[anibap]

Hi Guys,

This is for all PJ users who are having issues with image brightness and contrast calibration. I do not have any problem with my setup but since brightness and contrast are relative to each individual I though of sharing this to forum users.

Changing Brightness and Contrast with DVD player settings. -

Forgive me if it's a known fact to all. I found it yesterday only. This is only applicable for devices like DVD player. HD sources of future will anyway bring lot more better signal strength with better luminance.

I came across this last night while watching 'From Hell'. The movie itself is shot in low light. It was ok in economy mode but I thought of watching it in brite (Standard) mode. turned it on. Fantastic. After watching sometime I suddenly I realized I have an advanced image enhancement feature in my DVD player. It allows you to increase the following in an image.
1. Brightness - Default 0. Goes from -20 to +20
2. Contrast - Default 0 from -20 to +20
3. Sharpness - Default 0 goes from -10 to +10.

I turned my PJ to Britemode off- went to the DVD player settings and started with the brightness settings to see if there is any effect(I was not hopeful as these settings always apply with the output device ) But I was wrong. I turned the brightness upto + 5(from 0) . The image responded with the brightness. Wow. I increased the contrast to +7(from 0). I can't believe. The contrast looks amazing. The 3d effect is further enhanced.

I have never used this setting earlier and I am not sure if this feature is there with all DVD players or not. My Philips player has got it and It's a very welcome feature if you want to add up brightness, contrast and sharpness settings beyond your TV/PJ/Monitors capability.

Man, I was really surprised and stunned seeing the image now. And just think I can go upto +20 if I like. Just for fun I did it and it was bright like hell. I finally settled with +5 in B and +7 in C with Britemode off in PJ and it looked the best till date. I anyway don't use high RGB settings and white peaking. And the fan did not turn up higher as the lamp is still operating in a low mode. Only it is getting a better signal with more light information.

Inference:
If you DVD player has this settings use them to top up your PJ output for more brightness. Its amazing.
Caveat?
Not sure about this harming the PJ lamp!!! Leave it to experts. Will call up Optoma and find out. But in my opinion, it should not harm the lamp.
Why?
The DVD player sends a signal along with luminance information to an output. The same way a dark scene has less light and a outdoor scene has more light. The PJ lamp does not distinguish dark and well lit scene as high or low power. For the same reason a S-VIdeo or Component image with same PJ or CRT looks brighter than a composite video connection. With DVI, it gets better than component. So the brightness of a Image on a display device depends on 2 things

1. The signal luminance or strength.
2. It's own capacity to work with brightness and contrast. - in most cases we always deal with 2 as 1 is not always configurable.

In this case I am able to work with 2 and it is giving me good response. I was anyways happy with my PJ even before doing this but if any of you are not satisfied with the brightness you can try your DVD player to test this stuff. If your DVD player does not have this feature, try with a DVD player which has this capability to give it a try. Normally Philips and Pioneer has got this. And I am sure the high end ones will have these too. In this case the DVD player will send a enhanced signal with more light information and PJ will show what it receives.

I tried the same with my CRT and it worked there as well.

So I need to find out if it really harms the lamp. What do you guys think? Any expert opinion is highly appreciated.

[anibap]

Sorry my title should have read

Image Brightness and Contrast - Enhance it with DVD player. Harmful??

All experts opinions ..........

[mallidiv]

quite away from profesional but imho you cannot damage the projector...
You may alter these either from htpc, dvd players, or Pj...
you always gain sth and lose sth... The raw signal is the primary strength for the quality of your image and then you play having to do with your personal preferences...



Got my ae900... looking for surround upograde now

[PJTX100]

I think many people leave the source at default and do all the adjustment at the display because there are (usually) more advanced adjustment options on the display.

That said there is nothing wrong with trying something different and using all the control options at your disposal in search of that elusive "extra".

[anibap]

Originally Posted by PJTX100

I think many people leave the source at default and do all the adjustment at the display because there are (usually) more advanced adjustment options on the display.

That said there is nothing wrong with trying something different and using all the control options at your disposal in search of that elusive "extra".

That is exactly what happens in 99.9% of cases. We never think about doing these rweaks in the source.

I was tempted to see these as options and it worked cool. Hopefully it won't harm the PJ. Need an expert advice.

Its always great to have these controls in hand in any given scenario. With optiosn of these sort you can easily brighten the image without sacrificing on lamp hour.