Upgradeitis strikes! Any other Epson 8500 owners here?!

kuntasensei · May 2010

leroyjr1 wrote: »

lets see some screen shots....

I'll have to update my gallery this week with some shots of the new setup, so I'll see if I can snap some decent screenshots while I'm at it.

SolidSqual · May 2010

Hey Kuntasensei,The frame interpolation looks best with Blu Rays. Anything else its a fault. I'm going to continue tweaking to make it run faster for gaming. Let me know what you come up with. I've even been considering a VGA cable as I hear it requires less processing.

Regards,

Mike

Sherardp · May 2010

Excellent review and seems your thoughts are spot on with a ton of reviews out there. The only thing I suggest is take that lamp out and reseat it. I've been on the 8500 thread a few times and seems there are some owners who had lamps explode so definitely worth a look. Enjoy the new toy bro, almost makes me want to upgrade to the JVC RS25 though I'm not quite the videophile just yet.

kuntasensei · May 2010

I tried the FI on blu-rays... and I didn't like how smooth it becomes. It goes from looking like 24fps film to digital video. In fact, I don't even like the 4:4 pulldown so far. I'm feeding it 1080p/24 from my Oppo, and I like it at just regular old 96Hz with no processing. That may just be because I'm used to the Sanyo though, so I'm going to do some critical viewing today (and by that, I mean watch Star Trek, Pandorum, and Serenity).

SolidSqual · May 2010

I like the 4:4 pulldown. Normally, I never use interpolation unless I want to screw around.

polkfarmboy · May 2010

I just watched Tetro on bluray last nigh ............ amazing

I highly recommend using this movie as a reference point to show the differences between your projectors

The cinematography and the use of light is the finest example I have saw

Every scene in this movie could be framed and hung on the wall of an art gallery

kuntasensei · May 2010

Just added that to my Netflix queue. Still haven't watched a movie on it today, 'cause I've been catching up on TV while I do stuff in the living room, but... popping one in now.

kuntasensei · May 2010

I found the disc that totally justified my purchase: WALL-E. Blacks were absolutely beautiful, and I saw detail that I've never seen before. It looked absolutely gorgeous. Also threw Kung Fu Panda and Pandorum at it, and I was very pleased (Pandorum in particular is dark for the majority of the movie). Plus, tonight's episode of The Pacific was un-freakin'-believable; that more than anything showed where the Sanyo's gamma was nowhere near as spot-on as the Epson, because night scenes still had plenty of shadow detail.

Did some more tinkering with FI... and I don't care for it. Even on low, it just doesn't feel right. It's a little less jarring with animation than with live action, but still not something I see myself using. I did, however, do a little more critical evaluation of 4:4 pulldown and have found myself keeping it engaged for 24fps material.

Also, spent more time tinkering with the 360. With the 360 set to 1080p or 720p, HDMI lipsync delay is 120ms. With the 360 set to 1080i, however, it drops to 100ms. Using frame interpolation on top of this gave me a pretty good result and didn't seem to have as much input lag as 1080p on its own. So far, gaming seems to be the Epson's weakest point, but still probably not enough for it to be a dealbreaker. The movie/TV performance makes up for its deficiencies for gaming, though I do wish it had a minimum-processing mode for gaming purposes. Still... WORTH EVERY PENNY.

Ric5811 · May 2010

I have had no problems in two years with my Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080, awesome picture, at least none mentioned in this thread. No lags, some pixulation on my old Comcast HD receiver, but that was only on certain recordings(live shows with quick moving lights)but have had no problem with DirecTv! Never a problem on my Toshiba HDDVD, and upscaled looks great. I will see what it does with Oppo soon.

Glad you are enjoying, the Epson is a great product.

kuntasensei · May 2010

Well, the pixelization is all Comcast, I'm sure. They compress the hell out of their channels, so when they go wrong, they go REALLY wrong.

I'm definitely loving the 8500. In actual gameplay, the lag seems like a total non-issue now. It was just a **** to get it right with Rock Band 2. I'm still rocking in everything else without issue.

Still haven't pulled out the Eyeone Display LT to do a proper calibration, but I've been using the settings posted by a guy over at AVS, and it looks fantastic. There is absolutely no comparison with my Sanyo. The 8500 whips it silly.

SolidSqual · May 2010

kuntasensei wrote: »

Well, the pixelization is all Comcast, I'm sure. They compress the hell out of their channels, so when they go wrong, they go REALLY wrong.

I'm definitely loving the 8500. In actual gameplay, the lag seems like a total non-issue now. It was just a **** to get it right with Rock Band 2. I'm still rocking in everything else without issue.

Still haven't pulled out the Eyeone Display LT to do a proper calibration, but I've been using the settings posted by a guy over at AVS, and it looks fantastic. There is absolutely no comparison with my Sanyo. The 8500 whips it silly.

Do you happen to have a link to the post in the AVS forum?

kuntasensei · May 2010

SolidSqual wrote: »

Do you happen to have a link to the post in the AVS forum?

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=17735607#post17735607

I plugged those numbers in, set brightness and contrast, and I really like it. His slight adjustments to CMS made a world of difference in the color saturation.

Tonight, I did some very critical adjustment of the Sharpness control. At the default of 0 on Standard, the 8500 causes some artifacts with fine details on a 1080p multiburst pattern. Specifically, high frequency fields like single-pixel checkerboards turned yellow instead of staying gray as they should, meaning it isn't passing the pattern unaltered. Backing Sharpness down to -2 fixed this while still fully resolving every line on vertical and horizontal frequency sweeps, without any loss of fine detail that I could see. I also tried -2 Sharpness with Super Resolution set to 1, and that is now my preference. Super Res at 2 or 3 caused moire with multiburst patterns, so I would stick to either 0 or 1 (which only seems to act on details at the upper IRE levels, basically making a transient improvement control like my Sanyo had). Both of these things seem minor with real-world viewing material... but I like to know that what I'm getting on the display is what was on the disc.

polkfarmboy · May 2010

I want to buy some gear for my calibration . I wouldn't go hardcore on the epson just yet because the brightness on the etorl changes rapidly on the first 200 hours

My room is probably alot diff than others so I never use posted settings

Sherardp · May 2010

^ Start with an EyeOne LT and the free Color HCFR software. Follow the Cal. for Dummies over at Curtpalme and enjoy the results. Once you get going on that, go for the ISF title.

kuntasensei · May 2010

Yeah, each room and projector is different, but if each screen is relatively neutral as far as color shift (and they should be, even at different gains), other people's settings can be a good starting point and at least look better than the out-of-the-box settings. At worst, polkfarmboy, you can plug the numbers in and see what you think in your particular room. I figure if that guy had his ISF calibrated, his CMS numbers will be closer to the intended gamut, even if there's variance in the grayscale.

And sadly, I've already run up about 140 hours on the 8500 in the short time I've had it. I keep waiting for the bulb to noticeably dim, because even in Eco mode, it's pretty dazzlingly bright (which is not a bad thing). If I lost 20%, I'd probably be pretty comfortable with the white level in my light controlled room.

polkfarmboy · May 2010

Oh wow ........ I cant believe you put 120 on it already

Who can blame you though because its a stunning example of HT done right

I am very curious about these color settings and would love to mess around with some equipment but need a good laptop first

Sherardp says go for the ISF title .... does this mean you can get certified in calibration using the software?

Ric5811 · May 2010

kuntasensei wrote: »

Yeah, each room and projector is different, but if each screen is relatively neutral as far as color shift (and they should be, even at different gains), other people's settings can be a good starting point and at least look better than the out-of-the-box settings. At worst, polkfarmboy, you can plug the numbers in and see what you think in your particular room. I figure if that guy had his ISF calibrated, his CMS numbers will be closer to the intended gamut, even if there's variance in the grayscale.

And sadly, I've already run up about 140 hours on the 8500 in the short time I've had it. I keep waiting for the bulb to noticeably dim, because even in Eco mode, it's pretty dazzlingly bright (which is not a bad thing). If I lost 20%, I'd probably be pretty comfortable with the white level in my light controlled room.

Well, keep waiting, it was a lonnnngggg time before mine noticeably dimmed.:)

Sherardp · May 2010

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Oh wow ........ I cant believe you put 120 on it already

Who can blame you though because its a stunning example of HT done right

I am very curious about these color settings and would love to mess around with some equipment but need a good laptop first

Sherardp says go for the ISF title .... does this mean you can get certified in calibration using the software?

I was referring to taking it to the next level and perhaps going for the ISF certification. Not sure what that requires, school or some course. Would be nice though, those guys make some good extra coin with that.

polkfarmboy · May 2010

Sherardp wrote: »

I was referring to taking it to the next level and perhaps going for the ISF certification. Not sure what that requires, school or some course. Would be nice though, those guys make some good extra coin with that.

Thats a very good idea sherardp and I think I might find out more about this . Theres so many people out there with high def displays thats not getting their moneys worth

I dont have the money to buy calibration gear because I'm still building my dream HT system but maybe I will read information on the theoretical side .... do you happen to know any good books on calibration fundamentals?

Sherardp · May 2010

Not sure of any books but here is the official site

http://www.imagingscience.com/seminarsummary.php

I started with this article

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457

Also suggest you check out Calman as well. An eyeone LT will get you started, that little thing works very well for calibration.

kuntasensei · June 2010

By the way, I got a new camera today (Canon SX210 IS) so I snapped some pics and screenshots for my gallery if anyone wants to see the 8500UB in action. Still tinkering with the camera to get some better shots, but these came out pretty nice.

polkfarmboy · June 2010

Thats some nice snapshots you took ... I have a hc grey pj screen but that image still looks very punchy with that white elite

I used to have a 150 inch elite and the image was fantastic ....... after viewing your snapshots I may just cough up the $190 to have one shipped out

What elite model do you have

Sherardp · June 2010

Cool bro

kuntasensei · June 2010

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Thats some nice snapshots you took ... I have a hc grey pj screen but that image still looks very punchy with that white elite

I used to have a 150 inch elite and the image was fantastic ....... after viewing your snapshots I may just cough up the $190 to have one shipped out

What elite model do you have

Thanks. I haven't had any issues with the matte white screen, but I have kinda' wondered how a gray one would look. The 8500UB throws an incredible picture with what I have though, so no rush to try a gray screen any time soon.

I think mine is the M100UWH - just the basic 100" manual screen. I had a Da-Lite 92" before that, but the pattern on it caused moire when I changed from the 720p Sanyo Z3 to the 1080p Sanyo Z2000. The Elite staggered pattern works perfectly.

Sherardp · June 2010

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Thats some nice snapshots you took ... I have a hc grey pj screen but that image still looks very punchy with that white elite

I used to have a 150 inch elite and the image was fantastic ....... after viewing your snapshots I may just cough up the $190 to have one shipped out

What elite model do you have

If your planning to change screens I would suggest a tab tensioned screen. Eventually those manual screens will get waves, or so they say.

polkfarmboy · June 2010

Sherardp wrote: »

If your planning to change screens I would suggest a tab tensioned screen. Eventually those manual screens will get waves, or so they say.

I thought about it but they cost alot of money and even the tab t's still get the wrinkling . I have my 120 inch fixed frame for serious movie watching

I like the colorful pop and snap elite screens have and think the 150 inch pulldown would be cool for gaming and 235 movies . They only cost $190 shipped to the door from buy. com , I spend that taking my wife out for dinner and drinks

Sherardp · June 2010

150 inch would be fun. I like Elite screens too since seeing one at Grims place. The 1st time I saw it and experienced front projection was on his Epson paired with the Elite. I was blown away at the time, even more so when he bought my JVC HD1. Awesome image in his setup.

kuntasensei · June 2010

In my case, I never put the screen up... so I've been good on waves. I imagine if you're raising and lowering it a lot, waves would be a problem though. My Da-Lite never developed any with like 3 years of use, but I wasn't raising it either.

I'd love to go bigger with my screen, but at that point it would start blocking speakers. :P

Sherardp · June 2010

I would love to go bigger myself. I must have measured out my 126" screen a thousand times before it arrived. I masked it out with tape and thought, wow that is going to be large. A yr later and I'm wanting more like you bro. I've seen some setups out here with 200" screens bro, in living room setups sort of like you have there in your showcase. Just a massive screen and they are pairing them up with typical Epson, JVC, Sony pjs.

kuntasensei · June 2010

Yeah, not that 100" from 10' away is "small" by any stretch, but... there is that evil voice in my head telling me to ditch those armoires and put a bigger fixed frame screen on the wall. The manual pulldown was originally put in place because I had a RPTV behind it. The RPTV is now in another room.

Upgradeitis strikes! Any other Epson 8500 owners here?!

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