JVC DLA-RS20 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on January 26, 2009 by Art Feierman

We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. Normally we just do a basic grayscale calibration, but the JVC DLA-RS20 also needs to have individual colors calibrated in its Color Management System.

The JVC RS20 is not a toy! If you are seriously considering the RS20, keep in mind that potentially, this projector is about as good as it's going to get of the under $10,000 projectors. To get the full potential out of an RS20, plan to have it properly calibrated. The end result is stunning!

JVC DLA-RS20 Color Temperature

First, here are the color temperature measurements for the Cinema 2 mode, as well as the THX mode, below it.

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

Cinema 2 mode


30 IRE (dark gray)	6306K
50 IRE (medium gray)	6301K
80 IRE (light gray)	6134K
100 IRE (white)	6005K

Those numbers are well below the ideal 6500K, however, adjusting the color temp setting to -2 improves that somewhat, but that's not a solution.

THX mode


30 IRE (dark gray)	6410K
50 IRE (medium gray)	6487K
80 IRE (light gray)	6305K
100 IRE (white)	6299K

Much Better! In fact, the THX mode is by far the best looking of the five presets. Still we believe it can be definitely improved on. The downside is that improving on it is very complicated, including tricky work with the JVC's CMS (color management system), as I will discuss below.

For those interested, here are the color temperature measurement for white (100 IRE), for each of the five preset modes

Temperature Measurement


Cinema 1 (for B/W movies)	5273K
Cinema 2	6005K
Natural	6011K
Stage	6945K
Dynamic	8682K
THX	6299K

It's almost shocking that none of the modes is really close to 6500K at measured white, although the THX mode as seen above, overall, doesn't track that far below 6500K over its range.

Ok, time to see what we can do with the projector to improve the image.