Lumagen Radiance Pro 4242C+ Video Processor

A JVC projector will end up needing similar settings changes when setup for either lumagen or envy, so it’s fine to follow the envy guide:

with the following additional considerations:
-lumagen output colourspace is 422, not rgb. a bug in ‘auto’ caused the picture flashing problem with jvc firmwares <2.00

-installation aspect: ‘auto’ if lumagen set for 4096 output, else ‘zoom’ to let jvc scale to full panel width. negligible picture quality difference.

-lumagen dtm expects gamma 2.4. If using lumagen’s hdr flag to switch jvc picture profiles for sdr/hdr (output sdh2020/sdhp3), use jvc autocal to set the ‘import’ correction value of a hdr custom slot to 2.4. envy can use 2.2, so the guide shows selecting the custom slot but skips over setting gamma 2.4.

-if you intend to use a 3dlut but do not want to use a 3d lut on top of the inbuilt cms, set colour profile to ‘off’ and colour temp to ‘high bright’ (disables cms including autocal correction)
Do note that there is reportedly (per avsforum) a small colour shift when the laser dims if ‘dynamic control’ (laser dimming…) is on, which jvc autocal corrects for but a 3dlut cannot. Unike dynamic control modes 1 and2, mode 3 only dims in dark scenes with no highlights on the screen so the colour shift is not obvious even without autocal, making this a suitable choice for profile off +3dlut.

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Kris Deering is one of the big supporters of Lumagen and has always defended them over MadVR. The video was interesting because I think I have uncovered why. He approached MadVR in the early stages but they rebuffed him and declined to let him be a dealer.

This is the founder and CEO, Jim Petersen.

Hi. I’m very new to the video processing scene and I’m looking to purchase a Lumagen 4242 in the next 2 months. The main reason for this purchase is for the aspect ratio switching and I’m a little confused as to that video showing the ratio switching. I’ve watched videos on the Madvr doing seemless aspect ratio switching for movies like Interstellar on a Scope 2:35 screen with the Imax scenes fully filling the screen. Does the Lumagen do this as well?

Paging for @desray

Yes. The latest feature update included instant AR switching for different aspect ratio.

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Jim has updated his training slides for the Lumagen Radiance Pro calibration (current as of May 2023). Here’s the link: Radiance Pro Setup Training 051523.pdf - Google Drive

This is a very important user manual for anyone using Lumagen Radiance Pro as a pattern generator to calibrate your projector display.

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Lumagen has break new grounds on DTM and the impending firmware release will ditched the unreliable MaxCLL and allow Lumagen’s own algorithm to take over the rein of DTM. Here’s the post from the founder himself. Follow the link: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/new-lumagen-radiance-pro-series.2172017/post-62608783

Exciting times ahead for Lumagen users.

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Wow cool !

The new firmware is coming soon…so excited!

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/new-lumagen-radiance-pro-series.2172017/post-62624290

In gist, it will discard the useless static MaxCLL info used for tone-mapping and opt for true scene-by-scene analysis. This is the right step forward. The DeSaturation component which is rather coarse in its existing state will also be dropped and reworked from the ground. This will help with scenes that are obscenely bright that would cause “clipping” of the highlights.

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Great. Towards HDR video nirvana!

Lumagen has just released the new DTM firmware and now those challenging scenes with specular highlights that tends to clipped and fluctuations in full fade to black scenes and vice versa are better controlled now.

With the new Jun firmware that comes with more automated control over the Dynamic Tone Mapping (DTM) for projectors. I am excited to report that this is BY FAR THE BEST firmware release. Here’s a look at some of the raw images captured by my Canon M50 Mark II. As I am using shooting from where I am sitting (about 2.8m away from my screen), you will find a lot of “black background” as I do not wish to do any cropping which will degrade image quality even further.

Let’s revisit the “most visited” scene in Avatar the Way of Water. [Click on the image to see the raw image file]

avatar_way_of_water2_jun_fw

Here’s a comparison of the same scene (except for a few frames out) using the new firmware and the old firmware. Notice the change in skin tone. This is the result of the new “desaturation” algorithm employed in the Jun firmware. This is supposed to be as close to the Director’s intent.

old_new_DTM_comparison

More screencaps from the same movie. [Click on the image to see the raw image file]

avatar_way_of_water_jun_fw

avatar_way_of_water3_raw

avatar_way_of_water4_raw

avatar_way_of_water5_raw

avatar_way_of_water6_raw

New firmware released on Jun 23

My JVC NZ7 at “mid” laser is able to churn out about 230 lux which translates to about 88 nits with my screen gain at around 1.2. Under the Lumagen Radiance Pro (LRP) setting, this will translate to about 400 lux for MaxLight output. With the new firmware, LRP will no longer rely on the “wildly inaccurate” MaxCLL static metadata from the source. Instead, it will analyze the nit output in each frame to determine what is the best setting. The benefit of this is it will retain specular highlights and prevent a drastic drop in luminance. The idea is to “match” the capability of the display output (Projector). Using my projector in this case, I will need to play around with the Low Ratio setting in the MaxLight output to get as close to my NZ7 light output on “Mid” laser mode. For what it’s worth, at “high” laser mode, I am able to get about 300 lux which translates to about 114 nits. For a low-nit display like a projector, one will need at least 50 nits and above to really reap the benefits of DTM on the projector. Anything less is not going to do well for HDR content.

Here’s a scene from Antman and the Wasp Quantumania (source: Disney +)

With DTM

Without DTM

To say the least, I am very satisfied with the new firmware. There is a reason why Hollywood studios all using Lumagen for their post-production.

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Apparently, there have been some significant improvements in Lumagen tone mapping over the past few months with some of the experienced users that helped Madshi develop MadVR apply their analysis to Lumagen, especially the forum member JAVS. They fed back to Jim and Pat at Lumagen their analysis of the errors in processing that the Lumagen was making and Lumagen fixed it in subsequent firmware released, and the fixes were verified by the forum users. It’s nice to see that Lumagen is now using the global community in the same way that Madshi did.

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This is only the beta release…I’m expecting more improvements down the pipeline. According to Jim, Lumagen, he is re-working the archaic Ui and re-organize the settings for a more intuitive navigation.

This competition with MadVR Extreme is definitely pushing Lumagen to develop the LRP further. There are several AVS members with both systems now and they compare the exact frames on different movies and feed back to Lumagen if their processing isn’t as good so that Lumagen can fix it.

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Yep…I’m aware of that. Have been following the LRP thread since their last firmware update back in Mar. Jim has been teasing users of the improved desat and DTM since Mar until the beta release in Jun last week. JAVS and Jue Liang have been giving feedback to Jim and Patrick (engineer) to improve the DTM. The latest firmware really improved DTM in leaps and bounds. I really don’t know whether Lumagen can improve even further based on the current chipset.

We in the Lumagen community have been providing all the feedback as well as the bugs uncovered along the way. It is truly a community effort and best of all, Lumagen is NOT charging the existing customers anything for the continual improvements. Very impressive.

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This is something. My client using the Madvr previous version will be changing to MK2 version… Was damn unhappy the he need to fork out another 8k for the “trade in”, which was a few times up from local dealer compared when conversion to USD rates

But no choice, he was being held by “C’s” balls since it’s only them.

I would go for lumagen highest end version once I had the chance