Recommended Settings and other useful stuff for RTD 1619DR Players

Thank you Mark.

But if I provide -clearlogo.png file in the movie folder will it be used by Zidoo or would it still be generated no matter what?

 

it will be used.

 

Great. Thank you for letting me know. I can adjust TMM accordingly.

 

Hi @Markswift2003

First up, I really appreciate all the help your posts have provided me since I had my home cinema set up a couple of years ago.

Quick recap of my set-up: Zidoo Z9X, Anthem AVR, Sony XW5000 projector. The room is very dark with minimal ambient light.

A couple of days ago I watched Dune (4K blu ray REMUX) and although the entire movies was very dark in certain scenes, the “pop” watching in 4K HDR Cinema 1 mode on the projector was stunning. Then came the sandworm scene towards the end and it was just a black screen for 5mins, the DV/HDR made it unwatchable. Switching to SDR and you could see everything, but it just wasn’t DV.

My question is, should I finally concede on HDR with this set up and just go with SDR or am I doing something drastically wrong in terms of either Zidoo or projector settings (or both)?

Thank you

 

Hmm. Complicated

First thing to say, and I seem to be saying this a lot recently, is that the best HDR image a projector can ever produce is SDR.

That's because it can only ever reach SDR luminance levels, and often it can't even get that far - but that's fine because projection is a way different experience to a standard TV - and so it should be.

So whether it's the projector, the player or a video processor, something has to tone map the HDR signal right the way down to SDR levels or below.

This is different to a flatscreen - take a typical LG for example - that has a maximum luminance of around 700nits, so for the most part, only that region between say 700 and 1000 nits has to be tone mapped and it's no issue at all to fit it into 700nits and most of the time it's not even necessary to do that.

But take a 100nits projector and you can see the problem. In order to map a specular highlight of say 1000nits to 100nits means mapping diffuse white somewhere considerably below that - so the more effectively you tone map, the dimmer the overall image because the vast majority of the content is in the SDR range. This is why DTM can be so good.

So it comes down to the question of which is best at it, the projector or the player and only you can decide that.

Personally I use LLDV and have my own custom gamma that I tweaked (mostly by trial and error) so that luminance is as maximised as possible vs tone mapping, without blowing the picture out - and it looks great.

But then so does VS10 SDR - these players are very good at it. Not perfect. But very good.

So it sounds like your problem is the way the projector handles HDR in certain circumstances and because it will essentially be a static gamma curve that does it, if the content is dark, that will exacerbate the situation.

My advice is try it for a bit and see what you think. The cool thing about VS10 SDR (and VS10 HDR) is that with DV content, the RPU is used - you're not really losing anything.

And when you feed the projector an SDR signal, don't be tempted to use any of the so called "picture modes" like Cinema this and Dynamic that - you want it straight Rec.709 without any funny business. Not sure what the Sony's call that but with my JVC I can set Rec.709 colour with a 2.2. gamma and no dodgy "enhancements".

Unless you like dodgy enhancements of course!! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that...

 

Yes, having a projector is such a minefield - I sometimes envy those with a TV as their primary viewing (note: SOMETIMES ).

Ok so if I have this correct, these are my fundamental options, and then I decide which works better (all of these of course with the settings calibrated to the recommended on the first page):

1. Go with the full blown HDR option - Sony in Cinema HDR mode, Zidoo in Auto mode, Player LLDV and see if I can tweak at all (eg. try different projector modes and/or VS10 HDR etc), but essentially live with the darks/wash out.
2. Go with the option of Sony in SDR Rec.2020 with no picture mode, Zidoo in VS10 SDR mode, Player LLDV and get used to this enough to forget the “bright pop” scenes that HDR gives when it’s not dark!

Is that where I stand or is there a homemade calibration version I can do to apply my own EDID without the need to get a colorimeter level calibration?

Thanks!

 

For number 2 you want SDR Rec.709 not Rec.2020 - VS10 cannot output SDR Rec.2020 unfortunately (Dolby's fault).

Of course you could also try HDR set to SDR.2020 on the Zidoo as long as your projector can do it. The downside of this is that VS10 is not used (except for DV Profile 5) but HDR content remains in Rec.2020 and tone mapping is done by the Realtek engine.

I'm confused by what you mean by "Player LLDV" in the both above scenarios.

 

I’m referring to the DV compatibility menu option in Zidoo settings. It has Standard (TV led) and LLDV (Player led). Assuming this should always be LLDV?

 

Ok I’ve done my adjustments, compared both and decided on what to go with (for now at least!).

Here’s comparison images.

First, Went with HDR off on the projector in Reference mode. Zidoo all HDR off, Rec.709:



Then (and the one I’ve gone with), I went to HDR Reference on the projector and on the Zidoo - VS10 Low Latency, Custom EDID (BT.2020 LLDV):



Yes, the damn sandworm is darker but when the lights are on, the HDR is light years (excuse the pun) better than SDR.

Opinion? Or (dare I say) any additional tweaks to suggest?

 

Got it.

Shouldn't really matter, but yes, as belt and braces, LLDV is the logical setting - that setting is used to decide whether TV Led or Player Led DV is used if the display/EDID supports both.

 

What do you mean by "Zidoo all HDR off, Rec.709" - hopefully not "Highest Rec.709"??

You could also try this EDID - the Dolby block is set to 400nits which means that Dolby tone mapping starts earlier so you're relying more on the RPU rather than the projector for HDR processing.

https://mega.nz/file/pGwlWLaT#LZz6DYLUI5BduzDL3NZM4nDBHMRN1EcmxnwlJ-ZEvFU

 

not sure how do we delete EDID files that we don't want/use from the list in the box under custom edid ?
i would like to create a custom LLDV. EDID file for my Epson 9400 projector which can put 100Nits in HDR. mode, are there any step by step guide that someone can point me to on how to create a custom edid file please? Thanks

 

Press the menu button. You can't delete the included EDIDs.

First page of the EDID post there's a zip file of EDIDs with Dolby Block set from 100 to 10,000 nits.

 

Thank you mark

 

Hi everyone
I wish if anyone can help me with this issue
I have Zidoo Z9X connected to my server Synology 1522+ with switch with ethernet cable.
it was working just fine
But I don't when am not sure is it after the i update the server or some other reason the problem is whenever I turn on Z9X it can't read the server while it is same IP it keep showing me NO SOURCE.
I tried to find the settings some explain it in YouTube but it been removed.

 

Set a fixed ip address in your router and in the Zidoo. Possibly the router DHCP handed out a new ip address when you updated ?

 

Thank you for the quick reply
But did anyone explain how to do it in the forum?
Thank you.

 

Well it’s different for every router brand and sometimes models, so in this case it’s a simple matter of reading the documents for your router. Google is your friend.
In my particular case it doesn’t support a true fixed IP but rather a set of reserved IP’s. But that fixed the problem I had.

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

Save yourself some time and just set a static IP on your NAS. Set it to something very high in the range and you will never have to touch it again.

Doing it on the router in your case is not a good idea.