CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

I tried to address most of the things on your wish list. I try catch the rest a little later.

The latest version is available.

Download Here!

New features:
Diagonal lines.
Center Circles.
Corner Circles.
Ability to offset grid pattern.

Hotkeys:
S – double click Shows setup dialog box or
Page Up – Increase line intensity
Page Down – Decrease line intensity
R – Toggles Red on/off
G – Toggles Green on/off
B – Toggles Blue on/off
C – Toggles Center circles on/off
N – Toggles Corner circles on/off
D – Toggles Diagonal lines on/off
Esc – Exits program

Also if anyone would like the source I can post it too.

Mike

kschmit2 · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:28 am Post subject:

could you make the crosshatch pattern adjustable in such a way that you can adjust the number of lines and line spacing independently for both horizontal and vertical (i.e. also non-square e.g.)?

That could be useful to line up the crosshatch pattern with the internal patterns to do e.g. point convergence on a NEC PJ using the source image, with the adjustment points then aligned to the grid from your tool

Kai

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

I just added some hot keys to the test pattern.

R - Toggles Red On/Off
G - Toggles Green On/Off
B - Toggles Blue On/Off

Mike

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

Suh-weeeeet! Thanks for the freebie Mike! It's going to snow, AGAIN! this weekend so I think I'll tackle a couple things that I've put off for too long on my 8500.

HEY BARRY!!! I'm FINALLY going to install the 145's and your plates! Shocked

(It's been what...a year? since I got them from you?) Mr. Green

The King of Procrastinators!!

This pattern tool will be a nice addition to the toolbox.

Greg

Gino · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:29 am Post subject:

Mike, how about some diagonal lines and circles as options?

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

Hey Mike,

That's nice! I use a similar grid program, but it has a 15 second splash screen you have to wait on every time you open it. That gets tiresome. I'll definitely start using yours.

Here's a link to the program. It has a lot of setup options (right click). They may give you some ideas: http://www.dallas-music.com/align.exe

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

There's a slew of vid utilities here:
http://www.execulink.com/~impact/uteslist.htm

I've played with a few of them but I was looking for a nice simple one like Mike made. The others are still nice to have on the laptop in the toolbox for that annual tune-up, and time permitting, to compare the results of one to another. The problem with the ones in the link I provided is they're all pretty old and deal mainly with 480x resolutions.

Greg

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

I also prefer simple programs like Mike's, and that's why I've used the one I linked to for years. I don't need/use all that other stuff.

This is the grid I use. I like my grid simple as well.

Gino · Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:39 am Post subject:

David_Web · Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Sweden

Up/Down on the number of lines is reversed for me. I want up to increase the number of lines.

It would be nice if you could add an 'aspect ratio square' as well. So you could get a green (or any color) 16:9 square on a 16:10 screen for example. Or any other ratio. Preferably of you could input decimal values for any aspect ratio. Like 2.35:1
It would be nice if you could change the size of it as well.

Also could you add the option to gave the settings box opaque instead of translucent. Makes redrawing the image much faster.

Aldo a focus pattern would be nice. Just dots where the crosshatch pattern crosses. Maybe combine it with the ability to choose color of the hatches and the dots independently. Could be useful.

Also buttons below the slider to quickly jump to from 0 to 100 IRE in 10 IRE steps. (maybe map 10 IRE to the '1' button 20 IRE to '2' and up to 100 IRE to '0')

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

kschmit2 · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:30 pm Post subject:

Mike: try to make the dot patterns use 1-pixel dots Smile

That's very nice when checking/adjusting focus, convergence and astig.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

David_Web · Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Sweden

I would want it together with the #hatch but a separate tab as well would make fore easy switching.

Also 0-100 IRE (%) would be nice bound to 1-0 buttons.

Also keeping the offset buttons pressed should slowly ramp the pattern away so you don't have to click a million times.

btw how do you store the last settings used?
I hope it's not cluttering my registry.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

David_Web · Joined: 02 May 2007 Posts: 418 Location: Sweden

As far as I know IRE is just a relative value between 0 and 100%.
Lets just do it from 10 to 100% (1 being 10% and 0 being 100%) all in a linear fashion from 0 to 100%. If I understand it right that's how it should appear on screen.

I know 30 keys won't matter at all but 100 apps adding soon will. It's more about principle then actual matter. And the app won't be 100% portable if it leave things behind. XML, INI or the exe itself won't matter. All the future settings and features will be carries over to the next computer that way.

Adjustable background seems nice. Might be easier to converge that way. red bg and blue #. Could be useful. r,g or b background and black # might be useful for focusing phosphor grain. Fully adjustable in intensity to minimize wear.

Are you up to making this the one stop app for test patterns?

For focusing pattern would a 3x3 px box with empty middle be useful? Maybe adjustable color for center vs 'ring' pixels. Might be useful for converging as well.

Just throwing a lot of useful/useless ideas out there. Together we all might create the best test pattern app there is.

MikeEby · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 5238 Location: Osceola, Indiana

I might take a break from this project for a few days. I want to start on a rewrite of YXY so I can stretch 1920X800 to fill the screen on 2:40 AR films. I would like to make the AR control work more like TheaterTek.

Mike

kschmit2 · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject:

for the dot pattern I like a full screen of dots (basically like the cross-hatch, but dots at the line intersections instead of lines).

To do astig or focus I like to have as little as possible on the screen, and the 1-pixel dots serve that purpose very well.