[klh]

Guys,

This past week I got an i1 Display LT colorimeter so I set to calibrating my JVC RS1 front projector this weekend. I ripped free rec 709 BD and HD-DVD calibration disks to DVD-RWs and used ColorHCFR (both from AVS) to do the calibration. I thought I had things dialed in pretty well with DVE. Holy crap was I wrong. It took about 3 hours to get a full set of before readings and then fully calibrate and get after readings, but man does it make a difference. DVE will get your colors OK, and it'll get you to set up your brightness and contrast correctly, but it won't allow you to properly set your greyscale and gamma. I cannot stress how much of a difference it can make. With my PJ, everything looked much more accurate and realistic after doing a full calibration. You could pay an ISF certified technician twice as much as the meter costs to do the same thing, but you'll have to have it repeatedly done if you have a front projector. The color temperature changes significantly as the bulb gains hours. If you do it yourself, you can recalibrate every 100-200 hours on your bulb. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy. Then, you can watch movies in bliss as you know you're seeing a wonderfully accurate portrayal of what the film maker intended.

Go for it if you haven't,

Krister

[satfrat]

I picture and/or a link for more information of your calibrator would be useful. Thanks.

Cheers,
Robin

[klh]

Robin... here you go!


I used the i1 Display LT colorimeter:

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=789

It's bigger brother (i1 Pro) is even better, but much more expensive. The i1 Display LT is considered the best budget colorimeter and roughly goes for $150 on the open market. You could get the Spider2 Express sensor (half the cost), but its reliability (especially when measuring gamma and lower IRE readings) is thought to be so much less that it's not worth getting.


I used the free and dowloadable ColorHCFR calibration program. Here is a link to a thread created by an avid user on how to use it:

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457

ColorHCFR only needs a sensor, not the software that comes with with the sensor. As such, there is no need to get the more expensive i1 Display 2 package as all you're paying extra for is a more robust software package.


I also use free and dowloadable calibration disks. They contain the images necessary to put on your screen to calibrate with ColorHCFR. They can be burned to a SD DVD-R or SD DVD-RW disk, but are in formats read by BD players and HD-DVD players. The native resolution of the images is 1080i. Here is where you can read about and download the images:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496&highlight=calibration+disk


BTW, if you want to get even greater accuracy and an easier program to use, you could get Calman v3 software and the i1 Pro sensor. That combo runs about $850 on the open market. Since that is out of my budget, and my PJ doesn't have a proper CMS, I didn't bother researching that combo any further. If interested, Google is your friend.

Hope this helps ,

Krister

[tonyptony]

Krister, I've been following this do-it-yourself display cal initiative with some interest (I use a Spyder2 Pro for my computer monitor but know that it's not the best for flat panel cal). What I've been unable to find out is whether the difference in accuracy between the i1 LT and the Pro is large enough to be noticed.

[klh]

I suppose it depends on how much you're willing to pay for perfection. For me, the LT was enough.