Any Experts Here Willing to Walk Me Thru A FP Calibration With a Spyder2Pro?

[mraub]

Though I have an obvious self interest in this thread, I thought it might be very helpful to many like me that are a bit overwelmed by the amount of good information that this new forum has already produced. My idea is to go through a calibration step-by-step with me reporting in after the completion of each step for advice on what to do next. I have a ColorVision Spyder2Pro Studio on order which should be here in a couple of days. If I can figure out how to attach screen shots and the like, I'll be glad to do that (I have a Canon 20D digital SLR).

If anyone is willing to help, here's what I have:

A very new Optoma H78DC3 (I know I'll have to recalibrate as the bulb ages) lighting a 110" diagonal StudioTek fixed mount screen. I have a dedicated HT room, fully light controlled, painted mainly in dark to medium grey, with a tan carpet. The PJ is ceiling mounted. My main video sources are a new Sony upconverting DVD player (Sony DVP-NS70V) and a DISH 811 HD receiver, both feeding the PJ through a Pacific Cable DVI switcher. I also have component and S- video hooked to the H78.

I have the Avia and the Sound and Vision Magazine calibration DVD's. I also have a tripod on which to mount the Spyder. I have access to a laptop with Excel on it, but will probably use my old laptop, unless I'm going to need Excel.

I can't start the calibration until the Spyder gets here, but it seems the first issue to be determined is what settings I should use on the H78 as a starting point (or does it really matter so long as I keep it the same). Here is a link to the manual for the H78:

http://www.optomahometheater.com/documents/H79_user_manual.pdf

Page 18 of the manual has the menu tree with all the options I can select from. I have the DVD player set on Cinema 1. I can't find an online manual for this new Sony unit yet, but will keep looking.

If anyone is willing to help, please chime in. I'd like to keep this process fairly organized, but it probably won't be--I'm as bad at getting off topic as every one else is.

Thanks for any help.

[mraub]

I found a link to the Sony DVD player's manual online. If you go to here:

http://esupport.sony.com/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DVPNS70H

and click "Operating Instructions" you'll get a PDF of the manual. Page 45 explains what the various video modes do, though not with a lot of technical detail.

[krasmuzik]

I thiink URSA's H7x FAQ in the projector forum is where you should start....

[mraub]

I've read through the FAQ and while it was very helpful, it really did not do what I hope to accomplish in this thread. Though I have a H78, most projectors have about the same adjustment controls available, though the nomenclature can vary. It sounds like the basic steps you'd go through to calibrate a FP wouldn't vary too greatly between Optoma, Infocus, Sony or whatever brand you have. CRT's may be an entirely different process, but the trend seems to definitely favor fixed pixel PJ's at this point.

[QUOTE=krasmuzik]I thiink URSA's H7x FAQ in the projector forum is where you should start....[/QUOTE]

[GEBrown]

Ummmm . . . I guess you realize that what you are asking folks to do is give you basically a free ISF calibration - A job that they normally charge for and make their livings doing and have spent years honing their skills at.

Just a thought. . .

[Atom]

Here is another thought.This board is intended as a place where people can help each other .To ask for help is good .The pros don't need to respond to this if they feel threatened and they shouldn't be lurking here if their not willing to help.I wish I knew enough about calibrating to help,but I don't.
Andrew

[mraub]

Though no one has ever accused me of lacking in confidence, even if unjustified, I have no illusions that my first effort at a calibration will be even close to what an experienced technician with first class equipment could get. My thought here was to help steer people to a methodology that they can learn how to do this, hopefully to some degree of competence as experience increases. I went through some of this process is trying to get consistent color through out the process of producing digital inkjet prints. There are a fair number of step-by-step guides now available to help digital photographers through that process, which is even more complex since you're dealing with multiple devices and software products. At least I won't waste a lot of expensive ink and paper in this process, just a few additional hours on the PJ lamp.

[QUOTE=GEBrown]Ummmm . . . I guess you realize that what you are asking folks to do is give you basically a free ISF calibration - A job that they normally charge for and make their livings doing and have spent years honing their skills at.

Just a thought. . .[/QUOTE]

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Here is a basic walk through of a FP calibration and set up.

Get the probe pointed at the screen ... up close ... and high enough

Put up a 100 ire window box or full frame white to optimize light output and positioning of the probe.

Work with the 30 ire window for the low end and 80 ire for the bright end.

This is really about it for grayscale basics. Obviously there is a lot of back and forth with the two patterns ...

When you are happy with where the 30/80 are ... take a look at 50 ire and decide if it is too high or too low ... and that will tell you how you might need to compromise the 30/80 to make the mid range track better.

Regards

[mraub]

With the Spyder I thought the probe points back to the projector during calibration rather than measuring off the screen.

[QUOTE=Michael TLV]Greetings

Here is a basic walk through of a FP calibration and set up.

Get the probe pointed at the screen ... up close ... and high enough

Put up a 100 ire window box or full frame white to optimize light output and positioning of the probe.

Work with the 30 ire window for the low end and 80 ire for the bright end.

This is really about it for grayscale basics. Obviously there is a lot of back and forth with the two patterns ...

When you are happy with where the 30/80 are ... take a look at 50 ire and decide if it is too high or too low ... and that will tell you how you might need to compromise the 30/80 to make the mid range track better.

Regards[/QUOTE]

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

I'm just giving you calibration basics ... not specifics ...

I've seen the Sencore and the Progressive Labs probe pointed at the screen. They are both similar although more precise instruments than what this is.

So point it at the projector and ignore the maximizing brightness part.

You still want to take into account what the screen does to the image ... it is not neutral.

Regards

[Gary Lightfoot]

Use the colorimiter tool from the Spyder2Pro drop down menu, and with the probe facing the pj about 4ft away, set it to continuos readings and display an 80ire window. Put the xyY data into the KeohiTV spreadsheet posted elsewhere and adjust the individual RGB contrasts to get the x and y readings close to optimal (0.313 and 0.330IIRC).

Then do the same at 30ire using the RGB brightness controls.

When both 80 and 30 read about right, do a 20 to 100ire run and see hopw the greyscale tracks.

If 90 and/or 100ire show a color temp rise and a drop in red, then you need to reduce the green and blue contrasts a little. Ideally you should find where red contrast maxes out at 100ire and bring the green and blue down to match so you get a completely flat greyscale.

There should be info as to which colours you adjust depending on which co-ordinates are out and in which direction.

Gary

[mraub]

I received the Spyder2Pro and had a chance to use it on the H78 yesterday. I used the spreadsheet originally written by Gary Fritz and modified by Shawn Rader with the IRE windows in Avia. Using only the advanced color controls (not the service menu) I was able to get about ±100° from 20 IRE to 100 IRE. The readings at 10 IRE were so bizarre that I concluded this was below the level where the sensor could accurately detect. Though a couple of reviewers had reported the H78/79 had too much green right out of the box, I found the main adjustment I had to make was to cut red. I think I could have got the calibration even closer, but with a new bulb I thought I'd wait for it to break in a bit before investing more time in this project.

One nit to pick. The Spyder tripod mount screw hole is larger than the screw that fits into my Canon DSLR, or any other camera I've used in the past few years. I have an adaptor insert that came with a tripod head but, of course, couldn't find it when I needed it.

My calibration made a substantial improvement in picture quality. DVD's from film sources now look a lot more like film; much less digital looking. Several people here seem to be working on improved spreadsheets to use with the Colorvision pucks and maybe all this will be sorted out by the time the bulb ages enough to justify a more careful calibration.

Thanks for everyone's help.

[drapp1952]

Mike, thanks for starting the thread and Gary and Michael for providing some answers.

I am a newbie with the Spyder2PRO 2.1 and while it's a far cry from an ISF calibration I have found it very useful so far and have derived settings on my H79 far from what I'd likely achieve by eyeballing grayscales and with much better results. I have yet to transfer xyY to a spreadsheet, but will.

Mike, after 400 hours on my bulb my main adjustments were reducing blue and green, much in keeping with Ursa's result on his H77 - presumably with an older bulb - with RGB gammas graphed in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6067476&&#post6067476

It's interesting that the shape of the red curve in Ursa's result are very much in keeping with some initial calibration with an OpticOne system done on my H79 when the bulb was new. The red is typical for UHP bulbs as they age with blue being increasingly strongest on a relative basis. Cliff Plavin has reported that the rate for bulb output red decline decreases or stabilizes out after a certain age.

Dan