Requesting basic calibration tips for JVC RS20

A cheapo / starter way to go is to get a calibration disk for well under $50. Obviously a better way is to get a professional calibration done. You spent that much money for the pj. Get the most out of it.

You can start by setting it to THX mode. Then, with a calibration disk, set up contrast, color, hue/tint, etc.. You can download a file in the calibration thread call AVS709, which has the test patterns to tweak contrast, brightness, etc..

Use the THX mode, as it is pretty accurate out of the box. Unless you have a meter and accurate test patterns, there's no need to waste time copying other's settings. Each projector will vary, so in my opinion, copying other's settings is pointless.

If you have an AVR with selectable color space, select 4:2:2 (or RGB if it only has that function). Then select the same color space on the RS 20 HDMI control and turn off Auto as it does not appear to be working correctly. If you do not use an AVR as your “hub”, try to manually select the same color space for all your sources.

Use a contrast / brightness test pattern found on the downloadable AVS test disk, or buy the BR DVE test disk and set brightness / contrast. You can play with color and tint, but I've found this to be difficult without test equipment.

Play with the iris setting and lamp mode. Find what you prefer, as this is purely a personally preference thing. If you want max on / off contrast, high lamp and minimum iris is what you want to use, but at the sacrifice of ANSI contrast. Max ANSI contrast is achieved by going the opposite direction (iris wide open). Depending on your screen / room, you may find the iris wide open and lamp in normal mode to be preferable. I happen to like the lamp set to normal with the iris at -4. Other user’s preferences range from one extreme to the other.

The CMS is, in a nutshell, broke. It does not track in a linear fashion from 100% to 25% stimulus. Without an external VP with CMS, all you can hope for is "close" color tracking, even with a pro doing the work. About all a pro can do is get you a good grey scale and color temp.

I started by using the THX mode. I wasn't going to try and adjust the unit with the CMS because I didn't want to spend endless hours trying to achieve something that wasn't attainable. One night I did decide to quickly plug in the settings from one of the other members, LovingDVD, and the image was really very good. I also adjusted the gamma to 2.3 and 2.4 but ended up going with 2.3 (you can't adjust gamma in THX mode) Here are the settings that LovingDVD provided

Color: 0 (or reduce as much as -10 if you want; zero clipping at -10, some clipping in bright colors at 0, very little clipping left at -4)

R: -2 -20 7
Y: 3 -30 16
G: -11 -30 19
C: -1 -30 30
B: 0 -20 8
M: -2 -16 6

Give it a try and see what you think. I personally like it better than the THX mode even though it doesn't track as well.

high power on the lamp and I believe -6 or -4 on the iris. I'll have to check.

Sorry, I'm not sure what that option is or does. What you basically want to occur is to keep the color space from changing from source to source because the JVC's auto detect does not appear to working correctly, or so it has been reported. I know that it does not work on my unit, but I use an outboard VP, so it is a mute issue for me because I can set the VP and projector up to have matched inputs for all sources. I also found while attempting to calibrate this machine myself, that I had much better luck with the HDMI setting turned to Enhance mode, which again, leads me to believe that the JVC's color space detection is not functioning properly. I believe this is the very first step to take when messing with this machine, but others disagree so I may be full of it. But I believe my eyes and the readings on my laptop.

I think that this projector is plenty bright with the lamp in normal mode with your screen size and the fact that you have a light controlled room. I use a 106 FH 1.3 gain screen and it's simply too bright for me in high power mode. But, that may be just my personal preference. Even set as it is, (normal lamp, 65K color temp, iris -4) I squint when scenes go from dark to bright. You may not be as sensitive as I am, which is why I suggest you play with it.

You could also just try a few of the settings that the guys have posted in the calibration thread and toggle back and forth between them to see if one is to your liking. I tried that method for a while but found myself continually changing things. It's like having power seats with infinite adjustments......

Personally, I'd just use THX, do your best to set contrast, brightness and run the iris wide open and use normal lamp. Then just enjoy your new projector and don't give it another thought. Once you start tweaking', you'll find yourself in a never ending loop of chasing your tail and will stop enjoying the great picture this thing throws up.

Did you use the THX mode and adjust the settings from there?

You cannot do any CMS adjustments in THX mode. You have to use the users presets to do so.. With THX my understanding is that you can only adjust the greyscale, color, tint, contrast, brightness and iris..

The gamut and gamma are reasonably accurate in THX mode. The color problem you see is the grayscale tracking, which is not reasonably accurate in THX mode. This requires professional calibration.

The CMS is broken. I wouldn't bother with it.

The x.v.color option is a useless marketing gimmick. There is zero commercial software or broadcast sources available that take advantage of this color space. Ignore it.

Tom,

Aren't the colors in THX mode undersaturated?

When I view in THX mode I boost the color to +5 (or slightly higher). Works for me.

Only very slightly. That's why I said "reasonably accurate". It is not perfect, but darn close.

As Tom said the CMS isn't perfect. THX is the best starting place. If you want to make sure it is all that it can, you'll have to hire a professional to come to your house as it requires special gear.

So if I am understanding what I've been reading, THX is pretty good-except for slight undersaturation and grayscale tracking. So if I just get the grayscale corrected in THX will I be pretty close to optimum? I dont want to get involved in endless tinkering and I dont want to do a complete calibration that soon gets out of wack as the bulb ages. Any thoughts?

tbones - this topic is well covered already in the Official RS20 / HD750 Calibration and CMS thread here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1096981 , including several preconfigured (by fellow AVS members) CMS options for you to choose from. I would encourage everyone to post there to keep the number of RS20/750 threads to a minimum (one "owners" thread and one calibration thread is sufficient).

This is indeed a necessary thread. As stated above the official one is a convoluted mess of setting experiments that a novice cannot follow. Then the settings have versions one, two , etc. I have asked for advice because I thought the avid tinkerers would let me benefit from their labors. I did not get it in the way I can use it. Please lovingdvd your settings , for example, are well regarded-but nowhere can I find step 1, step 2 and so forth. So I read this thread in the hope I can find what I cant find in the official thread!

^Amen^

Yep.

Tom,

With a professional calibration the best that you can do with the RS20 is to adjust the grayscale, and the other settings such as color,tint,contrast, brightness and iris?
Is it posible to get a more saturated color gammut that behaves similar in terms of linearity like the THX?

See. That what I wanted-a simple answer.

I would like to see what the professional calibrators have to say about the advice in this thread.

"So if I am understanding what I've been reading, THX is pretty good-except for slight undersaturation and grayscale tracking."

I stopped reading the big cal thread, but early on a good % of reports on the THX mode were that it gave a yellow/green cast to skin tones.

Is that no longer the case, or can it be adjusted out with the basic controls?

The guys in the now very long RS20 calibration thread have come up with a number of alternatives, all of which are less accurate than THX, but which may appeal to someone seeking a more saturated palette.