Official Mitsubishi hc4000 ONLY Thread - Page 82

This is going to be a long post, so feel free to skip it, but for people wanting the lowdown on shadow detail, this might help explain it..

I measured an almost perfectly flat 2.2 gamma on the Mits hc4000 out of the box. Don't remember what I measured on the hc3800 (owned that one too long ago). As far as shadow detail, shadow detail is 80% native contrast and 20% image processing. The Mits already hits exceptional in the sense of incredibly clean image processing, so we got the 20% covered.

The Native on/off maxes out at 3,000:1 to 4,000:1 at farthest throw, these reviewers never do measure on/off correctly, there are several issues that can occur when trying to measure it. For one, they are often measuring off the screen, I always measure pointed at close range to the lens and near the screen (two separate methods), as well I take the meaurement with multiple devices. I won't go into why the native on/off numbers by reviewers are always so far off base (except Cine4 is about the only one that does it right, and even then they mess up too sometimes), but let's just say the web sites rarely ever get it right.

So shadow detail will be the same generally as other projectors within this same general contrast range. Shadow detail shouldn't even be mentioned in reviews anymore IMHO, unless there is an intrinsic issue with the projector, more than half of projectors now-a-days all have what I want to call "perfect shadow detail for their contrast capability", within the limitations of how well they calibrate.

When reviewers are posting those images and start saying lookie here at the difference in shadow detail, well the only way to get shadow detail to match on two projectors on the same scene is to cross calibrate them at the same time. There are several issues with this test. The best shadow detail test is actually just ensuring the RAMP patterns on a test disc are all properly visible, then you're done, anything else is going to be BIAS in image processing and slight gamma errors and color errors.

Think of it this way, if you have a very dark scene with a tiny bit of shadow detail in a scene, and one projector unusually shows a lot more detail, well half the time it is color error. For one, our colorimeters cannot read below 20% IRE, which means we cannot get the gray-scale perfectly clean in dark scenes. When a color error is added to a dark scene, you get all kinds of side effects, one is improved shadow detail (for instance, some colors are more visible to our eyes over black even at the same darkness). Even a tiny color error that cannot be seen by eye can add shadow detail. Color errors and bias will magically make a scene have better shadow detail (think of it like taking a crayon and highlighting a border, and the other projector is not highlighting because one has no color adding to the scene, hence no error). Because of this and several other reasons, even comparing 5 different dark scenes will not give you a proper analysis of shadow detail, you'd need to use test patterns and meter readings, you cannot judge shadow detail by eye (you are just seeing differences in calibration). Even a perfectly calibrated projector does not track the same at different saturation levels, so it doesn't matter how perfectly two projectors are calibrated (well it does matter, but I mean it doesn't even come close to eliminating error when trying to evaluate shadow detail).

If you want to know the shadow detail capabilities of a projector, it's simple, look at the contrast ratio and that's the shadow detail capability.

Exactly correct, shadow detail on a properly calibrating projector is nothing more than simple calibrations. The issue is when someone tries to compare shadow detail between two projectors in certain scenes and proclaims one to be better than the other. That is the most erroneous way to test shadow detail possible. It can be done, but only after taking so many measurements it is nauseating.

Even the gamma standards of 2.2 to 2.4 are controversial actually, and they are a personal preference.

Get you a motorized screen?
What is spray-on TAN?