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HD1000U Tweakers and Calibration Thread - Page 2

post #31 of 1453
11/30/06 at 9:39am
Damn I really need a screen larger than 92" for this projector, but I'm too poor now to spend hundreds.
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post #32 of 1453
11/30/06 at 9:40am
BTW, I am using the pj at the very front of its throw range for this size screen, zoomed all the way big. I noticed when I dialed the OSD in the upper left of the screen razor sharp the lower right of the screen was significantly out of focus. Focusing the lower right corner made a perfectly watchable compromise with the other corner and it all looks sharp, but there does seem to be some distortion at this zoom setting. Unless I don't have my screen set parallel to the pj, pf course! I *think* I do, but 'll have to check... Surely being off by an inch or so wouldn't create that big a problem... (the image does shoot square relative to the screen frame).
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post #33 of 1453
11/30/06 at 11:06am
Please, please, please will those of you who have/had a 4805 comment on the difference in black level and shadow detail/contrast between the 4805 and the HD1000? I'm just concerned about the white segment in the colorwheel causing everything to have a haze.

I have a 4805, + Xbox 360 HD-DVD, and I'm thinking seriously about upgrading. For this price, who wouldn't? BTW, I have a light-controlled room with a flat black front wall/ceiling and deep, deep green for the other three walls so a light cannon is not what I need, but it's nice to have once the bulb starts dimming.

PS: For anyone interested, if he hasn't already calibrated a HD1000, I think Krasmuzik is will give anyone a free mail-in calibration. The only downside is that you're without your PJ for a while. But hey, it's worth it for a top-notch calibration.
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post #34 of 1453
11/30/06 at 11:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mobius View Post

Please, please, please will those of you who have/had a 4805 comment on the difference in black level and shadow detail/contrast between the 4805 and the HD1000? I'm just concerned about the white segment in the colorwheel causing everything to have a haze.

I upgraded from a 4805. The HD1000 is far more vibrant and colorful. It's hard to say with black and shadow detail. Last night I watched MI3 and tried to pay special attention to black detail, and I honestly can't say I noticed it being better or worse than the 4805 in that regard.


Quote:


PS: For anyone interested, if he hasn't already calibrated a HD1000, I think Krasmuzik is will give anyone a free mail-in calibration. The only downside is that you're without your PJ for a while. But hey, it's worth it for a top-notch calibration.

Since it has a USB port (Which isn't really explained in the manual) It would be cool to email each other configuration files and just have it auto update.
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post #35 of 1453
11/30/06 at 11:30am
I'm thinking I might need a ND2 filter to use with this projector in my room. My room can almost be pitch black, and this puppy is an extreme light cannon. I'll try to set it in low power mode, and calibrate it to look best in my room, but I'm thinking during the first 200 to 300 hours on the lamp, I might need a ND2 filter when I'm watching movies.

Anybody have any ideas on which ND2 filter to get?
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post #36 of 1453
11/30/06 at 4:59pm
I'm also an upgrade from the 4805. There is no doubt at all that overall punch to the image is much greater (of course, my 4805 bulb was at the end of its life!) I have also gone from a white to a gray screen so that also affects what I'm seeing here but absolute black level seems better going by the bars on a 2.35 image. I KNOW I feel that perceived black level when there are areas of light and dark contrast on screen together look better. So I feel pretty good saying that the HD1000u can't be worse than the 4805 and combining it with a gray screen (and fresh bulb) is noticeably better. But in terms of overall PQ there is no comparison- this machine looks much better than the 4805. I'm going to love having it until the time comes to upgrade again.

Now, would an Optoma HD73 or Mits HC3100 be even mo better?? Pretty likely. But for the money this image rocks the house down.
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post #37 of 1453
11/30/06 at 6:07pm
Thanks for the observations thrustbucket and FredProgGH. Right now, I'd say the that my 4805 looks as good as it ever will, so if I pick one of these up I'll make sure I take good comparison notes.

Anyone else?


BTW, assuming I do buy the HD1000, would it be fair to compare a ceiling-mounted 4805 to a table mounted HD1000? More specifically, their relative positions shouldn't make any difference as long as their focused properly- right?

I have BOC screen so there should be a problem in that regard.
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post #38 of 1453
11/30/06 at 6:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by FredProgGH View Post

I'm also an upgrade from the 4805. There is no doubt at all that overall punch to the image is much greater (of course, my 4805 bulb was at the end of its life!) I have also gone from a white to a gray screen so that also affects what I'm seeing here but absolute black level seems better going by the bars on a 2.35 image. I KNOW I feel that perceived black level when there are areas of light and dark contrast on screen together look better. So I feel pretty good saying that the HD1000u can't be worse than the 4805 and combining it with a gray screen (and fresh bulb) is noticeably better. But in terms of overall PQ there is no comparison- this machine looks much better than the 4805. I'm going to love having it until the time comes to upgrade again.

Now, would an Optoma HD73 or Mits HC3100 be even mo better?? Pretty likely. But for the money this image rocks the house down.


Which gray screen are you projecting on Fred?
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post #39 of 1453
11/30/06 at 8:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mobius View Post

Which gray screen are you projecting on Fred?

It's a knockoff- one of those eBay screens. It's allegedly the equivalent of one of the Drapers but I forget which. It's 1.2 gain. Aesthetically it looks terrific and the image is wonderful but I have no idea whether the real name brand would be better or not.
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post #40 of 1453
11/30/06 at 8:16pm
Anyone thinking about getting a silverstar with this baby
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post #41 of 1453
11/30/06 at 9:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by absolutezerok View Post

Anyone thinking about getting a silverstar with this baby

Hehe- wouldn't that be more than the pj!! Good investment though. I bet it would look awesome.
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post #42 of 1453
12/1/06 at 6:40am
I'm interested in what screen everyone is using with the HD1000u and what room light conditions are. I have finally made up my mind and will be ordering a HD1000u today. I will be ordering a 106-110" screen for a light controlled room with dark walls and ceiling. Edit: Projector will be ceiling mounted.

I am leaning toward a Carada Brillian White due to all the great reviews but I'm not sure if that is the best choice with the lumen output of the 1000. I have an email into Carada to get their recommendation.
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post #43 of 1453
12/1/06 at 6:57am
I am also trying to decide what screen to buy. I have narrowed it down to the Elite Cinetension electrc screen at 92" or 100" in either matte white, high contrast white, or high contrast grey. My walls will be dark, but my ceiling is white. I will be ceiling mounting the HD1000 approx 13 feet from the screen on an 8 foot ceiling and be seated approx 15 feet from the screen. Should I go 92" or 100" with this set up? Which one will result in the best screen height due to the offset? Also, should I go grey or white. I was going to go grey due to the high lumens, but I read somewhere that the Elite HC grey is too dark and results in a dark image in some situations. Anybody have any advice. Thanks.
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post #44 of 1453
12/1/06 at 7:00am
Received my HD1000 yesterday and did an initial (by eye) calibration. 92" 1.85 matte white screen, projector sitting on the floor, under couch about 11.5' away.

Set Low lamp (very quiet), 100% overscan (annoying how it resets to 97% when changing the DVD player's output), Cinema mode...

Color: 4
Brilliant color: 3
Sharpness: -5
Contrast: Red 3 Green 4 Blue 5
Brightness: Red -3 Green -1 Blue 1

Picture is very bright, lights up the room, but not too bright. Lamp will age nicely. Definitely use the progressive outputs from the DVD player, the projector fed 480i twittered very noticeably. Blacks are decent, certainly not black but not distractingly bright either. However I have an ND2 filter and I am chosing not to use it, though I may see what it does.

I noticed the colors seemed undersaturated, thus the color 4 setting.

The electronic "shutter" feature is nice for me since I have a 1.85 ratio screen, blocking the top and bottom 1" of image. Everything set up pretty quickly, spent about 3-4 hours trying to get the colors/grayscale right (just by eye using Video Essentials test patterns and a few movies).

Compared to my previous 800x600 Davis DLP the image is much smoother. I didn't notice any chromatic aberration even though I zoomed almost maximum (biggest image).

Mark
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post #45 of 1453
12/1/06 at 8:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mizzoutigers View Post

Also, should I go grey or white. I was going to go grey due to the high lumens, but I read somewhere that the Elite HC grey is too dark and results in a dark image in some situations. Anybody have any advice. Thanks.

I used a white screen with the 4805 and bought a gray screen for the HD1000. Trust me, the image is anything but dark And whites seem white to my eye. All in all I think the gray screen looks wonderful. Of course, I don't know what a white screen would have looked like with this pj! The screen I'm using is a HC 1.1 gain clone of a Cinema Contour.
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post #46 of 1453
12/1/06 at 9:17am
With my current X1, I have a 113" 16:9 screen, and the screen is Behr Ultra Pure White. Around the screen and on the ceiling I have flat black. I'm thinking of trying a grey paint with this projector. Somebody suggested Sherwin Williams Gray Screen SW7071.
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post #47 of 1453
12/1/06 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
OK, I have tweaked with the image so far for HD cable, and have come up with this as my "by eye" calibarion so far. I still need to do adjustments for DVD and for the xbox360 on the VGA input.

A bit of a distraction that I need to fix - seems that the numbers for a 16:9 screen from PJ central calculator gave me a number that is "too tall" as with the image set and zoomed to fill the screen just to the mask I still have 1" of screen material at the bottom - so I need to cut my screen frame down by 1". Minor annoyance...

Preliminary numbers:

Screen size: 80" 16:9

Screen material and/or gain: "Do-able" DIY board DIY screen with black velvet mask. reported gain on the DIY screen forum has been .8 to 1.0.

Lighting issues (controlled or ambient, etc): 100% controlled to full on which is 4 spot halogens aimed at the side walls.

Room factors (light/dark wall/ceiling color): Chocolate brown walls, maroon curtains in front, tan ceiling and carpet. White door to the left side of the screen right at the front of the room on the side wall.

Other factors (using an ND filter, etc): No filters. Low lamp mode.

Hookup for this calibration: HD cable via component inputs - 720p setting.

I have it DIY ceiling mounted. The PJ is very quiet in low lamp mode. Nice. The ceiling color and even the white door is not an issue distraction wise. The PJ is one bright mother and I agree that it should age well given the lumens this thing puts out. I would not say it is "too bright" in a completely dark room, but I am used to watching a bright plasma in a dark room already. I will say that with the lights off, this thing is like an 80" plasma screen. I would not have believed it without seeing it.

Contrast: 6
Sharpness: 2
Brightness: - 1
Keystone: 0,0
Color Temp: Warm
Aspect: Auto
Brilliant Color: 2
Overscan: 99%
Gamma: Cinema

Blacks are awesome. Whites are white. Collors look very accurate overall. So far I am not seeing any one color being pushed. I keep looking for something that I don't like but can't find anything. SD cable material looks decent as well, but we don't watch much of that anyway so its not an issue...

I have not messed with any other of the "user settings" yet for bigntness... I am VERY pleased with this amost stock out of the box. Stock settings on this thing are great. The wife is VERY pleased. She was quite skeptical of the change from the beginning, but one episode of CSI later - no going back. The kool-aid has gone down well...

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post #48 of 1453
12/1/06 at 2:24pm
pcrx,

Looks like our numbers are in the same general ballpark except for sharpness, which I've always kept low or off. Of course with a HD source you may not see the noise I saw when sharpness was at the default 0 or greater.
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post #49 of 1453
12/1/06 at 2:51pm
How does the aspect ratio: "Auto" work?
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post #50 of 1453
12/1/06 at 4:45pm
What is "Off" for sharpness on this unit- is it 0 or is it all the way down in the negative numbers. i know, I still haven't cracked the manual *lol* Maybe I'll do that now.
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post #51 of 1453
12/2/06 at 12:50am
The manual, as usual, provides no explanation for what the sharpness settings do. The difference between 0 and -5 are very subtle, but changing from 0 to +5 provides a significant increase in sharpness (and image noise) on my component 480p DVD image. I don't think anyone would notice the difference between -5 (possibly softer than sharpness "off") and 0, but each step between 0 and 5 introduces a significant amount of sharpness/noise that is easily seen.

The remote lets you adjust several variables directly without pulling up the menu, sharpness one of them. If you don't select any one, the left and right arrows adjusts fine sync for some reason, maybe because it's a subtle adjustment that the menu might distract from.

Watched Superman Returns last night and enjoyed the movie but did notice a lot of gray blacks in the movie; there were a lot of dark scenes and I found it a bit distracting. I'm probably a good candidate for a DC3; I'll try the ND2 filter and see if it improves the blacks to my liking.
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post #52 of 1453
12/2/06 at 6:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Slone View Post

Watched Superman Returns last night and enjoyed the movie but did notice a lot of gray blacks in the movie; there were a lot of dark scenes and I found it a bit distracting. I'm probably a good candidate for a DC3; I'll try the ND2 filter and see if it improves the blacks to my liking.

I watched Superman Returns 2 nights ago and noted the same problem on our HD70. I want better blacks (and more detail in the dim areas). I'd rather have that than 1080P!
I'm going to try a grayer screen color (DIY Doable white surface) and maybe an ND2. DC3 will probably be DC4 by the time I upgrade again.

EDIT: Sure would like to see an HD70/HD1000U side-by-side shootout.
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post #53 of 1453
12/2/06 at 8:12am
The neutral density filter seems to work okay, slightly darker blacks and (since the projector is in its first hours) the whites still look good in low lamp. Likely I'll use it for the first one or two hundred hours and then go without as the lamp ages.

Re-checked the projector with Fifth Element, and it still looks great on movies not dominated by dark scenes, but the filter doesn't make a night-and-day difference. Still, I think Dark City (one of my favorite movies) is watchable on this projector, just not as striking as it could be.

As for a HD70/HD1000U shootout, of course the 1000 would win (at least in this thread). Actually I think they're probably almost indistinguishable and I've already bought the Mitsubishi so it would be purely academic for me. Looking forward to the DC4 in a couple of years...
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post #54 of 1453
12/2/06 at 8:32am
My wife and I were talking yesterday about watching Dark City again (one of my favorites as well - and it's got Jennifer Connolly, can't miss). It is a good test of detail in low light scenes. And a fun movie (Roger Ebert's commentary is good as well.)
Today I'll pick up an ND2 and see what it can do.
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post #55 of 1453
12/3/06 at 4:56am
Currently waiting on component cables so running via s-video. Have set to cinema and made a few adjustments. I'm using Getgray, when calibrating contrast or brightness I'm unable to to hide any bars whatsoever, I also can not access the overscan. Is this because of the s-video?? I've also tried Avia but can't get the Contrast or Brightness to move? Txs
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post #56 of 1453
12/3/06 at 9:36am
Anyone noticing a reddish/orange tint in the blacks?
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post #57 of 1453
12/3/06 at 11:07am
Are any of you guys using the "setup" feature in the "Features" menu? If you use this you can bring brightness down either 3.75% or 7.5%, resulting in much better contrast and blacks. I was initially disappointed in the black levels as well, coming from a 4805 and HD70...but with this simple adjustment, the blacks are awesome and shadow detail is great. Try this, and let me know what you guys think.

-Gene
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post #58 of 1453
12/3/06 at 11:10am
Ishag, The manual: "When VIDEO or S-VIDEO is chosen as the source, OVER SCAN is not available with certain signals." It's also not available in "stretch" or "real" modes (this info is spread out in the poorly organized manual, the PDF manual is handy for searching). I don't follow/understand the rest of your questions.

PoseidonXXL, I also noticed the reddish tint in blacks, the user brightness settings (allowing separate red, green and blue settings for brightness) allow you to adjust it out. My brightness setting for red is -3 which reduces the red tint in the blacks (with blue and green near 0).
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post #59 of 1453
12/3/06 at 11:42am
im an HD70 owner, but this thread should defintely be stickied.
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post #60 of 1453
12/3/06 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Slone View Post

Ishag, The manual: "When VIDEO or S-VIDEO is chosen as the source, OVER SCAN is not available with certain signals." It's also not available in "stretch" or "real" modes (this info is spread out in the poorly organized manual, the PDF manual is handy for searching). I don't follow/understand the rest of your questions.

PoseidonXXL, I also noticed the reddish tint in blacks, the user brightness settings (allowing separate red, green and blue settings for brightness) allow you to adjust it out. My brightness setting for red is -3 which reduces the red tint in the blacks (with blue and green near 0).

I've tried to calibrate grey levels with Getgray and Avia. I'm currently using s-video, when I adjust contrast or brightness the full range the measurement bars to not change a bit, I'm not sure if this because of s-video although on my X-1 I could adjust. Alot of features not available via S-video and this may one. My component cable should be here tomorrow and that may be the reason.
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