[MichaelZ]

I wanted to show some screens shots of my Marantz VP12S1 on my DIY screen. The shots were taken by hand with an old Oly D-400 1.3 mpeg camera that has seen better days So for what its worth here are a couple of pixs.

http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/sd...mmer/mypix.htm

 

[Bernie R]

Do you happen to have a thing for beautiful redheads???


YUM!


Bernie

 

[MichaelZ]

How did you guess! LOL!

 

[mbw23air]

Very Nice!! Where are the pics from Annie? LOL


Mike

 

[qualopec]

How do you set up a digital camera to take screenshots? With flash, I get a bright room and no image on the screen; without a flash, I get a dark room and no image on the screen.


Thanks,

Q

 

[MichaelZ]

Q, my old olympus will hold the shutter open as long as needed to get the available light needed - IF I leave the flash down (or turned off). You have to have a very steady hand or use a tripod. I also froze or slowed the dvd way down to shoot the image - needed the image still for a moment. I wish I had a manual focus plus a few more pixels on my camera and I could have taken a lot better picture.

Check your camera and see if you can disable the flash and/or control your shutter speed to hold for at least a 1/4 sec (guess?) or more. If you have a fast lense (i.e. low f stop number) then it will take less time to hold shutter open to get the light needed. Most cameras allow variable/manual shutter speeds. The only other problem is adjusting for white level due to the artificial light a pj put out. I guessed at mine but it had a very slight blue shift to it on some pictures.

My camera is about 4 years old now - a dinosaur in the world of digital photography.

Good luck - it was fun to try and capture how good my pj looks but the photos still do not do it justice.

 

[P8nter]

I dont get were poeple are saying Dlp has bad black levels, Yours look great.

 

[thebland]

Excellent screen shots!

 

[MichaelZ]

Fitz, my Marantz has awesome contrast. I owned a crt - which has now been taken down - so I do know what excellent contrast looks like. My screen is almost white and there was some room light when I took the pictures. If it had been night and I'd been using a better camera I could have passed these pictures off on the crt forum I don't feel the need for a gray screen when I get blacks like I get now. Thanks for the message!

 

[thebland]

Really nice. I had to check 'em out twice!

 

[MrWigggles]

Quote:

Originally posted by qualopec How do you set up a digital camera to take screenshots? With flash, I get a bright room and no image on the screen; without a flash, I get a dark room and no image on the screen. Thanks, Q

Yeah my black level is horrible when I ues a flash.


-Mr. Wigggles

 

[m00n]

Ok so i have to ask a dumb question.... Can you get that kind of picture quality out of a $5000.00 projector?

 

[anthonymoody]

Fitz,

Yeah, the bad rap on DLP has largely been solved with the HD1 PJs. Can black levels be better? Sure. Are they good enough to provide an enjoyable, immersive viewing experience for many of us? Definitely.

TM

 

[MichaelZ]

m00n, I have not seen a $5000 pj that can show this kind of quality - unless it is used. Some of the PJs that have this quality can be purchased overseas and do approach this price point BUT take note on the discussions of buying local vs. overseas. I just had some friends over and showed them my new setup, now that I have it tweaked a little better, it is fun watching someone's jaw drop when you jump into the cancan scene in Moulin Rouge or I show some HiDef fireworks from Thunder Over Louisville from a couple of weeks ago (it was a locally produced HiDef broadcast)

I will try to post some pictures of some HiDef stuff I am collecting on my HiPix/HTPC system next. If you think the DVD pictures look good wait until I post some of these

 

[WanMan]

Michael, good job on the setup, and especially your DIY screen. I am quite impressed. Could you be a little more specific on the DIY screen construction? Also, am I seeing black ceiling tiles? How long were the camera exposures? I understand that your DIY screen is 96" diagonal, but is this 2.35 (with masking in those pictures) or unmasked 16:9? Do you mind telling us what the distance is between the DIY screen and the mid-point (depth) of the projector?


Kudos on the capture presentation. I'm eagerly awaiting additional captures for us to salivate over!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Stunning...


Your Moulin Rouge pictures look like the colors and texture did on the big-screen when I saw it in the theater.


Feel free to post some more pics!


-dave

 

[noah katz]

"I dont get were poeple are saying Dlp has bad black levels, Yours look great."


Screenshots make blacks look better than they actually are. Even cheap LCD's blacks look inky on my PC monitor, and we know they're not.

 

[MichaelZ]

Wanman, the ceiling tiles are a light gray and I did not use any masking - that is a 16:9 screen. The image is quite bright and I think masking would help (maybe a little) but it really is not needed. When the room is completely dark the image looks like it is floating there and the blacks rival my crt (oops, don't tell them on the crt forum ). The distance from the screen to the pjs lens is about 130" (I think).

The DIY screen is 1/4" hardboard, bought at home depot (

 

[MichaelZ]

Noah, the blacks on my Marantz are pretty black. I tried to get the camera to expose the image as close to what I see. You can see the reflections on the gray ceiling tiles as well as the dim led lights (bottom of screen) of my receiver (I've got to do something about that). If you look closely you can see the outline (I can see it on my monitor) of the 16:9 screen (it is outlined by a small black 1" frame) that is not a masked image.

 

[noah katz]

Michael,


Must be my monitor; with contrast and brightness both at 100%, everything outside the image area except your receiver lights is pitch black.