Sanyo PLV-Z4000 Projector Calibration and Settings
We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. It is a pretty standard calibration, there's always more that can - and will be done by the "hi-end" calibrators.
9/8/2010 - Art Feierman
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Sanyo PLV-Z4000 Color Temperature
Pre-Calibration: PLV-Z4000 Color Temp over IRE Range, Best Mode = Pure Cinema:
30 IRE (dark gray) 7012K
50 IRE (medium gray) 7350K
80 IRE (light gray) 7159K
100 IRE (white) 6980K
That I should note, the PLV-Z4000's measurements are a bit similar to the old Z3000, in that they both are coolest at 50IRE, but the variation across the range is is much greater on the old model, as you can see from the Z3000 numbers immediately below. This definitely would indicate changes were made to the color tables since our Z3000 review.
PLV-Z3000:
30 IRE (dark gray): 7181K
50 IRE (medium gray): 7617K
80 IRE (light gray): 7244K
100 IRE (white): 6952K
Sanyo PLV-Z4000 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.
For those who care to compare with the Z3000 numbers, you'll find significant changes again, compared to the older projector:
Below, Mike left the Iris settings for each mode in their default. That's not the way I recommend using this projector. For your movie viewing, I suggest you'll want dynamic iris on, but start with any manual iris settings wide open. Since Sanyo sets every combination differently, Mike's first measurements are all over the place: Livingroom brighter than Dynamic, Creative dimmer than Pure Cinema... That's not how you'll end up viewing. Start your mode at its brightest iris, and only close down manually if needed (too bright - not a problem many will have with this projector).
But the black level work is done both by iris and by the dynamic lamp if you are on A1 (and A2, I think)...
Brill. Cinema |
Creat. Cinema |
Pure Cinema |
Natural |
Living |
Dynamic |
|
| Contrast (0) = | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -2 |
| Brightness (0)= | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Color= | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | -8 |
| Tint (0) = | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lamp Mode = | (A1) |
(A2) |
(Normal) |
(Normal) |
(Normal) |
(A1) |
| Iris (Mode=M) = | (M1 on 0) |
(M2 on -20) |
(Fixed on -60) |
(Fixed on -20) |
(M1 on 0) |
(M1 on 0) |
NOTE: x.v.Color has the Lamp on Normal and the Iris Fixed on 0 (wide open). None of the above adjustments are available in x.v.Color
All other settings at default (untouched)
Important note: If you are working from any of the Presets, changes you make are lost, and defaults return, when you leave that preset (ie. Pure Cinema), and return to it from another mode. That makes it important to save your preferred changes in one of the seven user savable modes. Don't forget. And write them down, too.
Sanyo PLV-Z4000 Post Calibration Grayscale
The PLV-Z4000 calibrated far better than the PLV-Z3000. I've left the Z3000 numbers below, the numbers difference is pretty significant. The picture simply looks far more natural as well. The Z4000's numbers (we only did 4 IRE levels back when we reviewed the 3000), are downright beautiful from 30 IRE to 100. 20 IRE starts getting warmer - more red, but that's not unusual. From 30 to 100 IRE, the total range is only 156 degrees (Kelvin). That's about as good as you'll find going back through the last two years of reviews!
Color Temp over IRE Range Pure (or Creative) Cinema: Post calibration:
20 IRE - 6151
30 IRE - 6432
40 IRE - 6551
50 IRE - 6551
60 IRE - 6588
70 IRE - 6530
80 IRE - 6576
90 IRE - 6475
100 IRE – 6571
Old Z3000 numbers:
White (100 IRE): 6449K
Light gray (80 IRE): 6434K
Medium gray (50 IRE): 6752K
Dark gray (30 IRE): 6334K
As with most home theater projectors, if you want the most out of your PLV-Z4000, a calibration is necessary. You really have three options: Calibrate it yourself, with calibration discs like the DVE-HD or Avia, have a professional calibrate it, or you could drop in our settings, which may not be perfect for your PLV-Z4000 (as each projector is a little different, mostly due to lamp variation), but still a far sight better than the "out of the box" settings.
This PLV-Z4000 does not exhibit the fairly noticeable yellow green shift we couldn't eliminate in the older Sanyo (yes it's there in Dynamic mode, but more muted than last time, and that's advantageous when you want max lumens). That, right there, makes this a better projector! And all the numbers indicate that this projector will provide a more accurate, better picture, than the older Z3000. That means the real question is not how much improvement, but how the Sanyo stacks up against other projectors.
The limited RGB settings (only one for each color) on the Z4000 primarily affect the middle ranges, and have less effect at the extremes (20 and 100 IRE). That is the same, it seems as the older Z3000, but Mike indicated that the Z4000 may have a little more affect on the ranges, than it's predecessor, which would make sense considering the numbers above.
We did not use Dynamic Gamma in our calibration. It does have noticeable impact on grayscale balance as well as gamma. Integrating Dynamic Gamma in, makes for a far more time consuming calibration.
Since the measured (regular) gamma without using Dynamic Gamma was 2.17, and 2.2 is ideal, this is about as close to dead on, as you will get.
RGB Settings
These are the adjustments we made to Red, Green and Blue for the grayscale balance of the Pure Cinema mode, and should be fine for Creative Cinema as well, though not confirmed. The two modes measure slightly differently, but that may be attributable to their different default lamp modes.
Calibration settings:
We set up User 1 based on a Pure Cinema starting point, Contrast on 3, Brightness on 0, Color on –8, Tint on 1, Gamma on –1, Lamp on Normal, Iris on Fixed at –60 (You'll want the iris opened and dynamic).
RGB settings (default is 0)
Red= 4
Green = -2
Blue= -2
Lumens measured were a mere 234, but that's with the iris at -60... Pure mode is theoretically for "purists" those who would not use a dynamic iris.
Resulting color temperature of white for Pure (or Creative) Cinema: 6571K (almost perfect).
These settings are virtually identical to our Z3000 settings, but the results sure are definitely different (better now).
For a quick calibrate of Living mode (which Mike saved in User 2):
Red: 10
Green: 0
Blue: -5
Resulting color temperature of white: 7180K (defintely a little cool, but looks great, especially for sports).
Mike didn't setup Dynamic mode, but these settings probably will do the trick:
Red: 16
Green: 0
Blue: -2
You could drop the blue further, but assuming you don't want to further add to the yellow-green, I'd say better to boost red, than drop blue any further. The resulting settings are probably in the low to mid 7000K range, not too much different than Living mode after Mike got done with it, (but more default color saturation - for cutting through the ambient light, of course).
That pretty much covers our settings. BTW, for Gamma, typically -1 or 0 work best in most modes - Mike didn't provide specifics. For sport with ambient light you might try 0, +1, or maybe even +2, if that works in your situation.