JVC DLA-RS400U Projector Review - Calibration and Settings

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Art Feierman

Recommended Basic Calibration Settings for JVC DLA-RS400U. The calibration settings for the CMS (color management system), which is the calibrating of the individual primary and secondary colors, is found on the Advanced Calibration page (available to our subscribers - for a tiny annual subscription fee). A couple of the charts and notes have been repeated from the Performance page for your convenience.

JVC DLA-RS400U Pre-calibration - Settings for measurements (default values are in parenthesis):
	Cinema	Natural	Animation	User 1 (2-6 are the same)
Contrast=(0)	-1	-1	-1	-1
Brightness=(0)	3	4	4	4
Color Sat.=(0)	(0)	(0)	(0)	(0)
Tint = (0)	(0)	(0)	(0)	(0)
Color Temp =	(6500K)	(6500K)	(7500K)	(6500K)
Gamma =	(A)	(Normal)	(B)	(Normal)
Color Profile =	(Cinema)	(Standard)	(Anime)	(Standard)
Lens Aperature =	(Auto 2)	(Auto 2)	(Auto 2)	(Manual - fully open)

Lamp Mode=Low (unless noted otherwise). By default, all modes are on Low lamp.

All other settings at default (untouched).

JVC DLA-RS400U Color Temperature

DLA-RS400U Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE (mid zoom):
Color Mode	Lumens	Color Temp
Cinema	1208	6507
Natural	1235	6501
Animation	1343	7524 (1517 lumens with High Bright color temp)
User 1-6	1208	6623

Lumen Output (High Lamp, Animation mode): 1978

(yes, that's still "mid-zoom")

Effect of zoom on lumen output (Animation mode, low lamp):
Zoom out	1388
Mid-zoom	1343
Zoom in	1218

Color Temp, Cinema mode, right out of the box

Color Temp over IRE Range, Best mode (Pre calibration)
	Cinema (User and Natural are very similar)
30 IRE	6183
50 IRE	6374
80 IRE	6497
100 IRE	6507

Greyscale Calibration (Target is 6500K Across the entire brightness (IRE) range

Calibration settings for User 1:Gamma on Custom1 – 2.3 starting point, Color Profile on Standard, Low lamp
	User 1, Custom Color Temp 1 w/ 6500 starting point
Gain (0)NOTE: Gain can only be adjusted down	R = 0
	G = 0
	B = -2
Offset (0)	R = -3
	G = 0
	B = 1
Lumens at 100 IRE: 1192 @ 6590

Calibration settings for User 2: Gamma on Custom1 – 2.3 starting point, Color Profile on Standard, High lamp
	User 2, Custom Color Temp 1 w/ 6500 starting point
Gain (0)NOTE: Gain can only be adjusted down	R = -4
	G = -2
	B = 0
Offset (0)	R = -4
	G = -1
	B = 5
Lumens at 100 IRE: 1749 @ 6538

Post Calibration Color Temps: User 1, is low lamp, User 2 is full power

Color Temp over IRE Range (Post calibration):
	User 1	User 2
20 IRE	6295	6518
30 IRE	6451	6418
40 IRE	6283	6347
50 IRE	6316	6343
60 IRE	6433	6433
70 IRE	6487	6509
80 IRE	6484	6524
90 IRE	6559	6546
100 IRE	6590	6538
Average gamma = 2.22 2.20

Mike's Performance Notes

The 400U was much brighter than the last JVC projector we reviewed. Cinema, Natural and User modes are all about the same brightness, with Animation topping the list (while also being a bit green). All of the modes were set to Low lamp power by default, but still put out over 1200 lumens with good grayscale by default in low lamp mode. Grayscale in Cinema mode had a little too much red in the lower IREs. Gamma was a little low in the Normal preset, averaging right around 2.14.

Mike's Grayscale Calibration Notes

Grayscale calibrated quite well, with an average Delta E of only 1.2 in low lamp and an even better 1.0 in high lamp. The RGB balance was also good and other than a small bump in red at 40-60 IRE, was consistent across the whole IRE range.

As with prior JVC projectors, I used a higher custom gamma value to get an average of 2.2 or above. Using 2.3 yielded an average of 2.26 in low lamp and 2.2 in high lamp. Gamma was also pretty smooth throughout the range. There’s also the ability to do custom gamma adjustments, but the presets are very accurate.