okay, so i'm sincerely looking for wisdom and help in understanding these issues.
most importantly, i wish to understand if in my case i can fix my issues with calibration or if it is out of my hands. it's my understanding that in my particular case the issue can not be resolved by calibration, but i could be wrong. that's why i'm here.
why not use component you ask? well, great question. mainly because i just spent a signifcant (to me) amount of money upgrading to a new pioneer elite vsx-84txsi hdmi receiver to pair with my hd-a1 and i'd like to take advantage of the losless audioformats over HDMI and not have to mess with a spagetti bowl of RCAs. with that said, i'll give you a little more info regarding my situation.
my head has been spinning of late with all the talk, confusion and misinformation regarding colorspace issues, black crush and the failure for the Toshiba players to pass BTB/WTW information on to my display. when i brought my player home i immediately upgraded the firmware. after it completed it's update, i slapped in bourne supremacy and i IMMEDIATELY knew i had a problem. the image was "dark", shadow detail was non existent. the picture clarity was stunning, but the lack of shadow detail and the poor blacks were enough to cry about.
i began investigating and quickly came to learn some new terms that make me cringe now when i hear them. yes, you know the ones.
okay, so enough about my initial experience. here's my hardware and here's what i've experienced. can you please take a look at this and tell me if i can "calibrate" either of these setups to regain my shadow detail and black level and where i would begin.
IN72 and IN76
Pioneer VSX-84XTXSI
Startech 3-port DVI Switch
Toshiba HD-A1
connection scenario 1
HDMI from HD-A1 to 84. HDMI-DVI to Switch. DVI-HDMI port on display.
results: colorspace on display reports REC709. blacks are horrible. shadow detail is practically non-existent. BTB/WTW not passed.
connection scenario 2
bypass dvi switch. HDMI to HDMI receiver. HDMI to HDMI port on display.
results: colorspace on display reports REC709. black are still horrible. shadow detail is practically non-existent. BTB/WTW not passed.
connection scenario 3
connect to M1 port on display with HDMI-M1 adapter. through AVR and DVI switch.
colorspace on display reports RGB Video. *This can be manually changed to RGB.
BTB/WTW still not there. Changing to RGB gains a slight improvement in black level, but BTB and WTW are still not passed.
i used the THX drop shadow test on CARS for the BTB test.
so there you have it. any advice and guidance is much appreciated. can i get back what i'm missing through calibration with the M1-HDMI connection? or am i still missing information information in the "conversion" from the player to the display?
most importantly, i wish to understand if in my case i can fix my issues with calibration or if it is out of my hands. it's my understanding that in my particular case the issue can not be resolved by calibration, but i could be wrong. that's why i'm here.
why not use component you ask? well, great question. mainly because i just spent a signifcant (to me) amount of money upgrading to a new pioneer elite vsx-84txsi hdmi receiver to pair with my hd-a1 and i'd like to take advantage of the losless audioformats over HDMI and not have to mess with a spagetti bowl of RCAs. with that said, i'll give you a little more info regarding my situation.
my head has been spinning of late with all the talk, confusion and misinformation regarding colorspace issues, black crush and the failure for the Toshiba players to pass BTB/WTW information on to my display. when i brought my player home i immediately upgraded the firmware. after it completed it's update, i slapped in bourne supremacy and i IMMEDIATELY knew i had a problem. the image was "dark", shadow detail was non existent. the picture clarity was stunning, but the lack of shadow detail and the poor blacks were enough to cry about.
i began investigating and quickly came to learn some new terms that make me cringe now when i hear them. yes, you know the ones.
okay, so enough about my initial experience. here's my hardware and here's what i've experienced. can you please take a look at this and tell me if i can "calibrate" either of these setups to regain my shadow detail and black level and where i would begin.
IN72 and IN76
Pioneer VSX-84XTXSI
Startech 3-port DVI Switch
Toshiba HD-A1
connection scenario 1
HDMI from HD-A1 to 84. HDMI-DVI to Switch. DVI-HDMI port on display.
results: colorspace on display reports REC709. blacks are horrible. shadow detail is practically non-existent. BTB/WTW not passed.
connection scenario 2
bypass dvi switch. HDMI to HDMI receiver. HDMI to HDMI port on display.
results: colorspace on display reports REC709. black are still horrible. shadow detail is practically non-existent. BTB/WTW not passed.
connection scenario 3
connect to M1 port on display with HDMI-M1 adapter. through AVR and DVI switch.
colorspace on display reports RGB Video. *This can be manually changed to RGB.
BTB/WTW still not there. Changing to RGB gains a slight improvement in black level, but BTB and WTW are still not passed.
i used the THX drop shadow test on CARS for the BTB test.
so there you have it. any advice and guidance is much appreciated. can i get back what i'm missing through calibration with the M1-HDMI connection? or am i still missing information information in the "conversion" from the player to the display?
