Video performance enhancements - calibration, processors - MadVR, Lumagen - Theater is not only about audio

[Fidji]

As what was once luxury - high-performant projectors, UST PJs with ALR screens, 100in+ panels now enters mainstream households, there starts to be a market for "better picture" in form of professional installs [light control], specialised screens [AT, ALR, curved, motorized etc], hushboxes etc.

Last year, when I was forced to change PJ I have decided to get another PJ, as I still like the overall feeling and size much more, compared to TVs. I could get great deal on Epson QB1000, fits well with my 1.3 gain Cinegrey Mat screen. It was improvement already over my Laser 4K Sony UST PJ, but it was clear to me, that I am missing lot of performance compared to audio part.

So i decided for 2 things - professional ISF calibration and I have convinced myself, that getting madVR Envy is good value for money.

Here are the results - before and after calibration [calibration was done via madVR, as it offers better tools, compared to Epson. Before is factory settings, but clearly nothing to write home about, both grayscale, RGB balance and color space all over the place.

This is after calibration. No idea if this is objectively good, but it is much much better than before, and good enough for me.

And I also need to say madVR Envy Core is just a revelation - Dynamic Tone mapping, like no other, real HDR, it turned my Epson into real cinema thing, so I guess it turned to be great value for money. Being fully aware, that this will sound like oldest audiophile cliche - but even my wife is amazed by jump in picture quality.

I will chime in with more impressions re madVR - but I would suggest everybody with half decent PJ or big panel and takes picture quality seriously, to get at least pro calibration. My calibrator was great professional [he is also calibrating lot of stuff for movie industry] and it was pleasure to observe his last finishing touches, when we were watching some demo clips.

 

[Ruediger]

I know MadVR (free version) as a renderer to use with players like MPC. It's especially good for uncompressed content or when tonemapping is required.

 

[Krusty09]

The 709 space looks good now. Did the isf person do a bt.2020 space as well ? Im sure the projector will be shy of that space but its good to get it as close as possible.

 

[Fidji]

The 709 space looks good now. Did the isf person do a bt.2020 space as well ? Im sure the projector will be shy of that space but its good to get it as close as possible.

We agreed to go with BT.709 with 4913 3D LUT and go as precise as possible within 709 space, so no bt.2020 or DCI-p3.

QB1000 is getting to 86% DCI-p3, so once I get better [and final] screen [looking at gray 1.5 gain from one French company] I would try DCI calibration [86% is kind of on the edge for it to make sense, let's see, maybe I will stay again with bt.709]

 

[Krusty09]

Got it. Luts are pretty cool but in my experience they are not as good when a piece of equipment can do something natively. Good luck on your endeavors .

 

[Miker 1102]

Mad VR is good for projectors and Tvs that maybe cannot do tonemapping correctly. It doesn't do much for the newer OLED tvs that have great processors.

Note: The envy is expensive. I use Mad Vr in MPC BE on my htpc on pass thru. I am so grateful to the developer. I have been an open source guy for decades.

 

[Fidji]

This is how it looks like - pictures taken by some 2-3 old years old Iphone, I think madVR has been worth every penny.