[Madsman]

Okay, we bought the X1, and are not disappointed. I have seen rainbows (because I've come to the AVS Forum) but they don't appear when I'm totally sucked in to whatever film I'm watching... only when I'm scanning the screen at odd moments or when I turn my head/unfocus my eyes for whatever reason... but at that point ANY picture is background data... I'm only concerned about rainbows that appear while I'm watching a movie, not while a movie is playing and I'm not paying attention. I've seen very minor rainbows while watching SpiderMan (opening credits) Fifth Element, and da Bears vs the ViQueens.


In any event, thanks for the recommendation. It's a major visual improvement over the RPTVs and the other devices we were considering, even if it is half of the projector some members demand, it's pretty awesome for us.


So now a couple of questions:


1). Do most people leave it in 4:3 mode and just mask out the top and bottom for 16:9 movies? 16:9 mode stretches things out pretty obviously, and native mode has a ton of light spill.


2). Are there any "You MUST do this tweak, NOW" kind of obvious improvements, other than things in the (awesome) unofficial FAQ?


3). We're making our screen this week. Can anyone recommend their favorite calibration DVD/program?


4). Would we theoretically get a better picture out of a laptop with a DVD player than via the component out of our inexpensive DVD player (we were surprised that it even had a component out)


5). Anything we need to do with regards to DCDi or the Freuzengladje (J/K) stuff in order to optimize the picture quality, or is that all just processing that's automated? This is probably a big RTFM question, but I'm on a roll.


Thanks for your time, folks. This is a lot of fun.

 

[dpadair]

if your dvd player can be set to 16:9 mode then set both player and x1 to 16:9 when watching 16:9 or 2.35:1 material. if the player is 4:3 then basically you lose a LOT of vertical resolution as the image goes from player to x1.


i got digital video essentials for calibrating. seems ok but i have no experience with any others. it was easy to tune brightness and contrast but i am having trouble tuning colors.

 

[Madsman]

If our DVD player doesn't have a 16:9 mode, I will buy another DVD player, if I am missing out on something with our existing player. But I need to make a screen that will work for me in 16:9 and in 4:3, so I've got some calculating to do. I guess I'll go play with the X1 some more and figure out where my PJ has to be for an 80" diagonal in 16:9 for starters. Then I have to see what happens at that size for a 4:3 source... I'm hoping that the widths are a constant.... ... ...

 

[technut Canada]

Yes, the width is constant between 16:9 and 4:3 mode on the X1. There is a size calculator link and other info at
http://members.shaw.ca/technut/x1faq/#5.2

which you may find helpful.


1) As mentioned, your DVD player will have a widescreen or 16:9 mode that you should use in conjunction with the X1's 16:9 mode.

2) Use Film mode on the projector for DVDs. Avoid Presentation mode. If you have any of the DVD's that have the THX optimizer on it then you could use that for brightness/contrast settings. (and thanks)

3) Avia seems to be popular and they just came out with a new and relatively inexpensive version, Digitial Video Essentials, which should be suitable for use with projectors.

4) In theory yes, the computer could be a better DVD player. But you may be quite happy with your cheap DVD player's output. It can be a hassle to use a computer for playing DVD's all the time.

5) Nope, the DCDi just does its thing (for 480i) whenever you use the composite, s-video or component-to-svideo adapter. If your DVD player explicitly states that it does Progressive (480p), then you could run it to the component-to-VGA adapter instead. But if it doesn't do Progressive well, then it may actually look better at 480i.

 

[stingray999]

Madsman,


Mike's website probably has most of the info you needed about X1. The best thing is that he will find it out if that info is not available.


Definitely the width with X1 is constant (except the Native mode). Also, besides 4:3 and 16:9, there are some even wider screensize (2.35:1. etc.) that one screen won't fit all. Play with the X1 for a while and then decide on the screen size and material you like most. I am using 88"x49.5" BlackOut cloth DIY and quite happy.


If your DVD has Component Out, it should be at most the last 3-4 years. Should it be able to do 16:9 already? Better check your manual. Sometime you need to do a special sequence to activate the setup menu.


I know there is a recent one called Digital Video Essentials (An updated version of the popular "Video Essential") that was released in US Aug/Sep2003. Though I still don't find it in Canada yet. Another popular one is Avia. But heard that the price is quite high ($75 vs $25 of DVE)


Good luck!

 

[gamma_seraph]

I saw a big improvement going from inexpensive DVD player (SVID) to HTPC (VGA).


I set my computer to 1024x768 (4x3) and the X1 to 4x3 and let the DVD software send the OAR to the X1.


I plan on setting up a masking system in the future to deal with the different widescreen ratios. Its just one of those things that doesn't bother me enough to do it immediately.

 

[technut Canada]

Doh! Thanks for picking up on that stingray999, the Avia disk and the DVE disk are by two different companies.. my bad. I think DVE is available in Canada now, I saw it advertised by A&B Sound in my area.


And Madsman, you keep reading right here. Almost everything that I know about the X1 I got from this Forum!

 

[Madsman]

Thanks folks!