RS2/ PRO-FPJ1 Owners: Setup Discussion Thread - Page 82

Once the fan is off the bulb will continue to release heat until it cools down.
W/o fan running the PJ's case interior have more heat gain than heat less so the net heat energy within the box will increase rising the temp. Overtime this persumeabley would damage the electronics. But the main reason (IMO) for the fan to cool down the lamp after shut-off is to get the lamp ready for another power up in case if it is needed.

The geen/red over saturation is a matter of color decoder not gray scale (RGB) .

I get this high pitched whine too for about a few minutes on startup, as well as a sort of clicking sound for about 20 mins. Granted my head is only like 2-3 feet away from the projector. Is it because my basement is too cool or something. Anyone else with a cold basement?

While this is true, you are forgetting that you are not taking the "bulb" out of the "oven" you are leaving it in the fan just continues to draw heat out probably to eliminate any concentrated heat in the projector.

Without knowing the engineers intent, we are only guessing about the need.

I am getting this too. Is it related to room temperature? Is the room you are using it in cold?

Please note. This didn't start happening till I put 26 hrs on the unit.

Skeet,

All of these recommeded tweaks are just that. They're only recommendations for starting points. No two PJs or environments are the same, our lamp hours all differ, there are probably variations in our sources, and eyes too. IMHO, without the tools to calibrate, I still think you can get great PQ from the FPJ1 on a HiPower. You just need to trust your own eyes.

After 50 hours, I've moved away from the original gamma suggestion in my bat-cat with 9' wide HP. For my BD source, using DVE or Sony 7669 disc, I've found the following to have the best blacks, details, and snap. I like it and that's ALL that matters to me. YMMV.

Sharp= 0
DNR= 0
Color Temp= Middle
Gamma= Movie2 (default curve / no adjustements)
Color= -7
Contrast= 0
Brightness= -2 or -8

I use -2 for blu-ray on Panasonic BD30, but this can vary slightly based on source material. My HR21-700 DVR requires a lower brightness, generally around -8.

I find that Gamma 2.4 with the +5 tweak is a little too dark and the Movie2 provides more pop and great black details.

Maybe my grayscale and gammut are way off. You know what, I don't give a rat's ass. I like what I see and that's all that matters to me. Besides being content when watching movies, this has the added benefit of avoiding endless tweaking in the pursuit of some standard of perfection and the costs associate with that effort (ISF calibration, Eye-One, Lumagen).

Try these settings and don't be affraid to trust your own eyes with some test patterns for BTB setting. That should eliminate any black crush if you adjust for that. With the above settings in my environment, screen, etc., I have fantastic blacks and shadow detail. My fade to black is fantastic too even with the HP.

Glad you got something you like. Now you can start enjoying your theater. So is the picture quality as good as you expected? What about the fan noise, is that on the loud side like others have stated?

My theater is still good month or two away from being completed but I went ahead and purchased all my gear (HW10 is on the plane on it's way. I got really an awesome deal. ) except for the screen so I may have to setup a temporary theater in my bedroom sitting area and start enjoying it.

The picture quality on Blu-ray is better than I expected. I probably, will need this thing professional calibrated, but waiting to finish off the HT room before then. But even out of the box the picture is stunning. So far everyone I have shown it too thinks they are in a really good movie theater. Wish I had the money to finish off the HT now. But this projector set me back a bit.

Glad you got what you wanted for a good deal. In the end thats all that matters.

My PJ is in the basement as well, and it is cool (probably an average of 65° F). I'll be trying to keep it a bit warmer than when I was using the Pearl in the case that might have adversely affected uniformity somehow. But I am concerned about the tinkling sounds due to expansion/contraction because that suggests to me that stress is being put on these parts which I don't expect is good for their longevity. As it is, I'm just about to pull the trigger on a Mack warranty.
I'm curious to see how long the unit in the AVS classifieds will be for sale. I almost considered buying it as a spare and selling off my Pearl. There isn't a lot of (any?) content that I feel looked better on the Pearl, and a good bit that was weaker if not worse. I loved the ergonomics and aesthetics of it (and the noise level), but the more I get comfortable with the Pioneer, the less anxious I am to swap it out anytime soon, even with the more hyped color. Looking ahead a few years, I have a real hard time seeing feature sets and component quality improve to this level on sub $3000 pjs. In fact if Sony is now abandoning the $5K level to concentrate on ~$8K and ~$3K models, I don't see the $3K level being that big a bargain in the future as they will no doubt receive the lesser quality parts and QC to make the upper ends more justified. This is almost like getting a Lexus for the price of a Corolla. Yeah, you could wait a couple years and get an even newer Corolla for the same price...but why would you?

I'm mounting my projector to the ceiling, approx 19' from the 100' screen. Aesthetically, the PJ would look better 18" of horizontal center. Can the pj handle being this far of center without degrading the picture (or worse keystone) thanks for any advise

Well I think I finally figured this calibration stuff exept I don't really understand the gamma curve much. I think the picture looks a little dark. If I now adjust the brightness and contrast does that defeat the purpose of the calibration? Here are my final measures.

 

Calibration.doc 277.5k . file

I think the good transfer DVDs like Quantum of Solace looked great with this PJ when using XA2 player outputting 1080P/24hz-great sharpness and increased depth, but oddly enough if I output 1080i/60Hz to the PJ, the picture does not look as sharp and looses the extra depth- still great blacks and colors very good too. I think it could be that the Gennum processor in this PJ is a great scaler, but not the best deinterlacer. Are you guys sending progressive signal from your player?

Your posted settings are almost identical to what I'm running, with the exception of color and brightness at 0. Pretty much default settings with the exception of Gamma. I played around with the various presets and found that Movie2 provided the best balance when sourced from my XA2. I will turn down the color slightly as you have.

I'm relieved to hear that you have a similar experience with the Gamma 2.4 with the +5 bump as I have, at least my unit is not defective in that regard. I guess this highly touted setting it is not a magic bullet for all FPJ1 installations.

Thanks for sharing such pragmatic advice.

what are your setting on XA2 for picture? i assume output is 24 P for movies?

I have my XA2 set to 1080p/24. The Reon processor is still a top-notch performer by today's standards, and your observations confirm that.

The only complain I have on my XA2 is that the HDMI/HDCP handshake with the projector is hit or miss on my unit. I sometimes have to do several power cycles on the XA2 to get the HDMI to sync up. My XA2 is directly connected to the FPJ1. Do you have any HDMI issues with your setup?

No handshake issues going directly from XA2 via HDMI (a good quality cable)- blue screen for 2 seconds then picture. same with HDMI from
Dish HD box with signal going through Outlaw 990 pre/pro as well. I was wondering (other than output resolution) what settings you use on XA2 to this projector-I'm bumpling contrast +3 which is supposed to allow passing of blacker than black.

I'm basically using default settings on the XA2. The PQ is excellent as-is, but I'll do some adjustments with Avia after I log a few more hours on the FPJ1.

Please post your final numbers. Thanks for all the hard work.

Well now that make 3 of us with the problem. I will almost bet that this is fixable. I decided to move the unit all the way to the back wall about 19' from the screen (Still projecting clear and bright), of course the projector isn't ceiling mounted, its on a shelf at the back of the room close to the center of the screen horizontally and vertically. Honestly did this cause I couldn't stand the sound anymore.

Anyway, so I used my projector for like an hour before doing this. Let it cool down, disconnected all plugs and cabling and moved it. While I was rewiring I could hear the thing starting clicking\ inking again from a distance. I guess as it reacclimatized itself to the roof after use. So with no other ambient noise (Coming from the projector while it was on) I was able to ascertain where the noise was coming from. Its near the bulb, sound coming from the exhaust vent on the left hand side of the unit. Seems like the bulb is possibly getting too hot for the equipement or something and possibly warping the materials inside the unit. Your fear is sound, overtime this could cause the unit to break. Or it could just be as simple as the case contracting and expanded which would cause no damage to the internal parts.

So hooked up the unit again, powered it up and tinking\\clicking started up again. So I thought I would take the opportunity to try some settings on the projector to see if anything would help. What I discovered made sense to me at least. Increase the fan speed OR the bulb brightness, which increases the fan speed. Once I did this the sound disappeared. Probably because the unit was being cooled properly and the heat from the bulb wasn't warping material.

I then set the fan speed back to normal silent running mode and the tinking\\clicking returned, almost immediately. Well I had to do some adjustments to zoom and focus (having moved it back about 5 feet), and then as usually after the units 20-30 mins warm up the tinking\\clicking stopped. But having played with the fan settings I realized why the noise stopped. Even though the fan and blub brightness were set to normal, the fan had kicked into a higher gear. It was noticably louder. Not as loud as fan on high but close.

In the end I don't believe this will be an isolated incident. I think everyone who has cooler rooms will eventually experience this, to different degrees. I find the louder fan less annoying than the clicking\ inking and could possibly increase the life of the unit. So I am going to give that a try for a little while.

I am curious to see if it fixes your problem as well. Let me know.

Anyone brave enough to open the casing to find out exactly where the noise is coming from?

I've found the following to have the best blacks, details, and snap. I like it and that's ALL that matters to me. YMMV.

Sharp= 0
DNR= 0
Color Temp= Middle
Gamma= Movie2 (default curve / no adjustements)
Color= -7
Contrast= 0
Brightness= -2 or -8

Funny, I too use similar settings. Movie2 and Middle for sure. It just pops more IMO.

I also turned the sharpness up to around 8. (coming from DLP, I needed it to be a bit sharper).

Overall, it is a very vibrant and sharp image with incredible black levels.

It looks incredible when there is a dark scene with something bright in the foreground. Space movies look really incredible.

Good to see that I'm not alone in liking Movie2 best. I find the blacks and low IRE/shadow detail look fantastic with those settings.

I arrived at the Color= -7 using DVE and supplied blue filter. It also helps tone down some of the color saturation. As for the Brightness settings, I base those off of BTB test patterns and find that somewhere around -2 seems to general work best. I just think that this setting more than any other is effected by source and the one to adjust as needed. I like to maintain shadow/shades of black detail while getting the blacks to fade completely compared to any bars/borders. YMMV, but enjoyment from the FPJ1 should not.

Does anyone know what gamma Movie2 uses and how accurate it's defaults are in grayscale?

I am so pissed with UPS right now. I ordered mine from California and the store put Mo for the state instead of Mt. So the idiots at UPS sent it to Kansas instead of Montana despite the label having my correct city and zip code on it. Once UPS noticed the error they shipped it to South Dakota to be delivered to me this past tuesday. Now, because of bad weather, it has been stuck there for the past 3 days. I called UPS and they can give me ZERO information. If they would have sent it to my freaking zip code it would have traveled a different route and would have arrived last week. Even the post office checks this when you mail a package. I have gone from exitement to frustration over this purchase.

Since UPS is so automated, my guess is there was a problem with the preparation of the shipping label and the subsequent barcode, but it could have also gotten put on the wrong truck. The bright side is that the package isn't LOST!

"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" and so will your excitment when it finally does show up.

Anyone?

I've also noticed that if I switch to the cable box or streamer, turn them off and on again and then switch to the HTPC, I'll get a picture.

I'm now using a similar setup as what you and stevenjw posted. I tried the settings posted by Garen and found it to actually give me a red tint.

My settings:
110" 1.2 gain
pj mounted on ceiling w/lens 12' from screen
black ceiling and black screen wall
dedicated room that is 100% light controlled
lamp 38hrs
Sharp = 0
DNR = 0
Color Temp = Middle
Gamma = Movie 2
Color = -5
Contrast = 0
Brightness = 0

I'm still going to buy the Eye-One and use it following the procedure at curtpalme.com Although, I'll probably wait until I get more hours on the lamp.

Cool. That makes at least 4 of us using Movie2 and similar other settings, so that's good to know.

I do think the birghtness will change based on source and perhaps screen gain (my HP is 2.8). I usually find the best setting for BD somewhere between -2 and +1. I don't know why, buy my DirecTV HR21-700 works best between -6 and -8. I just use two different userX settings for the two.

I've thought about picking up an Eye-One. I'm very interesting in hearing what settings you change after you get yours and play around. Post your lamp hours too when you do. Thanks in advance.

Anyone else using Movie2 (or Theater2) gamma? Have you tried it verses gamma 2.4 +5% Y=45 and if so, what do you think?

Alan Gouger has good things to say about the Carada Brilliant White screens,and I have mine in a bat cave and find that the screen itself is invisable,and looks great with the Pioneer.John