Newbie, is there a beginners software/device. is this easy?

I am about in the same boat expect I picked up the Epson 6010. I have done a few calibrations in the past and once you put in the hours to research you can then get an understanding of what you are changing. I have checked out Chromapure and after I get a couple hundred hours on my projector I am going to order the Chromapure and D3 Pro and go at it.

I am in a spot where I just can't have a calibrator come out and do my setup, nobody travels to my town and I have asked a lot over the years, so this is my only bet. I plan to calibrate every 500 hours or so, I think that will keep me happy.

chromapure and the d3 pro is what i started with... it is pretty easy to use... to the best of my knowledge, all the software available (cp and calman) is windows only, no osx support... i'm an apple guy too, but keep around an ancient windows lappy for stuff like this...

however, i suggest reading a LOT of calibration threads... even though cp is easy to use, there is still a significant learning curve involved in terms of "what is actually happening"... i would estimate that it took me the better part of 100 hours of sitting in the dark and playing to understand what was going on and to a get a really good cal (and that was using the autocal feature of cp in conjunction with a radiance mini)... i had put a significant amount of time up front into learning calibration theory as well...

don't let that discourage you though... the "learning experience" was actually quite fun (with the exception of one or two times that i was ready to throw everything out the window)... it's a worthwhile venture if you are willing to put the money and time (especially the time) into learning how to do it... and there is no shortage of people here who are very helpful...

With a projector and BD screen you probably should get a pro that will educate you on all the aspects of calibration while he is doing the job. Your profile does not list your location but if you were to have one of the highly rated pros that educate while the calibrate, it would be like taking a class.. you get hands on learning form a real pro that does the work day after day, unlike the the class provided by the software vendors. Yes, it would cost you about $400+ but with the projector and BD screen there are caveats that make thing even more complicated.
If you are on the East coast I would say give ChadB a call.. West coast RayJr... These guys I know will educate you, and you will then know if you want to invest the $ for hardware and software to do the work yourself. It is not as simple as it seems when reading the dummy guild or the software instructions.. Let me clarify that, what I mean is that many Device (TVs Projectors) have controls that you think work one way, but really work another or don't work at all. This makes things very frustrating and the pros that make their living at this know about these bugs and how to work around them. In your case the BD screen add color shift and it is an angular reflective screen I think.. so both play into the meter location and calibration.

If you are committed to spending the time (LOTS OF TIME) in the dark learning the software and the device controls, then save the Pro price and have fun!

As to how often, it depends on the lamp. some lamps stay stable for 500-1000 hours other don't.. Once you get a properly calibrated image, and you watch it for a while, you will know when it is time to tweak..

^^^

agree strongly with the "watch and listen to a pro do it"... i learned a lot when umr calibrated my plasmas.... that certainly gave me a real good head start...

if you choose to get your own hardware, a little tip... get the standard D3 colorimeter AND a used i1Pro spectro instead of an 'enhanced' D3 PRO or C6 (if you are serious about meter accuracy profiling the colorimeter on your actual display with the i1Pro will be far more accurate than relying on 'enhanced' calibration tables alone)

Like all test equipment, the used market is a jungle, the i1pro has been around for 4 revision and there are many threads about what to and what not to buy used. Do some forum searches on used i1pro.

You do not NEED any calibrations software or hardware, you seem to WANT it. What happens to most of us is we buy the inexpensive Colorimeter because we feel it is a good value and we don't want to spend $1000+ to make our TV correct. Then after we spend many many days and nights messing with it, we finally figure out that it is not as accurate as we were hoping. So now we are all upset that we tweaked our CMS and the charts and meter says it is perfect but our eyes tell us it is not.. Now we go buy a spectro which is more accurate and then we are happy with the outcome..

There are numerous threads on why you would need both a colorimeter and a spectro. The basic issues is the inexpensive spectros (under $1200) are not real accurate at low light levels 0-30%. Colorimeters buy design are not as accurate as spectros by them selfs. However is you profile (software operation that makes an offset matrix using the display you are calibrating) the colorimeter to the spectro, the colorimeter then becomes as accurate as the spectro for that TV and is accurate down to 10% (colorimeters can read lower light levels)

So if you want it as good as it can get, you need to spend really big bucks on a high end Spectro like a Jeti or you buy 2 inexpensive meters to get resonance accuracy. With both meters, the colorimeter is used to do gray scale and the spector to do CMS work.

You need to spend another 2 or 3 weeks reading over past threads before you make a purchase, this is not a follow the directions and you get it done kind of adventure.. there is a reason it is called a hobby... If you are the kind of person that does a project and says.. don't worry about it, caulk will fix it .. it is good enough, then go for the package and do the best you can. If on the other hand you are the type that says.. that cabinet is still 2/100th out of level, do some more reading, hire an educating pro for the first calibration, enjoy the education and calibrated image and over the next 500 hours of projector use, buy your hardware and learn what to do.

Gota go, cabinet still not level!

If you are interested in a used i1Pro, there is one listed in the AVS Classified http://www.avsforum.com/t/1421960/x-rite-i1pro-eyeone-pro-spectroradiometer-rev-d

You mean a DVDO Duo? There are autocal options in CalMAN for it, and ChromaPure has that option

That reminds me, I'll probably be posting my Duo in classifieds soon.

No the Edge is just a scaler/processor.

For calibration you need the Duo.

As for meters you won't beat the value of the i1 Display Pro (i1 Display OEM, i1 Display 3, it's a meter with many names).

The step down from that is a spyder 4 (SpectraCal has a customized version called the C1), the step up from that is the customized versions of the i1 Display Pro (like the SpectraCal C6).