 standards. By definition, lumen measurements take screen size into account, while a lux measurement is merely a brightness reading from a luminance meter that varies with distance from the source and cannot be used by consumers to compare projectors or calculate the brightness of the image they will see on their screen.

Vankyo V630 Amazon2
Vankyo is among four brands being sued by Epson for citing brightness measurements in lux rather than the industry standard ISO or ANSI lumens. Above, Vankyo's V630 is advertised on Amazon as having "6800 lux" brightness, but independent measurements suggest it delivers less than 500 ANSI lumens.

Vankyo's V630 model, for example, is an LED projector promoted on Amazon as having "6800 LUX high brightness," while ANSI brightness measurements conducted by a third-party reviewer has shown it to produce only about 420 lumens. An uneducated consumer might reasonably think it was a very bright projector based on the number alone.

Epson uses the ISO standard for measuring white brightness and separately measures and reports color brightness (color light output, or CLO) according to the IDMS 15.4 standard. The ISO standard is slowly supplanting the ANSI standard and uses the same nine-point technique that averages light across the entire screen.

"We are seeing more connected households embrace big-screen viewing solutions than ever before. As we enter the busy holiday season, we want to ensure that consumers are receiving the vital information needed to make informed purchasing decisions," said Mike Isgrig, vice president, consumer sales and marketing, Epson America, Inc., in a company statement. "Epson invests considerable time and money to ensure performance claims are based on industry standards, and we take it seriously when companies blatantly mislead consumers with non-standard specifications. This lawsuit underscores Epson's commitment to support a fair marketplace and deter sellers and manufacturers who by misleading projector consumers, damage the credibility of the entire industry."

Back in 2019, Epson made headlines when it filed suit against Curtis International Ltd., the distributor and marketer of RCA brand projectors, and against Technicolor SA, which owns the RCA brand, for grossly overstating the lumen output of its projectors. Projectors claimed in advertising to be 2,000 or more lumens (of an unspecified type) were measured by an independent lab as typically delivering less than 40 ANSI lumens. That case was settled with Curtis agreeing to advertise its projectors only using the industry standard ISO/ANSI lumens and to modify its packaging to reflect the accurate lumens ratings. In 2018, Epson was granted a permanent injunction and a $5 million damage award after suing iRulu for advertising false lumen ratings.

 
Comments (11) Post a Comment
Joy Ghosh Posted Nov 24, 2020 9:03 PM PST
Need of the hour. All stupid brands shoud not misguide customers who don't know technical details. Brands like Epson , toshiba, Boxlight.in are reputed. Thanks for initiating.
Doug C Posted Nov 24, 2020 9:32 PM PST
Finally. we need more owners to take light meter reading against set points on a screen. Hell, Epson, would no doubt lend meters with a duplicatable procedure to show up these knock offs.
Chris Posted Nov 24, 2020 9:32 PM PST
Good. Someone has to hold these brands to account since the regulatory bodies won't. So much poor quality products being sold on Amazon and eBay with false specifications. Really destroys the reputation of projectors in general.
JoBro Posted Nov 24, 2020 9:57 PM PST
All these crap Chinese brands need to disappear. Most of them are a complete rip-off and Amazon seems to have a lot of these products on their website. Shame on Amazon!
Craig Peer Posted Nov 25, 2020 8:40 AM PST
This is why one needs to read a qualified review done by someone that knows how to calibrate projectors to cut through the marketing BS. Good for Epson
Dennis Martin DeCorte Posted Nov 25, 2020 2:32 PM PST
I have owned about 6 projectors in the past 10 years. Since I live at high elevation in Panama, I only use laser or laser/LED hybrid projectors. Of the four Casio Slims, have had only one failure. Likely due to a hard fall to the floor. We presently use, every night, a 600 lumens Optronics laser on a pull down pure white window shade at the foot of our "bamboo bed theater". It has run about 4 hrs a night for the past 3 yrs. Because the pwr goes out here just about every day, it's pwred through a UPS that gives about 100 minutes of run time, suitable for an average movie. UPS shows about 40 watts consumed, including a surround sound Lapai and bass Shaker amp. 600 lumens look satisfactory at 6 ft and 65 in screen. Even 3D looks watchable with DLP shuttered glasses, although somewhat dimmer. ANSI lumens less than 600 are pretty much useless to me. I depend on Projector Central for accurate projector information. Keep up the good work!
Zach Posted Nov 25, 2020 3:16 PM PST
Way to go Epson! I really dislike how some of these companies are so misleading.
chancho Posted Oct 13, 2021 2:43 PM PST
I personally really like my Vankyo 600. That's why people should read the reviews.
Chris Nichols Posted Oct 25, 2021 9:52 AM PST
I purchased a Vankyo V620 in December of 2020. Just after the one year warranty was up I started experiencing a screen burn. I've always kept the filter clean. It is still usable but it really shows up when watching content with white backgrounds like hockey. Due to it being out of warranty, I took it completely apart to see what failed and the LCD display screen is the issue. I can hold the LCD display up to the light and see the exact burn pattern that is showing on my projector screen. I knew what I was getting myself into when I purchased this. I had an Amazon credit and Vankyo had dropped the price to $150 if my memory serves. The main reason for the purchase was to see if my family would use a home theater before making an investment in a more substantial unit. I will be purchasing an Epson projector in the near future. I've also noticed that Amazon no longer carries the unit that I purchase. I imagine that most folks are starting to experience the same issue and updating their review.
Mike Young Posted Dec 31, 2021 5:34 PM PST
The Vankyo V600 is a serious value for the money. I bought two of them -- one for non-critical TV watching in some ambient light, and another for backyard movie nights. Sure, I exchanged one of the two as there were dust blob issues. They all seem to have that issue, but I can forgive that for what they cost. I also had issues with lower color gamut when using HDMI, but not VGA, so I use a $10 HDMI to VGA adapter. For ~$200, a long-life LED light source, and a native 1080p, they are an incredible value. Yeah, the brightness values in lux is suspect, but I don't think they ever represented them as ANSI lumens. They can throw a watchable picture in some ambient light. Anyone knocking the Vankyo projectors clearly hasn't seen one in-person. I'm one who still uses a 9" CRT projector with a high-end video scaler for critical movie viewing at 48Hz for true cinematic aesthetics, but for everyday TV watching, my V600 has been great and I've put on many, many hours on it having it a couple of years. Epson should A) get more competitive on price and B) come out with more laser/LED projectors. I'm not going to buy a mercury-based lamp projector again. Others have taken to that route, like LG.
Justin Loin Posted Mar 15, 2022 7:54 PM PST
I had a vankyo tablet that was working well but the screen broke and the screen was unresponsive. Now I can't get another one

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