How to set up projector for profiling?

[ternst]

When making a profile for a projector, like with a color munki or eye one photo, how should the projector be set up prior to running the software. I.E., in the color mode on the projector should it be set to standard, sRGB, Movie, etc., or will the profile that is created not matter how the projector is set up? Thanks for any info.

[Bearmann]

Tim, it's always quite lonely here in the Digital Projection Forum

 I've never profiled a projector, but I'm pretty sure you should set it on sRGB (unless AdobeRGB is an option), as that is the most color accurate selection on the projector. What I did recently to color test a projector was to view color reference test images in the sRGB color space. Here is a good source of test images:

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/test_images.html

Most of these had to be converted to sRGB in Photoshop, as they were in AdobeRGB. I chose a colorimetric conversion, not perceptual, so that most, if not all, of the colors would remain unchanged. Luckily, our projector was spot on, so no adjustments had to be made.

You should leave the projector on sRGB all the time and all of your images should be converted to sRGB before viewing on the projector. [If you are running a color managed program such as Bridge/Lightroom/Photoshop on your laptop, remember to change the working color space to sRGB so that the images on the laptop screen also look color correct. Correction: I think that this is probably unnecessary as long as the photos have been assigned an sRGB profile]

I would love to hear from people who have actually calibrated and profiled a projector, what equipment they used, and what their experience was. I understand that is a difficult endeavor.

[David Sutton]

I'm profiling a new projector now. I ran through the various colour modes with a test image and for the best photo reproduction picked "dynamic" on this projector, which basically means it is maximising brightness. It gives the best blacks and the colours are not washed out compared to my monitor. I'm running two calibrations, one for photos and one for general presentations where I don't want the machine running full bore.
I'm using a Spyder 3 and ColorEyes Display Pro. I've set the puck on a stand to the side of the screen  so there is no shadow, about a foot or so away. The laptop is set to "extend" not mirror mode and the settings are pretty much the same as for a monitor except luminance is set to maximum and just before the profiling starts I've checked the "Maximise (projectors only)" box which takes the profiling into full screen.
Hope that is some use.
David

[papa v2.0]

Hi Guys
Ive just been having a few problems too.

Canon WXU6000 and idisplay pro.

Set projector to srgb mode and profiled.

Profiles look ok  (as projectors go)
my problem is setting Windows Color management  right in Win 8.

It is for a camera club and the laptop is only connected to  that projector so I want to have the setting optimized for this scenario. Have it on Mirrored Display.
What are you using in terms of Colour Mangement in Win 8? or Win 7

[digitaldog]

The success depends on the technology for the projector (single DLP chip isn’t ideal for images). At least on the Mac, if one sets up mirroring, only one source is properly color managed and  you’d want that to be the projector (meaning the laptop doesn’t look that great). Sometimes the profile works well, sometimes it’s just better to set the  projector in sRGB or whatever looks best and move on.

[Hans Kruse]

The success depends on the technology for the projector (single DLP chip isn’t ideal for images). At least on the Mac, if one sets up mirroring, only one source is properly color managed and  you’d want that to be the projector (meaning the laptop doesn’t look that great). Sometimes the profile works well, sometimes it’s just better to set the  projector in sRGB or whatever looks best and move on.

I agree on that it is often better to just set the projector to sRGB and not calibrate (choose sRGB as display profile on the Mac as well). I recently got an Epson projector for travel use and it did not behave well with a calibrated profile. I used to calibrate Spyder 4. Some pictures looked good and others not at all, so I went back to sRGB.

[David Sutton]

What Andrew said applies to Windows. When profiling the club projector on my laptop I always used the extend mode so the calibration for my laptop's screen didn't change. The software should support that.
I don't use any of the Windows colour management settings, but may alter the brightness on my screen. I let the ColorEyes Display Pro  software handle the rest. On my desktop similarly NEC's SpectraView handles the profiles, though not through the graphics card.
I've found the Spyder 3 good enough on the projector, but would always trust my eyes more than the profile if it came to that.
David