INTRO
I had the pleasure of having Jeff Meier/AccuCal (umr) over yesterday to calibrate my new home cinema system. I had him over in 2006 to calibrate my 50" Sony A10, and he did a wonderful job then -- I've still got the set --, but my viewing/listening area was far from ideal. I lucked out with my new house and had a 12x18' room upstairs with no window in it, and double insulation. After many hours of painting, hanging up 15 ATS Acoustics Frames, mounting the rears, and so on, I was ready for Jeff to give eveything a look.

PROBLEMS?
Nearly immediately, he showed me that my brightness was going to be a little on the dark side, since I'm using a nearly 16' throw. We found that Dynamic Mode was basically useless while Jeff was working on Green, so Jeff ended up using Theatre Mode. I think that''s the last really bad thing I heard yesterday. :)

CONVERGENCE ISSUES WITH THE 1080UB?
While displaying the test pattern on the projector, I noticed that the white lines on the circle on the blue background weren't totally white - they had blue on one side, red on the other. I originally was going to return the projector to Projector Point (who worked with me up until I decided against the return...awesome folks), but since I couldn't see it from 3' away, I opted against it. I showed it to Jeff, who ran multiple resolution tests and assured me that what I was seeing was chromatic aberation, not convergence/panel alignment issues. As far as he was concerned, it was spot-on.

THE VIDEO CALIBRATION
Once Jeff was done on the video side of things, it was evident that his equipment and skill with said equipment were (to use a cliche') nothing short of phenomenal. After watching a couple movies before crashing last night (Ratatouille and House of the Flying Daggers), I don't know what anyone could really want more from a visual standpoint. The Epson's PQ and spot-on color accuracy post-calibration were phenomenal. I'd never seen a display that looked as spot-on, color-wise. It was easy to lose myself in the very-believable image. I could go on and on, but Jeff's got the data - I'll leave that for him to post.

I've watched several calibrated TV sets (including my old Sony), but a properly sorted front projector in a properly darkened room simply provides a viewing experience that was truly immersive and genuinely will keep me from ever stepping foot into the local AMC again.

AUDIO CALIBRATION
ATS Acoustics' panels are great. When Jeff walked into the room, he noted the acoustics and said that the audio would work out wonderfully. We had an RT60 of 250ms right off the bat using 15 panels. I could use two more panels to sort out some funny reflections by the door mini-hallway that are audible from 2 positions in the left channel, but that's relatively minor. Jeff spent several hours with his spectroanalyzer and preamp doing many pink-noise tests and checking the response from several listening positions. He found a dead spot right around 80 cycles that was mitigated somewhat by moving the rear 3-seats forward. When we were done, I had a musical system capable at playing louder than I'd realistically ever need. Jeff popped in "House of the Flying Daggers" and went to the "Bean Dance" scene - The audio was crisp, had great tonal response, and just sounded *right* in the room. My Hsu VTF-2 (original) subwoofer, did an admirable job with the lows, and by BGCorp Radia Z-series handled everything but the loudest, highest pitched notes with aplomb; the speakers are rated at 150w RMS, and they're getting 110w. Jeff believes that in order to play louder, more expensive speakers (and likely monoblock amps) would be needed, but realistically, at -6db from reference, it was still a bit on the loud side (my tastes)...going to -8 would rectify that (I believe) and with my current setup...I'd be happy.

COST
My goal was to put together the most cost-effective home theater that wouldn't leave me wanting, and my budget was a mere $7,000, though I had speakers and a sub already. I saw plasma sets for more than that, and blowing that on a set of surrounds would've been cake. Here's my setup:

EPSON 1080UB - $3000 (Including shipping) from Projector Point - Includes mount
Carada 102" Brilliant White Precision Screen - $750
Denon 2808CI Receiver - $750 online/shipped
BGCorp Radia Z-series 5-speaker surround setup (2-floor standers, 1 LCR, 2 rear bookshelf - these speakers utilize a planar tweeter design) - $1400 + $80 for mounts
HSU Research VTF-2 (Original, non-wife-compliant model) - $550
Seating - 1 3-row reclining set, 2 standalone recliners - $1350
TOTAL: $9230
OUT OF POCKET: $7200
I already had the Radia Z-series speakers and rear mounts with Hsu Sub from my setup 3 years ago, so without those included, I managed to stay within-budget. I didn't have a huge budget, but purchasing the proper equipment through research and through recommendations from Jeff yielded a home theater system that I'd gladly put up against friends' setups costing thousands more...but I don't enjoy making friends cry.

SUMMARY
With not-too-expensive equipment, I managed to put together a home theater room that I'll enjoy for years. I'm going to follow Jeff's advice and place the projector within a 10' throw after I do some recessed halogens and replace the ceiling fan. I'm also going to pick up two more panels for the mini-hallway. Beyond that, I'm stoked.

Thanks again to Jeff to driving out to NW Houston to meet with me. It was an enjoyable and educational evening for me, and the information kept flowing even as we had a late lunch/early dinner together. Having Jeff make many positive comments about how things were setup was great, but having him being forthright and honest regarding my system's limitations (Speaker volume, projector throw, extra acoustic absorption needed) put it all into context; Jeff's opinions are frank and honest, and the fact that a theater of the caliber I have put together on a very reasonable budget left him happy was a Big Deal. It took me a few hours into the night to fully understand his happiness in how it turned out...but I'm pleased to say that I'm happy I had him come over again.

Jeff - I wish you and your wife the best on your future business endeavors, and thanks again for helping me setup my theater room properly. Now I can get on with unloading the rest of my stuff and finish moving into my new home. :)

Cheers,
Geoff

Thanks for the kind words Geoff.

Your system was amazing especially when you consider the cost.

Here is the data from your video for those interested.

I'm interested as I am going to have a similar setup. I have a 18' long room and was planning on shelf mounting a 1080UB on the rear wall and using a 106" carada BW screen.

Would this be a bad idea? Would I notice a big improvement by ceiling mounting at say 12'-14'?

Congrats on your room - I'm sure it's awesome.

Congrats. umr/Jeff has helped many of us calibrate our TVs via his posts on these forums. The post calibration report shows some excellent results. Gives the rest of us 1080UB owners hope! :)

Out of curiosity, what are your video sources? I didn't see those listed in your post. And did he create a different setting for each input? Or were you able to optimize across all of your inputs?

And you know that people will begin to ask you to post your actual settings so they can use them as a starting point for their own tweaks (if using similar sources). I'll refrain, but expect the request!

Take care,
Rich
PS Jeff, do you ever head up to Austin? Would seriously consider getting the Epson calibrated. And I still own your old Panasonic RP56!

I was using a PS3 for the BluRay player and I also have a Toshiba HDDVD player that shows great results.

I've got all of my settings, but as Jeff's even told me, there's so much variance between displays, that my setup might not even be a good place for others to start.

But yeah, the 1080UB's one hellova projector. :)

I'm interested as I am going to have a similar setup. I have a 18' long room and was planning on shelf mounting a 1080UB on the rear wall and using a 106" carada BW screen.

Would this be a bad idea? Would I notice a big improvement by ceiling mounting at say 12'-14'?

Congrats on your room - I'm sure it's awesome.

From what I gather, you'd really be better off mounting at 10-12' than 16', especially with a 106" screen. It's not that it's not gonna be doable, but everything Jeff told me will apply to you, even moreso; less usable lamp life, and not-as-bright-as-you'd-like picture. As-is, I'm going to have to pick up a mount that moves the projector 6' closer or so, but that comes way later. :)

Congrats. umr/Jeff has helped many of us calibrate our TVs via his posts on these forums. The post calibration report shows some excellent results. Gives the rest of us 1080UB owners hope! :)

Out of curiosity, what are your video sources? I didn't see those listed in your post. And did he create a different setting for each input? Or were you able to optimize across all of your inputs?

And you know that people will begin to ask you to post your actual settings so they can use them as a starting point for their own tweaks (if using similar sources). I'll refrain, but expect the request!

Take care,
Rich
PS Jeff, do you ever head up to Austin? Would seriously consider getting the Epson calibrated. And I still own your old Panasonic RP56!

I have traveled to Austin in the past.

INTRO
...We found that Dynamic Mode was basically useless while Jeff was working on Green, so Jeff ended up using Theatre Mode. I think that''s the last really bad thing I heard yesterday. :)


So... I've gathered that Dynamic Mode is a poor choice. (I have the 1080UB Pro model and this mode is called "Vivid"). I project onto a Stewart Firehawk SST from 11 ft back in a light controlled room and have been running mine on this mode (vivid/dymanic) because I like the extra lumen output-(even with lamp set to low!) I used the DVE HD Basics blu ray disc on my PS3 to calibrate and the colors seem ok to my untrained eye (but of course no PR 670 test equipment !!)

However, if your findings were that dynamic mode was "useless," could you please expand on this just a bit?? (i.e. what adjustments/presets tamed the green for you to get good color accuracy.)

Thanks!

PS - I live in Illinois so I probably won't be flying Jeff out to do a calibration :o

And no, I'm not assuming that my setup will yield the same results as yours.:) But I'd still like to learn from your experience.

However, if your findings were that dynamic mode was "useless," could you please expand on this just a bit?? (i.e. what adjustments/presets tamed the green for you to get good color accuracy.)


Setting it out of Dynamic and into Theater mode. Jeff couldn't tame the greens down to the level that he was happy...he thought he could, but in the end, no dice. Dynamic's good for video game playing. :)

Then again, Jeff's testing is absolute, and the truth is that if the colors are good enough for you, then they're good enough, and if you get the colors you want at the brightness you want, even better. :)