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Re: Blending vs Stacking
MP's special 03 mods & Blending vs Stacking
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I want to review Mike Parker’s latest special mods, but first I want to give my take on Blending vs Stacking.
Both allow greater sized screens to be used, and both I think have
their own difficulties in setup. Stacks must be aligned perfectly with
no convergence drift over the whole image. Blends are also the same
except need only worry about the blendzone in this regard, but I think
there is an added challenge in trying to make this blendzone
seamless/invisible.
Stacking
- slightly more light output (I have yet to see anything pump out more
light than Cliff’s G90 stack, although if he were stacking on a 2.40:1
13ft screen I don’t know that he would get more light output than my
blend)
- no need for blending processor (cheaper)
- great for 16:9 setups. I see no need for blending if you are running a 1.78:1 screen.
- you can use a higher gain screen for even more light output
Blending
- more raster usage and slower more even tube wear
- greater resolution
- greater resolving power as more vertical height of raster is used, and horizontal resolution is split between projectors
- sharper – I think this is understated. Yes stacks can be sharp and
Cliff’s G90 stack is testament to this. But, I just can’t believe you
can align 1920x1080 pixels perfectly across the whole screen
- bandwidth – this is a huge advantage, the projectors aren’t working
hard at all since they are only dealing with 60% of the image. This not
only allows you to use greater resolutions or higher framerates
(72Hz!), but there are also other benefits to having excess bandwidth
which I’ll discuss later
- each projector shoots straight onto the screen, so very little geometry or convergence correction is needed
- short throw – you can have a larger size screen setup in a smaller room
- 2.35/2.40:1 setups – maximum raster usage here compared to stacking
- CIH – blending cannot be touched in this regard. Cinemascope screens are uber cool
- needs to be on a unity gain screen to keep blend seamless. I think
this is good though because you have no issues with color uniformity,
hot spotting, off axis seating/viewing cone etc….
- blendzone is at edge of lens but at centre of screen. I will admit
that it is not quite as sharp here but only marginally. Good lenses
help plenty here. I will point out though that I notice lots of scenes
have the focus or actors to the left or right side of the picture, so
they are at their sharpest and brightest since they are at the centre
of the tube on either the left or right projector
- base level blacks – although Cliff has a mean fade to black, his
blacks are still slightly elevated compared to mine. This may not mean
much since his whites are so damned white
- blending unit is expensive and has a learning curve
In summary, either blending or stacking will produce an awesome picture
on a large screen. If you want loads of light and 16:9 screen, then
stacking is for you. If you want a 2.40 CIH setup, 72hz and still
sharp, then blending is your best friend.
Now, onto MP’s latest special mods. It’s no secret that these VIM and
VNB mods are designed to give your marquee the cleanest possible video
chain and massive amounts of headroom in the bandwidth department… but
how does it translate into improvements in your picture?
I’ve felt that I had a reference system for the last 6 months or so.
I’m blending on a 13’ 2.40:1 unity gain screen. I’ve been running
2520x1050p48. I’ve had MP’s v2 supermods. Gamma tweaks. I’ve got HFQ900
lenses and various other tweaks etc... Problem is I am always looking
for more. I thought that MP’s latest mods would help a little bit more
in satisfying my insatiable hunger. I was wrong… these are without a
doubt the single most valuable upgrade I have done. There is no way I
can go back after seeing what these have done for my picture. I am
finally 100% happy. So… what’s the big deal? What does running
1080p71.925 do for your movie experience? It does loads!
We all know that 72hz will eliminate 3:2 judder… smoother right? This
is an understatement. Combined with the locked 3:2 deinterlacing of the
VP50, I’ve never seen anything look so fluid. It has to be seen to be
believed. Unfortunately there is no way for me to capture this in a
screenshot so you’ll just have to try and see it for yourself. I had a
friend over who has been running 72hz out of a htpc and he thought he
knew what smooth looked like. This thing is flawless. Looks as smooth
as video. It does wonders for the watching experience, especially in
pans and fast action sequences.
Did someone say bandwidth?? These 03 Special VIMs gives loads of it. I’m in love
First thing I noticed are details. This is different to sharpness. My
setup was already sharp. Sharpness on foreground material is not really
a challenge for most crt’s. We’ve seen the screenshots of large eyes,
or close-ups of people’s faces. What’s difficult is the background. I
always thought this was just the source material. Of course the camera
is focusing on the foreground action, of course the background should
be out of focus. Wrong. Yes, foreground is more in focus, but there are
details in the background that can only be seen with a top video chain.
Now I found myself staring at things in the background that I hadn’t
noticed before. Things in the background weren’t so blurred and washed
out. Overall this gave the picture a lot more depth. I am having ‘3d
moments’ almost all the time. I don’t have to fast forward to a
particular scene when giving demo’s now…they are all WOW moments. So
the speed of this video chain is very important in giving me the
bandwidth performance necessary for these background details.
Next thing I noticed was black level performance. Blacks were not only
deeper, but shadow details were more apparent. I use gamma bumps with
the VP50, but I had to lower these adjustments now that the video chain
was able to pick these details up itself. Mike put a black level
pedestal pot adjustment on the VIM for me and this really helped in
setting up a clean video path. Also, low APL scenes were much cleaner
and noise free. I’ll also add that ANSI performance is better. You can
see this by putting up a 1:1 pixel pattern, the blacks are darker than
they used to be. Put up a word document on the computer and the letters
are sharper and you guessed it, inky black. So now watching movies my
intrascene contrast has improved, particularly in higher APL scenes.
This would not be possible if the video chain was not fast enough to
switch to black. If slow, the black levels would elevate (or float)
when there’s lots of details in the image, making the area more washed
out. The picture now seems to have a greater dynamic range.
I’ll also add that I noticed that colours had more punch, better
saturation and reproducibility. Especially pastel colours and my reds
improved too. Things look more natural and vibrant at the same time. I
started to notice people’s faces had more texture. Like the colours and
details didn’t blend in or bleed over. The complexion was more natural.
I also notice that the picture seems cleaner, but I don’t know if this
is the effect of having regenerated clean AC power now. Perhaps greater
resolving power and no noise on the video chain?
I can also now take contrast up to the high 60’s before blooming. So I’ve just added another ftL to the image.
So to sum up, smoother video, awesome details in backgrounds,
buildings, textures in clothing (pinstripes, crosshatches). Very fine
details reproduced like facial hair, or imperfections on skin. More
depth and naturalness to the picture. Superb inky blacks and shadow
detail. But my favourite is the improved contrast performance,
punchiness and 3 dimensionality.
I highly recommend these mods. The improvements they have given are truly tangible and have me and my guests smiling.
I’ll finish by saying a huge thank you to Mike Parker. I have spoken
highly of his mods, but they don’t come close to how inspiring this guy
is. This guy worked his butt off to get me these mods, even when he was
going through family crisis. Instead of taking time off to mourn the
loss of his nephew, he shipped these boards to me the same day he was
traveling to visit his family. Mike, you are truly remarkable, and a
great friend.
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