CalMAN DPG-1000 Digital Pattern Generator

We've worked out an exclusive deal for our members to bring you this product at a price lower than what everyone else pays anywhere on the internet! Buy direct from SpectraCal at prices lower than buying off their own website! Same product, same support, just more money in your pocket at the end of the day!

SpectraCal has been looking for the right pattern generator to offer their CalMAN users for a long time. When they couldn't find what they were looking for, they invented one themselves.

The CalMAN DPG-1000 is the world's first digital pattern generator. Rather than building patterns from analog circuitry, it uses Twenty-First Century technology. SpectraCal's Derek Smith created the design, then he went out and looked at you can't believe how many components until he found what he needed to create the DPG-1000.

By assembling the DPG-1000 from commodity components, Derek was able to bring the cost of a professional pattern generator down from the thousands to the hundreds of dollars. But don't be fooled by the cost. You can spend a lot more for a pattern generator, but nothing will give you more accurate patterns than the DPG-1000 delivers.

In addition to a higher quality of pattern generation, the CalMAN DPG-1000 is small, convenient and easy to use. By running CalMAN with a Professional or Enthusiast license you can automate the DPG-1000 to maximize your efficiency. When you purchase a DPG-1000s you also get a CalMAN USB-UIRT which plugs directly into your computer's USB port and controls your DPG-1000 via Infra Red.

The CalMAN DPG-1000 is more versatile, more convenient, and has a larger selection of patterns than other pattern generators on the market today. It gives you even more ability to fine tune your calibration. The DPG-1000 is the perfect tool to combine with CalMAN if you are looking to maximize your video calibration.

Why use a pattern generator like the DPG-1000 and not a test disc for calibration?

Pattern generators are what the pro's use. For the first time a 100% digital HDMI capable version is now available and it's the same quality of gear the pros use, only 100% digital so there's no issues with signal degradation or quality.

Professionals start by calibrating just the display, as accurately as they can get it. A pattern generator like the DPG-1000 would be used, which they know you can trust. They the professional calibrator works backwards up the chain and calibrate each input separately. If the DVD or Blu-ray player is skewed, they'll want to set a mode on the display that compensates for it, but they won't want to use that mode when, say, cable TV is being watched.

Professionals know that they have no idea what the customer’s DVD or Blu-ray player is putting out, but they know they can trust their pattern generator. If you paid a professional to come calibrate your home theater, he’d bring in a pattern generator. Now you can do that too, at a price that is a fraction of the cost of competing (analog only) pattern generators.

How does the DPG-1000 compare to CalMAN HTPC and other PC driven patterns?

CalMAN HTPC software pattern generator is handy and reliable, and free is a very good price. If you are using a digital port (such as a DVD port), its output is pretty reliable. But the DPG-1000 is intended to be a reference instrument, like a hardware pattern generator. Its output has been tested and analyzed and you can depend on its reliability. That's one difference.

The DPG-1000 has an entire array of new patterns that Derek developed. It's not only a much bigger assortment than the HTPC generator offers, it's a better array of patterns than any of the old-fashioned hardware generators offers. Derek used all his experience with the deficiencies of previous patterns to come up with ones that are more useful than any I've ever seen. To pick just one example, his Contrast pattern combines all the best features of previous contrast patterns and adds some that have never been available. It's the first pattern I've ever seen that lets you adjust brightness and contrast all from one pattern instead of having to flip between four or five of them.

It's also pretty inconvenient to use the HTPC software pattern generator and CalMAN on the same laptop, and equally inconvenient to have two laptops when calibrating. The DPG-1000 is hand-held and remotely driven, so it's really convenient. Is that convenience worth $679 to you? That's a question that only you can answer.

Technical Specifications / Patterns

• HDMI/DVI only source
• Frame rate support for 480p60, 576p50, 720p50/60 and 1080i60/p60/p24
• Patterns levels in video 16-235 and PC 0-255
• Over 1500+ pattern combinations
• Grayscale in 5% increments and color saturation in 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%
• Grayscale and color saturation patterns are in 15% window , 50% window or full frame size
• Grayscale and color saturation patterns all have a black pluge of -2/+2 on the left
• 50% window 100% stimulus grayscale and color saturation patterns all have a white pluge 98/102 on the right
• Basic setup patterns, contrast, brightness, color/tint and sharpness
• The contrast has a full scale of 232-255, brightness of 0-23
• Colorbars and split colorbars in 75% and 100%
• SMPTE in 75% and 100%
• Grayscale gradient 11 including split, vertical and horizontal
• Grayscale gradient 21 including split, vertical and horizontal
• Grayscale ramp including split, split 109%, inverse split, vertical, horizontal
• Checkerboard 4x4, 5x5 and inverse 4x4, 5x5
• Crosshatch fine and coarse
• Multiburst
• RGB convergence
• 1.78 overscan
• Vertical lines 2,2
• Horizontal lines 2,2
• Backlight setup in 10%, 15% and 20%

Pictures

Need more information? See the official DPG-1000 forum thread!
Visit the SpectraCal Discussion/Support Forum


Questions, comments or feedback should be directed to SpectraCal at: spectracal@curtpalme.com