LG CF181D Projector Calibration and Settings
We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. We perform contrast, brightness, saturation and other image adjustments, as well as a grayscale balance. A complete professional calibration can go even further, but the settings we provide generally offer a anywhere from a slight to dramatic improvement, compared to the "out of the box settings".
2/20/2010 - Art Feierman
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LG CF181D Color Temperature
These are the measurements, taken "right out of the box." Mike chose Cinema as our starting point for a "best" mode. Cinema is also the same as the two user savable modes: Expert 1, and 2.
To start, the CF181D looked very good, though not really on the money. Color temp was a little cool (more blue than red), but not much in the brighter areas, moving to neutral to wam (more red than blue) in the lower ranges.
Color Temp over IRE Range (Best Mode, Pre calibration):
Cinema (or Expert 1 and 2)
30 IRE 6464K (dark gray)
50 IRE 6644K
80 IRE 6985K
100
IRE 7031K (white)
For those interested, here are the color temperature measurements (and lumens) for white (100 IRE), for each of the preset modes
Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom):
Vivid= 1064 @ 7356, 1380 with Iris fully open (Manual 32)
Standard= 608 @ 9523K lamp on low, 852 lumens with Lamp on High
Cinema= 503 @ 7031K
Sport= 763 @ 11690K
Game= 852 @ 8998K
Expert 1 and 2= 503 @ 7045K
LG CF181D Basic Settings
In addition to calibrating Red Green and Blue for a correct grayscale balance (6500K), there are a number of other settings that come into play. Typically Contrast and Brightness (white balance and black balance), need to be done first. Color saturation and gamma also need adjustment.
Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
|
Vivid |
Standard |
Cinema |
Sport |
Game |
Expert 1, 2 |
Contrast = |
(50) |
(50) |
(50) |
(50) |
(50) |
(50) |
Brightness = |
(50) 53 |
(50) 54 |
(50) 53 |
(50) 53 |
(50) 53 |
(50) 53 |
Color = |
(70) |
(60) |
(50) |
(60) |
(55) |
(50) 43 |
Iris = |
(Auto 1) |
(Auto 1) |
(Manual 3) |
(Auto 1) |
(Auto 1) |
(Manual 3) |
Color Temp = |
(Natural) |
(Medium) |
(Warm) |
(Cool) |
(Medium) |
(Warm) |
Lamp Mode = |
(High) |
(Low) |
(High) |
(High) |
(High) |
(High) |
Lamp mode set on Bright for all
All other settings at default (untouched)
Note Color for Expert 2 (which we're using as Brightest mode) is shown above at 43. If you are using this mode with a lot of ambient light, you'll be wanting to crank the color saturation back up to 48 or maybe 50.
Mike's calibration efforts made a real difference. While the average consumer would certainly be dazzled by the CF181D, right out of the box, the improvements were tangible. Skin tones became really excellent. The LG is very close to rivaling my JVC RS20 in terms of skin tones. I think my RS20 is still a touch more natural, but the LG projector looks great, and at least as good a skin tone as I've seen on any projector I've reviewed in the last 6 months, except, for the JVC RS25 recently reviewed. The more price comparable RS15 is inbound. It should be really interesting to see which one has the better colors.
Expert 2 was set up as our "quick-cal" bright mode. It ends up with some respectable color, and about 1100 lumens. Mike made that selection. I personally found the color on the brightest mode - Vivid mode, the color was still acceptable. I would have stuck with Vivid as brightest and enjoyed an image a bit cool with a touch too much green. Vivid does pump out almost 1400 lumens putting it right up there with the Epson Home Cinema 8500UB as a particularly bright - "brightest mode" projector. (I'd give the LG the advantage in color when comparing the Epson and LG in maximum "brightest" mode.) Our Expert 2, for the LG, is fairly comparable to a quick-cal of the the Epson's Living Room (Cinema Day on the 9500UB) mode.
LG CF181D Post Calibration Grayscale
When done with the calibration, the CF181D achieves color accuracy about as good as any other projector recently reviewed, including the JVC DLA-RS25
Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):
Expert 1 Expert 2
20 IRE 6721 6520
30 IRE 6613 6577
40 IRE 6599 6603
50 IRE 6624 6633
60 IRE 6591 6646
70 IRE 6580 6629
80 IRE 6560 6595
90 IRE 6507 6531
100 IRE 6394 6863
Average gamma= 2.25 2.22
Interestingly, after Mike's calibration, the LG now is slightly warm at white, and actually a little cool in the lowest ranges, but overall, a very nice (but hardly specatcular) set of numbers, and, more importantly, those skin tones looked really good!
Gamma settings:
The LG is rather simple when it comes to gamma - you've got exactly 2 choices, unless syou want to create your own. The LG offers a number of controls over gamma, including color specific ones. I didn't spend much time though, relying on Gamma low preset. No worries. The Gamma Low setting is almost ideal, staying around 2.2 to 2.5 though most of the modes. No issue, nothing really to fool with, although it's always possible to further improve the gamma with the manual controls.
Regarding the CF181D Iris
The iris in the LG CF181D projector has both manual, and auto settings. There's Off, which means the iris is wide open. There's Manual, which let's you adjust the iris, in which case 32, the highest number is wide open, and gets the same measurements as Off. A lot of this is a repeat from the first page overview.
Each Auto Iris setting - 1, 2, 3, affects maximum brightness, and also how blacks the blacks are. Auto 3, basically does not affect the brightness of whites, significantly (a 2-3% drop, compared to Off). Auto 2, is the compromise setting, and Auto 1, delivers the blackest blacks but also the least, maximum lumens.
I've been doing all of my "best mode" viewing (other than sports), with the iris on Auto 1. Brightness remains high, blacks are blackest the LG is capable of, of the assorted settings. Auto 2 is in the middle, in both max brightness and best blacks and Auto 3, well, if you plan to use a dynamic iris for things like sports or HDTV, that's the setting you'd want.
If, for some reason you are using the iris in Manual mode instead of the Auto mode, the brightness varies in 32 steps. To give you an idea of how much effect stopping down the iris has on brightness:
Effect of Iris settings on lumen output (Cinema):
Iris on Manual (set at 32: the maximum opening) = 1165 lumens
Iris on Manual (set at 16) = 924 lumens
Iris on Manual (set at 0: minimum opening) = 434 lumens
Iris Off = 1165
Iris on Auto 1 = 898
Iris on Auto 2 = 1066
Iris on Auto 3 = 1134
LG CF181D RGB Settings
These are the adjustments we made to Red, Green and Blue for the grayscale balance of Cinema mode (but we used the identical Expert 1), for "best" mode. We used Expert 2 for "brightest" mode even though Vivid was brighter
Calibration settings for "Best" and "Brightest" Best in Expert 1, Brightest in Expert 2:
Gamma on Medium, all other settings on default or as previously stated.
Expert 2 gives a calibrated bright mode.
Expert 1 (Iris on Manual 3) Expert 2 (Iris on Auto 3)
Contrast (Gain) R = 0 R = 6
G = 0 G = 0
B = -6 B = -8
Brightness (Offset) R = -1 R = -1
G = 0 G = 0
B = -1 B = -2
Lumens at 100 IRE: 483 @ 6394K 1056 @ 6863K
Note please, re, Expert 1, 2. Mikes measurements started with the iris in it's default Manual 3, rather dim, compared to other choices.
Using Auto 1, provides the best black level performance, yet the LG CF181D should output almost 900 lumens after calibration, in "best mode"
For "brightest mode" With the iris on Auto 3, the one with the minimal improvement in blacks, the lumen output for Expert 2 should be just slightly below the 1165 measured before calibration.
A brighter alternative would be Vivid, with color on natural, which still looks pretty good, just not as good as our Expert 2. Try it though if you need those extra couple hundred plus lumens.