.

I've calibrated projectors with CC and FLD filters in place.
As long as the projector can cope with it ( and let's face it why would anyone put a filter on a projector that couldn't cope with it) it shouldn't add any complexity to a grayscale calibration at all.

Also it won't primarily fix saturation, its more a technique for maximising contrast for the available spectra characteristics of the lamp. Its not snakeoil but its not magic either you scarifice lumens for contrast.

I'm surprised a pro calibrator got sniffy about a filter to be honest. If he had misgivings about the effect of the filter he could at least have had a crack at it ( its not rocket science).

My advice: buy a sensor ( spyder2 or other) buy Calman or use HCFR and do it yourself.

I even did a lowly panasonic ae100 with an FLD filter and got good results just by eyeballing it.

I would suggest that if you want a calibrator to use a filter - that you get one that understands not only greyscale measurements - but color measurements. Filters change the xyY measures of color - there is no magic way around that. If someone does not use a filter - then they have already figured out that the display with filter maybe able to tweak the contrast at D65 - but it comes with larger error to color and a possible hit to lumens. Good calibrators know that proper color is oft more important to get right than greyscale - and certainly much more important than contrast.

So filters are not snake oil - they can improve contrast at D65 on some PJ. But you need to get the whole story and not rely on deceptive marketing that says the only thing that matters is the contrast of your display. If all the filter purveyor can provide is the improved contrast number without documenting any color data - that is the calibrator you don't want to hire.

I used to use FL-D filters back in the day when projectors had not only poor contrast at calibrated greyscale far away from marketed contrast - but they had weak color that benefited from filters. PJs with strong colors are harmed more with filters than they are helped.

You should rethink how important a 5000 more improvement from 15000:1 to 20000:1 is. While it looks big on paper to get 5000 more - you don't see that large of improvement.

Assume whites are optomized for 12ftL - that means you go from 0.0008ftL blacks down to 0.0006ftL This is a 0.0002ftL improvement in blacks. You would require a true batcave to even see that level of black - as well as require a sensor that can measure that difference (I am not aware of one) - since your eye will not even see the difference.


But by all means get yourself a sensor - you can use to measure your in-room contrast - and you will realize how much you have been fooling yourself as it is doubtful your room even gets 5000:1 contrast.

I have calibrated displays using filters in the past. The biggest benefit in the past was to increase the contrast ratio by optimizing the light transmission to the light source available. It also allowed you to compensate for color errors down low. I have not tried to use one to compensate for primary saturation, but I suspect they would not be very effective. The problem with saturated primaries are that the spectra is too narrow. The wideband filters used in this application are not likely to alter the primary color.

I would use my Kodak color print viewing filter kit along with a a spectraradiometer to see what it does to the primaries if I was going to try this approach.

One can use filters to improve contrast at the expense of some light output. It affects the gray scale, which must be adjusted to compensate. However, it's not going to help with oversaturated primaries of the SXRDs.

reio-ta,

I do not see any problems with SXRD and shadow details. It sounds like you want a low contrast level and low gamma. You could try adjusting the iris, brightness and gamma to meet your goals. However, your expectations and an accurate display may be two different things. Some scenes do fade to black. While raising the brightness may reveal more of the information that is present it is not what is intended. Raising brightness to alter this will show more MPEG artifacts and alter the color performance of the display.

What you want may be possible, but it may not be accurate either. The Pearl is a very flexible display and can be setup many different ways. All it takes is time, skill and knowledge.

So with that setup and nothing reflecting in the room on a 70" 1.2 gain eggshell white screen, I won't even get 5000:1 CR?

Maybe...if you tape over your gear LEDs....

"What I don't get is statements by people like krasmuzik who insist everyone must have correct colors which is most important, like Joe Kane. I don't think it is. "

You do realize you are in the calibration forum?

When in Rome....

Anyways you will not need an FL-D filter if all you care about is contrast and give a woot about color. FL-D filters work by converting the flourescent bluish cast of the greyscale with the maximum contrast to be closer than D65 - it does not improve on the native contrast of the display - it only gets that max contrast point near D65. The Pearl has presets that will let you blow out the contrast at the expense of color all you want - it will not get any better with a filter.

reio-ta,

I would just like to clarify that I do not mind calibrating a video system with a filter. In fact, there have been times where some form of filtration was necessary in order to achieve an accurate, based on system standards, image. In your email you wrote the following:

"I want to get a Pearl if it'll be possible to calibrate in this manner. I'll be using a 1552 millimeter wide screen (a tad over 61.1 inches). Using Blue-tac, I'm going to mount a ND and an FLD filter. I'll be doing this because Sony pushes green very far towards oversaturated. Meaning to put the green levels in check, I'll have to use the FLD but at the same time the driver bias for red and blue must be pushed towards oversaturation too. So I'll be able to keep the near native UHP lamp maximum values in order to take advantage of the full contrast possible."

Requesting specific settings, such as pushing the "driver bias for red and blue towards oversaturation" is not the what Avical does. At Avical, our focus is on optimizing video systems to very specific system standards. It did not appear that you were looking to have the system optimized to a standard, but more for an arbitrary set of goals, which will not yield an accurate image.

Regards,

Dave

Ken told me if I use an FLD I'll need to boost the driver levels in the service menu but Greg Rogers said that you shouldn't mess at all with the panel driver settings of red, green and blue and could break your Pearl? Ken said he boosted red and blue by 12% with Sony default values of:

Not that I recall ever saying that but even so the panel driver boost was an earlier mod that I tried and it worked so it stayed. It was to all channels and no sign of clipping but then 12% is rather mild compared to how far some people are pushing this. It was to get a tad more brightness as I was using a ND filter. When I added the FLD I simply calibrated the pj as it was and maxed out the blue (but not as far as Cine4Home took it by also increasing the service menu settings) and still no signs of clipping so I left the panel driver settings as they were.

However over Easter I had a few friends around and we were watching the footy and to give the picture a bit more punch I took off the ND filter. Day turned to night and we ended up watching movies and I didn't bother to put the ND filter back on as the extra oomph in the image was nice. It's still off, and I like it. The trade off is slightly increased black levels but the extra brightness more than makes up for it. And then there's the whole lumens versus contrast ratio and what looks better etc.

Bottom line, as I've now got more lumens than I really need the panel driver settings are back to stock. Not that there's anything wrong with increasing them a bit as the Pearl appears to have an amazing amount of headroom.

Ken

reio-ta,

Yes, our calibration procedure does include access to the service menu, as well as user-menu controls.

I will respond more specifically in an email.

Regards,

Dave