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SubscribeEpson has announced that Nebula, a leading lifestyle projector brand marketed by Anker, has agreed to relabel the lumen ratings on three of its Cosmos projector models following an Epson lawsuit accusing the company of deceptive advertising.
As part of the settlement, Anker has reduced the Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K (model D2350) from a claimed 2,400 lumens to 1,840 ANSI lumens, the Nebula Cosmos Laser (model D2341) from a claimed 2,400 lumens to 1,840 ANSI lumens, and the Nebula Cosmos (D2140) from a claimed 900 lumens to 810 ANSI lumens.
Additionally, Anker said in a statement issued on its Nebula website that it has "officially adopted the ANSI Lumen specification (ANSI IT7.228-1997)" and would apply this for all future Nebula projectors. The company also says it will "update its product listings, marketing materials, and where applicable, packaging" to reflect accurate ANSI numbers.
Recent Nebula projectors leading up to the settlement had been released with either unspecified or ISO lumen ratings. Like ANSI lumens, ISO lumens are based on a 9-point averaged measurement and are typically a close equivalent to ANSI, which is based on a single or smaller number of projector samples than an ISO spec. Epson has long endorsed using the ISO spec, officially referred to as ISO21118. However, our review of the Cosmos Laser 4K, as an example, revealed a maximum ANSI rating of 1,702 lumens from our sample, well off the spec and actually below (though within tolerance of) the revised ANSI rating.
On the other hand, the more recent Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is specified at 300 ANSI lumens and our review sample measured a maximum of 341 ANSI lumens, about 13% above spec.
The action against Anker Nebula is one in what is now a long series of lawsuits initiated by Epson against competitors who they say take advantage of the industry's lax trade regulation to play footloose with brightness specifications that mislead consumers and create an unfair playing field. Other brands dealt similar blows in the past include budget players such as Vankyo, Philips with its Screeneo and NeoPix portable projector lines, and most recently VAVA, which was forced to drop the advertised lumen spec on its popular UST projector from 2,500 lumens to 1,800 lumens. In this particular case against Anker, there does not appear to be agreement to use Epson's preferred ISO standard, which is only slowly gaining traction as a replacement for the still widely-used ANSI measurement.
By way of explanation, Epson said in its statement that it "cautions shoppers to be wary of misleading metrics listed as "Lux," "LED lumens" or "Lamp Brightness" that fail to follow standardized methodology and therefore materially impacts a consumer's ability to compare performance of projectors. Measurement for projectors is defined by internationally recognized standards groups, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM). The ICDM publishes the Information Display Measurement Standards (IDMS) where methodology for measuring projector color brightness and white brightness separately are defined. The ISO standard that defines projector measurement methodology is ISO21118:2020. When these standards are followed, there is zero ambiguity regarding how projectors are to be properly measured and compared."
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Epson's VP of consumer sales and marketing, Mike Isgrig, was also quoted in the company's statement. "Our goal is straightforward—to ensure consumers have accurate information when making purchasing decisions," he said. "Anker's actions to correct lumens claims for several of their projectors according to industry measurement standards helps to ensure consumers know what to expect in projector performance. The consistent use of standardized metrics ultimately impacts the entire marketplace positively, ensuring consumers have the right projector for their viewing needs."
