(July 18, 2024) Epson has reached a legal settlement with Formovie Tech, a company jointly established by Appotronics Corporation and Xiaomi Technology. The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed for "deceptive advertising practices" in how Formovie reports brightness specifications on several projectors. As a result, Formovie will correct previously misstated white brightness specifications – worldwide – for its Formovie Theater and Formovie P1 laser models.
The Formovie Theater is being reduced by 1,000 lumens to 1,800 lumens, while the Formovie P1 is dropping from 1050 lumens to 250 lumens. Moving forward, Formovie has agreed to use ISO 21118, an internationally recognized standard for measuring a projector's White Brightness. Epson says this standard is a "critically important specification relied on by consumers when making a projector buying decision."
“When projector brands use the same internationally published standards, it protects consumers and establishes trust within the industry,” explains Mike Isgrig, vice president of consumer sales and marketing at Epson America. “Formovie’s commitment to use internationally published and accepted standards (such as ISO 21118 for white brightness) moving forward for their entire product line will provide accurate white brightness information for consumers."
The initial complaint against Formovie was made as part of Epson’s ongoing efforts to ensure the implementation of internationally recognized and accepted brightness standards are used by brands to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions. A battle, Epson claims, that's extensive and widespread, warning would-be buyers to avoid misleading metrics listed as “Lux,” “LED lumens,” or “Lamp Brightness.” Those metrics fail to follow a standardized methodology, creating an unfair playing field for unsuspecting online shoppers.
Formovie joins a list of additional suits to help correct brightness claims for consumers. Other targeted companies include Dangbei, AuKing, XGIMI, Wemax, Anker, ACROJOY, and Vava.
Formovie's Theater Ultra Short Throw model was the winner of ProjectorScreen.com's 2023 Ultra Short Throw Projector Shootout, where judges lauded it for "exceptional contrast, black level, tone mapping and handling of HDR content among other areas of excellence." However, it's important to note that judging did not involve any sort of objective measurement of brightness; that kind of evaluation metric would be unusual for a shootout event using a judging panel.
Companies that follow standard brightness reporting practices should look to either the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM). The ICDM publishes the Information Display Measurement Standards (IDMS), where the methodology for measuring projector color brightness is defined. The ISO standard that defines projector white brightness is ISO 21118. In addition, the U.S. member body for ISO – ANSI (American National Standards Institute) – has adopted ISO 21118, underscoring ISO 21118 as the industry standard for white brightness. Epson says these standards protect consumers and level the playing field when it comes to brightness measurement and reporting.
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