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Sony VPL-VW85 Projector Calibration and Settings

Posted on January 4, 2010 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. Our calibrations, including the VPL-VW85, are normally limited to a grayscale calibration, along with brightness, contrast, color saturation, etc.

Sony VPL-VW85 Projector Calibration and Settings

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. Our calibrations, including the VPL-VW85, are normally limited to a grayscale calibration, along with brightness, contrast, color saturation, etc.

Sony VPL-VW85 Color Temperature
 30 IRE  6649
 50 IRE  6606
80 IRE 6453
100 IRE 6408

OK, first, below are our pre-calibration measurements for Cinema 2 mode:

Color Temp over IRE Range (Best Mode, Pre calibration):

Out of the box there’s a slight cooling trend from the bright ranges to the darker ones, but slight is the operative term.

After calibration, the measurements are even closer to 6500K, and overall, an excellent set of results:

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):
20 IRE 6503 ( very dark gray )
30 IRE 6587
40 IRE 6561
50 IRE 6519 ( Medium gray )
60 IRE 6480
70 IRE 6420
80 IRE 6520 ( Light gray )
90 IRE 6560
100 IRE 6413 (White)

Gamma measured 2.19 using default 6 setting for Cinema 2. That’s pretty much dead on the target 2.2. Overall I felt the picture generally had really good balance, in terms of gamma, although sometimes I felt it didn’t quite delivery that nice, bright, warm, sunny day feeling, quite as well as some others.

Sony VPL-VW85 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.

Here’s a quick chart showing the default and dialed in settings. Defaults are in ().

Dynamic

Standard

Cinema 1

Cinema 2

Cinema 3

User
Contrast = (90) 86 86 87 (90) (90) (90)
Brightness = (50) (50) 54 (50) (50) (50) (50)
Color = (60) (55) (50) (50) (50) (50)
Tint = (50) (50) (50) (50) (50) (50) (50)
Color temp = (High) (Middle) (Low1) (Low2) (Low1) (Low1)
Color space = (Wide 3) (Wide 3) (Wide 1) (Wide 2) (Normal) (Wide 3)
Gamma = (8) (7) (9) (6) (off) (off)

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

Sony VPL-VW85 Projector – Performance 4
Sony VPL-VW85 Projector Calibration and Settings 2