Vivitek H9080FD Projector Calibration and Settings
We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. As is our normal method, when calibrating the Vivitek H9080FD projector, we do contrast, brightness, and a full grayscale color temperature adjustment. We do not do an individual calibration of each color, which most professional calibrators will also do as part of their service, as part of a calibration of a projector in this price range, and quality. Still, our settings should provide you with an easily, visibly improved picture, with better color accuracy, than running the H9080FD with the default settings right out of the box.
8/19/2009 - Art Feierman
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Vivitek H9080FD Color Temperature
One thing worthy of note before you look at "the numbers". With traditional home theater projectors, there are variations in color balance from one unit to the next, due to slight variations in each lamp's performance. Since the H9080FD uses an LED light source, however, I believe that the results should be more consistent from unit to unit. In that case, our settings therefore should be even more useful and accurate, with the Vivitek, than with other projectors we've reviewed.
These are the measurements, taken "right out of the box."
Film gamma, Standard color temp (we'll refer to this as its best mode).
30 IRE (dark gray): 6956K
50 IRE (medium gray): 7186K
80 IRE (light gray): 7166K
100 IRE (white): 7334K
That is definitely shifted away from red, towards blue, but not a great deal. Still, while the image is definitely very watchable, it can easily be improved.
For those interested, here are the color temperature measurement for white (100 IRE), for each of the preset (in this case, gamma) modes:
Film= 407@ 7334K
Cinema= 407 @ 7341K
Bright= 409 @ 7343
Graphics= 409 @ 7319
CRT = 409 @ 7308
Note that the color temp barely changes at all (it's the way the color temp is set up on the Vivitek as they are using the same "Standard" color temp). While this method is not typical, Vivitek is not alone, Mitsubishi sets up their controls the same way, on their home theater projectors.
Vivitek H9080FD 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 may need adjustment. Here are our settings (and defaults) for the "basic settings" for the Vivitek H9080FD:
Film |
Cinema |
Bright |
Graphics |
CRT |
||
| Contrast (100) = | 98 | 98 | 98 | 72 | 99 | |
| Brightness (100)= | 106 | 98 | 103 | 104 | 113 | |
| Color Temp= (Standard for all) | ||||||
| Auto iris= OFF | ||||||
| Dynamic Contrast= OFF | ||||||
| Brilliant Color= OFF | ||||||
| Zoom at mid range | ||||||
| All other settings at default | ||||||
Numbers in ( ) are defaults
To get the Most out of the H9080FD, a calibration is necessary. Of course with a projector in this price range, the dealer will normally recommend a full calibration.
Vivitek H9080FD Post Calibration Grayscale
Excellent!
20 IRE: 6489K (very dark gray)
30 IRE: 6634K (dark gray)
40 IRE: 6572K
50 IRE: 6540K (medium gray)
60 IRE: 6512K
70 IRE: 6540K
80 IRE: 6559K (light gray)
90 IRE: 6507K
100 IRE:6518K (white)
The settings (listed below) that we ended up with for the H9080FD provide a truly excellent grayscale result (which is evident in the final projected image, even if other issues resulted in particularly inaccurate photo shoot results that poorly duplicate what was seen on the screen. With a total range of temperatures of less than 140K, that's about as tight, and dead on, as any calibration we've done in a year or more, and far better than most (typical for our level of calibration is 300K - 450K over the range, with few having less than 200K range. The average across the range is just less than 6550K (compared to an idea 6500K), and that's extremely close to ideal!
Note that we used the Standard color temp setting, which, while a bit cool (too high), is still the closest to the ideal 6500K. The Warm setting is way low - (white at 5754K as indicated above), is pretty much on the mark for black and white movies (5800K), although the color temp for lower ranges than 100IRE come in below 5800K, so result in a bit too warm grays. The Cool, and Cooler color temps are too cool, with Cooler, being way, way, over the top (over 11,000K), and basically terrible. Even Cool, is too cool by a good bit, but can be calibrated downward. None the less, Standard (calibrated) is where you want to be!
Gamma settings:
Film: 2.14
Cinema= 2.12
Bright= 1.95
Graphics= 1.6
CRT= 2.4
Note that Film and Cinema measure out with almost identical averages across the full range of dark to light. It seems that the primary difference between Film and Cinema gamma settings primarily affects the dark ranges, with very little measureable change in the brighter ranges. The effect is that Film is a little darker, and punchier than Cinema mode. I often switched between the two with some movies, favoring Film, most of the time. For HDTV and sports I definitely prefer Cinema as it lightens up those midranges a bit. The CRT gamma at 2.4 definitely darkens the entire mid brightness range too much for most people's tastes (and is technically too high, as the target gamma is considered to be 2.2.)
If you have very little ambient light (but some) to deal with, you might definitely prefer Film for movie watching, as it will tend to keep the contrast up a bit in the darker regions instead of washing out as much.
The Bright setting is also viable, especially for HDTV/Sports. It doesn't throw any signficant extra lumens at the screen, but lightens up the whole picture, so while contrast (gamma related) may be down compared to Film or Cinema, it might be better off, in general for fighting more than the minimum ambient light.
Vivitek H9080FD RGB Settings
These are the adjustments we made to Red, Green and Blue for the grayscale balance of the Vivitek H9080FD home theater projector.
Color Temp settings:
Contrast:
Red: 86
Green: 100
Blue: 78
Brightness:
Red: 98
Green: 100
Blue: 101