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JVC RS40/X3 Calibration Thread

106K views 444 replies 96 participants last post by  Mikeg112 
#1 ·
This thread is intended to provide discussion of the calibration of JVC DLA-RS40 and X3 projectors. While these projectors lack a full Color Management System (CMS) capability, they can benefit from proper calibration for correct grey scale, gamma and color accuracy (within the constraints of not having a full CMS).


The DLA-RS40 and the DLA-X3 are essentially identical projectors except for a minor cosmetic difference. All references to the RS40 below equally apply to the X3.

This first post of the thread will be updated and expanded over time.


The RS40 (also includes RS50 & RS60) Owner's Manual (multi-language version) is available for download HERE (US version)


Firmware updates for the RS40/X3 are available for download HERE (US JVC)


Main RS40/X3 Owner's Thread is HERE


The AVS Thread for the calibration of the previous generation RS20/HD750 projectors is HERE


Most of the adjustments necessary to calibrate the RS40 can be accessed via the user menus. However, there are some additional adjustments and information that is only available via the projector's service menu. To access the service menu:

Press up, down, right, left, enter (press these buttons in this sequence and do it fairly fast). You may need to try several times to get the timing just right to bring up the service menu screen.

CALIBRATION TOOLS


The essential tools you will need for calibration of your JVC projector are a PC (a laptop is the most convenient), a optical sensor (colorimeter), a Blu-ray compatible disc with a set of HD test patterns, and colorimeter software for your PC that will record and report the measurements. Assuming you already have the PC and a blu-ray player, the only things above that you will actually need to purchase is the colorimeter sensor and a blank recordable DVD (total cost about $150 US).
  • Colorimeter Sensor: Probably the most popular low cost, quality colorimeter sensor is the now discontinued Eye-One Display LT (often just listed at the i1LT) made by X-Rite. HERE is the manufacturer's link and HERE is the link for it on Amazon. The substantially more expensive Eye-One Basic Pro is a popular sensor (actually a Spectroradiometer instead of a Colorimeter) for professional calibrators. Another colorimeter of intertest to the hobbyist is the Chroma 5 (priced between the two Eye-one models described above). Finally X-Rite released in mid-2011 a new model colorimter called the i1 Display 3 (this sensor may also be called the i1 Display, i1 Display Pro or may in some cases be referred to as the i1 Display 3 Pro or i1 Display Pro III by some dealers for a calibrated version - so check the details before you order). This new low cost model is much more accurate than the i1 Display 2 series (e.g., Display 2 Pro and Display LT) that it replaces and is said to maintain accuracy better over time than the Display 2 or Chroma 5 series. Important - see the note below before purchasing this colorimeter.
  • Colorimeter Software: A widely used free colorimeter software program is called HCFR Colorimeter. The new (2012) web site for an updated version of the HCFR software is HERE and the AVS Forum discussion thread is HERE . A number of companies sell commercial calibration software. CalMAN and ChromaPure are among the more popular alternatives. HERE is an article comparing HCFR (original version), ChromaPure and Calman software.
  • Software Calibration Aid: An AVS Forum member (stereomandan) has prepared a very useful Excel spreadsheet that can be used as a companion to the colorimeter software. HERE is the AVS thread where you can download the Excel spreadsheet file and the instructions for using it.
  • Blu-ray Compatible Calibration Disc: The AVS HD Calibration Disc (ISO file that can be burned on a DVD +/- R) is described and can be downloaded HERE . Once downloaded you can use a commercial program such as Nero or a freeware program such as IMGBURN , to create a playable disc by burning this ISO image file onto a blank DVD (-R, +R or RW as long as it is a disc type that is compatible with your Blu-ray player).
  • Calibration for Dummies: General overview of display grey scale and color calibration is HERE
  • More Tutorial Information on Calibration of Projectors: HERE is the link to the AVS calibration thread for some earlier Epson projectors that provides a lot of basic information in Post 1 that generally applies to the calibration of projectors.

Note on X-Rite i1 Display Pro III colorimeter and compatable software: Tom Huffman, creator of the ChromaPure software, posted the following information in another thread here on AVS just as the i1 Display Pro III was being released:
"I just had a lengthy discussion with X-Rite, and here's what I learned. There are actually 3 versions of this meter--ColorMunki, i1 Display Pro III retail, and an i1 Display Pro III OEM.
  • The ColorMunki and Display Pro retail are for the retail market only and are designed to work with the included X-Rite software for monitor profiling.
  • The retail versions will NOT function in ChromaPure or any other vendor's software other than X-Rite. Only the OEM version will work because the code in ChromaPure includes a password for enabling it.
  • The retail and OEM versions of the i1 Display Pro are otherwise identical.
  • If you want to use this meter with ChromaPure, then you have to obtain the meter from ChromaPure directly, one of my partners (e.g. AVS), or another OEM vendor. Versions of this meter obtained in the retail market will not work."

The OEM version of the i1 Display 3 or the i1 Display 3 Pro (calibrated) is now available as a package with the ChromaPure software.







____________________________________________________________ ______
 
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#27 ·
Good info. Thanks Ron.

After experimenting with all three of these modes last evening I saw no differences once the BL was properly adjusted but I didn't set the meter up for that. I think I may settle on the SuperWhite mode since it passes >235 (but clips BTB).
 
#28 ·
In my opinion, this should be one of the shortest calibration threads on AVS. The RS40 performs remarkably well out of the box. Both the gamut and gamma were very close to ideal targets and the grayscale was off by only a little.


All measurements were taken in the Film Picture Mode, Standard Color Space.


The only adjustments I made were:
  • Adjusted the white point using the the available gains and offsets with one additional tweak at 10% stimulus using the custom RGB gamma control.
  • Adjusted the main Color control up a few ticks to improve the color accuracy.
  • Put the HDMI mode into enhanced and then adjusted the brightness control appropriately.
  • Adjusted by 1 tick the convergence control for blue. After this, the convergence was about as good as it gets, though the inter-pixel clarity was not as good as DLP, which is to be expected.


That's about it.












When new, this PJ was bright enough for a 110" StudioTek in the low lamp mode, but most will probably want to put it into high lamp mode and then adjust the iris as the lamp ages. I got about 650 lumens in the High lamp mode.
 
#29 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TomHuffman /forum/post/19858780


In my opinion, this should be one of the shortest calibration threads on AVS. The RS40 performs remarkably well out of the box. Both the gamut and gamma were very close to ideal targets and the grayscale was off by only a little.


...............................

Your gamma is vastly better than mine.

UPDATE: I used a Sony BDP-S470 playing the AVS HD Calibration disc to do my initial measurements. It turns out that all of the Sx70 amd Sx80 series of Sony BD players have an error in their decoding/HDMI output level mapping that results in incorrect output levels and this hardware issue with these Sony BD players produces non-linear gamma results. It appears that among the 2010/2011 Sony BD players, perhaps only the PS3 does not have this issue. Pre-2010 Sony standalone players may also have this issue (I have no info on this).
 
#30 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TomHuffman /forum/post/19858780


In my opinion, this should be one of the shortest calibration threads on AVS. The RS40 performs remarkably well out of the box. Both the gamut and gamma were very close to ideal targets and the grayscale was off by only a little.

Tom, did you get a golden sample? My RS50 greyscale was off by quite a bit and the gamma is off as well. I will post the before scan tonight so others can / evaluate.
 
#31 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by zombie10k /forum/post/19858916


Tom, did you get a golden sample? My RS50 greyscale was off by quite a bit and the gamma is off as well. I will post the before scan tonight so others can / evaluate.

Tom's results look like classic "out of the box" greyscale results, which is what you would expect as it was out of the box. After 100 hours, the red would have dropped and it would no longer look like that.
 
#32 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonStatt /forum/post/19859010


Tom's results look like classic "out of the box" greyscale results, which is what you would expect as it was out of the box. After 100 hours, the red would have dropped and it would no longer look like that.

This new RS50 I just received after sending back the RS40 can't have more than 15-20 hours on the bulb so far. With the 6500k setting, normal color space you can see the color isn't right just with the eye. The meter reading show red is down quite a bit on 30 & 80 IRE readings.


I post some readings later if you guys wouldn't mind taking a look.
 
#33 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by zombie10k /forum/post/19859109


This new RS50 I just received after sending back the RS40 can't have more than 15-20 hours on the bulb so far. With the 6500k setting, normal color space you can see the color isn't right just with the eye. The meter reading show red is down quite a bit on 30 & 80 IRE readings.


I post some readings later if you guys wouldn't mind taking a look.

Well every bulb varies. But even in the first 10-15 hours red can drop quite a bit. Nevertheless, the important thing is you can make it right
 
#34 ·
BTW, I wanted to explain one discrepancy in my results. I report 32.49 cd/m2 at 100% but 13.9 fL peak output (32.49 would be less than 10 fL).


The peak output is based on a calculation from the lumens reading. The screen in question needs cleaning and is not living up to its 1.3 gain spec.


As for the one I looked at being a "golden" sample, I can't say. It was what it was. I have noticed, after working on quite a few earlier generation JVCs, a considerable amount of unit-to-unit variation, especially in gamma response.
 
#38 ·

BTW, I wanted to explain one discrepancy in my results. I report 32.49 cd/m2 at 100% but 13.9 fL peak output (32.49 would be less than 10 fL).


The peak output is based on a calculation from the lumens reading. The screen in question needs cleaning and is not living up to its 1.3 gain spec.

As for the one I looked at being a "golden" sample, I can't say. It was what it was. I have noticed, after working on quite a few earlier generation JVCs, a considerable amount of unit-to-unit variation, especially in gamma response.[/QUOTE]


I can certainly agree that the gamma can have a lot of unit-to-unit variation. Below is my factory default gamma (set to normal mode) and the 2nd curve after I worked on creating a custom gamma (it took me about an hour to get it to this point). I still plan to work on the custom gamma some more by perhaps going into the gamma adjustments the individual primary colors, rather than just adjusting for white.

Normal Gamma



Custom Gamma
 
#35 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TomHuffman
Toim,


I'm confused about something. From looking at where red is on the CIE chart I would expect that the difference between that and REC.709 red would be fairly visible on some material, but the deltaE is shown as 2.4 before and 2.0 after. I recall hearing that anything less than 3.0 shouldn't be visible, but I'm not sure if that is supposed to apply to this. Can you shed any light on that? Do you think having the red that far out would be visible with any material (like Cars)?


EDIT: I see that the luminance value is almost spot on, so maybe the difference between that red and having red at REC.709 wouldn't be visible.


Thanks,

Darin
 
#36 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by stereomandan
Ron Jones,


Do you think you could measure the full saturation scale using HCFR and the AVSHD REC.709 calibration disc and post the resulting chart? There are 30 points total. I am very interested to see how the color saturation tracks at lower saturation levels.


The chart you display labelled "CIE Diagram - Film Mode - 6500K - Color Space Standard - Gamma Normal - PRE-CALIBRATION" is actually quite good for a preset menu option.


If the color saturation tracks decently in the lower saturation range, I may look towards one of these JVC RS40's to replace or add to my current projector.


Dan
Below is the CIE for the Saturations in Film Mode, 6500K and Normal Gamma. As a side note, thanks Dan for your Epson calibration thread as I found it most useful after I got my 6500UB two years ago and ended up using your approach for calibration using the 75% saturation levels with great results. The RS40 looks more linear for the saturation levels than did the Epson.

 
#37 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TomHuffman /forum/post/19858780


In my opinion, this should be one of the shortest calibration threads on AVS. The RS40 performs remarkably well out of the box.

Thanks for posting this up Tom. It's nice to see the full calibration report rather than just the cie triangle which confirms that the colour gamut is close enough (at least on your example) to manage without a CMS. I take it you had no need to adjust the service menu CMS to achieve this reading your comments about what you adjusted to achieve this?
 
#39 ·
The problem I have with the gamma adjustments is that even though they look right with a meter and calibration software, it may be a completely different animal with normal viewing material. I've done several custom curves with the RS40 and even though all of them looked great in Calman after hours of tweaking, program material would have bizarre issues that weren't there before like bizarre banding, colors and digital noise.
 
#40 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Jones /forum/post/19860496


Below is the CIE for the Saturations in Film Mode, 6500K and Normal Gamma. As a side note, thanks Dan for your Epson calibration thread as I found it most useful after I got my 6500UB two years ago and ended up using your approach for calibration using the 75% saturation levels with great results. The RS40 looks more linear for the saturation levels than did the Epson.

Thanks for doing these measurements! Yes, much more linear saturation than the Epson LCD projectors lately. This all make me wonder why all projector manufacturers don't have at least one preset that is targeted at a correct REC.709 gamut? Weird. This RS40 is looking very good for such limited CMS control. If you can recall, how do the blacks compare on this RS40 to your old 6500UB (with or without the dynamic iris engaged on the 6500UB). I'm very curious about this.


As a side note regarding Gamma, and the unit to unit variation. Correct contrast and black level settings are critical when taking initial gamma measurement results. You must set contrast and brightness correctly before taking gamma measurements. If you have contrast set too high, and start to clip the bright windows, you can see a gamma curve like you show as your factory default where the bright windows measure very low gamma values. (at least in the 50-100% area)


...and a big thank you regarding my Epson calibration thread. Glad to help!


Dan
 
#41 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kris Deering /forum/post/19863293


The problem I have with the gamma adjustments is that even though they look right with a meter and calibration software, it may be a completely different animal with normal viewing material. I've done several custom curves with the RS40 and even though all of them looked great in Calman after hours of tweaking, program material would have bizarre issues that weren't there before like bizarre banding, colors and digital noise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stereomandan /forum/post/19863403


Thanks for doing these measurements! Yes, much more linear saturation than the Epson LCD projectors lately. This all make me wonder why all projector manufacturers don't have at least one preset that is targeted at a correct REC.709 gamut? Weird. This RS40 is looking very good for such limited CMS control. If you can recall, how do the blacks compare on this RS40 to your old 6500UB (with or without the dynamic iris engaged on the 6500UB). I'm very curious about this.


As a side note regarding Gamma, and the unit to unit variation. Correct contrast and black level settings are critical when taking initial gamma measurement results. You must set contrast and brightness correctly before taking gamma measurements. If you have contrast set too high, and start to clip the bright windows, you can see a gamma curve like you show as your factory default where the bright windows measure very low gamma values. (at least in the 50-100% area)


...and a big thank you regarding my Epson calibration thread. Glad to help!


Dan

Dan - I did use the brightness and contrast controls to calibrate for reference black and white before I measured the gamma.


Also one real concern I have with my projector is even it I can create a custom gamma settings that work well for 2D viewing, for 3D mode the RS40 only has 2 presets (A and B) that can be used and there is nothing that can be done to improve them.
 
#42 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Jones /forum/post/19863574


Dan - I did use the brightness and contrast controls to calibrate for reference black and white before I measured the gamma.


Also one real concern I have with my projector is even it I can create a custom gamma settings that work well for 2D viewing, for 3D mode the RS40 only has 2 presets (A and B) that can be used and there is nothing that can be done to improve them.

Sorry Ron, wasn't trying to imply that you had contrast and brightness set wrong, just stating what I've seen before with my own measurements in the past. Mainly on plasma and LCD TV's, but the same could easily happen with these front projectors.


A bummer about the preset gamma in 3D. Hopefully JVC will come out with a fimware change that will allow cusotm gamma in 3D.


Did you see my comment about 6500UB black level vs the RS40? Very curious about that. Thanks.


Dan
 
#44 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by darinp2 /forum/post/19860399


I'm confused about something. From looking at where red is on the CIE chart I would expect that the difference between that and REC.709 red would be fairly visible on some material, but the deltaE is shown as 2.4 before and 2.0 after. I recall hearing that anything less than 3.0 shouldn't be visible, but I'm not sure if that is supposed to apply to this. Can you shed any light on that? Do you think having the red that far out would be visible with any material (like Cars)?

Darin, The error standard for the 1994 color difference formula is different. I like to see 1.5 or below for color.


However, I too was surprised by this result, but I double-checked it and this is correct. So, according to this metric, the red primary is worth fixing, but only just.
 
#45 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stereomandan /forum/post/19863717


A bummer about the preset gamma in 3D. Hopefully JVC will come out with a fimware change that will allow cusotm gamma in 3D.

I wouldn't hold my breath. The RS40 is working-as-designed (some might say broken-as-designed) with limited 3D adjustments and no CMS. It was also significantly cheaper than the RS50, which provides more features. JVC's answer would be to get an RS50.


Most will live in bliss with the RS40, while some opt for the RS50. For me, the choice was easy in getting a great deal on the RS40 and using the money saved on an external Lumagen VP that will last me long after I upgrade PJs again.
 
#46 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevenjw /forum/post/19865198


I wouldn't hold my breath. The RS40 is working-as-designed (some might say broken-as-designed) with limited 3D adjustments and no CMS. It was also significantly cheaper than the RS50, which provides more features. JVC's answer would be to get an RS50.


Most will live in bliss with the RS40, while some opt for the RS50. For me, the choice was easy in getting a great deal on the RS40 and using the money saved on an external Lumagen VP that will last me long after I upgrade PJs again.

Can't argue with you there. The RS40 Lumagen combo is a great combo and almost future proof since you can keep the Lumagen for CMS and easy gamma on any projector.


Dan
 
#47 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by stereomandan /forum/post/19863717


Sorry Ron, wasn't trying to imply that you had contrast and brightness set wrong, just stating what I've seen before with my own measurements in the past. Mainly on plasma and LCD TV's, but the same could easily happen with these front projectors.


A bummer about the preset gamma in 3D. Hopefully JVC will come out with a fimware change that will allow cusotm gamma in 3D.


Did you see my comment about 6500UB black level vs the RS40? Very curious about that. Thanks.


Dan

As for black level, with the Epson's dynamic iris turned off the JVC has better black levels. With the Epson's DI turned on I would say it's black level in very dark scenes is in the same ball park as the RS40. However the JVC is putting out overall a brighter picture. Also the DI on my Epson made a lot of noise that I found objectionable and you could see the DI working from time to time.
 
#48 ·
Thanks for the reply. I don't want this to get off topic, so this will be my last reply about your previous Epson vs. the JVC. Great info! I don't use the dynamic iris on my Epson 1080UB due to the brightness compression effect, and because I can see the brightness changing as the iris is working. Going by your comments, the JVC would be leaps and bounds better than the 1080UB without the iris on (regarding black level). Thanks. ...don't know if I could handle not having a full CMS to play around with though.
Now that you are done with your calibration on the JVC, how does the color accuracy look with actual Blu-ray material? Does it leave you wanting in any way?


Dan
 
#49 ·
I just wanted to comment about the use of 'Normal' gamma as a base: I don't know why it was called 'Normal' as JVC seem to have picked the worst curve possible to give this name. I've noticed many new owners seem to use this setting, but I can only assume it's purely because of the name, so they think it must be the correct setting to use...


Out of the box I believe A or B would be much closer to 2.2 to start with, though I've always used a default custom gamma of 2.3 myself as I prefer a slightly higher gamma in my room. Of course anyone that is going to calibrate fully would probably use a custom gamma anyway I guess, but the above is more for those who haven't got round to calibrating yet (or are waiting for the hours to build up first).
 
#51 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by stereomandan
Thanks for the reply. I don't want this to get off topic, so this will be my last reply about your previous Epson vs. the JVC. Great info! I don't use the dynamic iris on my Epson 1080UB due to the brightness compression effect, and because I can see the brightness changing as the iris is working. Going by your comments, the JVC would be leaps and bounds better than the 1080UB without the iris on (regarding black level). Thanks. ...don't know if I could handle not having a full CMS to play around with though.
Now that you are done with your calibration on the JVC, how does the color accuracy look with actual Blu-ray material? Does it leave you wanting in any way?


Dan
The RS40 colors look good, but I have not watched a lot of 2D programming since I did my initial calibration just a few days ago. I haven't attempted to do any calibraton for 3D mode except for reference black and white levels, and most of my viewing so far has been some of the 3D blu-rays I had purchased in advance of receiving my RS40. So I need a couple of weeks with some more 2D Blu-ray viewing on the RS40 before I come to any conclusion on the color accuracy vs. the Epson 7500.


On another subject: When I was adjusting the contrast to set the reference white level in 3D mode, I did notice one odd thing. I first used the test patterns on the AVS disc to set white level and black level (i.e., with the flashing bars). Then I displayed the individual red, blue and green reference test patterns and saw that I had to significantly reduce the contrast further in order to prevent the red from going into saturation at too low a level. I had to reduce contrast to around -12 setting to get the 235 red bar to display correctly. We only have two gamma choices for 3D mode and this was with gamma set for a brighter image.
 
#52 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by TomHuffman
When new, this PJ was bright enough for a 110" StudioTek in the low lamp mode, but most will probably want to put it into high lamp mode and then adjust the iris as the lamp ages. I got about 650 lumens in the High lamp mode.



I realize there as SO many factors that dictate lumen output, but on high lamp, new? Even under not so favorable conditions, doesn't 650 still seem low?
 
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