JVC DLA-HD250 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Art Feierman

As has always been the case with JVC's entry level home theater projectors JVC DLA-HD250 home theater projector lacks the full CMS - color management system - found on their over $5000 JVC's. This means that you can calibrate the standard items - brightness, contrast, color saturation, and also do a grayscale balance, to get the color temperature to 6500K. The JVC DLA-HD250 also lacks the rather excellently pre-calibrated THX mode found on the JVC X7 and X9, RS50 and RS60. Those THX modes are excellent whether on a JVC projector or one of several other brands that provide them. Runco was first, now JVC, Epson and Optoma, others, mostly on their higher end models. While you can improve on a THX mode with an individual calibration, it would be slight. On the other hand, this HD250 while not bad out of the box, definitely improves noticeably with calibration, even without a Color Management System.

JVC DLA-HD250 Color Temperature

All of the JVC presets offer a bit cool white, with white (100 IRE) at 7142K or higher, instead of our "optimal" 6500K.

That said, the JVC HD250's color temperature gets warmer, as we go down the grayscale, until it's actually very warm by 30 IRE.

These are the measurements, taken "right out of the box."

Color Temp over IRE Range, Best mode (Pre calibration):

Cinema 1

30 IRE            7123
50 IRE            7054
80 IRE            7110
100 IRE          6934

For your convenience, these were the starting measurements:

Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom):

Cinema 1= 801 @ 6934
Cinema 2= 743 @ 5942
Natural= 803 @ 6948
Stage= 865 @ 8036
Dynamic= 934 @ 9064
User 1, 2 or 3= 803 @ 6955

JVC DLA-HD250 Post Calibration Grayscale

Here's a look at the results of Mike's calibration (saved to User 1):

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):

20 IRE            6636
30 IRE            6667
40 IRE            6593
50 IRE            6517
60 IRE            6592
70 IRE            6561
80 IRE            6565
90 IRE            6460
100 IRE          6402

Average gamma= 2.23

Mike's comments on the HD250 calibration: Grayscale calibrated quite well, with an average Delta E of only 1.1. The RGB balance was actually better than the RS15 we did earlier this year. It's unfortunate that the custom color temp starting point is so far off from 6500K (it's something more like 8000K) at higher IREs. This requires big reductions in Green and Blue Gain to get things balanced. The color gamut (see the CIE chart) is the usual JVC expanded gamut and without a CMS like the more expensive models have, all you can do is turn down the Color control to reduce the "sunburned" look in skin tones. Grass and other green items can still be almost a "neon" green however.

Art's comments: regarding sunburned and neon, we're talking "first degree burns here, not 2nd or 3rd... As to neon, Mike's getting colorful! "almost neon" naw. rich, oversaturated yes, but really dayglow or close, no... Even on my images which as a group are oversaturated, none of the greens -even grass, is close to "neon"... And all of this typical of JVC's lowest cost projectors. All that said, it looks real good! -art