How important is it to get your projector professionally calibrated ?

P

philom5

Guest
I have a JVC X3 with SI 100" screen and from what I can tell the picture looks really good. But I've been hearing a lot about having a professional setup and calibrate the system. Is this necessary for a home theater ?

Thanks.

Philo.
___________
 
It is not necessary but it is desirable,it will cost though and around the £350 mark will probably be the going rate.

It is best to not get a professional calibration done till you have around 150-200hrs use on the bulb as during this running in period the bulb will loose 20-30% of it's brightness and therefore any calibration done during this time will be wasted.

Lamps will still gradually dim over the rest of it's life but at a slower rate you would probably need a re calibration every 500hrs or so if you wish to maintain optimum settings.

You can do a basic calibration your self to save money it won't be as good as a professional job but if you are not a perfectionist (or well heeled) there are discs you can buy or free basic calibration on most pixar dvd/bluray discs.

There is a free download available for REC709 (the industry standard) below but you will need to bone up to be able to use it for any more than the basics.

AVS HD 709 - Blu-ray & MP4 Calibration - AVS Forum
 
It is not necessary but it is desirable,it will cost though and around the £350 mark will probably be the going rate.

Totally agree, but at that price wouldn't it be better (and cheaper) to buy a new bulb every year and have the benefit of the extra brightness?
 
Regarding changing the lamp every year, I don't think so myself as once the initial deterioration has occurred the next few hundred hours will see little change.:)

Anyway with most pj's brightness is not an issue, certainly in a darkened room.
 
buying a new lamp will only give you the brightness lost after the initial settling down period which Keith has pointed out.

what it won`t do is get the best out of your projection equipment thats its capable of being able to achieve.

I myself was a bit of a disbeliever, maybe thats not the right terminology, but since having all my projectors calibrated by an ISF certified calibrator the differences are night and day.

So in hindsight i`d definatey recommend it

Allan
 
Hi Steve

I suppose I was aiming my night and day comment on the JVC X7 and Sony VW-ES90 both out of the box and done 50 hrs before having a cal done by Piers Clerk.

The JVC was compared to THX setting, and there was a marked difference to me anyway and it now looks superb.

The Sony`s main improvement was aimed at getting the 3d performance better, ie: brightness, which I have to say Piers did a sterling job tbh.

The Sony was further improved by using the Xpand 103 3d glasses as well, now this was a night and day difference and noticed by everyone who did the trial as it were.

But your right, only have it done if your not happy with your image I suppose, but its good to know that you`re getting the best out of your equipment :smashin:
 
Here's my main gripe so far. And it's not a big gripe by any stretch. When watching 2D movies that are shot dark.., like dramatic night., it's hard to see everything in the image unless the room is pitch black.

3D is great.., nice and bright. By the way.., Expand glasses do not work with the JVCs.

Phil.
 
It's a really difficult one, this. I think I'm torn between two, equally valid theories.

1 - Get the best out of your equipment that you can.

2 - Bring up some grey ramps on a test disc. If they look like they're tinted, rather than varying shades of black, grey, and white, what makes you think you'll notice it in a film?

Truth be told, both are right. And then trhere are other factors as well.

Very bluntly, if you've spent £5k (or more) on a projector, you'd be daft to not pay what is effectively just a few bob more on a calibration. If you've only spent £600 on a projector then you'd probably have been better off getting a £1k projector. Anywhere between £1k and £5k...it's up to you.

Just remember, a £350 calibration is over 20 new Blu-ray Discs. And ultimately it's all about the films. For me, I'd rather watch 20 great films on a poorly-calibrated display than no good films on a well-calibrated display.

But then again, I'd rather watch hundreds of superb films on a perfectly-calibrated display. :D

Steve W
 
Here's my main gripe so far. And it's not a big gripe by any stretch. When watching 2D movies that are shot dark.., like dramatic night., it's hard to see everything in the image unless the room is pitch black.

3D is great.., nice and bright. By the way.., Expand glasses do not work with the JVCs.

Phil.

I`m not an expert but its sounds like your greyscale needs attention

and I can tell you with 110% certainty that the Xpand 103 glasses do work with the JVC`s

and they work very well :lesson:

we sell more of those to JVC owners than anyone else :smashin:
 
I'd rather watch 20 great films on a poorly-calibrated display than no good films on a well-calibrated display.

But then again, I'd rather watch hundreds of superb films on a perfectly-calibrated display. :D

Steve W

And so would I Steve :thumbsup:
 
and I can tell you with 110% certainty that the Xpand 103 glasses do work with the JVC`s

and they work very well

we sell more of those to JVC owners than anyone else


I'm in the US and know most on this board are in the UK.., right ? From what I understand the technology for this side of the pond may be different when using generic glasses.

I can say with 1000% certainty that the expand glasses DO NOT work with the JVC X3 in the US. JVC Corp. and Expand Corp. confirmed this. The ONLY way I was able to see 3D using the Expand glasses was to view the media with the glasses on backwards. I didn't mind, but it drove the wife and kids nuts. :laugh: Has something to do with the vertical/horizontal polarization they said. So I bought the JVC glasses at twice the price and all is fine.

Thanks for the input on calibration. I'm going to look into this.

Phil.
 
I'd love to get a proper calibration done but it's too expensive. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the stock settings of the TW3200 were. I've only tweaked the brightness a little and haven't thought at any point 'I must spend some time on tweaking it some more', although I'm sure I will at some point! :rolleyes:
 

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