[aderose]

I clearly indicated indicated in the subject this thread was about the AE100 so all you player-haters could avoid it. Seriously, I'm not sure what I just said.


Gamma Adjustments:


With all the talk of AE100's used in conjunction with HTPC's - and I think I've read every post by now - I can't believe nothing's been mentioned about gamma adjustment. I have a Geforce2 400MX and from what I've read in the HTPC section I shouldnt be able to adjust my gamma settings - well I can. I didnt know Powerstrip had gamma settings so I installed Adobe Phototshop and used its gamma-setting wizard (if youre looking for it it's put in control panel after installation.) Before tuning the gamma controls no matter what I did I wasnt able to see the moving white lines on the AVIA steps and needles pattern - now I can. Hopefully this will be helpful to those having the same problem.


Hoya and Hoya and Gamma:

I got the Hoya FL-D today and all my adjustments (gamma, AVIA) were made with the filter installed. In case you're thinking the Hoya has something to do with my new-found ability to see the white bars it doesnt - I tested with and without it.

I assumed I would have to do something with the color balance on the AE100 to correct for the Hoya's reddish hue - which worried me because I'm still not sure exactly what these adjustments do. One thing I know is that if I max them out as LiOn suggested [Edit: my mistake - he never suggested this!] the white bars become invisible again. OK, so instead of adjusting the color balance I adjusted the gamma for each color individually and got a very neutral color balance (ignoring the effects of my red-panel's color uniformity problem.) I followed the AVIA instructions to the letter.



Results:

Positive: Black levels are much improved. Watched Casablanca and the picture was definitely watchable.

Negative: Every damn scene looks like it was filmed at dusk. Sure I can up the brightness but then I dont know why I just spent 2 hours calibrating it with AVIA.


Is there something I'm doing wrong here? Have I just discovered that in fact all movies ARE filmed at dusk? If I'm doing everything right - anyone want to but a hardly-used Hoya filter?

 

[aderose]

anyone? I thought there were a bunch of people with the AE100 and FL-D

 

[Pultzar]

I had a problem once where all of my movies looked like they were at night time. In AVIA, I couldn't see the black moving bars and I could never get the white ones to clip without massively increasing the contrast setting on the projector.


Turns out it was the hardware acceleration in PowerDVD. Once turning that off, the picture returned to normal and was plenty bright.


This was on a screen 5.5' wide with a Hoya filter.

 

[cpc]

aderose did you try turning off the hardware acceleration?

 

[aderose]

I use WinDVD and I did have hardware acceleration turned on in WinDVD tweaker. I havent had time to recalibrate with AVIA after disabling it so I was waiting until then to post my reply - I'll let you know as soon as I do. But I watched digital cable through s-video with the Hoya filter and I definitely noticed the colors were more vibrant and the black levels were better.


Now im hung up doing research on how to set gamma properly for HTPC w/LCD projector - I asked this question once before on the forum but from the replies I got it seemed like I would have to build my own color meter - and I was hoping there'd be an easier solution.

I'd be happy just using adobe gamma but it asks me what class of phosphors my display uses when I go through the wizard and as the LCD doesnt use any phosphors I'm not sure what to select.

You can be sure I'll post when I get everything straightened out.


It stinks a little that the Digital projector forum is divided now because this is a question that pertains to all Digital projectors - but I think we AE100 owners only have ourselves to blame

 

[aderose]

I should have done more research on the forum beforehand. Li On posted some accurate screenshots of the AE100 with FL-D in this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...highlight=hoya


You'll notice what while the contrast is improved the picture is too dark - in my opinion. But disregarding my subjective opinion, daytime should look like daytime - look at the shot of the kid in the opening scene of 5th Element - it should be midday but it doesnt look it. So I think that's the end of my Hoya filter.


Another thing I discovered is that the gamma adjustments I made were irrelevant. I dont know why it worked the first time but I did many tests this time to see if gamma adjustments with adobe gamma had an effect on overlay - they do not! With the default overlay settings on my Geforce2 MX400 I was still unable to see the moving black bars in AVIA despite adjusting my projector's settings - it was only when I increased brightness with my overlay controls that the bars became visible. So I made all my adjustments with the overlay controls leaving the projector controls at their default values.


The question of how to properly adjust the gamma still remains. I think the balance controls on the AE100 might have something to do with it. I assumed my video card is outputting an sRGB gamma - probably not a valid assumption (ill get into that later). Then I displayed the adobe gamma test images for gamma adjustment for individual colors and instead of adjusting the sliders adobe provides which dont affect overlay I adjusted the red-balance, blue balance and green balance on the projector and I could definitely see the effects I was supposed to (i.e. the center box blending into the outer box - so I think I figured out what these things do.) I also assumed overlay (whose gamma doesnt seem to be adjustible) uses sRGB gamma. Only when making the above two assumptions can I conclude that calibrating the gamma properly with the projector's adjustments when viewing windows desktop will calibrate it properly for viewing overlay material (e.g. DVD's.)


As for the sRGB profile, I think I accidentally overwrote mine and I'm not sure what the default gamma output of my or anyone's video card is or where to get another.


I'm figuring this all out as I go, so if anyone sees some glaring error in my logic or my methods, I'd appreciate it if you point it out.


-Adriano

 

[aderose]

Oh yeah, also turning hardware acceleration on and off with WinDVD Tweaker didnt seem to affect the picture.