Wemax, maker of the Wemax Nova UST laser TV projector and various portable projectors sold on Amazon and the company's own website, has agreed to downgrade the Nova's published brightness rating from 2,100 to 1,300 ANSI lumens following an Epson lawsuit charging deceptive advertising practices.

As noted below, Epson's legal action is just one in a series targeting manufacturers who fail to use internationally recognized brightness measurement standards that put projector makers on an even playing field, namely ANSI or the more recent and similarly measured ISO21118, or whose ANSI or ISO specs are clearly inflated, as was apparently the case with the Wemax Nova. The revision constitutes a 38% reduction in claimed brightness, and follows Epson's own testing via a third-party independent lab.

Epson's statement announcing the settlement says that Wemax will revise the specification worldwide, though as of mid-day Eastern time July 13th, the date of Wemax's own press statement about the matter, the company's website still reflected the higher lumen count. The Wemax statement said that "in the near futrure, the Wemax team will make concerted efforts to swiftly update our product listings, marketing materials, and applicable packaging."

No other projectors in the Wemax line appear to be affected. In its statement, Wemax said the company has "conducted retesting of our entire projector line-up using the ANSI specification," and that after looking at "the average values from multiple projector tests across various production units," only the Nova will undergo revision.

For its part, Wemax made no mention of Epson's legal action in its official statement, commenting only that "Over the past year, Wemax has collaborated with Epson to address projector brightness measurement and marketing," and is "pleased to announce that we will collaborate with Epson to align with international industry standards and adopt the ANSI lumen specification (ANSI IT7.228-1997) for our line of projectors."

Wemax concluded by trying to put a positive spin on the development, saying "We acknowledge the significant importance of this widely recognized brightness standard and are delighted to be at the forefront of adopting the ANSI lumen standard alongside Epson, our valued users, and industry peers, shaping a new era in the industry."

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That said, the statement failed to mention that the company has claimed ANSI brightness specs for some time, and as of today a drop-down menu on its website still allowed visitors to select among its products by ANSI brightness range. When we reviewed the Wemax Nova in May 2022 it was touted at 2,100 ANSI lumens, and our review sample measured a max of 1,685 ANSI lumens at its brightest.

These days, Epson actually does not openly support the ANSI spec for its own products, and instead uses and promotes the newer ISO21118:2020 spec. Both specs rely on exactly the same 9-point, averaged measurement technique as described in this article. However, the ISO spec may be based on a calculated average of manufactured production samples, which leads some respected brands, such as Christie and Barco, to issue separate ANSI and ISO ratings, typically with the ISO spec noticeably higher and used for marketing promotion. Other manufacturers, including Epson and Panasonic, have migrated to citing ISO lumens but essentially equate ISO and ANSI—for example, our ANSI measurements of review samples from those brands consistently meet the published ISO21118 spec.

The end result, however, is that despite both ANSI and ISO being internationally recognized standards using the same measurement technique, the apparent room for interpretation on ISO, as well as its exceptionally generous 20% tolerance that allows a projector to "make spec" while delivering 20% less than the stated brightness, retains the potential to create confusion and mislead customers.

Epson's action here against Wemax for publishing deceptive brightness specs is at least the ninth lawsuit the company has brought against competitors in the last five years. In most cases, the manufacturers were forced to revise existing specs that were based either on misleading measurement units (such as "lux" or "LED lumens"), an arbitrary lumen count for which the measurement technique was not cited, or claimed ANSI specs that failed to come close to their published number. In the successful cases for which the final result was reported, Epson usually extracted a commitment to use accurately reported ISO or ANSI specs moving forward.

In April 2019, Epson announced a suit against Curtis International Ltd, the maker of RCA brand projectors. In November 2020 the company said it had sued four Amazon brands including Vankyo, WiMiUS, Goo Dee, and Bomaker for using lux, typically a high number that greatly eclipses an ANSI or ISO lumen spec, to promote their projectors online. In March 2021, it was announced that Philips and its licensee Screeneo Innovation SA agreed to a settlement to use ISO21118 for its portable projectors, and in February 2022, VAVA was forced to drop the advertised ANSI lumen spec on its VAVA 4K UST projector. In Feburary of this year, Epson announced that it had forced Anker Nebula to revise downward the lumen ratings on two popular new models; the company has agreed to use ANSI lumen ratings going forward.

Incredibly, Epson's self-appointed, and presumably expensive, role as the projector industry's lumen police is virtually the only safeguard today against misleading advertising in an unregulated and increasingly more crowded marketplace, particularly for the portable lifestyle projectors that are said to be a significant growth area for consumer projection and largely sold online, often from unestablished and even fly-by-night brands. In this environment, Epson is trying to ensure that at least the larger players are using the internationally recognized standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM), which publishes the Information Display Measurements Standards (IDMS) which defines separate methodologies for measuring white and color brightness.

"Virtually every important consumer good or service is graded or measured by standards," Mike Isgrig, Epson America's VP for consumer sales and marketing, said in the company's statement. "From recognized standards for vehicle manufacturing and safety to electronics performance ratings and food quality ratings, standards help ensure product accuracy and honesty for consumers. The actions of Wemax to correct lumens claims according to industry measurement standards helps 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."

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