Gordon creates ISF perfection

I havnt had my CRT installed to long and had had quite a bit of work alraedy done to it in relation to callibration, but there were one or two things that were not quite right. One of the main issues that annoyed me (being a perfectionist) was that in certain film material I was able to see blue flashes in the image. These seemed to occur when watching dark and highly contrasted scenes. PAL material in particular was week in comparison to NTSC but I had been informed that this was due to the Lumagen not being to hot on PAL stuff. Also I use the S-vid input on the Luma for playing X-box games as well as very occasionaly watching a bit of freeview, the images from these inputs were quite ropy and I had also had cable trouble. I had had words with several people about some of these little niggles and had been given conflicting advice, from its your eyes to some very complex explanations due to colour lag and the way my scaler handles the signal This all left me quite frustrated and I had just become resigned to living with it as it was until I had learned enough about video to try and sort it myself (I will admit although I know a fair bit about audio, I am lacking in my knowledge of video and in particular CRT PJs) After having been in contact with Gordon (from Convergent AV) on several occasions with questions about my scaler and other things and having read some great reports on what he does I decided to set him a challenge. I said to him did he reckon he could get anymore performance out of my system considering it had already been worked on and he said that he would give it a go Gordon arrived like clockwork dead on his appt time on Saturday, not bad considering I was his first stop from Glasgow He started by doing an initial assesment of my system and after only five minutes he said "I reckon we can make this better" First of all he sorted out the geometry which was out I actually felt quite embaressed that I hadnt noticed but just hadnt bothered to check something so simple. Next he sorted out the image blanking to make sure I was seeing as much of the pic as possible. Gordon then set up his instruments and software and got into the real technical stuff. This involved setting the colour intensity for red green and blue so that it matched as closely as possible the defined RGB response curves for both NTSC and PAL material. This involves running a test pattern and disconnecting all but the tube of the desired colour for callibration. Gordons instrument then takes readings every few seconds of the screen as we work our way through the frequency response curve. He then uses independent controls on the Lumagen to flatten out the resonse as much as poss to make sure the colour balance is as accurate as possible at all frequencies (pretty intense stuff) The same is then done for the grey scale i.e the light and shade in the picture. This ensures that white scenes arnt to bright and that dark scenes arnt to dark and that maximum detail can be seen in both Gordon said that CRTs are a little difficult to set up accurately throughout the frequency range as due to the fact that they are analogue devices the dont have a uniform response, but he still ironed it out as much as possible He did the sme thing for both NTSC and PAL and all inputs This all actually reminded me of TMREQ i.e irioning out all the response curves except with video as opposed to audio of course.
Well now to the results. All that I can is Im very impressed, overall I was quite stunned by the overall image quality before despite all the niggles but Gordon has taken it to another level Every piece of detail is now visible in dark sequences, but what is also quite impressive is that watching a film that has a backdrop of snow or very bright scenes you can see much more texture and detail within the white rather than it just being plain bright white. Also I might have thought PAL was weak before but now it looks great In the opening scene fron Vanhelsing with Mr Hyde which is very dark, before it was hard to make out fine detail but now you can see every little thing and the variation in his skin tones etc etc. I could go on forever (I already have gone on for quite a bit) All that I can say is that I can only highly recommend Gordons callibration system, it quite frankly produces stunning results
Just as a note this thread is in no way intended to critisize the skill of anybody else who has worked on my system

 

Thats great reading! Send him here!!!

 

Oh also forgot to say that the dreaded blue flash was eliminated as a result of Gordons calibration

 

I won't be vulgar and ask how much this miracle cost.

To be honest it's this degree of complexity and need to shell out for not just the equipment but then the need to get it professionaly installed and calibrated .. only to go throught the same exercise if one changes sources.

In a recent thread the subject of complexity was raised and at that time I wasn't convinced, but after more reading of the manual (for the HDP) I now do accept that it's way beyond me to know how to get the thing setup properly .. and without forking out for someone to do it then clearly the investment in the unit itself is wasted.

 

Gordons actually very competative in his pricing considering the results he gets

 

'Competitive' he may be, 'cheap' I suspect he isn't .. as a guide, to me the HDP isn't cheap.

 

You also have to think that if you bought a high performance car or expensive wood flooring for your house would you be able to do all the maintenance youself or would you have to pay someone in the know to do it? Unless your very knowledgable in a large number of things a lot of the time you would have to get an expert to sort it out for you. Its the same with high end AV gear Yes the Lumagen kit has almost infinate flexibility which makes it very adaptable and yes you can set it up yourself to a reasonable standard, but if you want that extra 10% out of it and a lot of us here would, its well worth getting somone like Gordon to squeeze it out for you It just gives you that satisfaction and amazment when viewing the finished result

 

Also your paying for unbeatable service. When i was first having my CRT set up we were having a problem with the memory system on the Lumagen. This was the day before christmas eve. I E-mailed Gordon asking for help and five minutes later he was on the phone to talk us through the menu system and sort it out for us Try getting that type of service from Sony/Pioneer etc.

 

ISF offer

Mark.

 

Mark (Thunder), good to hear everythings going well with the Barco and the Lumagen Looks like I'll have to invest in a trip from Gordon when the time comes to completely finalise the cinema!
I've been really busy with the new job and have had almost no time to enjoy my setup
I'll have to come up to you one of these days, work permitting. Perhaps I can get my eyes tested whilst I'm up there!

Regards

Yas

 

Good to hear from you mate You would be welcome to come and see all the gear in action, just let me know when your free

 

Can I also add that Gordon calibrated my Pio 50 MXE-1 with Lumagen HDP-Pro scaler yesterday and the results were amazing, having spent the thick end of 12K on my entire setup this was the best upgrade I could possibly have added.

The picture quality is so much better now and reminded me why I had spent 2K on a Lumagen Video processor.

I can't recommend his services enough and for what he charges it really is a small amount to pay for the huge leap you will get in picture quality.

Thanks again Gordon
Tim

 

Another thumbs up for Gordon, he isf'd my Loewe Vitros around 3 years ago and my current Toshiba MT8 projector a year later - both first rate jobs and he's a top bloke to boot.

M

 

I had a Lumagen Vision DVI processor delivered, installed and calibrated by Gordon yesterday. On first impressions, the Lumagen seems to be a great piece of kit. The Playstation 2 looks very 3D, SKY is vastly improved and DVD is simply stunning! Oh yes, and what a professional Gordon is and one hell of a nice guy.

Cheers Gordon. I'm well pleased.

 

I must say Thunder,thats a pretty good pedigree for a crt,converged and setup by James and calibrated by Gordon!

Well done!

 

.

Perhaps when you have trained the dealer in Cheshire you could advise asap !

Tks
Robert

 

Could you advise when you have trained the Cheshirte dealer aap!
Tks
Robert

 

You can get Gordon to visit himself you know .. unless he gets lost he's popping in to see me tomorrow afternoon.

 

Yep,but I'm in the Wirral, and he's awa to the North, so I thought local chap could a bit less ....well expensive! Apologies for strange spelling etc in prev posts, I was a bit distracted sorting out end of year accounts with accountants!
Robert
Pioneer 434HDE, Sky+, Force Sat 566, Pioneer 668, Denon 3802 , + B+W 601, 602 speakers, Philips 9967 lcd.

 

I'd have no idea of the price a local dealer charges. Gordon posted his pricing somewhere here last year, it was said to be a limited time offer but it's the same as I'm paying. I believe he batches up visits and spends several days on the road, so you may have to wait a bit longer than normal but it means paying less.

 

Im in Peterborough and Gordon dosnt charge dependent on distance. He has a fixed charge You have to remember also that a local dealer who has been trained by Gordon is unlikely to have the experience and skill that Gordon has aquired over the years He really does know a heck of a lot about video

 

Gordon left about an hour ago .. nigh on 3 hours of work setting up the Lumagen for the 3 sources I have. Since then I've been watching a couple of DVDs and I know it's not just wishful thinking that the opening sequence in TTT:EE is a lot more '3D' than it was before.

Many thanks Gordon, not only for the work you did but the education you gave me about the HDP, video calibration etc. Money very well spent.

 

Gordon, How are the Optoma codes going (cough, cough)

 

Hi Gordon

I'm intrigued by what you mean by the pdf being wrong. I have a Themescene RD50 DLP TV. Is there anything I can confirm for you?

Chris

 

In case anyone is thinking Gordon is being rude by ignoring me, he not as he PM'd me.