How To Calibrate A Projector For The Best Picture
Projectors are very useful when you need to present videos and data on a bigger screen, they surely look professional especially when in the boardroom. Sometimes the atmosphere of a movie theatre is brought to life in your home by the usage of a projector.
The optical device which comes in various models, specifications, and sizes are available in varieties to serve several purposes. Be it a DLP projector or an LCD chip technology, one defining point is common among all these varieties of projectors which is display. They are all made to display video, pictures, and lot more. A major pitfall you are likely to encounter may be calibrating the projector for the best picture, you might call it vibrancy.
When you newly get a projector, there are high chances that it already has a default calibration setting, which is more often than not imperfect for that very best image you seek. Default setting color performance usually is poor. The calibration setting, however, will have to be tweaked patiently for you to get that amazing picture quality you so desire.
Ways to calibrate your projector
Your projector can be calibrated directly by using the projector setting and can be also be calibrated using a calibration software such as the Optical Sensor Calorimeter. The Spider 3 Elite software is quite popular, some other nice software available is Color Munki Photo, i1Beamer, and i1Pro Spectrophotometer. In using the calibration software, a true connection is required by connecting the computer running the software to a sensor. This method is considered better and easier as it comes with a comprehensible instruction manual to help in calibrating the projector to produce better picture quality. But I will make the explanation more easier by focusing on the projector setting method. Nonetheless, whichever method used, the five elements of a video or image is what is focused on to achieve that perfect picture which are brightness, contrast, color, tint, and sharpness.
The calibration of these elements results in a better overall color performance by the projector. To get started you might want to warm up the projector for a while, afterward, connect your projector to a source such as a DVD or a computer. I assume you are making progress now. This time, you would be needing a high-resolution image, so search for an image on the computer with a shadow cast or a black portion, I think a black car image would be perfect for this. If you so wish you can play a video with something similar to the image.
With the high-resolution, video or image displayed you are ready to begin the process of tweaking your projector to display the best picture. The high-resolution video or image is best for calibrating as every human perceive color differently, some are color blind as they don’t perceive some certain colors but a high-resolution video provides a balance for everyone. Using the five elements of a video or image, the ways to calibrate your projector are explained below.
Brightness
With your projector already connected to a source and a high-resolution video or image displayed, locate the calibration setting of your projector. Simply go to MENU and control it to brightness which is also known as the ‘black level’. Since projectors are of different models and manufacturers, some come with a pre-configured mode like ‘cinema’ ‘sport’ ‘movie’ ‘game mode’. Locate USERS from any of this option. Start by turning the brightness level to the maximum which should look transparent, then slowly bring it down back till the displayed video or image looks natural. If the image is too black, that is not it, tweak it some more till it is neither too black, light nor gray. Afterward, proceed to the other element, contrast.
Contrast
Contrast is also known as the white level. To calibrate contrast you have to start by increasing the brightness level to the lowest which should appear black or darken the picture, begin to increase it gradually until the image looks natural. If it doesn’t look natural, repeat the process again by turning the contrast level to the lowest again and increasing it until the image is just natural looking. Return back to the brightness panel to ensure the previous setting is still intact, then proceed to color.
Color
Colour, which is also known as saturation or chroma is the most noticeable element of an image and portrays easily if the image performance is good or poor. To calibrate the color, start by increasing the color level to the maximum which should look red and begin to decrease the level gradually until the image displayed looks natural black, remember it shouldn’t be too black. If it is, tweak it some more.
Tint
Hue is the other known name for tint, which affects the performance of an image displayed. Calibrate this important element by increasing the tint level to the maximum which may be green depending on your projector type. Then start decreasing the tint level gradually until a natural looking black car and background is observed. You can then proceed to the final phase.
Sharpness
The sharpness of an image can be told from its detail which makes this element important in calibrating a projector to display the best picture. Start to calibrate this element by increasing or decreasing either end of the spectrum until a balance is developed on the display image. Remember the image is to look natural not distorted, of course you know how a real black Sedan looks.
It is advisable you go back through each element to ensure the setting are still intact before you finally save the setting on the projector. By now, the picture or video displayed looks amazing and certainly vibrant. You can play any movie of your choice to ascertain the good color and saturation balance.
Did this article help you? If so, please tell me in a comment what do you think about it.
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