CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Hi Guy's the HCFR probe is done. I built one so far and profiled it to my i1 Pro. Seems to be working fairly well. Tracks consistently, just about a little less than the i1 pro itself, but the i1 Pro is much slower in the low IRE's. so for quick work or for getting it rough on the low end its great. I'll use the i1 Pro to touch things up when all i need to work on is the low end. In the HCFR program you can select which sensor will do the readings or both. I tested each one and found one did not read ell under 20 ire or not at all. So i will have to figure out which one it is and replace it. I figure i should test each one and find the best matching set. Lots of work for that though.
the new TAOS chip is the TCS3200 and no one has them! I called TAOS and they had some to spare so I bought direct. 24 of them just to have them around and try to match them.

I am really am glad i built it. it was fun learning it and figuring out some other things.
There is anew Frmware for it 5.40 that can not be programed with the new programer i have. So i went to the web site and found it can be updated with the HCFR probe updater in the tool menu. Great! Only thing is there is no Tools menu! But thank god i have a mac and the mac version of HCFR has this updater tool. So i used that . I needed it because it would not work with the XP emulation program Parallels . So now all is well!

So i ran a calibration on my right PJ to get a bit closer to the left. And next i will run more calibration on the left and I think it will be perfect. This is honestly the best i have seen this set up. Still needs some work but now I can watch and not be too bothers with the few scenes the blend is visible. in either dark side pans or extream bright white scenes.

But here are pics of the probe. I originally bought the square case but realized it wont fit unless i hack off a corner. but i tried it anyhow and it still will work just not protect the innards as well.

Now some pics. The typical Fifth Element shots.

This next shot i always saw the blend zone, not now ! ;D

And this one I love as it shows so much more detail after a proper calibration.
Getting a proper calibration on a CRT PJ is the singe biggest upgrade you can do.
I wish i would have used the Lumagens long time ago. i had them just sitting there and thought i could dial in these Longbows via the normal G2 and Drive method. But these have a blue Dip not hump. so no defocusing here. i can actually keep blue sharp and get good whites using the Lumagens 11 point greyscale and gamma and the Primaries Gamut control.

I love the Lumagen HDQ's!! Wish i could afford two Radiance's Wink

Athanasios

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6637

Great work ! Smile

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

They look amazing Nash. Great job! Thumbs Up

I love how the entire IRE scale is represented.

All the adjustment hours, all the studying, all the mods and upgrades...when did you find time to sleep? I get tired just READING all the things you've been up to! Laughing

A fine job by any standards!

dturco · Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 12:43 pm Post subject:

Wow, your set up is so good it shows a stage hand in the picture I never saw before. [pic 3]

How'd that get by the post production crew,and me for all these years?

On the off chance you don't know I'm joking Ha Ha Wink

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Yeah i never noticed him either Wink

Athanasios

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

Hey that guy looks quite a bit like Nash himself! Laughing

You Photoshop yourself in there Nash? Mr. Green

Yeah I saw that dude too last night when I looked at the pix and pointed it out to my wife...who apparently could give a rats patootie about such things. Laughing

Boilermaker · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 527

Awesome screen shots! Amazing that it is coming from a 13' screen!!! Blending perfection!

What gamma did you end up using, and did you play with different values?
Also, how "quick" was your sensor and how stable was is at low levels. Could you get stability at 10IRE?

Thanks,
Bob

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

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

Boilermaker · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 527

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Mark_A_W · Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 11:34 am Post subject:

Guys, I have an HCFR Probe too, and with the help of Benny (Russ) we made a calibration file for the XG LC or G70.

Let me know if anyone wants it (actually, if you search here you will find it, I posted the attachments a few years back).

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

Thanks Mark, that would be a big help.

I still dont understand how that can really be accurate though. I understand it works fairly well but I think the best calibration of the probe is to measure it against i1 pro or better probe to the display you actually want to calibrate. So if you knew some one who has a nice spectro meter probe its the best way to do it. or if the display your profiling it to has the primaries and whit dead on when measured with say the i1 pro and then you take those readings for the Y value and add them to the calibration table. There is another what i have not tried yet and that is the Simultaneous measures with a reference Probe. it actually takes the measurements from the reference probe and the HCFR probe together. I am not sure then if you or it automatically builds the matrix for the HCFR probe.
I think that is the best way where then anyone can use that calibration file for any display.

I sent Bob his out yesterday so we'll see how well it works on his XG LC's.

Athanasios

Mark_A_W · Posted: Wed May 26, 2010 12:41 pm Post subject:

Sorry, we did create the calibration file using Colorfacts, with an Eye One as the reference.

I think we manually put the values from Colorfacts in the matrix, but I can't remember exactly, and the result is the same as simultaneous measurements.

The one weakness of the HCFR probe is it needs a calibration curve for each display.

But overall the calibration before and after using the calibration curve, was not visibly different to my eye.

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

So Bob I am dying to know how the probe is working if you figured out how to use the calibration File I sent or if you used the 6pg one in the HCFR program like Gary did when he was at your place last.

Athanasios

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

Mark,

Can you attach your file for the HCFR probe. Athanasios, do want me to send you the file I'm using? DIdn't you make a file?

Nashou66 · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 16171 Location: West Seneca NY

WTS · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1276 Location: Calgary

Can you send it to me, I'd like to check it against the one I'm using now the next time I do a white check.

Boilermaker · Joined: 21 May 2006 Posts: 527