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[Gareth Marsh]

Hi again.

In my school's hall we have a Mitsubishi XD480U projector installed. Its 3000 lumens and 2200:1 contrast ratio, and its about 4 metres away from a 2.1m x 2.1m screen (at least I think its about that size).

Anyhow, its a bit crap really, and the boss isnt impressed. The colour is a washed out, its just a bit dull and nothing "pops" out at you, its a very "dusty" kinda image for want of a better description. Its a bit grey looking most of the time. It is in a brighter environment then desired, but thats not something we can change. You can still see the picture though, with the above problems.

The projector cost about $6000NZ, and the max would be about $8000NZ.

What can I try? I could move the projector about 2m away from the screen but I fear that might stuff up the picture size and angle, etc. Is it the projector? Its a toy really, not much more that a home theatre job, and its DLP. Would an LCD give better colour?


Please let me know if you need more info. TIA.


Gareth

[Ken Freeman]

Hey Gareth,  More work for you, but happy to help:

One, this is a toy, but don't let that stop you, it should work just fine.

Measure the screen.  Your notes indicate a square image.

Is this front or rear projection?

Who made the screen and what model is it?

How any hours are on the lamp?

What input are you using on this and if you could, can you get a DVI output CPU hooked up to it?

Can you send a picture of the setup to my PM?

Ken

[Michael 'Bink' Knowles]

I'm sure Ken will give you rock-solid advice. I only want to point out that DLP is understood to be the richer color option versus LCD.

Sucks that your picture is so 'dusty' looking. Say, does the unit need to be cleaned internally?

-Bink

[Gareth Marsh]

Thanks for the help so far.

This is what I found out today:

1) Its front projection (well, I already knew that before today)
2) The screen is made in NZ, its a motorized one and I cant find much info on it.
3) The projector has probably done about 4 Hrs max, its real new
4) Its got a 15m 75ohm run with RCA on it. Its all we have to hook it up to until the scaler comes (see previous thread)
I know that its not the best, but its the best we got right now
5) Sorry, I havent got a camera available now  

However, we found a setting today that was called "colour" something (a trademark jargon type term) that was set to auto, and whatdya know, the auto obviously wasnt suitable for the setup we have, so its a bit better now, but I still posted as much info as possible to get more ideas if any.



Thanks heaps

Gareth

[Brian K Tennyson, CTS-D]

I would say 95% of the time when someone complains of a washed out image, it is due to ambient light hitting the screen. Work on the lighting problem first.

Try turning off your lights and see how the image looks. if you have 25 footcandels of ambient light on your screen and the gain is zero, screen area is 24 sq feet (about 4 sq meters) your projector would have to be 6000 lumens to get a contrast of 10:1 (acceptable data contrast).

Go to the photograpy department and get a light meter and measure the vertical illumination of the screen with the lights on and the projector off. Let me know the results.

[Gareth Marsh]

The only abmient light that is around in the condition I am referring to is the light coming thru the windows that dont have curtains, all the lights are off, but its about 1pm, so there is quite a bit of sunlight at this time of year, so there isnt much we can do to get the light down, thankfully the curtains are on the side where the sun shines through in the evening so we can block that off for public events, to be honest, Ive never seen the picture off that projector at night, but if we have to use it in the day, its still annoying, nevertheless, that its too light, maybe I'll have to convince someone that we need more curtains?

[Brian K Tennyson, CTS-D]

Yes curtains or, as a compromise, room darkening shades (75% or greater) At 1pm indirect sunlight could be putting upwards of 50 footcandels on your screen.

In our scenario you would need a 12000 lumen projector to get a 10:1 contrast ratio         .

How does it look on overcast days?

[Gareth Marsh]

On overcast days its pretty much the same. I've seen it at night when the curtains are closed over the direct sunlight, and it was still a bit bland. I think that as prices continue to fall, when more powerful models become affordable for us we will put a gruntier one up there and see how we go.

[Tom Manchester]

Could just be your projector too. I have noticed that alot of projectors have a characteristic look to the image depending on the manufacturer. Some have more of a tint of one color then the other, some have a sharper more pixelated image, others are softer. The new projectors we are installing at work are cheaper epson models. They have a washed out look to them even compared to other older, more expensive ones with similar specs. I think they are kind of like loudspeakers in a way, sure they may all have similar specs and all, but you can definately hear a difference between 2 similar boxes by different manufacturers.  

[Josh Millward]

Gareth Marsh wrote on Thu, 30 March 2006 00:34

The only abmient light that is around in the condition I am referring to is the light coming thru the windows that dont have curtains, all the lights are off, but its about 1pm, so there is quite a bit of sunlight at this time of year, so there isnt much we can do to get the light down, thankfully the curtains are on the side where the sun shines through in the evening so we can block that off for public events, to be honest, Ive never seen the picture off that projector at night, but if we have to use it in the day, its still annoying, nevertheless, that its too light, maybe I'll have to convince someone that we need more curtains?

You know, I have heard of people tinting the insides of the windows to cut down on light coming into the room. May this possibly be an option for you?

-Josh

[Grayson Rech]

I'm kinda surprised that no one has mentioned this yet.

Is your projector menu contrast different from your signal content?  If so it is your signal that is the problem and not the projector.  In our school we have dozens of Mitso 400u series and all are very clean and clear if the signal is amplified through a active splitter for VGA and the same for component signals.  I side by sided a comparison (all approximate same ANSI Lumens) between NEC, Sharp, Proxima, and Mitsubishi and the Mitsubishi walked all over them.  

Any how, check into it and you may find your problem is not where you expected.

Regards,
Grayson