Settings for Iscan HD

T

tommo2

Guest
Okay, i've connected the iscan to my barco data 701s. Picture looks amazing.
Ive been into all the menus but am afraid to do too much experimenting in case i do something wrong. Ive fiddled with H and V size, resolution, format, input config etc, but have stayed away (for now) from the more advanced settings (basically i dont know what half of them are for!!!)
Anyone out there with a similar set-up that can offer advice on the optimum set-up???
Particularly colour/brightness/contrast settings on projector and scaler.

Ive been toying with the idea of setting all values on the pj to midposition and letting the scaler do all the work....

Anyway, any tips from yous out there who know better is much appreciated (perfect grammer i know)... :lesson:

Thanks y'all :smashin:
 
tommo2 said:
Particularly colour/brightness/contrast settings on projector and scaler.

Ive been toying with the idea of setting all values on the pj to midposition and letting the scaler do all the work....
Only you can do brightness/contrast/colour since it's different for each and every setup. You've got the right idea though, just put the projector into default then using the iScan testpatterns set it's brightness/contrast. Then do the adjustments within the iScan using a calibration DVD. I highly advise getting a copy of Digital Video Essentials or AVIA and sitting through some of the tutorials then giving it a crack. It's quite interesting watching to us complete geeks, but ultimately it will give you the best picture.
 
DVE was a waste of money for me :( found it made very little difference to the overall setup. the most frustrating bit was setting the colours with the glasses - no matter what I did I couldn't match what they were telling me to do on screen. I got the reds to blend, but the green and blue were massively off. ended up abandoning it.
 
Well given that even during an ISF calibration it's the test patterns on DVE that are used, I'm afraid to say you are just using it wrong. I would try AVIA though, as they have more user friendly tutorials (albeit very long winded) and all the basic patterns you will need.

Or just pay for a calibrator to do it properley lol
 
:) It's tempting given what else I have spent, but it's maddening to be doing exactly what it says and still not be able to do it. Given the majority of the DVD is pointless waffle (sorry geeks!) to have so little explanation on the bits that will actually *help* you like contrast/brightness/colour calibration was very frustrating.
 
The ISF setup DVD tries to fit in here by using "real images" in place of test patterns like DVE or AVIA. For those who want to set the user controls properly I think it is the best choice. As Liam says DVE has everything you need to perform an ISf calibration (although I have to say I prefer the GetGray DVD) and can be confusing overkill for some.

HTH

Neil
 
When you say "real pictures" do you mean it'll show flesh tones and the like and you match it to your preference? If so I tried doing this with movies like GoldenEye and failed horribly.

I thought the 3D glasses idea sounded like a great solution, much simpler in theory because it didn't rely on my perception of what I liked & limited it to the basic colours, just can't understand why I couldn't get them to match up.
 
It uses real situations in the place of test patterns. For example you get a guy in a black waistcoat to help you check the brightness, a guy in a white shirt shirt to set contrast etc. You adjust the controls until you can see the most data as explained by the commentary.

The colour is set using an image of three women. One is made up to look ill, one normal and one sunburnt. You adjust the control until they look correct. I believe Windows Media PCs may also have these patterns if you want to try and find screenshots.

Neil
 
The reason the 3D glasses don't work is that, with many displays, they do not filter the light well enough. ie, red filter is supposed to remove green and blue spectrum but the filters let through some so what you see is actually innaccurate. If you have a CRT projector like original poster then the best solution is to actually NOT use filters. Instead you cover or disable the red and green when doing colour control. Then to check the red afterwards you cover green and blue......Panasonic plasma's have ability to disable colour in their service menu. Lumagen scalers have ability in their service menu.

There are also hardly any devices that have red and green saturation and hue controls anyway and if you don't and there is a colour decoder issue you aren't going to be able to get the colour window patterns correct anyway.

LINKSTER: If you would like a free copy of the ISF HDTV wizard disc then just pm me your address and I'll post you one FOC. After you've used it you can sell it for charity. I only have NTSC copies though.

You can't use a film dvd to adjust colour incidentally as you have no knowledge of whether they have applied some filter or colour cast to the scenes for effect.
 
That's very kind of you Gordon, I'm very grateful for the help, incidentally I have an LCD projector, does that make a difference?
 
Cheers guys,:thumbsup:
I thought the test patterns within the iscan were okay but i'll buy a test dvd and try it out.
I think i'll go for the avia cos i heard about it before and people reckon its the easiest/best for a novice.

Just to confirm then...
I'll set colour, contrast, brightness etc to midway on the barco.
Set the h and v size on the barco until it nearly fills the raster with the scaler h and v settings in midposition. Then use scaler h and v size to adjust from there.

Thanks y'all:smashin:
 
tommo2 said:
Just to confirm then...
I'll set colour, contrast, brightness etc to midway on the barco.
Set the h and v size on the barco until it nearly fills the raster with the scaler h and v settings in midposition. Then use scaler h and v size to adjust from there.
No you need to use the iScan test patterns to set contrast and brightness on the projector. This way the projector is "married" to the output levels of the iScan. With this done all sources will be quite close to what you need running iScan defaults. You then use AVIA to fine tune the inputs (as some may want more contrast other more brightness etc).

Then yes adjust overscan on the projector using the appropriate pattern on the iScan. Then use the scalers own INPUT sizing to crop or reduce overscan for each specific input.
 
Thanks a million for the disc Gordon.Colours look better because I'm using the iScan saturation control instead of the Z4's but I have to note that having done the brightness and contrast as well as I could to the instructions, I immediately turned my brightnes settings down by a third when watching the first movie afterwards cos it looked just too washed out, most frustrating. That big X on my PJ was barely visible atany setting and seemed to be moving about, is that normal?
 
Might be worth checking you have video or PC levels correctly selected on the output of the iScan. Also worth making sure you are on the right gamma setting.
 
Liam @ Prog AV said:
Might be worth checking you have video or PC levels correctly selected on the output of the iScan. Also worth making sure you are on the right gamma setting.
If you have a mo can you explain that a bit more please ..?
 

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