Video difference between laptop & projector - explanations?

[AJL308]

I've just bought a new projector an Optoma UHD52ALV - wonderful machine. I watch movies via my laptop which are stored on an external hard drive. I've noticed that some movies display with a somewhat "washed out" appearance as regards the colour when projected. I tested this last night with John Wick. The movie when displayed on the laptop screen, which is 4K is beautiful and bright with vibrant colours. When on the projector the picture quality as regards definition and detail is superb but the colours are washed out when you compare it to the image that the laptop screen is showing. Gladiator gave similar results.

The projector definitely has no issues producing the proper colour range. I also played the movie on Amazon Prime, again via the laptop to the projector and the colours were pretty much what they were supposed to be.

Can anyone suggest an answer as to what's going on here? Everything is going through the same HDMI cable from the same laptop. The only difference is that the stuff coming from the external hard drive projects differently but seems ok on the Laptop! Very weird.

[LordGrover]

Have you tried copying from external disk to local disk to see if the issue remains?

[AJL308]

LordGrover said:

Have you tried copying from external disk to local disk to see if the issue remains?

That did occur but I had sort of dismissed it as it didn't seem logical for some reason. I'll try it.

[AJL308]

ash73 said:

What format are they encoded in? Maybe the projector is selecting HDR mode when it shouldn't be, can you disable it?

The answer is I don't know the answer to the first. The projector has a display mode which I think is called HDRSim or something which isn't selected, I don't think. I'll have another play with it today.

[AJL308]

ash73 said:

What media player are you using on the laptop? If it's plex it might be transcoding it, try vlc.

It was VLC I was using. How would it produce a difference between the two images at the same time though?

[xeny]

AJL308 said:

It was VLC I was using. How would it produce a difference between the two images at the same time though?

Is there an odd colour profile on the projector "display" properties but not on the laptop screen, that is respected by VLC, but ignored by whatever you're playing the Prime videos in?

Still doesn't explain the external drive vs internal issue though.

[eltawater]

See if this helps:

https://www.howtogeek.com/285277/how-to-avoid-wash...

The "internal vs external" issue is a bit of a red herring, as it seems to be more of a "Amazon Prime fully paid up and properly encoded video stream" vs "questionably sourced and unknown encoding video file which is stored on an external hard drive".
Moving it from the external hard drive to the internal hard drive is unlikely to make a difference as it's still a "questionably sourced and unknown encoding video file", regardless of which disk it's sitting on.