*New* AE100 Screenshots after intial calibrations  

Howdy folks, you may recall me from this thread from a few days ago... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=139048

Well, last night I was *finally* able to perform some initial calibrations on the AE100.
Click this link to the view the preliminary screenshots... http://209.234.184.99/ht.htm

*IMPORTANT - DUE TO .JPG COMPRESSION, THE 2048x1536 IMAGES ARE MUCH CLOSER TO THEIR REAL-LIFE COUNTERPARTS!!!* I can easily see the added .jpg artifacting in the 1024x768 shots... please don't confuse that with "screendoor" and "banding". Again, look at the 2048x1526 images for a more realistic portrayal.

I plan on continuing with the calibrations throughout the weekend and hope to post more pictures on Sunday or early next week...

The screen is a Da-Lite Model B 92"x52" Matte White.
Projector and Camera are ~11' from the screen. ~1.4X screen width.
Seating Position is ~15.5'. ~2X screen width.
Camera is an Olympus C-3040.

My Toshiba TW65X81 65" HDTV is now collecting dust in another room. :D

EDIT: The projector was *sharply* focused during these shots, and therefore some screendoor may be evident. However, these shots were taken near the projector (~11')... at the seating area (~15.5') screendoor is virtually nonexistent! LOL Yes, I should clean up my desktop a bit and uninstall a few rogue apps! ;)


Regards,
Ken

PS The guy in the "Screen Install #1" picture is my Father-In-Law... Great guy!

Namlemez, do you (or anyone else) know of any good sites that have similar pictures (Shrek, FE, etc) using the D-ILA w/ HTPC? I'm currently on a search for all sites with screenshots from many projectors... I'd really like to see something to compare my set-up with. :)

Here's a site I found from one of our forum members (Wireless) that's exactly what I'm looking for... http://www.msnusers.com/MilleEmporium/hometheater.msnw

As an example compare this image...
http://www.msnusers.com/MilleEmporiu...oto&PhotoID=79

With this one...
http://209.234.184.99/images/p5160040s.jpg

EDIT: LOL Wireless, I was posting about your site as I was typing the previous. Yes, the shots are very close. However, as mentioned above, we sit another 4+ feet away from where the shots were taken, and therefore the images in real life are even better! :)

Ken

Excellent. Let us know when your new shots are up! :)

BTW, that's a sweet-looking HT Room you've got there. My only wish is that mine was dedicated. For the most part it is, but I've got a Kitchen, Hallway, and Breakfast Nook on the right side of the room that I'd like to get rid of. ;)

Ken

Ryan, the ceiling is 9' high. The screen is currently sitting 8 links down on the chain. ;) I not sure of the "norm", but I'm still in the process of trying various heights and making adjustments to the position of the screen, the projector, etc. Speaking of which, it's currently "mounted" on a portable wine rack!

That said, according to the manual, the optimum position of the projector is 2" from the bottom (or top, depending on mounting) of the screen.

Mike - yeah, the Boltz are niiiice! I think I'm going to need a third one soon!

Ken

Jerome, yeah currently the Contrast is set to 31 (the highest value). I'm lowering it to a more reasonable level tonight... this is just the first of many shots that I plan on posting over the next several weeks. Hopefully as time progresses they'll get even better. :)

Ken

NoLimits looks COOL (http://www.nolimitscoaster.de/)!!!

Some guest have already mentioned getting slight motion sickness after viewing the sim on the 8' wide screen. :D

The only problem is, my current HTPC is faily low-end, so the game doen't look nearly as good as my main PC upstairs (2GHz Athlon XP, Geforce 4, etc). My next project (*very* soon) is upgrading the HTPC.

Actually, if I think about it, tonight I'll take some shots of NoLimits in action and post them too!

Ken

Saturday Morning Update:

Wireless - Thanks for the two new shots.

OK, I got home last night and did some more tweaking... Man alive I should have never set my contrast to 31! I set it back to "0", looked at the same shots from which I took my pictures, and wow, what I difference - now there is no more "crushed whites".

I'm still in the process of hunting down the proper procedure for finding the "best" contrast level, but so far I've only found instructions for D-ILA and DLP projectors. Also, while using AVIA, I can't see *any* moving white line in the applicable test pattern!?! I set my contrast as low as it will go and still didn't see it. Anyone know why that would be? Guy?

Incidentally, Cliff Plavin (Progressive Labs) over at TAWforum.com just replied to a post I made concerning calibrating the AE100 using the excellent CA-1 Colorimeter. He offered to create a "Cal" (Calibration) file specifically for the unit within 48 hours of me sending it to him! I'll take him up on the offer just as soon as I'm able to part with my new toy! ;) LOL however, in his response he indicated his shock at a request to provide a Cal file for a projector that costs less than the Colorimeter! :) Once I'm able to acquire the new file, I should be able to dial in D6500K from 0-100 IRE to the best of the Pannny's ability... *then* I'll be able take some niiiice pictures.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the night watching clips from various DVDs, which was a great experience.. unfortunately, the time passed so quickly that by the time I remembered to take some screenshots I was nearly asleep. Suffice it to say, I didn't take any new shots, but I plan on doing so tonight.


Ken

Yes, aderose, I'm using my HTPC with Radeon 7500. Thanks for the tip!

Ken