Lumagen has a device they call the Radiance Mini. I'd suggest anyone invest in this box a good meter and Chromapure. You can get a bundled package from Chromapure that includes your choice of a Radiance, a meter and the software. I'd give this a try before dumping a ton of money into a new display, new AVR, new cables, etc....
The auto-calibrate function ChromaPure has works amazingly well, even with 3D. I just set the meter up, hit the button and take a nap. 30 minutes later, it's done.
So if i get this right, the hardware box is connected to and sits between a DVDp and the display unit (let's say a LED TV), then runs patterns from the DVDP to the TV for calibration. Images are picked up by the meter, the software analyzes and changes colour, gamma, etc. updating its own hardware box, which then translates to a calibrated signal/visual regardless of what visual settings the TV has?
Or is this solely for projectors only? (though i can see how it might work with a TV as well no?)
The info on their website is rather poorly presented and not particularly clear on their products, requirements, setups...
http://www.chromapure.com/products-autocal-advanced.asp Chess, for a good and basic tutorial, read through Tom Huffman's (Creator / owner of Chromapure) papers on the web site. They are under the "color science" tab.
The process is pretty straight forward and you can use the Lumagen for any display type. I have a Radiance XS 3D that I use. All source devices go to my AVR first. I have everything set to "native" output resolution, as I do not want the devices messing around with the video data. That's what I use the Lumagen for. So the AVR is the switching device, and it strips audio from the data packet. The AVR output goes to the Lumagen and is output to the projector.
The Lumagen is smart enough to know what the input is, IE: 480P, 1080i, 1080P, 24/60 fps, etc.... You can set it up to remember each input signal, and to have a unique output calibration for each - if you want. I have found this to be unnecessary.
So once you get the devices set up and talking to each other (HDMI BS), you then start the calibration process. The Lumagen I use has internal test patterns, so there is no need to use a calibration DVD. ChromaPure talks to the Lumagen via USB cable. You start the program, and get it to link to the Lumagen. The software then tells the Lumagen to throw up whatever test pattern the software is calling for.
The meters that the pro's use run upwards of 5K. There is no need to spend that kind of money for home use. The Display 3 Pro meter works excellent, and is about $300. It is very accurate and its low light performance is outstanding. I have compared it to my i1 Pro meter and the results are very close (the i1 pro is the most accurate home meter you can buy, but is extreme slow in low light).
So now you have the Lumagen, your laptop and the software talking, you plug the meter into the laptop with USB. The software will ask for your "key" to prove you bought the stuff. It goes through its verification process, recognizes the meter, and you are ready to go.
Low light readings are the hardest for any meter. If you have a projector, it's harder yet. If you point the meter at the screen, the meter can only see reflected light, and it sees this light the distance between the screen and the projector lens + the distance to the meter from the screen. By the time the meter sees the light, it is very weak. One cool feature the software has to over come this, is a meter verification/calibration feature. You can use this to set up a "field" meter and compare the "field" meter readings to a "reference" meter. I use this feature to take a few readings with the meter pointed at the screen with the "reference" meter, then take the same readings with the "field" meter pointed at the lens, and positioned about 4 feet away from lens where the light strength is much higher (to help with the low light readings). The software then compares the two sets of readings and comes up with an "offset". This "offset" is then stored and every single further reading taken by the "field" meter get's this "offset" applied to it. So in a sense, the readings are representative to the reflected image (which can be different than the projected image, depending on screen type).
Once I have the meter set up, pointing at the lens, I then make Gain and Offset changes to the display first. You have to do this, because the Lumagen can not add light, it can only work with what it gets. The software will throw up a 100% white test pattern and a 20% white pattern. You then adjust the displays Brightness and Contrast, and get them set. Then you adjust the display's RGB "offset" and "gain" to get them as close to the target value as you can. After that adjustment, go back to brightness and contrast and verify they didn't go in the weeds. Adjust if necessary. After these changes, you might also make a change to color and sharpness. The whole point in making these display adjustments, is to ensure there is enough headroom and legroom within the grey scale and gamut. For example, if %100 white is actually closer to 70% in the display, it will never get brighter. After you get that complete, you move to the grey scale calibration using the Lumagen output settings. I use the auto-cal function in ChromaPure first, and tweak it manually afterwards. The software will do its thing and it'll make all kinds of changes to the Lumagen output settings and take addition readings to verify the changes. After it says it's done, you save the Lumagen settings. At this point, I will run through the grey scale patterns and take readings to verify the auto cal. I will tweak them a bit to get them closer to a delta E of less than 1.
After grey scale is done, you move to color gamut. If you use the 125 point color-cube function, it takes about twenty minutes. The color cube function adjusts the gamut not only at max saturation levels for each color, but at five different saturation levels for each primary and secondary color (R,G,B,W,Y,C,M). This is what really sets the Lumagens apart from other others. Having an accurate Green at five different saturation levels is what give the image depth and realism.
After all that, you just save the Lumagen settings and call it a day.
