CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**kal** · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:01 am Post subject:

KennyG · Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 254

Yesterday I received my input card back from Jerry, with the new resistor values.
I want to thank him very much for his great work!
There is no doubt this card creates an image that is better than the previous DVI card...colors are more natural, test patterns are sharper (but it really doesn't translate to the video image)
It's just to bad the gamma curve is not setup for the XG, and this is where the new HDMI card falls down.
Jerry's mod has increased the amount of adjustment to an acceptable level, but unfortunately the spot on the gamma curve it adjusts is incorrect...at least on this XG.
This adjustment seems to work in the 15 to 30 IRE range, but does nothing below 15IRE on my pj.
When I adjust brightness to the correct level, I can see 2 ire,4 ire and below black, however the raster is lit up. When I set Brightness to a level that is just below lighting the rasters, everything below 15 ire is crushed. Using a test pattern with grayscale in 5 ire increments, 5,10,&15 are all the same. There is simply no shading.
To bad, this could have been a great product had Moome taken the time to actually look at the XG's gamma curve, and design this card for it. An adjustment centered on 15 ire, and spanning 10 ire on either side of that would have been what my pj needs.
As he has told me, this card is actually designed for the Sony, so I'm assuming it's needs are higher up the grayscale.
Is the card worth $450? That would depend on your budget, and what you expect out of this product.
For myself, I say yes it's worth it...the PQ has taken a step forward, and just looks "right".
Using a compromise, I can get better blacks with better shadow detail than with the DVI card. So I will buy the product and be happy...until someone takes a look at it, and can figure how to get it's adjustment to work about 10 ire lower into the grayscale.
I will be looking at this card on a pristine 110 within the next few days...once I see how that pj reacts I will post again.

gaber · Joined: 01 Dec 2007 Posts: 2

dbaisey · Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:29 pm Post subject:

Kenny,
Have you and Jerry shared the same results using a known source device that has the same settings?

I ask this because I have seen some HDMI Blu-ray players not do as well as others at their default but can get a bit more out of them using 'user settings' that allows brightness, contrast and even gamma corrections on the HDMI out. Im assusming they have them there for a reason but not all are created equal. Doug

RobertR · Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 14

**kal** · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 12:00 am Post subject:

energeezer · Joined: 08 Aug 2007 Posts: 67

??????

RobertR · Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 14

sigh...I guess I'll wait then.

KennyG · Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 254

JuzWerkz · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:36 am Post subject:

KennyG · Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 254

Tacky · Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

Hello all,

Long time reader, first time poster - Love the site Curt!!! and Moome, love your work with helping us CRT analogue die hards run modern digital formats.

I have recently purchased the FullHD HDMI input card for my new runco 991.

Unfortunately the room my projector is installed does not allow for full surround sound and therefore I don't have a receiver.

I will be using the analogue output of this card as the main output to two very very nice stereo studio monitor speakers.

Can anyone tell me if this input card will be able to output a muxed stereo signal from both DTS (and all its variants) and Dolby Digital (and all its variants)

Any input on this would be most useful.

Thank you

jarseneau · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 323 Location: WI

KennyG · Joined: 10 Feb 2007 Posts: 254

Tacky · Joined: 14 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

Can anyone point me to the correct person to talk to regarding my question about audio above?

Also - any word on shipping?

I think the last post regarding shipping was early this month....

Can't wait to get my card and get it working!

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject:

jarseneau · Joined: 06 Nov 2007 Posts: 323 Location: WI

Moome has been giving me some items to do to improve the gamma situation. At this point I am able to get the same results as shown in the 'review' post but now at my normal brightness setting of 60 rather than 80 to 90. I'll post some pics of the results tonight.

Update: I've been struggling with material that would show the gamma improvement. Part of the issue is getting the digital camera to capture as it looks in person. KennyG told me about the above difficult scene from Casino Royale where LeChifre is wearing a black suit layered with black shirt and tie with the main difference being the texture of each. The picture below was taken after improving gamma boost and with the projector set to reference black via test pattern.

Billm · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 8 Location: Sydney Australia

I have just received my input card from Moome so
they are shipping. No chance to try it out for a few days.

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:07 am Post subject:

JuzWerkz · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:33 am Post subject:

When I got home from work, I had a postcard in the mailbox telling me the post office had a package for me, but since no one was home, they did not deliver it. The sender was Moome. I will have to go to the post office tomorrow after work and pick it up. It will probably be the weekend before I have mine dialed in properly as well.

cj