Sony VPL-VW70 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Art Feierman

We calibrate each home theater that is reviewed. It is a pretty standard calibration, there's always more that can be done by some of the "hi-end" calibrators. As is typical, for this VPL-VW70 review we calibrate the grayscale, but not the individual colors.

Sony VPL-VW70 Color Temperature

First, here are the color temperature measurements for the Cinema mode, right out of the box
30 IRE (dark gray)	6551K
50 IRE (medium gray)	6465K
80 IRE (light gray)	6326K
100 IRE (white)	6254K

Overall, that's not bad at all, but definitely a bit warm (red), mostly in the brighter ranges.

Immediately below are the color temperature readings of white (100 IRE) for all three preset modes, for white (100 IRE):
Cinema	6254K (Iris on Auto 1)
Standard	7539K
Dynamic	8368K (changing color temp to Middle changes it to 7223K

Interestingly, the color temp of white in Cinema mode, changes significantly when the Auto Iris is turned off. It jumps about 500K to 6783K. When calibrating, we set the Iris to Auto 1, as we expect users to have the iris engaged.

Sony VPL-VW70 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 typically need adjustment.

Our final settings for brightness, contrast, etc., are immediately below. If there are two numbers, the one in ( ) is the initial default setting.


Contrast:
Cinema: 90	Standard: 90	Dynamic: 95
Brightness:
Cinema: 49 (50)	Standard: 50	Dynamic: 50
Color Saturation:
Cinema: 51 (55)	Standard: 37 (55)	Dynamic: 38 (60)
Tint:
Cinema: 52 (50)	Standard: 46 (50)	Dynamic: 42 (50)
Lamp Mode: High Brightness (full power)
Dynamic Iris: Auto 1
Gamma:
Cinema: 3