Hisense C2 Pro 4K UHD Triple Color RGB Laser Portable Mini Projector, 65”~300", 2600 ANSI Lumens, 110% BT.2020 Wide Color Gamut, Dolby Vision, Sound by JBL, Netflix, WIFI 6E

Hisense C2 Ultra Review & Settings SharedI bought the C2 Ultra to upgrade from the bang for the buck Viewsonic PX701-4K, which is an amazing offering in its price range but of course lacks HDR10+ as well as Dolby Vision content which is becoming more common. The C2 Ultra handles all modern formats and uses a true RGB laser configuration which is what lead me to this purchase.My theater is a dedicated, 150 inch 1.3 gain matte white screen darkened space with Roku and a Dolby Atmos setup so I can comment from that point of view and experience thus far. I did not buy it for portability, apps / OS or its sound system. There is zero ambient light to contend with in my theater. 3000 lumens is more than enough in here.The quick review is that right out of the box without any tweaks (you should tweak though) the difference was huge. Color is amazing without being over saturated. The sharpness of the image, including captioning text, is incredible. The auto-focus feature does what no human being could accomplish in any amount of time when it comes to perfecting the image, in about 20 seconds. Optical zoom and keystone were very simple to dial in also.Mounting: Ceiling mount, standard 1/4” adapter for lifestyle projectors. My setup required minimal keystone due to the height of my already installed screen. I installed mine at the maximum zoom distance which is about 17 feet back from the 150” screen. I wish it didn't have speakers adding weight to it, but it mounted up fine after I used some good anchors.Setup: The theatrical standard for color temperature is 6500k, so I downloaded a Kelvin Meter app and tested it against LED bulbs and their claimed Kelvin values before using on my screen. I used a YouTube bright white video for reference. The closest modes were CINEMA NIGHT + color STANDARD but were still too cold (well over 7000k).I adjusted the WHITE BALANCE setting to BLUE GAIN -8 to achieve 6500k.I then used 20% and 50% grey YouTube videos to confirm 6500k was also translating to shadow content with this setting, so no offset was needed.I then pulled up a YouTube video with all primary and secondary colors displayed in gradient bars from black to full range and used the COLOR TUNER brightness adjustments for each to be sure the gradients were equal, and arrived at the following settings:Red +1, Green -2, Blue 0, Yellow -1, Cyan -3, Magenta +1This is a poor man's setup but it translates as I watch movies I am familiar with in theatrical release viewings, aka good enough for me. My eyes gave me no reason to believe that hue or saturation needed to be adjusted and I don't have real test equipment to even confirm in depth decisions like that.Tweaking: Using YouTube videos (see Murideo Black Pluge for brightness and White Pluge for contrast, and explainer web or video info on how to use them) and a LUX meter app I arrived at the following settings for SDR content.CINEMA NIGHT modeLASER LUMINANCE: 5*BRIGHTNESS: 43*CONTRAST: 88*SHARPNESS: 0COLOR SATURATION: 50COLOR GAMUT: AUTOADAPTIVE CONTRAST: LOW*SUPER RESOLUTION: ONMOTION SMOOTHING: CUSTOM 0GAMMA: BT.1886 (in my room this was critical for black and shadow detail)*After software update P0315 from Hisense I was able to move brightness down, contrast up, and laser luminance down. It appears as though that update allows deeper blacks and higher contrast as I had already dialed in settings before it prompted me to install the update. These settings translate across all Dolby and HDR modes, I assume the C2 Ultra treats those settings as universal and adjusts curves and responses accordingly.Many of these settings, like color tuner and white balance, are universal. I had to seek out content to force each of the following modes individually as content delivery changes (I am 100% streaming from Roku, you may not be).HDR10+ THEATER: Same settings, Gamma greys out at 2.2HDR NIGHT: Dynamic Tone Mapping on, Gamma greys out at 2.2DOLBY VISION CUSTOM: Laser locks at 8, Gamma greys out at 2.2I suspect these 3 modes are using 2.4 and 2.6 gamma with their respective color gamuts but the option just greys at default 2.2.I now have each mode tailored for my room and preferences. Most streaming content at this time is still just 4K HD without metadata processing, so the most common mode I am in is CINEMA NIGHT. I preferred DOLBY VISION CUSTOM mode for its default 8 laser luminance setting in my room.Notes:Gamma BT.1886 is far superior for SDR content. I suspect many early users and reviewers have not examined the difference it makes in this mode. Its response curve is maximizing black vs highlights in a way no other setting does, and allows for less tweaking or software reliance otherwise in this mode. The other modes default to 2.2 and you will notice blacks raise further into the dark grey territory by comparison.FILMMAKER mode in my setup is only triggered when using Vidaa OS apps and the two things to know are (1) it defaults to a Kelvin rating that is well below standard and (2) you can tweak it and save it however you like which to me defeats the purpose, unless you consider it a secondary mode. Even then I would think setting it up to reflect theatrical standards would make sense but Hisense thinks Warm1 among other defaults are what you should see. The Kelvin rating was around 5400k which is way off what a filmmaker would expect you to see.Color modes like Warm1 (default) are pleasing with higher red levels for some exaggerated flesh tone and you could easily prefer this if you're not striving for more balanced viewing as I am.ADAPTIVE CONTRAST appears to be the Hisense version of Valerion's EBL although possibly less aggressive. It has the same goals and settings available. I prefer low in my room, it makes a big enough difference without blowing out shadow detail in an unnatural and processed looking way. I could easily see preferring medium or high on some content though.DARK DETAIL can be amazing on some content but overall I didn't want blacks raised to more grey just because a scene is dark.HIGH DYNAMIC can be amazing but can also over-processes at times so I prefer off.DYNAMIC TONE MAPPING in the one HDR mode that allowed it is incredible and vibrant.I did not prefer any of the INTELLIGENT MODE SETTINGS so they are all off.Each mode will have greyed out menu options that you cannot tweak.The Vidaa OS is perfectly fine, but my family enjoys and is familiar with the Roku Ultra which offers more apps as well. For some reason on my unit the home page coloring on Vidaa OS is really over-saturated and blown out, especially the reds. It appears as though it might be using “native” color gamut as a default. Not a concern for me just an observation.The C2 Ultra handles 24P / 24Hz just fine regardless of some reviewers getting this wrong (Hisense support confirmed this as well). Using the internal Vidaa apps or setting my Roku Ultra output to frame rate match accomplishes this. You can double check the resolution as well as frame rate and color gamut / bit depth by entering the SUPPORT>SELF DIAGNOSIS>SIGNAL INFO menu to view this info while content is playing.Some apps in Roku and Vidaa do not obey the frame matching rules, so certainly the C2 Ultra is using “pull down” to accomplish a 24 frame rate for cinema in those cases.Setting judder to CUSTOM 0 seems like nonsense but it stopped a little bit of stuttering I was seeing only in end scene scrolling credits on certain apps that don't obey frame matching as well as say Netflix or MAX.Dolby Vision's superior color and dynamic range easily best HDR10+ processing, and the C2 will default to whatever the app or device is feeding it. Just a commentary on the two dynamic HDR processes, there really is no comparison. In fact I've noticed more than once that good ol' static HDR10 looked better than HDR10+ to me.I reported a LUX reading of 180 at the screen and 40 at my seat, and Grok calculated that my room is very close to the 14 foot lamberts rating of a cinema. I am the theater often and my eyeballs already kind of knew I was at least close.The remote is great, I like the backlighting and available settings.eArc works with no issues with my Atmos receiver, as a passthrough.Fan noise is lower than the PX701-4K I replaced.There is an animated “curtain close” when turning it off that is an interesting vibe and touch. You can even change the length, I prefer 5 seconds. My kids love it.My wife and kids noticed the image difference and they're not critical viewers at all. Lots of comments about how clear text is now.All of my setup process included bouncing between multiple apps and resolutions to find the best balance among them so I don't have to tweak for each movie. Dune, Furiosa, The Batman, Captain America Civil War, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Tomorrow War, The Meg and Jurassic World were the most used and would force the projector into different modes to tweak each one along to save. It's all about averaging and balance.I find the unit itself to have a sleek, modern yet cinema sort of appeal so it looks nice.Hisense support, while not knowledgeable of specifications level info (they cannot tell you what modes = what Kelvin ratings for example) are available and responsive enough. You wouldn't call them and ask setup questions but I bet they are helpful if you have service issues.Edit: I updated slightly after software update P0315.

The media could not be loaded. I was on the fence between this and the epson model that was a few thousand more. I liked epsons 3 year warranty compared to the 1 year of this device. I went with the C2 Pro as it can handle dolby vision and hdr10+, uses a lazer and not a bulb, making it future proof in todays market. Pixel shift is fine with me. I did not need the extra 400 lumens of the ultra as it's in my basement theater setup.The C2 did not disappoint. Out of the box, the picture quality is immersive. Brighter than my previous 4000 lumen viewsonic projector. I did have to turn off the auto features for the lense adjustments as im not using it as a moveable lifestyle projector. After some minor calibration and adjustments, I was blown away at how it rivaled some 4k tvs with its picture quality. Yes, you read that correctly.The black levels are darker and more lively than I imagined, but not perfect. Contrast is very defining. This unit offers a dark level enhancer that seems to work well with all sdr and hdr content.The C2 also offers motion enhancing if your into it, also known as MEMC.Gaming was pleasing while playing fps like cod, but I dont think I'll be using it for that purpose too often as i perfer my gaming monitor. Graphics were detailed and I didn't feel like I was missing out on any frame delay, smooth response times.Colors are super accurate. Watching movies from my plex setup like Ready player one, Godzilla v Kong, the details pop out on the screen and I couldn't be more pleased with the colors. Skyscraper and Dune 2 looked amazing as well, again, even in the dark scenes.All 1080p contents looks better than it did on my last projector as well. Football looks really good.I have this mounted on my ceiling paired with an custom 126" frame and elite screens cinewhite a8k acoustic transparent screen, audio is 7.3.4 audio setup.Ui is fast and efficient, however I use an external device for all of my streaming, the Nvidia Shield.If this unit holds up, it will become even more of a game changer than it already is. Don't hesitate to buy this. The picture rivals that of big brand projectors in the $4k range, may even be a better option as it has tech that they dont offer (dolby vision, hdr10, hdr10+). New tech seems to be the way to go.Believe the hype on this one!

So versatile, can use on any solid surface. Very bright, can watch in moderately lite room but truly shines in a dark room. Some lazer speckle if the wall is glossy or semi glossy. Adapts automatically to color of the wall you project on. Speakers are very usable in a small to medium sized room but larger rooms may want to use at least a soundbar. 3d is a great addition but sometimes suffers from jitters, doesn’t ruin the experience but is noticeable in some movies. Bluetooth allows you to connect outside speakers as well as headsets like apple airpods. Smart device operating system is very usable and has a lot of great options for streaming. Highly recommend.