Sammy, fantastic job! Love what the madvr is doing now with the PJ. This is how it should be. HDR10 without madvr is not good enough, too much details lost. I think u know that without the DTM on , u r just going to clip so many highlights and details. So the ideal solution is with the madvr and it’s tone mapping capability and voila all bang on looks good!
This also shows u don’t need to spend $20-$30k for a high end laser Pj , this to me looks really good!
LG Laser combo madvr, very good indeed. Impressed! Well done
I think everyone should try installing MadVR. It’s definite a substantial time investment as there are bugs to get around, but it would be good to have a community here that can share tips on how to improve things. Unlike LLDV, there are tons of things to tweak. Give you an example from the MadVR configuration settings. My HTPC boots up in 15 seconds because it has a 5,000 MB/s SSD and it has run Videoprocessor.exe and MadVR and is ready to process. By the time the projector is ready, all is set.
Yeah. I was working initially on MadVR hooked up to a 2016 Samsung TV, which has very poor 4K HDR processing. I was amazed at how good it made an old TV look.
I see that Wind is using the same clip from Endgame that was in a helpful Youtube link for setting up that I sent him
I’ve spent the last few days tuning MadVR with the LG HU 810. As you can imagine there are numerous settings and so many sample setups on the Internet at AVSForum to try. I’ve also found that quite few people use HDFury with MadVR for LLDV, and not just for turning off HDCP. This means that both LLDV and MadVR are tone mapping. After some effort, the double tone mapping works very well and at this point I can safely say that I don’t need to adjust anything anymore and the picture looks as perfect as I’ve ever seen. HDR10 is also tone mapped well. Dark scenes have all the shadow detail enhanced, bright skies are contrasty, explosions are very red /saturated and blacks are deep.
The projector is actually running in SDR mode so essentially I am tone mapping from Dolby Vision or HDR10 into SDR BT2020. That is the best for me because I have a 19 point LUT calibration for SDR that renders skin tones very well. My HDR calibration using Calman is good but the skin tones are not as perfect as the SDR calibration.
When watching movies or TV, all I do is adjust the iris for the room brightness. Adding a startup sequence to Windows, it boots up and goes into Videoprocessor.exe in about 15 seconds, essentially a black box video processor with out a keyboard or a mouse.
The only thing I haven’t done is link the PC to the Harmony Hub via bluetooth so I can boot it up and shut it down with my phone or Alexa. Now I still press a button on the PC. Seems an IR dongle for the PC may work too. I don’t plan to touch the MadVR PC anymore or try any upgrades, in case I break it. In fact, am contemplating disconnecting it from the internet so nothing will update by itself.
Very nice and as u have realised by now, there is absolutely nothing wrong tone mapping twice with madvr LLDV…
I’m very sure you have nailed it with the lg and madvr, having seen some of the pics above. For the amount you have spent to achieve this type of quality, very happy for you. You took the right path indeed. Well done again ! Now you have the best of both worlds
I first learnt about madvr from Jag, some years back. He mentioned he didn’t see the need to upgrade to a hdr Pj because the colours etc looked aweful compared to SDR.
With the lg laser combo madvr, this should stay in your system for a long time
This is awesome, I’m so happy to have discovered this thread, and your success, Sammy. I came across this thread because it’s something I’m in the middle of doing, so will share my results with you folks here. Just waiting on my Decklink Recorder 4K to arrive I don’t have the greatest video card, but I want to go through the process first, document my steps, and then the card itself can be swapped out in the future. For now, I’m in the learning and trial & error stage.
I did have a question, if you don’t mind: is there a comparable “HDR flag” option in the free madVR, which operates like the option in the Envy? I ask because the Envy manual states there is an automatic and manual way to setup the JVC to switch between SDR and HDR sources, and I’d love to accomplish the former. Ideally, playing SDR content should trigger the JVC to switch to, for example, User1 with bt709, low lamp mode, and then to User6, custom1, bt2020, high lamp mode when HDR is detected. Because I wouldn’t want to watch SDR/HD content in bt.2020. But, how is the HDR “flag” passed to the JVC via madVR while having the madVR perform the tone-mapping, to make that switch automatic? I’m likely missing a setting somewhere, or perhaps it’s a profile logic issue, but any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, and appreciate you informing us of your progress!
The “free” MadVR is simply beta 113 of MadVR from the 2020s. It’s the last build from Madshi that doesn’t expire after awhile. MadVR beta 113 is quite simply just a Microsoft Direct Show Renderer i.e., its a rendering system that Windows video players can use if they use Direct Show commands to display video. MadVR is not actually an executable file. An example of a program that can use a Direct Show renderer is Kodi. Kodi can play MKV, AVI, mp4, ISO etc. By default it uses the renderer from Microsoft, but you can also get it to use MadVR. If you do, all ripped content you play goes through MadVR and is tone mapped properly. This is what Wind has just done above.
So you don’t need to wait for your Decklink recorder to arrive. You can try MadVR beta 113 now with Kodi. In terms of your HDR Flag option, there is a check box in the MadVR control panel to enable HDR output. It seems to trigger my Samsung and LG displays into HDR mode, but I don’t have a JVC so I can’t confirm. I’ve heard that JVCs have some issues with HDR triggering but there are many MadVR users with JVCs on Avsforum so I’m sure they have solved it.
However, most projector owners do not enable HDR output and keep their projectors in SDR with MadVR. TV owners with bright LCDs or OLEDs will enable HDR output. The reason is that most calibrated projectors are under 100 nits and function fine in SDR. In fact, I found the best results for my LG was to target 70 nits as the highest luminance in my calibrated SDR mode. I do use the BT2020 gamut to make sure I see all the colors.
So whether I play a HDR or SDR video to the MadVR PC, it outputs SDR in BT2020 gamut. Hence there is no need for the projector to switch between HDR and SDR. I have experimented in turning on the HDR flag. I think the picture is better in SDR because my SDR calibration was a 19 point calibration that took over 6hrs and has the best skin tones, whereas the HDR calibration was a relatively quick Matrix calibration. Also, there is currently a bug in the Nvidia 30xx drivers that fails to take the system out of HDR when you switch to SDR. You have to restart MadVR. A more permanent solution is to either lock the player in HDR (you an do this on an Apple TV) or to use Nvidia 20xx cards, which don’t have the bug. Not an issue for me since I’m in SDR
Thank you! Yes, I’m aware of what MadVR is and that I can run it standalone without a capture card; I’m simply waiting on the capture card because I want to run it as close to the Envy as possible. In other words, capturing all output from my processor as an input, so that I can continue to use all of my devices, and have madVR tone-map things like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. basically any video input. I’ve successfully tested this using my Cam Link 4K, but it doesn’t capture HDR, and really isn’t sufficient for this, so for now I’m using it standalone to play around with the settings. I agree with you that the “output video in HDR format” is not really appropriate for those with devices with relatively low light output (i.e. projectors). So I’ll still want the madVR PC to perform the tone-mapping. I just thought there would be a way to automatically switch between 709 and 2020, given the Envy does that. But I understand the Envy has proprietary and custom software and firmware outside of madVR, so maybe that’s how they’re accomplishing that.
Anyway, appreciate the feedback and detailed comment!
The main problem with the 19pt calibration is that it takes so long that you must set the alarm at 3-4am so that you can do the post calibration measurements and shut the system down. If you let it run all night and get up after there is ambient sunlight leaking in, then the post calibration measurements will be wrong. Quite a PITA
Source output>HDFury video input>HDFury video output>*Decklink video capture card input>#videoprocessor.exe>#MadVR renderer>*RTX graphic card output>projector input
Upon booting up PC, let videoprocessor.exe software auto start by creating a .bat file using notepad. Need to save the file as .bat
Once video is detected in the decklink, it will go full screen automatically
Command in the .bat file goes like this.
First line is Go to videoprocessor folder that you created (dump the videoprocessor.exe in your created folder)
Second line is excute the video to choose renderer and MadVR followed by full screen
You will then need to create a shortcut of the .bat file, and move the shortcut to windows startup folder so that it will execute automatically.
HDFury is needed in the chain to prevent HDCP from appearing from apps like Netflix, Disney+
Like what bro Sam says, so far only decklink capture card is supported. Unless you have money to spare for the Quad that can run 4k@60fps, else 4k@30fps is good enough. Not many movies running 4k@60fps also.
I’ve not yet connect up hdfury output to MadVR yet but I should be ready. Completed 19pt(5hrs 15min) calibration and the rest will be rearranging the video interconnects around to meet requirement
Once again thanks bro @sammy for guidance via WhatsApp. This is something that I’m looking at doing 2 years back and finally did it.
Discovered that MadVR is very programmable and has a simple but useful scripting language, which can assign different profiles automatically depending on the type of video received. A MadVR profile is a certain set of settings. I have created a profile for HDR called HDRProfile and a profile for SDR called SDRProfile. Using the script “If HDR then (HDRProfile) else (SDRProfile)”, I can change MadVR’s configuration depending on the type of video received. The configuration can include many things, such as color profile, rendering algorithm, video coded or color space etc. Quite sophisticated and flexible.
After getting a stable MadVR system, I have imaged the SSD to a backup and disconnected the Internet so driver and Windows updates don’t break the system. Hopefully, this programmable black box will last for years to come.
I don’t have the greatest video card, but I want to go through the process first, document my steps, and then the card itself can be swapped out in the future. For now, I’m in the learning and trial & error stage.
