SMART III - Video Calibration Toolkit
Steve Smallcombe's SMARTAVTWEAKS site
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Tweaking the Sanyo Z2
Like many LCD projectors, the Sanyo Z2 uses a bulb that is week in red.
Using the mid color temperature, one can see that red is deficient at
most IRE levels, and especially at the at the lowest levels.
Normally, this problem can be fixed by adjusting the various gains, or
drive levels for the various colors, to achieve proper color balance at
the high IRE levels, and use bias or offset controls to tweak the low
IRE levels.
With the Z2 attempts to correct the color balance at IRE 70, e.g. by either adjusting individual R, G and B controls, or by selecting a “Low” color temperature give an excess of Red at the mid IRE levels without correcting the higher IRE levels.
Many that have tried to tweak the Z2 using service and user menu controls,
have found that if pushed at all, the gamma tracking for red is very different
than for green and blue giving the problematic grayscale tracking shown
above. Red just seems to want to roll off at the high IRE levels, and
the tweaks that work with the Z1, simply don’t work with the Z2.
One solution to this problem is via the use of CC filters, or a red filter
in this case.
Using a combination of a CC 40 red filter and the service mode I have
the above much improved grayscale tracking. However, the use of the CC
40R filter, combined with lowering several of the gain settings, reduced
the overall light output of the Z2 to 8.6 ftL with my unity gain 102 inch
diagonal Da-Matte screen. With a smaller screen, or a screen with some
gain, this total light output might be fine, but for me, it was a bit
dim.
My next attempt at tweaking the Z2 therefore used a CC20R filter. Although the grayscale tracking is not quite as good as with the CC 40R, after a final tweak of the contrast, I had 14.5 ftL, in the High bulb mode, and 13.2 ftL in the A lamp mode – an image right in the middle of the ideal range. The contrast ratio with the CC20R filter and as tweaked, was 713:1, considerably better than my Reference, CC filter tweaked, SONY 11HT.
I really liked the Z2. It has a wonderfully full set of features, and
properly tweaked a nice bright picture with good color, reasonable good
grayscale tracking, and a very good contrast ratio for an LCD projector.
Introduction to how SMART works
Frequently Asked Questions about SMART
Here is what's new is SMART III version 1.2
The Dummies Guide explains the SMART process in a non-technical way
Buy SMART III at EnhancedHT - your exclusive source for all SMART products
Having trouble? Learn the most common mistakes people make using SMART
Read about using bias lights to improve perceived black levels.
Here are some additional tips for the SONY projectors and solution to common problems.
