Alright with the user base of this projector growing in this site I would like to start the official tweakers and calibration thread just like the other popular projectors... I'm currently using factory RGB settings and i'm pretty satisfied with the picture quality but would like to maximize the image on this projector.. I dont have any calibration discs but if people would like to post their settings that would be great... Thanks

This is a great idea Jay. Since I still haven't finished my Boc screen yet, the settings I have for my yellowish wall aren't really worth sharing. I have the frame finished. Hopefully by this weekend, I will have the Boc attached and the screen mounted for some serious movie watching.

Cool! I just mounted my screen for this PJ last night so I will start tweaking it immediately. It will be good to have some others' input.

Thanks for this thread. I also need help with settings. I understand how to tweak contrast, tint, and brightness with DVE, but have no idea about saturation, degamma, color temperature, white segment, and R/G/B.

What was the default saturation?

It might be worth noting that out of the box, using analog component video, the color temperature seems to be preset to "warm." I thought my picture was too yellowish until I reset the color temp on the middle of the three preset options.

I haven't tried the computer options yet.

I had this projector shipped to my parents house since shipping boxes tend to "disappear" when left in front of my house. With that said, I don't have my full range of equipment to tweak this guy with. Right out of the box projecting on a white wall gave me an awesome picture. I should be able to tweak with AVIA tomorrow night. Also, I'll probably whip this guy out to watch the Michigan-Notre Dame game in a bright room so I can see how it does with a lot of light.

After a couple hours of watching video files via HTPC, here are my settings for HDMI:


USER
Brightness: 21
Contrast: 77
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 3
Degamma: 5
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 67
Tint: 49
1:1
Signal Type: YCbCr

I look forward to feedback from you guys....

Trying your settings now.

Why are you using 1:1 instead of 16:9?

Does the Signal Type change based on the channel you're on? It is changing for me.

For some reason, for the channels higher than 200, it's YCbCr and the picture shows up. For channels below 200, the picture won't show up and it changes to RGB.

This is via HDMI on my Motorola DCT-6412 III. Component doesn't have any problems.

1:1 is pixel mapped. As long as your sending a native 720p signal, your gonna want the Projector to be in the 1:1 setting.


The issue your having with the cable box could be due to the color space changing as you go from Analog/SD channels to Digital/HD channels. 200 being the start of the HD channels with anything below 200 being SD or analog.

Is there a fix? Would getting the Motorola 3412 fix the problem or is it a problem with the projector?

Also, what would your suggestions be for using the PH530 with ambient light? Change white segment to 10 and contrast to 100?

Everyone will have different settings because of the changing eviroments and room lighting and screens , also the distance the Pj throws an image like me for example I have an 80 inch screen at around 11 feet away and my setting differ from the post befor this one in post #-7.
I tried that setup and in my system and the image was a bit dull.
But with the THX setup disc I have the images jump off the screen.

Everyone will have different settings because of the changing eviroments and room lighting and screens , also the distance the Pj throws an image like me for example I have an 80 inch screen at around 11 feet away and my setting differ from the post befor this one in post #-7.
I tried that setup and in my system and the image was a bit dull.
But with the THX setup disc I have the images jump off the screen.

Plus the fact that every bulb is different too. You can calibrete 10 different PJs in the same room, with hte same lighting, on the same screen and they will all have different numbers. Similar, but not the same.

A thread like this will give people a good STARTING POINT for calibrating their PJs. Like you can find someone here who has the same "viewing environment" as you, then punch in their calibrated numbers. From that point you can tweak the numbers to better fit your situation.

Maybe we should post what type of screen we are using and lighting conditions also. may help.

I am using a Draper v screen , cheap , flexible and verybright with a screen gain of 1.5.
I hope this helps others , I got my from projector place for around $50.00 shipped..

ok im getting my ph530 soon , got it costcentral.com for $642.00 with shiping.. upgrading from BENQ PB6100.. had the ben for about 3 year and no problems with it at all .. but i had bad storm that blew out alot of stuff in my house and the ben wont power on now.. i need to know if any one has idea's about the best way to hook up my xbox360 with hd dvd add on .. i have read some post about the vga cable being the way to go to upscale sd dvds.. i plan on usign hdmi for my hd dvr from time warner cable , and will it be better to set my setting on my dvr and xbox at 720p or 180i or 1080p ..i will be using a 92" screen...

Used DVE to calibrate tonight. Surprisingly, I had to change degamma to 7 to be able to get red, blue, and greens calibrated.

Here are my settings in eco mode ON via HDMI, totally dark room (updated)

Brightness 15
Contrast 65
Color Temperature 1
White Segment 0
Degamma 7
Color R 88
Color G 82
Color B 87
Saturation 61
Tint 48

Sharpness 15.

Since I use component for my cable box, should I plug in component for my DVD player to Projector and re-calibrate for component?

It looks like HDMI and Component have their own 'user' settings. When I calibrated via HDMI and changed back to STB via component, I noticed that the values changed.

Grayson73

You calibrated proj when using HDMI, then when you switched to component you did Not have your calibration settings. So when you switch back to HDMI are the setting you customized there? Im just curious if the machine is resetting itself or if in fact it does have it own settings, one for hdmi and another for component.

I will have mine on wednesday and will test hdmi, component, and component to vga using adapter.

Sweet let the testing begin.

The unit seems to keep it's own White, Black, Color & Tint settings per input.

I've worked very hard today on the colors and I think I have done very well for myself. I seem to prefer the Degamma at 5 and White Segment at 3... Eitherway, this unit seems to be very calibrator friendly, even for a novice like myself. I also find that for HTPC use, in my specific application where an 8500GT (XP Pro) being fed via HDMI... the unit seems to take better to 48hz rather than 72hz. With 48hz, I have seen no tearing on DVDs and the PQ is stupendous.

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/9/25813034525.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6620903)

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/9/25813315921.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6621446)


P.S. Guys, so far the only person who has been kind enough to contact me regarding some assistance on the shipping to get the "Ace" to Art is smarty-pants. This review will benefit us all and any other potential buyers who frequent this forum.

Anyone who might be interested to in helping me foot the shipping charges, PM me and I will send u my Paypal address.

1:1 is pixel mapped. As long as your sending a native 720p signal, your gonna want the Projector to be in the 1:1 setting.


The issue your having with the cable box could be due to the color space changing as you go from Analog/SD channels to Digital/HD channels. 200 being the start of the HD channels with anything below 200 being SD or analog.

When I use 1:1 with the Motorola STB, sometimes I get a thin line of noise at the top, sometimes, on the side. No problems when set to 16:9.

Used DVE to calibrate tonight. Surprisingly, I had to change degamma to 7 to be able to get red, blue, and greens calibrated.

Here are my settings in eco mode OFF via HDMI, totally dark room:

Brightness 0
Contrast 90
Color Temperature 0
White Segment 0
Degamma 7
Color R 100
Color G 102
Color B 100
Saturation 52
Tint 49

I also turned Sharpness down to 0.

It looks like HDMI and Component have their own 'user' settings. When I calibrated via HDMI and changed back to STB via component, I noticed that the values changed.

I tried these settings with my Motorola STB via Component and noticed that something was wrong. When watching football players with white jerseys and names in green, I couldn't read the name. I tried with other modes and I could read the name.

Does that mean Contrast is too high or do I need to use a different degamma or color temp?

When trying to calibrate contrast with DVE and HDMI, I didn't see any 'blooming' nor 'color changes' until around 90, so I set it at 90. It's possible that 90 is good for the DVD player, but not for the Motorola STB.

It's so hard to calibrate when there are 3 color modes, 7 degamma modes, and 11 color segment modes. Also, the manual says that "Saturation and Tint functions are supported under Video mode only."

Some degamma modes seem to be more detailed than others. I'm very confused! Seems like we need a professional to look at this.

When I use 1:1 with the Motorola STB, sometimes I get a thin line of noise at the top, sometimes, on the side. No problems when set to 16:9.
You can eliminate the noise by setting the "ZOOM" on the Acer Remote to 2.

This will act as an "overscan"

tattootearz
I think there is still a little too much green in those screen shots!?
It would be informative to see a screen shot of a grayscale.

Seems like we need a professional to look at this.

Exactly. That's why tattootearz is sending his off for just that reason, a professional review. If you have not done so already, please Paypal him some dough to help cover shipping costs for the review. We will ALL benefit from this.

After Playing around with Avia and some of the settings I posted earlier I came up with these settings for HDMI. I ran the test and played some movies with an HD-A1 over HDMI.

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 47
Contrast: 74
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48

Venk,

Are you finding that tint and saturation work in 'User' mode? How do you calibrate Saturation? Also, why did you choose Color Temp 1? Do you know if this is the closest to D6500? I chose Color Temp 0 because 'Theater' mode used Color Temp 0.

Venk,

Are you finding that tint and saturation work in 'User' mode? How do you calibrate Saturation? Also, why did you choose Color Temp 1? Do you know if this is the closest to D6500? I chose Color Temp 0 because 'Theater' mode used Color Temp 0.

I found the correct contrast screen in DVE (the white to black screen with 5% increments). After using that, these are my settings:

Eco Mode OFF
Brightness 9
Contrast 65
Color Temperature 0
White Segment 0
Degamma 7
Color R 100
Color G 100
Color B 100
Saturation 50
Tint 50

I left Sharpness at 16.

Red and Blue were spot on with Color Temp 0 and Degamma 7. Green was a little off, but changing it didn't seem to help that much.

I'm still tweaking this around. On my screen, Color Temp Zero just looked "off". I know, not very descriptive, but CT 1 just gave me a bit more natural of a look. Don't forget, I run with ECO mode ON, so that probably made the difference in color temp. I think I may need to play around with CT/Degamma/White Balance some more to get the best picture. Saturation and Tint had adjustable sliders in User mode. I didn't have any issues changing them. Sharpness is set at 0.

I'll try your settings tonight and tell you if I see a change either way.

After Playing around with Avia and some of the settings I posted earlier I came up with these settings for HDMI. I ran the test and played some movies with an HD-A1 over HDMI.

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 47
Contrast: 74
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48
I punched these numbers in and I have to say I like them WAY better than my setting beforehand. I did have to re-adjust W/B level for my 100% dark environment but other than that, I find the colors to be more enjoyable.

This is getting interesting.


**As a side, I am still $100 away from my target for the shipping of the Ace to Art. So far, I've only gotten a couple people onboard. I am prepared to cover the costs myself but I was kinda hoping you guys would step up to the plate on this.

I punched these numbers in and I have to say I like them WAY better than my setting beforehand. I did have to re-adjust W/B level for my 100% dark environment but other than that, I find the colors to be more enjoyable.

This is getting interesting.


**As a side, I am still $100 away from my target for the shipping of the Ace to Art. So far, I've only gotten a couple people onboard. I am prepared to cover the costs myself but I was kinda hoping you guys would step up to the plate on this.

PM me your paypal address and i'll toss a couple bucks your way. $100?!?!? Why so expensive? If it is gong to cost you that much, you might want to settle for 2 way 2 day shipping.

PM me your paypal address and i'll toss a couple bucks your way. $100?!?!? Why so expensive? If it is gong to cost you that much, you might want to settle for 2 way 2 day shipping.
FedEx 2nd Day shipping is roughly $90 both ways.

Tacking on insurance for both trips, the cost is roughly $120 in total.

With the way these guys have been selling out everywhere, I KNOW we have more than 5-6 people here playing around with it. Lets see those tweaks people! :)

Please also add the screen/surface you are projecting and size you are projecting. I'm projecting a 73" image onto an Infocus 76" 1.0 Gain 16x9 Screen. I can't push my projector further back so I'm stuck with a small pillerbox effect on the screen.

Screen Specs (http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-InFocus-InFocus-InFocus-HomeTheater-projection-screen)

P.S. Guys, so far the only person who has been kind enough to contact me regarding some assistance on the shipping to get the "Ace" to Art is smarty-pants. This review will benefit us all and any other potential buyers who frequent this forum.

Anyone who might be interested to in helping me foot the shipping charges, PM me and I will send u my Paypal address.

Sent. If everyone sends something, you should be well on your way

After Playing around with Avia and some of the settings I posted earlier I came up with these settings for HDMI. I ran the test and played some movies with an HD-A1 over HDMI.

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 47
Contrast: 74
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48

In the 'Image' tab, there are 3 signal types, RGB, YCbCr, and YPbPr. Which should be chosen? For my Motorola STB, RGB ends up being all green. Can't tell which is better between YCbCr and YPbPr.

I punched these numbers in and I have to say I like them WAY better than my setting beforehand. I did have to re-adjust W/B level for my 100% dark environment but other than that, I find the colors to be more enjoyable.

This is getting interesting.


**As a side, I am still $100 away from my target for the shipping of the Ace to Art. So far, I've only gotten a couple people onboard. I am prepared to cover the costs myself but I was kinda hoping you guys would step up to the plate on this.

I argee, that setting is a lot better... what I'm running too

In the 'Image' tab, there are 3 signal types, RGB, YCbCr, and YPbPr. Which should be chosen? For my Motorola STB, RGB ends up being all green. Can't tell which is better between YCbCr and YPbPr.

Use Signal Type: YCbCr for best results.

It's weird, my Signal Type setting gets reset every time I power the thing down.

It's weird, my Signal Type setting gets reset every time I power the thing down.
Mines too, and it's very annoying. It even resets when you switch inputs or toggle refresh rates. *sigh*....

It's weird, my Signal Type setting gets reset every time I power the thing down.

Are you unplugging the projector or have a switch to control the power going to the unit, If you do then that's the problem right there because mine keeps its setting for each input .:rolleyes:

Lou, you also claimed that on page 22 of the Instruction Manual it was stated how to use H & V Sync on any input. I still have not found that and I have combed the manual.

Now on the subject of the Signal Type.... I can confirm that even when I toggle inputs or refresh rates and go back to the original point where I made the change, the setting always reverts back to YPbPr.

Yc and Yp look pretty much the same to me so I tend to leave that alone.

Right now with my settings, I'm fighting a black crush issue. Which settings can I tweak (and in which directions) to get rid of that?

I used Venk's settings and changed Brightness to 15 and Contrast to 65. Contrast beyond 65 was changing the white to pink/purple in the DVE 5% black-to-white color ramp.

Lou, you also claimed that on page 22 of the Instruction Manual it was stated how to use H & V Sync on any input. I still have not found that and I have combed the manual.

ok I did overlook that one so I was wrong,

Now on the subject of the Signal Type.... I can confirm that even when I toggle inputs or refresh rates and go back to the original point where I made the change, the setting always reverts back to YPbPr.

Now when I power the PJ on and off mine keeps it's settings, so maybe there is something that you have overlooked.
But I'm not going to fire it up until friday so I will look it over and let you know.

Anyone know why on my 360 via VGA out @ 1280 x 720 my images comes in way off to the left? Even after adjusting the horizontal position all the way to 25, I am still off by 3 inches. Any other resolution or input is fine. The other VGA inputs center up nicely. Any ideas? I only want that resolution from the 360 due to it giving the best results for PQ for games and HD DVD's. It even beats out my Toshiba HD-A1 coming in via HDMI @ any resolution (just slightly)

I found some additional info on the lamp's specs from the Acer website:

Replacement Lamp for Acer Projector Models PH530 - expected lamp life 2,000 hours (standard) ; 3,000 hours (economy)

MODEL- .EC.J2101.001VENDOR- ACER AMERICA CORPORATION

FEATURES- 200W SHP Replacement Lamp
for Acer Projector PH530
expected lamp life 2,000 hours (standard); 3,000 hours (economy)
www.acer.com/us

PH530 will be here tomorrow. Then I can spend time on settings and throw some money for review.
I really think this one is a great bang for buck and better than some that cost more. Im sure its better than my BenQ pb6100 that it will be replacing.
benq bulb, which I need know is half the cost of this projector!
Yea ha

Proj just arrived a day early,. NICE settings Venk! I like them even with full bright. PH530 throws bigger image than pb6100. Will have to rebuild DIY screen. for $600 proj I will do it. Setting at 97" image at 15'6" back.

Proj just arrived a day early,. NICE settings Venk! I like them even with full bright. PH530 throws bigger image than pb6100. Will have to rebuild DIY screen. for $600 proj I will do it. Setting at 97" image at 15'6" back.

I also have the Benq Pb6100. I'm just wondering if you could compare the two and list what things you find are better on the Acer. How much of an improvement overall would you say the upgrade is?

I plan to upgrade soon, so any and all input will be very helpful.

Thanks

Jason

Anyone know why on my 360 via VGA out @ 1280 x 720 my images comes in way off to the left? Even after adjusting the horizontal position all the way to 25, I am still off by 3 inches. Any other resolution or input is fine. The other VGA inputs center up nicely. Any ideas? I only want that resolution from the 360 due to it giving the best results for PQ for games and HD DVD's. It even beats out my Toshiba HD-A1 coming in via HDMI @ any resolution (just slightly)
I have found the same issue with the 360 & Acer VGA combination. My image is way off to the left. I am using the 360 Pro Cooler (http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&product_id=802686) and when I set the switches to VGA HDTV, I get the horrible off to the left image. I have tried all tracking, frequency & H/V Sync adjustments, to no avail. I have to set the Pro Cooler to Component Video output mode in order to get a full 1:1 pixel mapped 360 Dashboard. Problem with that is, that DVDs will not upscale with that setting. I dont use my 360 for DVD playback so I didnt spend too much time on this issue. However, it's a problem that needs to be resolved.

FYI- HDMI is a better picture than component to vga adtaper and Im sure better than component for all channels. Noticable really for SD.

This thread is just not active enough!

I'm sorely disappointed in you guys!:p

:eek:Chime in guys we need more support!:D

What is the deal with the degamma adjustment? It seems to make no sense. As I adjust from 1 thru 7 the image lightens then darkens then lightens then darkens again. I thought it should be a linear progression but it isn't. I'm using component in at 720p, and YPbPr.

I'm not terribly certain what degamma does either, but 7 seemed the best for me. Everything else was either grayed out blacks or crushed blacks. 5 seems to produce the deepest, and most crushed, black levels. 7 Brightens the image and gave me more shadow detail without graying out blacks too much. Tweaking the brightness and contrast also helped get degamma 7 to a more neutral black level to my eyes.

On a side note, anyone else annoyed at the focus ring of this projector? I swear, it turns every time I put the lens cap on making me readjust the focus whenever I use the projector.

Does anyone have any good settings for an Xbox 360 over Component? I would imagine settings for video games would be somewhat different than settings for movies. I hear the limited edition of Halo 3 is going to include a game calibration feature. If someone is picking up a copy of the LE, be sure to post what settings you get from that calibration.

I have found the same issue with the 360 & Acer VGA combination. My image is way off to the left. I am using the 360 Pro Cooler (http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&product_id=802686) and when I set the switches to VGA HDTV, I get the horrible off to the left image. I have tried all tracking, frequency & H/V Sync adjustments, to no avail. I have to set the Pro Cooler to Component Video output mode in order to get a full 1:1 pixel mapped 360 Dashboard. Problem with that is, that DVDs will not upscale with that setting. I dont use my 360 for DVD playback so I didnt spend too much time on this issue. However, it's a problem that needs to be resolved.

I am having the same problem as detailed in the Acer PH530 thread. I have found no fix for this. I have tried contacting Acer support and here was thier cookie cutter reply:

"Thank you for contacting Acer America. I apologize for any delay in responding to your email. On the image menu try adjusting the screen ratio to 4:3 to see if this makes a difference and if you already have it at 4:3 try 16:9. Also check the have the projection location set to the correct one such as Front-Desktop, Front-Ceiling, Rear-Desktop. Also you can try adjusting the tracking on the image to see if this resolves your issue. I hope this helps.

Regards,

Acer Online Support Team"

I will try working this out with them.

Does anyone have any good settings for an Xbox 360 over Component? I would imagine settings for video games would be somewhat different than settings for movies. I hear the limited edition of Halo 3 is going to include a game calibration feature.

My Xbox 360 is in shipping now, when it arrives I'll check it out. With my Infocus X1 and the original xbox I would turn the projecter to the brightest settings for games. I think "PC mode" would be best for games with the Acer.

"Thank you for contacting Acer America. I apologize for any delay in responding to your email. On the image menu try adjusting the screen ratio to 4:3 to see if this makes a difference and if you already have it at 4:3 try 16:9. Also check the have the projection location set to the correct one such as Front-Desktop, Front-Ceiling, Rear-Desktop. Also you can try adjusting the tracking on the image to see if this resolves your issue. I hope this helps.

Regards,

Acer Online Support Team"


It doesn't look like they are going to be much help. I was going to email them about the degamma setting but I suspect I'd get the same answer. lol

I have found the same issue with the 360 & Acer VGA combination. My image is way off to the left. I am using the 360 Pro Cooler (http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&product_id=802686) and when I set the switches to VGA HDTV, I get the horrible off to the left image. I have tried all tracking, frequency & H/V Sync adjustments, to no avail. I have to set the Pro Cooler to Component Video output mode in order to get a full 1:1 pixel mapped 360 Dashboard. Problem with that is, that DVDs will not upscale with that setting. I dont use my 360 for DVD playback so I didnt spend too much time on this issue. However, it's a problem that needs to be resolved.

For those of you having problems with the 360 through VGA with the image being to the left.. I had this same problem as well and what fixed it for me is setting the 360 at 1920 x 1080.. Hopefully it works for you guys because it did for me..

What is the deal with the degamma adjustment? It seems to make no sense. As I adjust from 1 thru 7 the image lightens then darkens then lightens then darkens again. I thought it should be a linear progression but it isn't. I'm using component in at 720p, and YPbPr.
yepp, I see the same with my Ph530. I already though that my PJ is defective since nobody mentioned this issue so far.

I am quite disappointed with the black level and the especially with the shadow details, even after spending some time with the settings. I think the gamma level of the PH530 is way to low... What's your take on that?

BTW: Any hope that Acer could change that with a firmware update?

As I mentioned last week, this PJ suffers in the Black Level dept. The fact that you have to have Gamma at 7 to have a decent picture is laughable at best.

And that Green Tint to the picture.... I cant shake it.

As I mentioned last week, this PJ suffers in the Black Level dept. The fact that you have to have Gamma at 7 to have a decent picture is laughable at best.

And that Green Tint to the picture.... I cant shake it.

Art will have to be the "savior" on the best settings for the pj. Everyone seems to be struggling to find the best settings here.
I gather from your comments that you haven't sent it out yet??

Art will have to be the "savior" on the best settings for the pj. Everyone seems to be struggling to find the best settings here.
I gather from your comments that you haven't sent it out yet??
Not yet, and thats a pitiful shame considering the overwhelming show of support I have received from the guys on this forum to cover the shipping fees. :rolleyes:

Yea, so far though I've collected $15 and not a penny more. I really expected people to be a bit more proactive with this. I dont want to put anyone on the spot but I want to thank the (3) guys who helped out thus far. Eitherway, I wont ask for any more help on this. I will move forward on it myself.

Problem is, I sent Art an email some days ago to get his ship-to address and he hasnt gotten back to me yet. I will follow-up with another email shortly. As soon as he gets in touch with me, I will ship this baby out.

I read in the other thread that some were having problems going from High Def. to Standard when using HDMI, I didn't have that problem until recently it began acting up..... anyone find out a fix besides using component instead??

BTW: Any hope that Acer could change that with a firmware update?

With the similarities it has with the Optoma H70, I wonder if it could be flashed with Optoma's firmware.

With the similarities it has with the Optoma H70, I wonder if it could be flashed with Optoma's firmware.

That would void warranty for sure, as for having this projector reviewed by a pro is a nice touch , but I think we will get better unbiased reviews and tips being honest and sharing our experiences with it...
:)

Anyone know why on my 360 via VGA out @ 1280 x 720 my images comes in way off to the left? Even after adjusting the horizontal position all the way to 25, I am still off by 3 inches. Any other resolution or input is fine. The other VGA inputs center up nicely. Any ideas? I only want that resolution from the 360 due to it giving the best results for PQ for games and HD DVD's. It even beats out my Toshiba HD-A1 coming in via HDMI @ any resolution (just slightly)
I was doing some information gathering on the PH530 and I came across a couple websites that seemed to have conflicting information regarding the Native Resolution of the PH530.

This prompted me to go to Acer's website and do some checking into.... according to Acer, the actual Native resolution of the PH530 is 1280 x 768 (http://global.acer.com/products/projector/spec_projector_home.htm).

I thought I would make you guys aware of that... also, this could be the issue we are having with 1:1 via VGA on the 360??

Hmmm.... anyone else knew this?

This prompted me to go to Acer's website and do some checking into.... according to Acer, the actual Native resolution of the PH530 is 1280 x 768 (http://global.acer.com/products/projector/spec_projector_home.htm).

I thought I would make you guys aware of that... also, this could be the issue we are having with 1:1 via VGA on the 360??Interesting. I wouldn't think a vertical resolution mismatch would affect the horizontal dimension, though, but you never know.

720p ought to be the standard they're targeting with this model, so I'm surprised to see it have problems or lack sufficient adjustment at that resolution. Maybe a firmware update is in order.

What is the purpose of a 768 resolution? Is it cheaper to produce? Does it work better when fed 1080i content than a 720 resolution? It would explain why I couldn't see any difference what so ever with my A1 set to 1080 or 720.

I was doing some information gathering on the PH530 and I came across a couple websites that seemed to have conflicting information regarding the Native Resolution of the PH530.

This prompted me to go to Acer's website and do some checking into.... according to Acer, the actual Native resolution of the PH530 is 1280 x 768 (http://global.acer.com/products/projector/spec_projector_home.htm).

I thought I would make you guys aware of that... also, this could be the issue we are having with 1:1 via VGA on the 360??

Hmmm.... anyone else knew this?

What the hell ?!?!? I never even heard of the PH730 !!! (last years model)
I guess it cost like 3 times more than the 530, so that's why no one gave a crap. :)

Im not experiencing any problem switching from HD channels to SD channels with HDMI connection. Proj set to 16:9 and HD Cox Cable box set to display 16:9 also.

Also tested PH530 with old xbox ver 1.6 and best connection is component not component to vga. No problems switching back and fourth from xbox to Cox cable box. Picture stays same place.

I dont have xbox 360.

What is the purpose of a 768 resolution? Is it cheaper to produce? Does it work better when fed 1080i content than a 720 resolution? It would explain why I couldn't see any difference what so ever with my A1 set to 1080 or 720.768 means no vertical scaling or cropping with a 768-pixel high source, most notably, 1024x768 PC resolution.

I was doing some information gathering on the PH530 and I came across a couple websites that seemed to have conflicting information regarding the Native Resolution of the PH530.

This prompted me to go to Acer's website and do some checking into.... according to Acer, the actual Native resolution of the PH530 is 1280 x 768 (http://global.acer.com/products/projector/spec_projector_home.htm).

I thought I would make you guys aware of that... also, this could be the issue we are having with 1:1 via VGA on the 360??

Hmmm.... anyone else knew this?

Those specs have to do with Acer worldwide but not "Acer USA" which has different specs here in the US , I have a friend who is an international distributor and sales rep for Acer and I was given the proper specs in am e-mail he sent me.
Remember these are the specs here in the united states.

Light Valve - Single Chip DLP ® Technology by Texas Instruments
Lamp - 200W User Replaceable Lamp
Number of Pixels - 1280 pixels(H) X 720 lines(V)
Displayable Color - 16.7M colors
Contrast Ratio - 2500:1 (Full On/Full Off)
Uniformity - 90%
Noise Level - 31dB(A)(standard mode/28dB(A)(ECO mode)
Projection Lens - F/2.5~2.8 f=22.29~26.72mm with 1.2X Manual zoom
lens
Projection Screen Size (Diag.) - 28.7 to 300 inches Diagonal
Projection Distance - 3.94 to 34.28 feet (1.2 to10.45 meters)
Video Compatibility - NTSC 3.58/NTSC 4.43/PAL/SECAM and HDTV
compatible
- Composite video & S-Video capability
H. Frequency - 31.5kHz~100kHz horizontal scan
V. Frequency - 56Hz~85Hz vertical refresh
Power Supply - Universal AC input 100-240V; Input Frequency
50/60Hz
I/O Connectors - Power: AC power input socket
- One 15-pin D-sub for VGA
- One HDMI input for digital video input
- Video Input:
 One Composite video RCA input
 One S-Video input
 One set (3 RCA) of component input
- USB:One USB connector
Weight - 6.0bs (2.7kg)
Dimensions (W x H x D) - 11.1 x 4.1 x 10.1 inches (283 x 104 x 256 mm)
Environmental - Operating Temperature: 41~95oF (5~ 35oC)
Humidity: 80% maximum (Non-condensing)
- Storage Temperature: -4~140oF (-20~60oC)
Humidity: 80% maximum (Non-condensing)
Safety Regulation - FCC Class B, CE Class B, VCCI-II, UL, cUL, TUV-GS,
C-tick, PSB, PSE, CB Report, CCC. :rolleyes:

It's weird, It'll show the SD picture for like .5 seconds if I go from HD to it, and then when it goes to switch resolutions that when the SD picture never comes back

Feedback please:

These settings are with Econo mode OFF and ECO ON looks good to. Good with ambient light also.
Sharpness 14

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It's weird, It'll show the SD picture for like .5 seconds if I go from HD to it, and then when it goes to switch resolutions that when the SD picture never comes back

Haven't found a fix yet other than switching it to the component cables.. I actually prefer the component because with the HDMI i can see squigly lines on the top of the screen..

Mine does not do that. Have you tried another hdmi cable? I read somewhere else that somebody had problems with hdmi and tried another hdmi cable and problem solved.

* My proj started having to resync everytime I changed the channel. Then I started trying to play dvd with laptop then xbox via vga and now my proj does Not do it anymore. It only sync's when I goto espn/espnhd b/c that channel is 720p or maybe its upconverting it. I'll take that any day and Im liking those settings I posted above also, bright but good color also. Sure they can be tweaked a little but a very good base.
Great picture for $600 proj. I spent $850 for my benq pb6100 and this beats that!
I give the PH530 4.5 stars out of 5 and for $600 I give it 5 out of 5 stars! You will not find anything better for the price.
It is plenty bright especially with my settings. I love the pop of HD. Even when SD is broadcasted good it has that HD look. Impressive!

?What are you guys doing when you have cable box hdmi and dvd player hdmi also.?
Using a A/B hdmi switch or whats your solution?
Thanks

I use a switching receiver.

?What are you guys doing when you have cable box hdmi and dvd player hdmi also.?
Using a A/B hdmi switch or whats your solution?
Thanks

You'll either have to have an HDMI switching capable receiver, or an external HDMI switcher like the a/b one you describe.

ok so hear is what i did for the 720p setting for x360 . as some of u know the screen is way to the left with vga cable at 720p display setting.. so what i did was shift the h setting all the way to the right .. and for now seems to work.. i dont see any problem with the PQ as of yet at that setting.. played a dvd in the hddvd player.. and GOW looked fine too.. so for now i will leave it at that unless anyone has another idea for that setting.. also let me know the diff between 1.1 and 16:9 setting what is better.. i have hd dvr set up with component cable at 720p.. looks great.. this ph530 smokes my old benq pb6100...

Feedback please:

These settings are with Econo mode OFF and ECO ON looks good to. Good with ambient light also.
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That setting has too much brightness and the picture has a whte haze with it, You might get a better picture if you used a setup disc and if you don't have one then use the THX setup feature on any THX dvd like any startwars or terminator 2 etc.

ok so hear is what i did for the 720p setting for x360 . as some of u know the screen is way to the left with vga cable at 720p display setting.. so what i did was shift the h setting all the way to the right .. and for now seems to work.. i dont see any problem with the PQ as of yet at that setting.. played a dvd in the hddvd player.. and GOW looked fine too.. so for now i will leave it at that unless anyone has another idea for that setting.. also let me know the diff between 1.1 and 16:9 setting what is better.. i have hd dvr set up with component cable at 720p.. looks great.. this ph530 smokes my old benq pb6100...

Did you try putting the settings at 1920x1080.. That's what fixed it for me...

Hey Lou-

It really does look good on my setup. maybe its my screen, using a DIY screen I made or maybe my digital signal is cleaner. I do work for Cox Communications and I have one of the best signals. :) Im picky and it looks darn good, even with ambient light. I will run the setup disk again through my HTPC. I dont see the white haze, HD just pops and looks 3D. I use a Cox DVR for SD and HD viewing.

I have yet to find a DVD player that beats a HTPC.

I even adjusted my HTPC settings so that might not be a good way to check with AVIA. It had saturation and contrast all the way up, lol. Over the years I realize that projectors can do there best with the best/cleanest signal available. Crap in Crap out, Quality in Quality out.

If you have the PH530 I would be interested in your settings also. or tweaking these. I would like to get a red, green, blue filters also to adjust it perfectly.
Thanks for looking at them and your time.

Hey Lou-

It really does look good on my setup. maybe its my screen, using a DIY screen I made or maybe my digital signal is cleaner. I do work for Cox Communications and I have one of the best signals. :) Im picky and it looks darn good, even with ambient light. I will run the setup disk again through my HTPC. I dont see the white haze, HD just pops and looks 3D. I use a Cox DVR for SD and HD viewing.

I have yet to find a DVD player that beats a HTPC.

I even adjusted my HTPC settings so that might not be a good way to check with AVIA. It had saturation and contrast all the way up, lol. Over the years I realize that projectors can do there best with the best/cleanest signal available. Crap in Crap out, Quality in Quality out.

If you have the PH530 I would be interested in your settings also. or tweaking these. I would like to get a red, green, blue filters also to adjust it perfectly.
Thanks for looking at them and your time.


Well my gear source is an Oppo 980h and a toshiba HD-DVD so in no way am I using a crappy dvd player, And I do have a dvd drive in my PC and my players are much cleaner than any dvd drive.
I also have an external scaler for my dvr and hd sat and have 12 years of experience in the home theater calibration and installation of home theater systems.

hey Lou- Sorry if my post sounded wrong, Im not talking smack.

*Thanks for feedback on my settings so I can make more adjustments.

I was looking at the Oppo 980H dvd player, I read that DV-400 has same chip but Oppo worked it better in architecture and settings.

You compared Oppo to HTPC and Oppo throws better image, Wow, Im serious thats a great image. I was staying away from Oppo bc of the stuff I read, loud sound spinning drive, some other issues, but maybe I will have to try one.

isnt Oppo upscaling image to 1080i, I know it can do 1080p but read 1080i is better. Im just trying to get the best image for dvd playback and thought I found it with HTPC.

What screen you using?

hey Lou- Sorry if my post sounded wrong, Im not talking smack.

*Thanks for feedback on my settings so I can make more adjustments.

I was looking at the Oppo 980H dvd player, I read that DV-400 has same chip but Oppo worked it better in architecture and settings.

You compared Oppo to HTPC and Oppo throws better image, Wow, Im serious thats a great image. I was staying away from Oppo bc of the stuff I read, loud sound spinning drive, some other issues, but maybe I will have to try one.

isnt Oppo upscaling image to 1080i, I know it can do 1080p but read 1080i is better. Im just trying to get the best image for dvd playback and thought I found it with HTPC.

What screen you using?

Get the Oppo. You won't regret it. Any "problems" your hearing about are few and far between. Also, like any other piece of complicated electronic equipment, everything has it's quirks. Oppo has unprecidented customer service and are very fast and helpful. They are constantly working on updating their products for the best interests of the consumer.
As far as the upscaling, it depends on the display. For the PH530, you could just try 720p, 1080i, and 1080p and see whcih one looks best. Whatever the outcome, it will be the best pic you can get without actually being HD.

Isnt Oppo upscaling image to 1080i, I know it can do 1080p but read 1080i is better. Im just trying to get the best image for dvd playback and thought I found it with HTPC

I like using the oppo at 1080i out of preference since using 720p is a bit too soft for me and it looks really good at 1080i .

What screen you using?

Believe it or not I am using a Draper V screen with a screen gain of 1 and I got it for under $50.00 at a closeout sale on line at The link below ,
These screens work very well with dlps and are low cost and they come with a 5 year warranty which is really cool.

http://www.schooloutfitters.com/catalog/product_family_info/cPath/CAT1_CAT20/pfam_id/PFAM1680

I was playing around with settings again. I might like these better, little more richer but dark scenes need some work still.
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**Oppo does sound like the way to go. Once I get more cash I will get one and compare it to my setup.

the disk that comes with the acer has a program that you can make your own start up screen.. but i cant find any pis on the web the look good for this.. any idea's i found some dulescreen wallpaper but they still look chopy once imported to the program.. so how do i get a higher rez pic for this .. if anyone knows .. also i posted last that 720p with vga out of 360 was to the left of the screen .. well i moved the h shift to the left to fix it , but once the acer is turned off the setting gos back.. so know i just put the setting to the next one up from 720 to the 768 setting and will use that for now ..also can any one tell me the diff. between 16:9 and 1.1 setting some times in 1.1 sdvd's show up small almost like 4:3.. but i had people over for the packer game yesterday and they were blown away by the PQ in hd.. so that was good .. and then we watched 300 and knocked up.. im glad i got this ph530 it does a great job for the price i think...

the disk that comes with the acer has a program that you can make your own start up screen.. but i cant find any pis on the web the look good for this.. any idea's i found some dulescreen wallpaper but they still look chopy once imported to the program.. so how do i get a higher rez pic for this .. if anyone knows ..
I replaced my startup screen with a custom slide from a pre-movie slide set that I have. There's pretty limited space in the projector that you have for the startup screen. Instead of lowering the resolution when importing your graphic, reduce the size. You can also reduce the bit depth of a graphic from 24bit (16.7 million colors) to 8bit (256 colors), which can save you some space and let you make the graphic larger without reducing resolution.

I wouldn't sweat it too much over getting a really elaborate graphic in the startup screen-- it's only visible for a few seconds while the projector warms up.

i had people over for the packer game yesterday Hmm-- maybe I'll replace my startup with the Packer's logo (we're Packer fans) for football season-- I'm surrounded by Bears.

I was playing around with settings again. I might like these better, little more richer but dark scenes need some work still.
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**Oppo does sound like the way to go. Once I get more cash I will get one and compare it to my setup.
I have an Oppo 971 for sale. Excellent condition. PM if you want it.


EDIT:

Great news guys! Art just emailed me and he is ready to move forward with the review of the projector. Everyone who sent a few bucks my way to assist with the shipping was refunded their money (2) days ago. I did this because I couldnt reach Art and I didnt want to hold on to anyone's money.

Well, guys I need you to send that money right back over. Also, Art is going to cover the return shipping on the unit so we only have to worry about the 1-way shipping cost which is roughly $60 with insurance.

Those of you who have already sent funds, know my paypal ID. Anyone else who wants to help out with a few bucks, PM me for my Paypal ID.

Best wishes and props to Art!

I was playing around with settings again. I might like these better, little more richer but dark scenes need some work still.
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**Oppo does sound like the way to go. Once I get more cash I will get one and compare it to my setup.

These are very different from Venk's, which I'm currently using. What are you guys using?

Money Sent :)

I have to say for $600 this projector is not perfect but can compete against more exspensive ones. I just happy to have a better picture than my benq pb6100. I appreciate everyones feedback in helping find the best settings. After looking at the picture time and time again, your eyes start getting tired, thats why we will find the best as a team.
Kudos!

Money Sent :)

ditto :)

Will re-send :D money tonight.

Will re-send :D money tonight.

money sent...

Thanks to all the guys who sent in funds for this endeavor. I will be shipping out the projector on Monday of next week... (need it this weekend for family)... Art says that he will have it back to me within a week so that means we could have our review by the end of next week. This is good news.

I am still approx. $30 away from cost of shipping... so any other generous souls out there want to donate, feel free to PM me.

EDIT:

Sproket, you've been a busy little bee on those Review sites for this projector, I see. :) This little thing needs all the exposure it can get!

I have been asked by some members to share my techniques , First of all I want to point out that all displays differ according to room size types of screens and ambient lighting conditions and sizes of different types of screens.
The color bars are the most important setup tool available for Any display , it tells you when the contrast is set too high and the and when brightness is setup properly.
Use your projectors controls to adjust brightness and contrast.
The long bars should be gray, yellow, cyan, green, magenta, red, and blue.
While a thin gray frame surrounds the outside perimeter of the bars,
the transition from one bar to another should be sharp with no intermediary colors.

Pay special attention to the various levels of gray below the red bar.
You should see three distinct shades of gray there.
If, however, your system limits available colors, these shades of gray may not show.

The background of the screen should be deep black, not dark gray.
This text should be white.

Keep your lens free of dust and smoke.
In fact, you should clean off the dust right now, even before touching the controls.

Re–adjust it regularly. Whenever the ambient light changes, your display is no longer adjusted properly.
I have C&P this text from a video calibration manual to help you get familiar with calibrating your display properly for those of you who don't have a setup disc like Avia or Video essentials.
I am also adding some test pattern pictures so you can familiarize yourselves with proper setup of your display , even if it is for a crt display the color bars and sharp charts and pictures are very impotant tools for the home theater.
Please feel free to add any comments or anything I might have missed.

Calibration and Adjustment
Before making any brightness level or color correction adjustments to your videos using filters included with Vegas Video, it is important to first calibrate any external monitor you are using to view adjustments, plus any televisions your videos will be played off of. While the best method is to use a color bar generator and other expensive equipment, that method is beyond the reach of most hobbyists. So the following information is presented to assist you on how to proceed manually adjusting your television's white and black levels, test sharpness and adjust color intensity and hue. While somewhat technical, do not skip over this tutorial if you wish to make the best possible adjustments to your videos. Vegas Video comes with several test patterns including SMPTE Color Bars. This tutorial includes some other test patterns including the EIA #1956 sharpness test pattern.

How To Best Take Advantage of the Preview window
Normally the preview window is displayed in the lower right corner. By clicking on the thin gray vertical line to the left of the preview window while holding down your left mouse button the preview window becomes undocked and can be dragged elsewhere and also resized. If you have a two monitor setup the preview window can be dragged to the second monitor. This is not the preferred method for video editing when working with FX filters adjusting levels and colors. The best method is to display the preview window on a external NTSC monitor (in the U. S.) or if you're on a budget, any small TV that has video-in capability. This allows you to see in real time* how your video will play off a television which is important for brightness levels and color adjustments. To have the preview display off an external monitor you'll need either a digital camera with a firewire (IEEE 1394) connector or a device that takes the place of the camera. Vegas Video online help and the full manual gives specifics for setting up an external monitor.

*Real time previewing on any external monitor is influenced by the power of your CPU, how many tracks you have set up, and by the type and duration of transitions, overlays and other more complex features. Some jerkiness and hesitation in the preview window is normal with the frame rate dropping substantially at times. Faster playback can be achieved by changing the playback quality to preview. This has no effect on the rendered quality of your finished video.

Many things effect how we perceive color. This series of tutorials isn't about the finer points of color theory, many books have been written to cover that topic. As you probably know, no two people see colors the same way. Nothing we can do about that, but we can have some basis to begin at before we start making adjustments to our videos. Several things effect how colors are displayed on television sets and computer monitors. The first thing you should be aware of is televisions and computer monitors display colors differently. Depending on where you live there are two main standards. In the United States there is the NTSC standard, most everywhere else they use the PAL standard. The picture tube phosphors for the NTSC world is STMPTE-C, while in the PAL universe the phosphors are EBU. You should also keep in mind that all televisions and computer monitors display darker and darker pictures as they age. While the changes are very gradual, if you do a lot of video work you may want to consider replacing your external monitor every couple years or so, especially if you can no longer achieve proper white balance explained below.

This and the next several paragraphs revolve around a simple yet very important question; how white is white, how black is black? If you're hardware isn't set to show whites and blacks properly without any distortion or unwanted shading, any attempt to make accurate color corrections to your videos is nearly impossible which is why proper calibration is so important.

Everyone knows when you take photographs or shoot video outdoors, colors look 'different' then they do indoors under artificial lighting, noticeably so in skin tones for example. Under certain lighting conditions colors look more bluish (cooler) or yellowish and warmer. You knew all that. What you may not have known is in an effort to make television pictures brighter, many television sets straight from the factory have a white point of 9300K (Kelvin) or higher while the broadcast standard is only 6500K. Your computer monitor may have yet another color temperature setting, a good reason why you don't want to adjust your video colors and brightness levels by looking directly at your computer monitor, because in part the default color temperature probably isn't 6500K, so if it isn't it will cause all your video colors to be distorted if you adjust off your computer monitor which is why you're much better off using an external monitor to make such adjustments, but only after said monitor is properly calibrated which this tutorial is all about.

Be aware that grabbing just any old color bar chart from the hundreds of web sites that offer them can get you in trouble. Even if they say they are SMPTE NTSC or SMPTE PAL, many are inaccurate. Vegas Video includes several color bar and other test images calibrated to be used with their DV codec. Their NTSC version is the second chart below.

This Color Bar has 100% saturation. It was offered on a web site as a SMPTE color bar chart. It is shown here along with an actual SMPTE color bar chart below so you can see the differences in the saturation of the colors. Do not use this chart to calibrate your TV!

Channel Gray Yellow Cyan Green Magen Red Blue
Red 127 255 000 000 255 255 000
Green 127 255 255 255 000 000 000
Blue 127 000 255 000 255 000 255



This Color Bar is the Vegas Video SMPTE version for NTSC. To meet SMPTE standards (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) the color bars are set at 75% saturation and reflect the following values shown in the table below. The letters and numbers on the chart won't show on your file copy and are for reference purposes in the adjustment steps that follow. Why not use the brighter bars? Chrominance amplitudes with 100% bars can cause distortions and they violate NTSC transmission standards.

Channel Gray Yellow Cyan Green Magen Red Blue
Red 180 180 016 016 180 180 016
Green 180 180 180 180 016 016 180
Blue 180 016 180 016 180 016 180

Step #1 Setting White Level
Before making this adjustment or any that follow, check the room environment changing the ambient lighting to what you normally have for television viewing. Do not begin until your TV has warmed up for at least twenty minutes to allow components to stabilize. Do not have a freeze frame on the television while waiting for the set to warm up or you may risk burning in the image. This adjustment uses your television's contrast or picture control. Too low a setting results in a dim picture. Too high a setting distorts image with a loss of detail. Many people have this control set too high out of habit or to compensate for viewing television in a overly bright room.

The image at the left is comprised of two rectangles, the outer is absolute black, RGB value 0,0,0, the inner is set to SMPTE white, 235,235,235. You can also use Vegas Video's test patterns; White Porches, Pluge and Porches and Ramp. which are under the Text/Backgrounds tab under test patterns for this adjustment and the one that follows.

If your TV is relatively new this adjustment is simple to make. As your TV ages it gets more difficult because you'll need to increase the brightness which tends to distort the picture tube beams preventing them from staying in sharp focus. Your goal in this step is to use your TV's contrast or picture control to get the inner rectangle as white as possible while keeping the outer rectangle pure black. You want BLACK. Not a shade of gray. Avoid introducing any distortion or blooming which can happen if you set the contrast or picture control too high. What you want to avoid is seeing any vertical dirty white bar beginning to appear at the edges where the white inner rectangle meets the black nor do you want to see any out of square distortions. If you see any glowing or halos around the inner rectangle or some bleeding of the white into the black outer rectangle, then the contrast/picture adjustment control is set too high and you should reduce it until it the distortion disappears.

Step #2 Setting Black Level
This is a close-up of the lower right corner of the three vertical bars shown in the SMPTE NTSC color chart with the labels -4,0,+4. It it often called PLUGE, an acronym for Picture Line-Up Generating Equipment. If you look closely you'll see there are actually three distinct bars. They are used to properly set black level more commonly called the brightness control, a confusing name for this control considering the black level should not be adjusted to effect overall light output, what many people wrongly use it for. Rather its purpose is to set proper black level. Setting the black level too high results in a washed out image, setting too low results in a loss of detail.

When black level is set correctly you should not see any difference between the first two blocks labeled ,-4 and 0 on the SMPTE chart above with them both appearing to be the same shade of black. Only the rightmost block labeled +4, should appear just slightly lighter in shade than the other two blocks, just being barely visible. You can also use the test pattern labeled Pluge and Porches.

This is a gray chip chart. Once you set white and black points in the previous two steps look for any color cast. Next look very closely at the horizontal bar than runs across the middle of the chart. You should be able to see six 5% gray (very dark) "zebra stripes". Readjust brightness very slightly (if needed) until the stripes just disappear, then adjust again in the opposite direction until they just reappear. Alternate with tweaking white and black point settings very slightly using the other test patterns. This is as close as you probably can get to proper white and black levels without using expensive test equipment.





Note: If your television previously had improperly set white and black points you'll need to resist restoring them to what they were. After a few days, maybe up to a week your eyes should be get use to viewing at correct settings. If you can't achieve proper white and black points without distorting the picture, you may need to have your TV serviced. A common problem is improper convergence which prevents the red, green and blue electron beams in the picture tube illuminating the TV screen's phosphors correctly. A symptom your picture tube is showing its age or is badly out of convergence or something is amiss in some of its circuitry is bluish whites, greenish grays and reddish blacks that can't be removed.

Step #3 Adjusting Sharpness

After making the white and black level adjustments use this test pattern or a similar one to adjust sharpness. This control is sometimes labeled peaking, focus or detail. Many people think the higher the setting, the sharper the picture. Wrong! For most televisions the control more likely will be between a third of the way and a little past half way to maximum. If you set it higher you'll introduce video noise, distortion and shadowing resulting in a picture that is actually more blurry. Set too low you'll lose detail. To make doing this adjustment easier, first reduce color saturation to minimum settings. Most modern televisions display a value on screen. Record the value so you can restore it later.

Adjust sharpness by placing the control near its minimum settings to begin with. Note the pattern of wedges, three patterns of lines each at the top, bottom, left and right coming out from the smaller inner square at the center of the test pattern. Adjust sharpness to obtain the best overall image while looking at the entire test pattern and the most sharpness, separation and equal brightness of the wedges. As you begin to increase the sharpness control, likely at some point it will begin to distort the lines in the wedges and in the squares containing alternating thin white and black bars towards the ends of the chart in the medium gray area. Set too high the black lines in the wedges will begin to develop white outlines or shadows. Set too low the dark lines will become more blurry. The correct point is where neither effect is overpowering. Do not except to be able to clearly see the numbers or separation between the bars on your television as well as you do off the fairly high resolution image included on the web site.

Like changing white and black points, it may take up to a week or so for your eyes to readjust to the change. Once your eyes adjust, you should begin to see more subtle details especially in shadow regions.

Step #4 Adjusting Color Intensity
Now that you have adjusted white and black levels and sharpness you can proceed to setting color balance. If you skipped over the first three adjustments. Stop. Do not make the following adjustments without first setting proper white and black levels or adjusting sharpness! Restore the color intensity control to its previous setting as mentioned in the previous step.

The best way to adjust colors is to remove all traces of Red and Green generated by your TV by shutting off those two guns located in the neck of the picture tube if you have a CRT type television. Some more expensive televisions and most all true NTSC monitors have a blue switch either located at the front or back of the monitor that allows you to do this. Newer plasma type televisions and LED monitors obviously don't have CRT guns due to the design.

Most regular consumer grade televisions don't have a blue switch. Therefore you need an alternative method to adjust color intensity and hue. The best is to view the screen through a blue filter so you can properly adjust using the SMPTE color bars. If you television has a tint control that allows fine tuning of skin tones disable it. Larger photo supply stores should have the required blue filter or one can be obtained from various web sources. What you'll need is either a Wratten 47B Blue or a Rosco's #80 primary blue filter. The latter seems easier to find on the web and is generally less expensive. With luck you should be able to purchase just a single sheet for around $6 U.S. You hold it up to your eyes and view through it to make the following adjustments. Your goal is to have the color bar chart appear as show with only blue and black vertical bars when viewed through either filter described above.

We'll adjust color intensity first. Closely study the large SMPTE Color Bar Chart that has the keys, A, B, C, D. In the next steps the bars are also referenced by their relative position on the chart. The first is bar one, the next is bar two and so on through bar 7. The same applies to the blocks sometimes called chips which are immediately below the bars. Note the first bar at the extreme left (bar one) and the smaller block immediately underneath it, (block one) references A and B on the SMPTE Color Bar Chart demo, along with references C (bar 7) and D (block 7) on the right side of the chart. These are used to set color intensity.

When the SMPTE Color Bar chart is generated on a television and viewed with only the blue CRT gun on or when viewed through the correct type of blue filter, the intensity of bar A and block B along with bar C and block D should be the same or as close as you can make it. The smaller image of the SMPTE color bar chart (blue and black only) shows how the bars and blocks appear to merge into one solid area with only a tiny whitish line separating the bar and block. Do not confuse the bottom row starting with a darker blue block with this adjustment and only look at the the outer bars and blocks. Refer to the larger SMPTE color bar chart to see how it appeared as three rows prior to turning the blue switch on (if your TV has one) or looking through a blue filter.

Step #5 Adjusting Color Hue
To adjust hue, look at the two inner bars; Cyan and Magenta (bars 3 and 5) and the blocks immediately underneath them. Make very minor tweak if necessary to have bar 3 and block 3 plus bar 5 and block 5 at the same intensity. Again there will be a thin whitish line separating the bars from the blocks.

Alternative Hue Adjustment Without Blue Filter
If you can't obtain a proper blue filter you can still adjust off the Red bar on the SMPTE color bar chart. While less accurate, you can still adjust for obvious errors. Note the shades of blue on the outer blocks (-I) and (Q). If the red bar is over saturated usually some of the red will 'bleed' causing a little red to show up in either block -I or Q. A minor adjustment of color intensity should remove it.

Summary
Calibration sounds more complex in the explaining then the actual process is. After reading through this you may be a little skeptical if it is really worth the bother. I assure you it is, and encourage you to give it a try. While there are several DVD packages available that include more tests and better quality test patterns, you can make your own test video using the test patterns included with Vegas Video (under Text/Backgrounds, test pattern) and copying the white level, gray chip and EIA #1956 resolution charts so obtain different ones off the web. All that's necessary is making a small video using Vegas Video or Video Factory (of course) and dropping the appropriate charts on the timeline stretching them out so they appear long enough on screen for you to hit the pause button on your remote when you're actually doing the calibration so maybe you can display the attached pictures via vga cable to the projectors display.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT2t3ye3m9s

http://www.real-time-vision.com/background/smpte_colour_bar_pattern.shtml



http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

Wow, so what are your settings?

Also, what should I use to clean off the lens without damaging it?

Sproket, you've been a busy little bee on those Review sites for this projector, I see. :) This little thing needs all the exposure it can get!

Re-sent money.

Where has Sproket been posting?

Wow,

Also, what should I use to clean off the lens without damaging it?

I use a dried out baby wipe cloth because it will clean the lens without leaving a residue, just make sure you clean the outside of the lens and not the insie since you may damage it trying to open the projector.
As for my settings what works for me might be off for you, just set the contrast so the whites are not too white that it will make the image washed out , and set the brightness so the surrounding black background is an even black and not dark grey.

Lou, how would you compare the PH530 to your past projector(s)?

That's quite a process you have for calibration. Do I miss my guess that you might be in the video production industry? Given your expertise, are you seeing any of the color inaccuracy (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11628252#post11628252) mentioned by tattootearz either post or pre-calibration? How well did the PH530 fare post-calibration? Would you say pretty good grayscale tracking? Any green push?

Have you by chance seen any of the competing models, like the HD70 or Mits HD1000u/1500 or any 720p LCDs?

Thanks for your help.

Lou, how would you compare the PH530 to your past projector(s)?

That's quite a process you have for calibration. Do I miss my guess that you might be in the video production industry? Given your expertise, are you seeing any of the color inaccuracy (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11628252#post11628252) mentioned by tattootearz either post or pre-calibration? How well did the PH530 fare post-calibration? Would you say pretty good grayscale tracking? Any green push?

Have you by chance seen any of the competing models, like the HD70 or Mits HD1000u/1500 or any 720p LCDs?

Thanks for your help.

Most of my knowledge comes from reading, research and hands on installations and calibrations, as for the green push it is more noticable with an hdmi connection than with component video cables with this projector.
The reason I purchased this unit was because I got tired of lcd projector's lousy panel discoloration and the ever present high cost of replacement lamps like in focus and optima , epson and panasonic projectors I have owned , Plus I am just like others here looking for a low cost unit that works well for a good price until some 1080p units drop in price and are beyond reach because 2,000-3,000 is a bit high for me now.
The optima was going to be my first choice or the mits but when my epson started to act up I needed a fast replacement and the Acer was on sale so I purchase it, The discoloration was a bit annoying but to my eye it was easy to tweak and fix for me since I have been into home theaters since 1995 and it is one of my passions.

Thanks Lou- for posting a good how to for us!

Originally Posted by tattootearz
Sproket, you've been a busy little bee on those Review sites for this projector, I see. This little thing needs all the exposure it can get!

I just posted positive info on this nice projector b/c it deserves it.
I have 30 days to make this work for me and so far its better than my pb6100 so Im happy.
Gotta love the cheap price and cheaper bulbs.
Projectorcentral had only one review and that is a site I really use and like.
and the other is tiger.
Yes it does need more exposure!! So post away guys. Always nice to share your settings in posting also. Although I have tweak mine even more.
*Instead of posting new settings all the time i will just edit my settings post with what Im using and what works best for me. Just edited them also.

Hopefully ART will have a favorite setting he likes for this projector and share also.
* If you have helped with shipping Cost please do! I look foward to this review.

I had some issues running my HD-A1 HD DVD Player at 720p over HDMI. It looked like there was no aliasing at all on the picture. Every edge had very obvious and very bad jaggies. I noticed this in "The Last Starfighter", "Knocked Up", and a couple of other movies. When I switched to 1080i, all was right with the world. I have the latest firmware for the A1. Considering this a 720p native projector, I have to assume the problem is with the A1 itself and the Acer.

My Xbox 360 is set to 720p and I haven't noticed any issues other than Halo 3, which is naturally jaggy. I'll set my 360 to 1080i tonight and see if that makes a difference at all.

Anyone experience any issues with a hd dvd player and 720p output? Thanks.

I'm looking at this projector as a temporary until my room is setup. How big of an image are you guys projecting?

I was planning on a 120" wide screen for my SMX screen, but if that isn't possible, I'll probably just pass.

My room is approximately 14'W X 20'L and is completely light controlled.

Thanks,
Tommy

I had some issues running my HD-A1 HD DVD Player at 720p over HDMI. It looked like there was no aliasing at all on the picture. Every edge had very obvious and very bad jaggies. I noticed this in "The Last Starfighter", "Knocked Up", and a couple of other movies. When I switched to 1080i, all was right with the world. I have the latest firmware for the A1. Considering this a 720p native projector, I have to assume the problem is with the A1 itself and the Acer.

My Xbox 360 is set to 720p and I haven't noticed any issues other than Halo 3, which is naturally jaggy. I'll set my 360 to 1080i tonight and see if that makes a difference at all.

Anyone experience any issues with a hd dvd player and 720p output? Thanks.Are you using any keystoning? Not sure why that would be different at 720p vs 1080i, though.

There is some question whether this is a 720p native PJ or 1280x768. In that case, scaling (if it scaled and didn't map 1:1) 720 to 768 would look much worse than scaling 1080i to 768. A windows desktop might answer this question in a hurry.

No Keystoning or Zoom settings of any kind on this guy. I posted this also in the A1 thread in the HD Players section so hopefully one of those guys can chime in.

I got my ph530 a week ago, after buying it on newegg (tigerdirect were out of stock the day I ordered).
yesterday finaly the draper consul (portable screen on a tripod) 90" 4:3 matt white 1.0 gain arrived ($98 shipped). I am VERY satisfied with the pj and screen combo.
the screen is a huge improvement over the grey wall I used for a few days. on the wall I could see rainbows when blinking, on the draper screen on the other hand, it seems like the rainbows are gone for good.
thank you Lou, for recommending draper so much. I'm using the ace via AMC 25' dvi-to-hdmi cable from a geforce8800gts640mb as source, projecting on the sceen when its open 3/4 way, to make 16:9 screen ratio, which comes out aprox 82" diagonal size, 70x43".

I fiddled with the video settings on the ace alot to get good color accuracy, by vision at least. after a week the settings I find best (via hdmi from pc, in a dark room) are:

eco mode off
brightness 80
contrast 52
color temp = 0
white segment = 4
degamma = 4
sharpness = 15
r = 95
g = 99
b = 100
1:1 mapping (source pc sends 720p@60hz)
RGB

working in computer mode rgb, so theres no control over tint/saturation both are set at 50.
with these settings red, green and blue are extremely well defined (all colors are), gray and black tones seperation is AWESOME (better than my LCD). for me these settings provide amazingly good performence, as well as extra detail in dark scenes. watching high quality source material such as dvd's and HD content is breathtaking. BF2142 @ 720p @ 82" is unbelievable. I enjoy using the ace more than my hanns g 28" 3ms 1920x1200 native, 1080p compatible lcd, which is truly nice for gaming. I shall post "screenshots" in a few days.

.

There is some question whether this is a 720p native PJ or 1280x768. In that case, scaling (if it scaled and didn't map 1:1) 720 to 768 would look much worse than scaling 1080i to 768. A windows desktop might answer this question in a hurry.

I can attest that it is truly a 720p projector and not 768 , I have inside info from an Acer employee and distributor and he has assured me the "Ace"
is truly a 720p.
Overseas there is a japanese version of the same unit and it is 1024x768 native resolution , for some reason some companies do this like Acer, Panasonic and others do the same practice wehere their american products differ from japanese versions.

hypez604-

Are you running TV content through PC or is this just your settings for DVD, gaming, and download playback?

Curious about your hdmi settings for TV viewing also.
Thanks

For those interested, my projector was shipped off to Art at Projector Reviews (http://www.projectorreviews.com/) this morning for an in-depth review, which will be posted on his website soon afterwards! :D

I'm looking at this projector as a temporary until my room is setup. How big of an image are you guys projecting?

I was planning on a 120" wide screen for my SMX screen, but if that isn't possible, I'll probably just pass.

My room is approximately 14'W X 20'L and is completely light controlled.

Thanks,
Tommy

I'm using 106" HP screen in a non-light controlled room and it's great. I would imagine that it would be great in a completely light controlled room at 120"

I also posted this in my DIY screen thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=913563), but I thought I'd also post this pic here to show this projector with a bit of ambient light and being, as of yet, un-calibrated (loaned my Avia disk to my sister).


This is a screen cap with some ambient light (picture lights on behind bar, undercounter lights on behind bar and overhead cans on ap. 20%). I had to prop the camera on the bar to get the photo, which is why it's not on-center. Click on the image to open a larger in a new window (174kb).
http://bar.marvindog.net/img/bp/bbsccpsm.jpg (http://bar.marvindog.net/img/bp/bbscncap.jpg)

Spkroket, from the pc I watch dvds, downloads, and games. I'm getting a directv HD DVR in a few weeks, gonna hook it up through the HDMI as well obviously, I'll post the settings for it when I'll have it

It seems that tiger direct has some open box Acers.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/openbox/openbox_slc.asp?CatId=23&category=Projectors

It's not worth it for a measly $30, to take the 9 month hit on the Warranty. I encourage any and all to buy NEW.

If the Open Box was significantly cheaper, like say... $499... that would be a different story.

GreySkies-

Nice colors better than mine ever looked with TV or should I say HDTV.
What settings are you using?
*****************************************************
My Acer reset it self the other day when I turned it on and brightness has not been the same and now I cant get good fleshtones like before.
It has been RMA'd back to tiger.

I will follow Arts review and maybe pickup another one but for now Im looking at benq w500 very hard and HD1000u.

There is just something about that 7 segment color wheel with a clear segment that causes a lost with colors to give additional brightness.

Im thinking just to stay away from 7 segment wheels all together thats why w500 is on top of list.
My benq pb6100 has been nothing but trouble free but is now outdated needing new bulb.

Im sure the AX-200u provides very nice picture with brightness but they just plain and simply break and have Iris problems, ax-100u!

I look foward to Arts review!

Nice colors better than mine ever looked with TV or should
I say HDTV.
What settings are you using?

I haven't calibrated the HDMI input yet, so that pic is with the out-of-box settings. There's a bit of white crush with the stock settings, but not too bad, and nothing that I won't be able to dial back. It only bugs me in comparison to my dialed-in CRT RP in the family room.

It's not worth it for a measly $30, to take the 9 month hit on the Warranty. I encourage any and all to buy NEW.

If the Open Box was significantly cheaper, like say... $499... that would be a different story.


What a gyp , when i saw the ad it was $499.00 and now it's more , what the hell happened.?.,.?:eek:

GreySkies-

Nice colors better than mine ever looked with TV or should I say HDTV.
What settings are you using?
*****************************************************
My Acer reset it self the other day when I turned it on and brightness has not been the same and now I cant get good fleshtones like before.
It has been RMA'd back to tiger.

I will follow Arts review and maybe pickup another one but for now Im looking at benq w500 very hard and HD1000u.

There is just something about that 7 segment color wheel with a clear segment that causes a lost with colors to give additional brightness.

Im thinking just to stay away from 7 segment wheels all together thats why w500 is on top of list.
My benq pb6100 has been nothing but trouble free but is now outdated needing new bulb.

Im sure the AX-200u provides very nice picture with brightness but they just plain and simply break and have Iris problems, ax-100u!

I look foward to Arts review!

I had to RMA mine back to Tiger after only 5 hours of use. I turned the thing on to work through some calibration settings (thanks to those that have posted) & the picture looked awful. I walked up to my screen & saw the projected image had the "screen-door" effect - I could see the entire pixel grid. It looked worse than VHS on an old CRT TV. Hopefully its just a fluke but it does make me nervous now that someone else has had to RMA one of these projectors & "refurbished" models are already showing up on TD..... The new one shows up today, I better get at least 10 hours out of this one.... :)

I had to RMA mine back to Tiger after only 5 hours of use. I turned the thing on to work through some calibration settings (thanks to those that have posted) & the picture looked awful. I walked up to my screen & saw the projected image had the "screen-door" effect - I could see the entire pixel grid. It looked worse than VHS on an old CRT TV. Hopefully its just a fluke but it does make me nervous now that someone else has had to RMA one of these projectors & "refurbished" models are already showing up on TD..... The new one shows up today, I better get at least 10 hours out of this one.... :)

All digital PJs have screendoor, especially if you walk up to the screen to examine the picture.

What kind of signal were you sending to the Pj and what cable were you using to do it?

SD can look "worse than VHS" on your projector, especially if you are sending the signal through a composite cable.

All digital PJs have screendoor, especially if you walk up to the screen to examine the picture.

What kind of signal were you sending to the Pj and what cable were you using to do it?

SD can look "worse than VHS" on your projector, especially if you are sending the signal through a composite cable.

It was connected to a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player. The input didnt matter though, as soon as the projector started you could see the pixelation in the Acer logo on the screen. Something definitely went wrong cause the picture was beautiful for 5 hours then turned to sxxt. I called Acer support & after explaining the problem was told to RMA it.

It was connected to a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player. The input didnt matter though, as soon as the projector started you could see the pixelation in the Acer logo on the screen. Something definitely went wrong cause the picture was beautiful for 5 hours then turned to sxxt. I called Acer support & after explaining the problem was told to RMA it.

That's bizarre - I would be interested to hear what they say caused that.

That's bizarre - I would be interested to hear what they say caused that.

The person at Acer I spoke to thought it was strange also. I could tell there was a problem as soon as it started - it wasnt like I got halfway through a DVD & started to notice, it went from real good to real bad. Seeing refurbished units for sale & hearing of other people having RMA theirs makes me nervous. Too bad, this thing really does look good when connected to a HD source. I watched the Matrix Trilogy in HD & the clarity w/o any calibration was fantastic - you can see pores in peoples faces & other little details that would not be seen with standard DVD on a TV.

The person at Acer I spoke to thought it was strange also. I could tell there was a problem as soon as it started - it wasnt like I got halfway through a DVD & started to notice, it went from real good to real bad. Seeing refurbished units for sale & hearing of other people having RMA theirs makes me nervous. Too bad, this thing really does look good when connected to a HD source. I watched the Matrix Trilogy in HD & the clarity w/o any calibration was fantastic - you can see pores in peoples faces & other little details that would not be seen with standard DVD on a TV.

That sounds like a faulty cable to me, I had a cable go bad on me before and the symptoms were the same, pixelation , jagged edges and discoloration caused by a loose connectin and one of the wires had been severed from one of the contacts which was a crappy monster hdmi cable which I replaced with a monoprice cable and the problem went away .
So I Always look at All possibilities before giving up on a piece of gear...:rolleyes:

That sounds like a faulty cable to me, I had a cable go bad on me before and the symptoms were the same, pixelation , jagged edges and discoloration caused by a loose connectin and one of the wires had been severed from one of the contacts which was a crappy monster hdmi cable which I replaced with a monoprice cable and the problem went away .
So I Always look at All possibilities before giving up on a piece of gear...:rolleyes:

With NOTHING connected to the projector, I could tell the image had major problems just by seeing the Acer logo. I did try other cables & components anyway, just to eliminate any doubt.

....I look foward to Arts review!
I was just informed that Art now has the Acer in his possession. He's has had it since 11am yesterday.... :D

I'm really anxious to see his verdict on this projector.

I was just informed that Art now has the Acer in his possession... ...I'm really anxious to see his verdict on this projector.

Ditto

Received my replacement PH530 from TD last night. The problem I had with the last projector doesn't exist with the new one. But.... there are 3 hazy white circles about the size of softballs displayed on the screen. They show up big time in dark scenes. I did some research & discovered this is usually caused by dust on the optics. Apparently if you can zoom in & sharpen up these "blobs" its a dust issue. Other people have taken their projectors partially apart & cleaned out the optics with small shot of compressed air. Has anyone ever done this before? If I cant solve this relatively easily, I will have to RMA a 2nd PH530 back to TD.... uuuhhhggg.

I punched in Venk's settings and it looks very nice! Just got my screen up last night, its a Wilsonart DW 61x108 in a completely dark room. Anybody else with the same conditions?

Received my replacement PH530 from TD last night. The problem I had with the last projector doesn't exist with the new one. But.... there are 3 hazy white circles about the size of softballs displayed on the screen. They show up big time in dark scenes. I did some research & discovered this is usually caused by dust on the optics. Apparently if you can zoom in & sharpen up these "blobs" its a dust issue. Other people have taken their projectors partially apart & cleaned out the optics with small shot of compressed air. Has anyone ever done this before? If I cant solve this relatively easily, I will have to RMA a 2nd PH530 back to TD.... uuuhhhggg.


Wow talk about bad luck! *Knocking on wood*

That's an easy fix , get the compressed air and just give it a couple of blasts of air To the lens ONLY not into the projector , if not then return it for another.

Do not... I REPEAT, do NOT use Compressed Air on a Projector!

Lou, I do not mean to cut across you on this and normally your advice is spot on with respects to this subject, but I will have to strongly disagree with you on this one.

Do NOT blow compressed air into your projector to remove dust blobs. Once you have confirmed that they are in fact dust blobs, most manufacturers will recommend that you remove the bulb & use a vacuum to suck at the area the bulb sits and at the vents of the projector.

Do not... I REPEAT, do NOT use Compressed Air on a Projector!

Lou, I do not mean to cut across you on this and normally your advice is spot on with respects to this subject, but I will have to strongly disagree with you on this one.

Do NOT blow compressed air into your projector to remove dust blobs. Once you have confirmed that they are in fact dust blobs, most manufacturers will recommend that you remove the bulb & use a vacuum to suck at the area the bulb sits and at the vents of the projector.

OK no problem , I guess since it was an easy thing for me to fix I figured I would help a bit.
And since I am a electronics tech I have knowhow on fixing these types of problems.

OK no problem , I guess since it was an easy thing or me to fix I figured I would help a bit.
And since I am a electronics tech I have knowhow on fixing these types of problems.
I'm with you, canned air, depending on the type, some have gases that can catch fire but most are fine.
You most of all don't want to use a sweeper, it will produce static electricity which can kill most small electrical circuits easily. Same reason why you don't use a sweeper to suck dust from a computer.

I'm with you, canned air, depending on the type, some have gases that can catch fire but most are fine.
You most of all don't want to use a sweeper, it will produce static electricity which can kill most small electrical circuits easily. Same reason why you don't use a sweeper to suck dust from a computer.
For the record, the vacuum method was suggested to me by support staff at Projector People. It was explained to me that before they will RMA, they typically like to suggest this as a means of troubleshooting because it's effective. BTW, it worked for me.

Obviously, this is done with the projector powered down (Bulb removed).

I just ordered a PH530 from Tigerdirect. I plan on using it as a temporary replacement after selling my Sony Pearl. I have high ceilings so this should work well for me. My question is, will I see pronounced screen door at 11 feet back from a 119" screen (Dalite HP)?

yesterday I've noticed that sharpness=16 looks much better defined than when sharpness=15 (which i was using), with =15 some pixels become "double" and take on funny shapes (using hdmi input).

My question is, will I see pronounced screen door at 10 feet back from a 119" screen (Dalite HP)?

Depends on your vision. Mine is very sharp, and I can see the pixel structure at <8 feet on very bright scenes (white) at 48"x85" (98" diagonal).

Depends on your vision. Mine is very sharp, and I can see the pixel structure at <8 feet on very bright scenes (white) at 48"x85" (98" diagonal).

Okay, so it doesn't sound nearly as bad as the HS51. On that, I could see screendoor at 14' from a 110" on most scenes. Also curious to see if anyone has first hand experience with the Acer and the Optoma H79 or Sony HS51. I thought the black levels were very good on the H79 but it's a DC3.

I dont have experience with either of the (2) units you mentioned, however I did not prefer the black levels of the PH530 over that of my HD70. This after considerable time calibrating, the HD70 was a tad bit deeper in terms of black. (It is quite a bit "sharper" than the HD70, however)

FWIW, I have a 100% light controlled room.

I dont have experience with either of the (2) units you mentioned, however I did not prefer the black levels of the PH530 over that of my HD70. This after considerable time calibrating, the HD70 was a tad bit deeper in terms of black.

FWIW, I have a 100% light controlled room.

Ya, but, the HD70 costs a tad bit more than the PH530, and there's no rebate to deal with.;)

Okay, so it doesn't sound nearly as bad as the HS51. On that, I could see screendoor at 14' from a 110" on most scenes. Also curious to see if anyone has first hand experience with the Acer and the Optoma H79 or Sony HS51. I thought the black levels were very good on the H79 but it's a DC3.

Actually my brother in law has the HS51 and we put them side by side on a wall painted with Killz2. If you look on page 8 there are some screen shots but the Ace wasnt calibrated, since I've punced in Venks #'s and it looks much better! I will try and take some shots today.

Ya, but, the HD70 costs a tad bit more than the HD70, and there's no rebate to deal with.;)
:p

I had to quote you before you got a chance to clean that up! :D

Ok so here's a ?,,, I ran into a little $$ so do you guys think its worth it to sell the Ace and pay DOUBLE for the AX200 or do I take the 6 bones and get a PS3.. Just not sure if its worth twice the money. I have a light controlled room and a 125" Wilsonart DW screen, the Ace seems to do well with brightness but I couldnt imagine the AX200!! I dunno,,

Ok so here's a ?,,, I ran into a little $$ so do you guys think its worth it to sell the Ace and pay DOUBLE for the AX200 or do I take the 6 bones and get a PS3.. Just not sure if its worth twice the money. I have a light controlled room and a 125" Wilsonart DW screen, the Ace seems to do well with brightness but I couldnt imagine the AX200!! I dunno,,
hmmm.... well, some recon work on the forums bought alot of concerns people were having with the "fail rate" of the AX200, because of the history of the AX100. Many of the LCD proponents are remaining still until it is confirmed that the AX100 is in fact an upgrade from the AX100 in all respects, including failure rate.

I am not speaking from experience, because I dont own any LCD projector nor have I ever demo'd one. However, I dont think I would go from DLP to LCD unless there was a massive 'placement' hurdle that justified this move. At this point, if I were to even consider an LCD unit, it would be the BenQ W500. Forum Sponsor has it for less than 9 Bengies.

:p

I had to quote you before you got a chance to clean that up! :D

Nice:D

:D...until it is confirmed that the AX100 is in fact an upgrade from the AX100...

Ahemmm...

Ok so here's a ?,,, I ran into a little $$ so do you guys think its worth it to sell the Ace and pay DOUBLE for the AX200 or do I take the 6 bones and get a PS3.. Just not sure if its worth twice the money. I have a light controlled room and a 125" Wilsonart DW screen, the Ace seems to do well with brightness but I couldnt imagine the AX200!! I dunno,,

If you're going to upgrade, I'd look at the Marantz VP4001. That's the projector I was considering before deciding to save money and get the PH530

Another vote for the vp4001 when you are playing the 1K+ game.

:D

Ahemmm...
I cannot believe I did that. HAHAHAHAHAH.... :rolleyes:

Ok so here are some shots from the Ace. Total dark room, Charter HD-DVR Moxi box hooked up with component through RX-V661, screen is Wilsonart DW 125". The calibration is with what Venk posted with just a few minor switches. I'm not a pro at pix but it still looks better in person!
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/PICT0038.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/PICT0039.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/PICT0040.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/PICT0041.jpg

Ok so here are some shots from the Ace. Total dark room, Charter HD-DVR Moxi box hooked up with component through RX-V661, screen is Wilsonart DW 125". The calibration is with what Venk posted with just a few minor switches. I'm not a pro at pix but it still looks better in person!
http://http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/?action=view&current=PICT0038.jpg
http://http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/?action=view&current=PICT0039.jpg
http://http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/?action=view&current=PICT0040.jpg
http://http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d163/mauitime/?action=view&current=PICT0041.jpg


Try again.:)

Sorry bout that..

Now those are some nice screen shots. Almost look a little too colorful, but they look good.

Now those are some nice screen shots. Almost look a little too colorful, but they look good.

Thanks!

Hmm.. I guess I never thought about that. Like I said I used the #'s Venk posted and liked them alot so just stuck with em.

I set my camera which is just a Z6 Minolta, to night mode and took them. I am very pleased with the PJ.

to me it looks like the whites are being crushed way too much in your pics. If you don't already i'd recommend getting a calibration dvd or software so you can more accurately adjust to where you're not crushing your whites or blacks.

For the record, the vacuum method was suggested to me by support staff at Projector People. It was explained to me that before they will RMA, they typically like to suggest this as a means of troubleshooting because it's effective. BTW, it worked for me.

Obviously, this is done with the projector powered down (Bulb removed).
i don't really feel like getting argumentative, however just because its "effective" doesn't mean its the best solution. many solutions to many problems are effective, but only a few are safe to be done repeatedly. i study electrical engineering and have a long history electronic repair and i'm just trying to give helpful advice.
"Obviously, this is done with the projector powered down"
well, you still have capacitors in the projectors power supply that can hold a charge, but that is beside the point. vacuums produce a ton of friction (through massive sucking of air molecules) and can cause a buildup a static charge anytime without any in wall electrical current. this charge is probably far from being able to harm the larger circuits, but it can damage the small ceramic capacitors and the resistors and either changing their values or rendering them unworkable.

jarrod, you have obviously read too far into this. I sat here silently still for approx. 6 minutes trying to find the provocation on this thread for you to sound off about your expertise and education. I still cannot find it.

There is no need to argue this. I think that at the end of the day, when you buy a product from a company, you are SAFEST with utilizing the methods they recommend for care. Doing so, is the best means of protecting your purchase, even if it's the dumbest thing in the world.

Robert S., the HIGHLY regarding gentleman at Optoma also recommended to me that I use a vacuum hose to attempt to remove Dust Blobs. I will take his advise on a projector without hesitation.

Ask any of the Projector old-timers on this forum and they will tell you that a can of compressed air is a big "NO NO". Many of these guys have used, serviced & owned projectors since before many of us had an HDTV. The Air is just too powerful and it may blow dust particles into areas that will require service to remove.

Now lets see...

- I blew compressed air into my Optoma HD70... I ended up with dust blobs that I couldnt get rid of along with a slight smudge on the top right corner of my image.

- I used a vacuum as directed by Projector People & Optoma and got rid of it.

You see where this is going?

Let's get back to the point of this thread... shall we?

Yes, let's get back to...
Where is Art's review?? :)
Have you heard anything?

Needless post...
As i said i did not (and still do not) want to be argumentative, i just didn't want others to possibly mess up their projectors because of advice, that while effective has the possibility to harm the electronics further than just unreachable dust blobs.
However, back on topic, smart, tattoo made a topic earlier showing art's first impressions with the projector, however he'll be on a trip for a week or so before we get the full review.

Yes, let's get back to...
Where is Art's review?? :)
Have you heard anything?

A new thread was started regarding Art's review.

Ya, thanks guys. I found the thread yesterday. Thought Tatt would have posted here first when he heard something back from Art. No biggie though, as now we have that thread too.

Well even if Art says the projector has a soft image , I still feel it's a good purchase and I am enjoying it.

well, hopefully he didn't see the softness over vga, because it will look soft and blurry until you adjust the tracking.

Anyone know a fix for my Acer? When hooked up to my Comcast box (Motorola DCH3200) I get the sound but no video. Cable IS good, I've used it w/ my PS3.

Sounds like a handshake issue with the 3200 which is known for this issue.

Anyone know a fix for my Acer? When hooked up to my Comcast box (Motorola DCH3200) I get the sound but no video. Cable IS good, I've used it w/ my PS3.


Yeah switch to component! Its a noted problem with this projector and using HDMI... The only thing you can watch with your Motorola STB and the projector over HDMI would be just HD channels.. I dont know if you tried it yet or not...

HDCP handshake issues , What I do is turn on the source first then the projector , it works every time with hd and non-hd.
I have been reading that comcast digital boxes and the newer direct tv-hd boxes have the same issues with other projectors and with dlp displays via hdmi....

FYI

Email I just sent to Acer's Technical Support Dept:

"Greetings,

I would like to represent the members of the AVS Web Forum located at www.avsforum.com. We are currently one of the largest Home Theater related web communities.

The word about the Acer PH530 Projector has spread quickly among our members and many have purchased this projector, while many other members have purchases pending. There are about 4-5 well documented heavy traffic threads regarding this specific unit. We would like to bring your Engineering Dept’s attention to the following: There is a specific consensus regarding the VGA port on the unit. There are (2) well documented issues at this point:


1. It seems to have an issue syncing correctly at 1280x720 resolutions (in any frequency including 60hz). We have confirmed that the issue is prevalent with the XBOX 360 and Computers outputting the 1280x720 resolution. Whenever the unit syncs with this resolution, the image is shifted approx. 40-60 pixels over to the left. Using the H/V Shift or Tracking functions within the menu do not bring the image far enough over to be centered correctly. NOTE: Pressing the "Re-Sync" button on the remote of the unit does not rectify the problem either. Many of us have found workarounds that seem to eventually help the unit sync properly, but the problem is that once you switch inputs or cycle the power on the projector, the image is reset to the shifted position.


2. The settings within the Menu for “YPbPr, RGB & YCbCr” do not retain their position once set as desired. The unit seems to constantly default to the YPbPr setting whenever you change the channel, switch inputs or cycle the power on the projector. This is particularly disheartening when trying to maintain a Calibration and forces many of us to constantly have to change this setting back to our desired position many times throughout usage.
(NOTE: This issue is prevalent on all inputs including HDMI, VGA, Component, Etc….)


**With the utmost respect, these issues reported by us early adopters are significant and can have an impact on whether or not other interested parties invest in this unit. Many of us have experience with other projectors and we understand these issues to be out of the norm in terms of operation. We also feel that Acer’s Engineering dept may be able to correct these issues and provide us with a fix via firmware update.

As a community, we look forward to Acer's position on these items and we anxiously await your follow-up! I will update the community on any progress that is made."

I'll keep you guys posted on their response.

Yeah switch to component! Its a noted problem with this projector and using HDMI... The only thing you can watch with your Motorola STB and the projector over HDMI would be just HD channels.. I dont know if you tried it yet or not...

I have the Motorola DCT-6412 III and no image shows up until I go to an HD channel. After that, I can go to SD channels without a problem.

HDCP handshake issues , What I do is turn on the source first then the projector , it works every time with hd and non-hd.
I have been reading that comcast digital boxes and the newer direct tv-hd boxes have the same issues with other projectors and with dlp displays via hdmi....

I've tried this and it doesn't work for me.

Comcast is scheduled to come out tomorrow morning and fix the issue. I'm guessing they will tell me it's Acer's fault, and Acer will probably blame Comcast/Motorola... The ol' blame game.

Regarding the YPbPr, RGB & YCbCr I've been fooling around with that as well. Apparently they all relate to the display of color and YP is for analog, while YC is for digital. Maybe the acer defaults this setting to the signal it is receiving from it's source. So if you have an analog feed and switch to digital (YC) while watching the analog feed, then cycle through the imputs until you go back to the original analog you were watching, it naturally goes back to analog (YP) in association with the signal it is receiving. In that case, it would be doing people who have no idea what these settings are a favor. Or maybe I'm completely wrong.

I've tried this and it doesn't work for me.

Comcast is scheduled to come out tomorrow morning and fix the issue. I'm guessing they will tell me it's Acer's fault, and Acer will probably blame Comcast/Motorola... The ol' blame game.

Well, Comcast came out this morning and basically did the exact same thing I did. NO LUCK. I also called Acer and spoke with them for over an hour, NO LUCK. The Acer rep said they had no software patch, and none was even in the works. He checked their internal site, and basically the PJ is what it is.

Guess I'll have to run 4 cables instead on 1, bummer. What's the max. resolution on component, 1080i? And I wonder if a HDMI switching box would remedy the situation?

Well, Comcast came out this morning and basically did the exact same thing I did. NO LUCK. I also called Acer and spoke with them for over an hour, NO LUCK. The Acer rep said they had no software patch, and none was even in the works. He checked their internal site, and basically the PJ is what it is.

Guess I'll have to run 4 cables instead on 1, bummer. What's the max. resolution on component, 1080i? And I wonder if a HDMI switching box would remedy the situation?

Very disheartening that Acer has stated they're basically not going to fix a defective product.
There's nothing you can due to the STB to fix it, it needs a firmware fix. (same goes for the Acer from what info we have so far)
Max rez on component is 1080i / 720p IF, there's no copy protection to get in the way, which then you'd be limited to 480p.
You could try an HDMI switcher. That might just work. I'd recommend the new one offered from Oppo. If it does not work, you may be able to send it back for a full refund. Oppo's customer service and return policies are top notch.

Response from Acer:

"Thank you for contacting Acer America. I will have to research this and get back with you, as I will need to forward this to engineering. I apologize for any inconvenience this may bring and as soon as I get an answer, I will email you.

Respectfully,
Karen Cavil
Acer America E-Mail Technical Support"

Hopefully, that's not an automated response.... it doesnt seem so. :confused:

Hopefully, that's not an automated response.... it doesnt seem so. :confused:
no, i was fishing around for a service/factory menu code combo to better calibrate the acer and found that their e-mail responses are all quite personal. which is quite surprising.

A new thread was started regarding Art's review.

Where is this thread?

Where is this thread?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11829160#post11829160

Where is this thread?

That's weird. I did a search for it but could not find it. Then I went into my userCP and pulled up my subscribed threads and it WAS in there. Here ya go...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=918516

Got me by a nose Tatt ;).

I also find that for HTPC use, in my specific application where an 8500GT (XP Pro) being fed via HDMI... the unit seems to take better to 48hz rather than 72hz. With 48hz, I have seen no tearing on DVDs and the PQ is stupendous.

Hey guys, I'm new here, just bought the PH530.
It's my first projector and I'm stunned by the size and quality of the picture.
I'm using a notebook with ATI Radeon 9700 to play DVDs via HDI to HDMI.
That works fine at 1280x720 @ 60 Hz and @ 50 Hz (for my PAL DVDs)

From the post above I conclude that the PH530 accepts 48 Hz and 72 Hz from HDMI.
But how do you setup your HTPC to output a multiple of 24 fps: 48 Hz or 72 Hz?
Are you using PowerStrip? If so, what parameters are you using?

I tried power strip at frequencies around 48 and 72 Hz but the screen stays blank.
Also, how can you change on the Acer the saturation and tint sliders? I cannot change them on mine...

Thanks!

i cannot change hue & saturation on mine either even in user mode, input from hdmi. i want to call acer support about this.

Hey guys, I'm new here, just bought the PH530.
It's my first projector and I'm stunned by the size and quality of the picture.
I'm using a notebook with ATI Radeon 9700 to play DVDs via HDI to HDMI.
That works fine at 1280x720 @ 60 Hz and @ 50 Hz (for my PAL DVDs)

From the post above I conclude that the PH530 accepts 48 Hz and 72 Hz from HDMI.
But how do you setup your HTPC to output a multiple of 24 fps: 48 Hz or 72 Hz?
Are you using PowerStrip? If so, what parameters are you using?

I tried power strip at frequencies around 48 and 72 Hz but the screen stays blank.
Also, how can you change on the Acer the saturation and tint sliders? I cannot change them on mine...

Thanks!
When my PH530 was connected to Theater #1, I was using the 8500GT via HDMI. Since Powerstrip is not compatible with 8 Series Nvidia cards, my timings were done via Nvidia drivers, limited to 48hz, 72hz, 50hz & 60hz.

When my PH530 was connected to Theater #2, I was using the 7300LE via VGA. Utilizing Powerstrip, I was able to toggle 72hz, 50hz & 60hz.

I never tested the combination of HDMI & Powerstrip and furthermore, I have no real experience with the newer ATI cards.

I dont have my projector with me so I am operating off of memory until I get it back.

dont have my projector with me so I am operating off of memory until I get it back.

What's the word on that? Have you heard from Art? I know you said he was going out of town, but not sure when he was coming back.
Thanks :)

What's the word on that? Have you heard from Art? I know you said he was going out of town, but not sure when he was coming back.
Thanks :)
Art will be back on the 15th, which is when he will be doing his thorough review of the PH530. He will be shipping the unit back out to me on or around Oct. 18th. I am dealing with some serious separation anxiety here!

Art will be back on the 15th, which is when he will be doing his thorough review of the PH530. He will be shipping the unit back out to me on or around Oct. 18th. I am dealing with some serious separation anxiety here!

Cool. Thanks

tattootearz-

I hear ya.

Dont you have the HD70?
edit: Nevermind I see you just mounted it. Good job.

I sent my ph530 back (after it decided to reset it self) due to color issues and Im back on the pb6100 and its just not the same anymore. lol...Grrrrrr

I read a review where somone bought both and returned the BenQ..:rolleyes:

return which benq? 6100 or 500

I read a review whrere somone bought both and returned the BenQ..:rolleyes:

link?

I am trying to find it but I just can't remember , But when I find it I will post it.

When my PH530 was connected to Theater #1, I was using the 8500GT via HDMI. Since Powerstrip is not compatible with 8 Series Nvidia cards, my timings were done via Nvidia drivers, limited to 48hz, 72hz, 50hz & 60hz.

When my PH530 was connected to Theater #2, I was using the 7300LE via VGA. Utilizing Powerstrip, I was able to toggle 72hz, 50hz & 60hz.

I never tested the combination of HDMI & Powerstrip and furthermore, I have no real experience with the newer ATI cards.

I dont have my projector with me so I am operating off of memory until I get it back.yeah, powerstrip doesn't work with the 8x00's still, however you can try rivatuner (what i'm using now) when you get your projector back. Using it on my 8800 gts and it works well.

if you're using a geforce card by nvidia and you want to define custom refresh rates/resolutions.. you don't need to use a 3rd party software such as rivatuner (it's good for other stuff like fan control).
you can do it through nvidia's own software. I downloaded and installed nvidia ntune. http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.47.00.html

which allows me to access the nvidia "control panel" application.. in it I can define custom resolutions and refresh rates. the control panel has hdtv resolutions built in for your convenience and additional hdtv support related features which is very nice.

ps: im running a 8800gts640

After Playing around with Avia and some of the settings I posted earlier I came up with these settings for HDMI. I ran the test and played some movies with an HD-A1 over HDMI.

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 47
Contrast: 74
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48

Projecting onto a light controlled Optomo Grey Wolf II 92" 1.8 gain glass beaded grey screen.....

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 75 (70-80, material dependent)
Contrast: 45 (43-46, material dependent)
Color Temp: 0
White Segment: 10 (9 or 10 was fine)
Degamma: 7
Red: 100
Green: 100
Blue: 100
Saturation: 55 (50-55 was fine, as it approached 60....started to look fake)
Tint: 50 (47-53 was fine)

Sharpness: 31 (26-31 was fine)

Some might find these settings too dark.....I look through microscopes under darkened light for a living so I am very used to seeing high details under less than optimal conditions.....others might want to adjust the brightness a little higher, especially if they have light in the room.

In daylight, with sun shining into the room, I just tend to flip to PC mode settings....colors are accurate enough out of the box and it has a brighter picture for the grey screen.

I used Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard which by Avia or DVE standards is basic, but for a quick cal it did the job.

Besides, compared to the Hitachi PJTX100 I bought my parents, the Acer Ph530 is rather basic to setup anyway. But I can break into the service menu on the Hitachi and tweak it to the limit.

I'm waiting for someone to post how they have been able to "crack" into the service menu with the Acer.....then the real fun begins.

Projecting onto a light controlled Optomo Grey Wolf II 92" 1.8 gain glass beaded grey screen.....

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 75 (70-80, material dependent)
Contrast: 45 (43-46, material dependent)
Color Temp: 0
White Segment: 10 (9 or 10 was fine)
Degamma: 7
Red: 100
Green: 100
Blue: 100
Saturation: 55 (50-55 was fine, as it approached 60....started to look fake)
Tint: 50 (47-53 was fine)

Sharpness: 31 (26-31 was fine)

Some might find these settings too dark.....I look through microscopes under darkened light for a living so I am very used to seeing high details under less than optimal conditions.....others might want to adjust the brightness a little higher, especially if they have light in the room.

In daylight, with sun shining into the room, I just tend to flip to PC mode settings....colors are accurate enough out of the box and it has a brighter picture for the grey screen.

I used Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard which by Avia or DVE standards is basic, but for a quick cal it did the job.

Besides, compared to the Hitachi PJTX100 I bought my parents, the Acer Ph530 is rather basic to setup anyway. But I can break into the service menu on the Hitachi and tweak it to the limit.

I'm waiting for someone to post how they have been able to "crack" into the service menu with the Acer.....then the real fun begins.

Don't you experience white crush with white segment so high? I suppose the big difference in your settings vs mine is that you're using grey screen and I'm using white high power.

Also, why did you choose color temp 0 over color temp 1?

Saturation and Tint are not available to me under ANY display mode.
Could this be because I'm connected via a component breakout cable to the d-sub?
Does anyone who runs a direct component (rgb on both ends) have saturation and tint available? Does anyone see a true difference from component to hdmi? I'de like to stay component because of a receiver switch but if I have to go hdmi because it is actually producing cleaner images.. I'll do it.

I was going to return this thing but dragged my feet and now.. it's mine. Going from benq 6200 and want to perfect this as much as possible. I just can't quite dial in the colors. Dare I ask again for more postings on settings for economy mode? ;)

Hey, anybody, can someone tell me how long the power cord is?... and is it detachable?
If I would need a longer one, where can I get one?... Monoprice maybe?
Thanks in advance for any help.:)

Smarty-pants: its like 6feet long i think, detachable IEC or whatever its called, same as PC uses :)

Hey, anybody, can someone tell me how long the power cord is?... and is it detachable?
If I would need a longer one, where can I get one?... Monoprice maybe?
Thanks in advance for any help.:)

It is a standard 6' IEC.

Monoprice sells them, but the longest I saw was 15' and they were only 18 gauge (which should be fine for this).

I bought one here: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Powercord25/
They also sell them in 15 & 50'

:mad: Where are my saturation/tint and sharpness settings?:mad:
They are not visible on any input via d-sub connection.
Can anyone see these options w/ d-sub? Why are they not appearing?
UGGGGG! Can't find any info in manual.. anyone have an idea?

my tint & saturation settings are colored yellow and inaccessible, using via hdmi. I wrote acer support about it, it has been more than 48 hours and they still have not answered. I'm getting pissed.

It is a standard 6' IEC.

Monoprice sells them, but the longest I saw was 15' and they were only 18 gauge (which should be fine for this).

I bought one here: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Powercord25/
They also sell them in 15 & 50'

Thanks for the info. Now that I've done more measuring, I will need a 20-25 footer. That one you linked seems awfully high priced for being just a power cable.

Sharpness: 31 (26-31 was fine)

Since Art said the image was 'soft' compared to W500, I upped my sharpness to 31 and it definitely made a difference in clarity.

Anyone else have thoughts on maxing out sharpness?

Is anybody able to clarify the difference between the 2 models(or at least pictures) that seem to appear when shopping for this projector?

I've read the entire main thread and this one, and it's never been mentioned.

The button layout on the projector is different, the casing is clearly different, the lense is even on the opposite side. Also many people said that the projector vents air forwards, which on the smooth casing wouldn't be possible. The remote looks the same though.

The picture used with the smooth casing on the front seems to be used less, and the specs are the same, and I've only been shopping for the PH530. I was just curious if there is an older/newer model...maybe people here know the difference.

If there is a difference maybe it has an effect on the tweaking etc.

I think you can only change tint and saturation if you input YCbCr or YPbPr components. You can't if you input RGB.
At least for me, I cannot access tint saturation if I use my PC (DVI to HDMI, RGB) but I can if I use a standalone DVD player (HDMI, YPbPr)

Is anybody able to clarify the difference between the 2 models(or at least pictures) that seem to appear when shopping for this projector?

I've read the entire main thread and this one, and it's never been mentioned.

The button layout on the projector is different, the casing is clearly different, the lense is even on the opposite side. Also many people said that the projector vents air forwards, which on the smooth casing wouldn't be possible. The remote looks the same though.

The picture used with the smooth casing on the front seems to be used less, and the specs are the same, and I've only been shopping for the PH530. I was just curious if there is an older/newer model...maybe people here know the difference.

If there is a difference maybe it has an effect on the tweaking etc.
The "smooth case" is a picture of the PH730, not the 530.

Is anybody able to clarify the difference between the 2 models(or at least pictures) that seem to appear when shopping for this projector?

The first picture looks like the Acer PH730: http://global.acer.com/PRODUCTS/projector/spec_projector_home.htm

bah easy answer sorry for the trouble, thanks for the answers! I should be playing around in this thread in a few weeks!

youplaboom -
thank you for the feedback. no reply from Acer thus far.
Q- do you at least "see" the options for tint/saturation/sharpness?
These aren't even present for me in any configuration.

youplaboom -
thank you for the feedback. no reply from Acer thus far.
Q- do you at least "see" the options for tint/saturation/sharpness?
These aren't even present for me in any configuration.

Yes I see those 2 options in the menu, only inaccessible and yellow (instead of grey) if I'm using RGB.
BUT I've found a weird bug in another menu; sometimes, I don't see the sharpness adjustement (and cannot change it obviously) and sometimes I see it normally :confused:
I need to exit the menu and re-enter it again and the sharpness option may appeare again... weird...

All in all, it seems to me this PJ is not mature and I wish Acer is planning to fix those bugs through firmware upgrade. At least let's hope the PJ is upgradable!

youplaboom: I have exactly the same issue with the saturation/tint settings. yellow color and inaccassable. im feeding the pj only through my pc, dvi-hdmi RGB. I havn't tryed to feed from other sources. if this really is a bug in the firmware I know acer are willing to fix it, but they want me to send them the pj for that :/
so first i want to find out if its a bug, or its the way its for everyone who uses rgb over dvi-hdmi cable.

Anyone know the code for Acer PJ when programming a universal remote?

Anyone know the code for Acer PJ when programming a universal remote?

I have the harmony Xbox 360 universal remote and hook it up with my laptop through USB... The program that comes with my remote automatically puts it in there for me so dont know what the numbers are.. Do you have your remotes manual?

Settings:
Eco - On
Brightness - 59
Contrast - 42
Color Temp - 1
White Segment - 10
Degamma - 3
Color R - 103
Color G - 100
Color B - 106
(for vga) Tracking - 0 (always seemed to be the best).

Even Though this was Calibrated using pc over vga it works just as nice through component.
The colors were calibrated by eye with me staring at a grayscale scale and then blindly adjusting each color until me eyes saw the most neutral gray and white. The Degamma 3 seems to make the yellow primary seem more natural looking, so i calibrated aroudn that. However i have yet to be able to produce a very bright, nice looking yellow primary, quite odd really.

I'll try to get settings over HDMI soon.

Wow, this thread dropped all the way to page 4.

Anyways I found a HUGE improvement in Picture Quality while gaming when increasing the sharpness from 16 to 26. There was minor blooming (i think thats the correct technical term, basically a tiny white outline forms on black lines. really only noticeable with text on a black background) at that setting but it was a small trade off compared to the improvement in detail in the image. I have not yet tried this with any movies, but the gaming PQ (360@720P over Component) was much better.

well, hopefully he didn't see the softness over vga, because it will look soft and blurry until you adjust the tracking.

What is the best tracking value?

What is the best tracking value?
Strangely i've found it to always be 0. Its only strange because the value is supposed to vary based on analog interference in the area, which fluctuates, so usually the tracking value needs to fluctuate. However, every time, the test screen has always shown 0 as the best value.

Trying to run through the calibration on my ph530 i noticed on the "Crossed Step Scale" pattern on my Avia disk that even maxing out my contrast and brightness i could only clearly make out 8 - 9 bars instead of the normal 11 that I normally see. Just wondering if this is a known kinda thing or if something might be wrong with my projector. I am running the dvd thru my xbox running XBMC, but have also tried it via my xbox 360 "hdmi" and got the same results.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or if anyone has run into this. While games iv been playing lately, Halo 3, Oblivion, and TF2 have seemed a bit dark I wrote it off as people have said it takes some getting used to.

I am using the settings venk posted a while back but with some minor tweaks if that might make any difference.
Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 78
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48

With everyone posting "their" settings, is there any way to come up with a consensus of all these settings to see what a good general settings would be? Maybe 1. HDTV, 2. HD/BR DVD's, and 3. Gaming?

Trying to run through the calibration on my ph530 i noticed on the "Crossed Step Scale" pattern on my Avia disk that even maxing out my contrast and brightness i could only clearly make out 8 - 9 bars instead of the normal 11 that I normally see. Just wondering if this is a known kinda thing or if something might be wrong with my projector. I am running the dvd thru my xbox running XBMC, but have also tried it via my xbox 360 "hdmi" and got the same results.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or if anyone has run into this. While games iv been playing lately, Halo 3, Oblivion, and TF2 have seemed a bit dark I wrote it off as people have said it takes some getting used to.

I am using the settings venk posted a while back but with some minor tweaks if that might make any difference.
Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 78
Color Temp: 1
White Segment: 5
Degamma: 7
Red: 88
Green: 82
Blue: 87
Saturation: 61
Tint: 48
Your brightness is too low and your contrast is too high.
Brightness affects the overall brightness of the image, and is in general what is responsible for how much of the darker end of the gray scale spectrum you can see.
Contrast is exactly what is says too, it will increase the difference between the blacks and whites.
Knowing tis we can see that having your brightness at 50 (since i also have the same projector i know) that you're actually missing a lot of the darker end gray scale, simply because your brightness is set lower than the some of the scale steps are, therefore they can't be seen.
Then we have your too high contrast, which will increase the contrast (difference) between the whites and darks, in otherwards to the oppsoing ends of the gray scale spectrum. This will cause your projector to crush its whites and its blacks. Meaning, you're increasing the difference between each opposing end of the gray scale spectrum by decreasing the amount of scale steps that are visible. The result is lose of visible detail on both ends, making things seem too dark because you're missing the shadow detail.
Basically i am saying that correct calibration means giving correct values fr the contrast and the brightness by understanding what they do. Maxing out the contrast is simply taking away from the steps in the test, you want to lower your contrast, and poissible raise your rbightness. But only riase your brightness to the point where the background black starts to get brighter, at this point pull backa little, producing a truer black level is more important than gray scale steps.

Art's review is up. Link here

http://www.projectorreviews.com/acer/ph530/index.php

Here is the color settings he used.

The Acer PH530 was definitely off the target of 6500K temperature in Theater mode. Before adjustment:



100 IRE (white): 6033K
80 IRE: 6185K
50 IRE: 6201K
30 IRE: 6274K

By applying these changes:

Red= 95, Green= 99, Blue= 100 (defaults are 100,100,100)

Grayscale balance was almost dead on the ideal 6500K for movies:

100 IRE: 6388K
80 IRE: 6515K
50 IRE: 6562K
30 IRE: 6656K

Skin tones with these settings really were very good, as was overall color.

the Video preset was worse out of the box, with very strong greens.

To fix Video, R,G,B was adjusted to 100, 90, 102, respectively. That yielded a color temp of 8053K for white. I did not measure the other IREs (grays), but the very tight range of color temperature seen in the Theater mode should hold here as well, so that these settings should (and did) produce very watchable TV/HDTV/Sports.

Art's review is up. Link here

http://www.projectorreviews.com/acer/ph530/index.php

Here is the color settings he used.

The Acer PH530 was definitely off the target of 6500K temperature in Theater mode. Before adjustment:



100 IRE (white): 6033K
80 IRE: 6185K
50 IRE: 6201K
30 IRE: 6274K

By applying these changes:

Red= 95, Green= 99, Blue= 100 (defaults are 100,100,100)

Grayscale balance was almost dead on the ideal 6500K for movies:

100 IRE: 6388K
80 IRE: 6515K
50 IRE: 6562K
30 IRE: 6656K

Skin tones with these settings really were very good, as was overall color.

the Video preset was worse out of the box, with very strong greens.

To fix Video, R,G,B was adjusted to 100, 90, 102, respectively. That yielded a color temp of 8053K for white. I did not measure the other IREs (grays), but the very tight range of color temperature seen in the Theater mode should hold here as well, so that these settings should (and did) produce very watchable TV/HDTV/Sports.

So is Art saying to leave the 'Degamma', 'White Segment', and 'Color Temperature' as defaulted from the 'Theater' and 'Video' modes and only adjust the R/G/B?

Is he suggesting Theater mode with RGB adjustments for movies and Video mode with RGB adjustments for HDTV?'

He also didn't mention what sharpness setting, so I assume he left it at default. I was using max (31) but moved it down to 26 based on a previous post.

So is Art saying to leave the 'Degamma', 'White Segment', and 'Color Temperature' as defaulted from the 'Theater' and 'Video' modes and only adjust the R/G/B?

Is he suggesting Theater mode with RGB adjustments for movies and Video mode with RGB adjustments for HDTV?'

He also didn't mention what sharpness setting, so I assume he left it at default. I was using max (31) but moved it down to 26 based on a previous post.

Actually I was wondering the same thing, just embarrassed I'm such a noob at this stuff. :rolleyes:

Uh I also agree that someone should translate the settings for us less experienced folks. I'm a dummy for when it comes to this.

I was able to eliminate the green push a bit please post your thoughts. It was taken by a crappy digital camera.:)


http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc30/louthewiz/5aac052d.jpg

Has anyone come up with any settings which allow for a true, vibrant, yellow? All of my test screens show a dirtied yellow.

Has anyone come up with any settings which allow for a true, vibrant, yellow? All of my test screens show a dirtied yellow.

Have you calibrated with a setup disc like Avia or THX etc?

Have you calibrated with a setup disc like Avia or THX etc?
Yes, i use display mate, it gives more extended calibration screens than dve, avia and thx.
Everything looks great, all colors look great (except for yellow), no shadow or bright detail crushing. However, my yellow has never looked like a true, vibrant colorful yellow.
Could you perhaps take a pic of your projector displaying the primary and secondary colors so i could compare?
If so that would be quite cool.

I tried using Art's Theater settings. After calibrating contrast and brightness with DVE, I ended up with brightness 15 and contrast 65. I watched some scenes and black levels were great, but I seemed to be losing a lot of detail. Is this black crush?

I then tried Art's Video setting and calibrated contrast and brightness with DVE. I ended up with brightness 15 and contrast 50. I don't seem to be losing as much detail so I'll try this setting for a while. What does it mean that color temp for white is 8053 instead of ~6500?

Is it true for all projectors that when you increase brightness, you see more detail in dark scenes? If so, do you calibrate black level and lose the detail or do you raise brightness, sacrificing black level, for more detail?

I tried using Art's Theater settings. After calibrating contrast and brightness with DVE, I ended up with brightness 15 and contrast 65. I watched some scenes and black levels were great, but I seemed to be losing a lot of detail. Is this black crush?

I then tried Art's Video setting and calibrated contrast and brightness with DVE. I ended up with brightness 15 and contrast 50. I don't seem to be losing as much detail so I'll try this setting for a while. What does it mean that color temp for white is 8053 instead of ~6500?

Is it true for all projectors that when you increase brightness, you see more detail in dark scenes? If so, do you calibrate black level and lose the detail or do you raise brightness, sacrificing black level, for more detail?
the best thing to do calibrate your brightness right up until the point where the screen starts to get brighter. Using the appropriate black level calibration screen you will want to be able to see most of the steps. However don't worry if you can't meet them all if the screen starts getting brighter. It is best to sacrifice some gray scale steps and keep a darker black level. Although sometimes you may need to go past the point where the screen starts to get brighter if you can't make out enough of the steps, you kind of have to use your own judgment.
However, a good thing to experiment with is the degamma setting, which can affect how many of the gray scale steps you can see while keeping the same black level at times.

it seems like theres green push originating in my video card. I came up with those settings today after fiddling with a few images of calibration patterns. they seem to be the best so far for me (a very amature calibrator). nice greyscale which leads to very nice shadow detail. seems like for the first time I'm able to see eye colors proper. those settings bring out the pop from the ace.

eco mode off
brightness 50
contrast 50
color temp 1
white segment 1
degamma 6
r 100
g 88
b 100
tint 50
saturation 50 (locked)
sharpness 15
1:1 mapping (source pc geforce 8800gts, AMC dvi-to-hdmi 25' cable, 720p@60hz)
RGB

I'm using a draper consul matte white 84" 1.0 gain portable screen and soon a ceiling mount for the ace, will take some pics when it's mounted with my mighty canon IS S2 :>

Don't you experience white crush with white segment so high? I suppose the big difference in your settings vs mine is that you're using grey screen and I'm using white high power.

Also, why did you choose color temp 0 over color temp 1?

With this grey screen, the blacks and contrast are enhanced, so I actually had to turn up the brightness/white segment to overcome black crush. My whites at lower settings were pink/light grey. My blacks are still black, not dark grey, and the contrast is high enough for this particular screen, but lower than usual by most white screen standards. I still retain shadow detail or can differentiate between dark colored items like black tie or creases/folds of black shirt under black suit in front of black background from my calibrating disc.

Color temp 0 gave hair/skin tones a more natural look vs color temp 1 on this particular screen. I messed with the gamma settings as well, but the settings I ended up with after calibration gave the most natural colors and didn't mess up my whites.

I haven't messed with the RGB settings yet. I might try the settings suggested in Art's Theater settings and adjust slightly to fit my screen.

I do turn up the saturation to bring out the colors from disc to disc to suit my taste, but the setting I chose is my default. I have an older Toshiba 32" tube nearby, so I use that image as a reference point as well.

I watch alot of boxing, so the ring is always a certain light shade of blue, the gloves are always the same color of red, the lettering around the ring is white on black, usually alot of Budweiser ads so if those colors don't look perfect, you can tell.

I noticed alot of reviewers use DVD's like 5th Element or Pirates of the Carribean to test their colors, while these movies have impressive color ranges, I like to know exactly what the color is supposed to look like, and there is way too much guessing with those types of movies.

I prefer a DVD like Any Given Sunday or Talladega Nights containing known objects like a football, checkered flag, race cars/uniforms/track/field with accurate primary/secondary colors that are filmed under natural sunlight. Just easier for me to see correct colors next to each other within the same scene vs CGI'ed films that over-emphasize the colors or exaggerate the lighting. Even a movie like Bad Santa is full of holiday seasonal objects that I can run to the attic and grab and run up to the screen and put it right next to my projected image to compare with.

Just me, but I'm not an expert.

Hope this helps some grey screen users and doesn't confuse the others.

Mikey, what are you settings?

I'm using Art's Video settings and they bring out a lot of pop to the screen compared to Venk's. I believe that it's because White Segment in Venk's is 0 and Art's is 6. Black seems darker also.

I have no idea how to adjust saturation so I left it at 50.

RGB based on Art's Video settings. Everything else is default based on Acer's Video setting except for brightness and contrast.

eco mode on
brightness 15
contrast 50
color temp 1
white segment 6
degamma 3
r 100
g 90
b 102
tint 50
saturation 50

Mikey, what are you settings?

I'm using Art's Video settings and they bring out a lot of pop to the screen compared to Venk's. I believe that it's because White Segment in Venk's is 0 and Art's is 6. Black seems darker also.

I have no idea how to adjust saturation so I left it at 50.

RGB based on Art's Video settings. Everything else is default based on Acer's Video setting except for brightness and contrast.

eco mode on
brightness 15
contrast 50
color temp 1
white segment 6
degamma 3
r 100
g 90
b 102
tint 50
saturation 50

Projecting onto a light controlled Optomo Grey Wolf II 92" 1.8 gain glass beaded grey screen.....

Eco Mode: ON
Brightness: 75 (70-80, material dependent)
Contrast: 45 (43-46, material dependent)
Color Temp: 0
White Segment: 10 (9 or 10 was fine)
Degamma: 7
Red: 100
Green: 100
Blue: 100
Saturation: 55 (50-55 was fine, as it approached 60....started to look fake)
Tint: 50 (47-53 was fine)
Sharpness: 31 (26-31 was fine)

I'll probably try Art's color settings monday to see what effect it has. Remember my settings will be different on the grey screen, but with my settings, I am getting the same effect of pop, brighter whites, blacks are still black.....at least they were in the movies I tested so far, Underworld 1, Pitchblack, and Alien.

I adjust the saturation according to what I'm watching, if the film is natural looking film (no CGI) then I leave Saturation at 50, but if its something like Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, Tron, etc I might turn the saturation up a notch (53-55) and let those colors explode onscreen.

And I like to crank up the sharpness....I don't mind if I catch a fake looking edge line here or there. I hate soft pictures.....just me.

Hi, Mikey I tried you settings as I have the Same Projector & Screen I thought it looked pretty Good THNX!!

Also a Question for this Thread when I goto Signal Type and Select YCbCr vs. YPbPr it looks better with the First setting. I thought it should be set under YPbPr???

Hi, Mikey I tried you settings as I have the Same Projector & Screen I thought it looked pretty Good THNX!!

Also a Question for this Thread when I goto Signal Type and Select YCbCr vs. YPbPr it looks better with the First setting. I thought it should be set under YPbPr???

Cool, glad somebody else has the same screen and can use the settings.
I messed with the gamma setting......

gamma 4 gives the most natural looking colors, but is very dark looking, probably good only if room is completely light controlled/black.

gamma 5 is similar to gamma 7, I seem to be flipping back and forth between these 2 and am starting to lean towards gamma 5 more often.

cranked up my saturation closer to 60....now that I've had a couple of weeks to adjust to viewing the colors this way, I prefer it more than saturation 50.

Still haven't entered Art's settings, maybe Thursday or Friday, after I get my satellite installed. Then I'll have something more to look at besides DVD's.

I got my PH530 yesterday and did some testing last night. So far I am pleased as this is my first PJ and I am enjoying the experience.

I don't have a HD source so I was watching some sat feed and then I downloaded some HD samples that looked really nice.

I am running in eco mode since most people seem to as a means of extending bulb life.

I am projecting onto a wall with flat white paint.

For my real set up I am thinking of doing a DIY screen or I guess possibly buy one.

Has anyone here created a DIY screen and how did the results in terms of performance turn out compared to what they had?

It would seem that if I could get some gain out of a DIY screen it would be good (I have to read more).

I'm slightly considering an xmass upgrade to a samsung 720p (either the new model they just released with 2k lumens or the older 700 lumen H710AE), but i dunno if its worth the hassle, or should I wait for 1080p's to get cheaper like I originally planned :/

i'm getting this pj tomorrow for $577 and can't wait to try it out. im very good at calibrating and have a good understanding of optics. is it just me or does art's review sound rather biased? the shots on this forum also seem to look much better than his.

i'm getting this pj tomorrow for $577 and can't wait to try it out. im very good at calibrating and have a good understanding of optics. is it just me or does art's review sound rather biased? the shots on this forum also seem to look much better than his.

to me art's review looks biased too, his shots look kinda sucky, and he didn't bother taking all his "regular" screen shots.
on my screen the ace looks way sharper than in art's review, but hey i'm not a professional pj reviewer

i'm getting this pj tomorrow for $577 and can't wait to try it out. im very good at calibrating and have a good understanding of optics. is it just me or does art's review sound rather biased? the shots on this forum also seem to look much better than his.

Great price, where did you find it at?

Looks like several places have lowered their price on the PH530 now. ECost now carries it too and can be had pretty cheap with special discounts.

Allow me to say that I think it is very unfair and unethical for you guys to come into this thread and try to discredit Art or his review of the PH530. With all due respect, we all should consider Art's review to be a big plus on the side of this unit. His review will give this unit tremendous exposure and credibility with the "Home Theater Crowd."

It is unfair when someone like Art takes the time to put the effort into reviewing a low end unit like the Acer and you guys try to discredit his efforts. The truth is, Art held my projector for over 3 weeks and he did the best he could with the time he had. It is not easy doing an end user review especially dealing with the pressure of that actual end user wanting his projector back.

It's ok to disagree with Art's review, however. The truth is, we, the budget crowd are always looking for means to justify our purchases. But in all fairness fellas... be nice.

Just because art says that the projector is one thing and we say it's another doe not mean anything at all, if I purchase a set of speakers and I like the way they sound and you don't does not mean that your word is gospel or arts in this respect .
This forum is for public opinion and everyone has a right to say what's on their minds , But if you don't approve then it's just too bad and just suck it up and keep going. I have also said before that I really liked the projector and I don't care what anybody says I am going to keep on enjoying it and telling others what I like about it and continue to reccomend it. :rolleyes:

Just because art says that the projector is one thing and we say it's another doe not mean anything at all, if I purchase a set of speakers and I like the way they sound and you don't does not mean that your word is gospel or arts in this respect .
This forum is for public opinion and everyone has a right to say what's on their minds , But if you don't approve then it's just too bad and just suck it up and keep going. I have also said before that I really liked the projector and I don't care what anybody says I am going to keep on enjoying it and telling others what I like about it and continue to reccomend it. :rolleyes:
Lou, that was a VERY idiotic post and not to mention... useless. We have guys coming into this thread with post counts in the low teens talking about how bias Art's review was. WTH? Where is the gratitude? I dont remember you offering up your projector for 3 weeks to benefit this forum at all. I dont even remember receiving a donation for the shipping from you :confused: . All you've done is come to this thread and the rest and make praises for the projector and talk about your so-called inside connect. None of which have really benefited anyone at all.

Before you tell me about sucking it up, you should remember that action speaks volumes. I am a fair person and I dont think the message in my post was unreasonable by a long shot. The bottom line is there is absolutely nothing wrong with disagreeing with certain points in the review. Hell, even I felt that he was off with the "soft picture" notion. But, to insinuate bias is totally wrong and those of us who are active members of this community need to maintain this forum's integrity by not allowing people to just come to the site and make such claims about Art. No one said that Art's review would be the final word on this projector but it sure as hell is alot better than no review at all.

:rolleyes:I was not the one who was all enthused about some guy who you think his opinion was going to make a difference in a projector review , I know I like it and that's all that matters to me.
And YOU are the idiot being so high and mighty about sending your projector to art when nobody asked you to do it.
And finally if you were so hell bent on sending him your projector why didn't you just send it without asking for money that you probably pocketed for yourself and lied about using the money to send a projector that could have been sent via DHL for 12 bucks, now who is the real idiot?:eek:

:rolleyes:I was not the one who was all enthused about some guy who you think his opinion was going to make a difference in a projector review , I know I like it and that's all that matters to me.
And YOU are the idiot being so high and mighty about sending your projector to art when nobody asked you to do it.
And finally if you were so hell bent on sending him your projector why didn't you just send it without asking for money that you probably pocketed for yourself and lied about using the money to send a projector that could have been sent via DHL for 12 bucks, now who is the real idiot?:eek:
Lou, my mom once told me that if you throw a rock into a crowd, the only person who will say "ouch" is the person it hits. Right now, you are screaming buddy. ;)

But who threw the first stone,?

Man you New Yorkers are funny!! Yankees and Mets suck by the way! its all about the Bo SOX!!

I hate both teams...

soccer y'all