JVC DLA-RS20 Projector Calibration and Settings2

JVC DLA-RS20 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.

Our final settings (the default settings for Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Tint are all 0, in all modes). Mike made adjustments to these, and the Color Temp settings for each of the seven modes:

Lamp Mode=High (unless noted otherwise)
Iris fully open
All other settings at default (untouched)

Zoom set at mid-point for all measurements

Note, the JVC does not have User savable settings (you can customize all modes with the exception of THX), which are minimally customizable. (Note for THX mode, only Brightness, Contrast, Color Saturation Tint and Lens Aperture, but not Color Temp, Gamma or CMS).

You can put in the settings you want, but there is no “Save function” that can be recalled, after changed. Thus, if you have customized, Cinema 2, for example, then decide to change its color temp, it will remember the new setting but it will forget the old settings you had put in. Be sure to jot down all of your settings as you customize a mode, or use a User mode. Otherwise, you might try adjusting something, not like the result, and not be able to remember what the old setting was.

To get the Most out of the DLA-RS20, a calibration is necessary. Only the THX setting is technically very good. Oh the brighter modes are watchable for sports, etc. (very cool – blue shift).

The thing is this. The JVC’s Color Temp settings alone, do not get you to where you want to be. In addition is the JVC’s CMS. In the Color Management System you can individually adjust each primary and secondary color for Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. This is important for this JVC, as the the colors are in general oversaturated. We normally don’t even use a CMS for this level of calibration in our reviews. This is one of the few projectors with excellent potential that requires calibrating individual colors to get the most out of the projector. Without working in the CMS, you might as well just set the projector for THX, and enjoy (not a bad thing!) As I said, THX is pretty good, but the RS20 can do better. (Though, I suspect the THX folks might argue differently.)

Adjusting CMS to get desired results can be difficult on some projectors and that is the case with the JVC for reasons I won’t bore you with.

Mike, as usual, picked up the projector for calibration. He did the CMS, and all the other goodies. Unfortunately, when he returned it, this time, the projector did not look anywhere as good as expected, due to the tricky nature of JVC’s CMS settings, affecting each other.

The best image he came up with was in many ways not as good as THX, and the most annoying aspect was a slight greenish cast to skin tones.

So, off to the various forums for me, to see what is going on. For those of you who haven’t visited AVSforum.com, AVforum.com, etc., this is where the hardcore enthusiasts hang out, as well as some “newbies”. Some of these folks are on their 3rd, 4th, 5th home theater projector, and many are fanatical. I hooked up with a couple who have the RS20 already, and as one put it, he already put in something like 60 hours calibrating his. DON’T PANIC.

Realize there is always slightly different performance from one unit to the next, due to the slight variation in lamps, but generally, we have found that the settings we publish from our calibrations, seem to work well for most.

I’ve been communicating with a guy who goes by “lovingDVD” on the AVSforum. I had tried settings for CMS that he published, combined them with our Color Temp settings made a minor adjustment to our Color Temp, and ended up with a spectacular end result. 30 minutes of viewing several things later, and I decided I must have an RS20 of my own.