I've written a program designed specifically to create and display test images for
the setup, alignment, and testing of PJs. There are 19 images to choose from and
most can be modified in regards to color and brightness. I've received feedback
from several members during testing and incorporated their ideas and suggestions.
It's small, only 40K.

DOWNLOAD

darn I forgot all about this program.... I'll give it a shot when I start building the new pj next week, god knows I could use some help aligning it...

If it's only 40k, why not just throw it up here as an attachment and skip the email step

Attachments are limited to images unless you are a mod.

did you try zipping it up? I know that irongecko had to zip his excel file up before he could upload it....

Not sure about that... I posted a .zip file earlier this week ... have your tried that?

[edit] - miky beat me by 2/10 of a sec

Zipped up. Thanks for the tip.

Edit: Attached program replaced 02/08/06 to fix a cosmetic bug in the dialog box.
Edit: Attached program replaced 02/13/06 - "About Box" button label changed to something more descriptive.
Edit: Attached program replaced 02/13/06 to make color intensity description on the solid color image more legible.
Edit: Attached program replaced 03/08/06 - added two gradient images.
Edit: Attached program replaced 03/09/06 - changed contrast measurement image to a grid of 4x4 boxes.

paladin:

Sweet little utility! I linked it from my Tweaks topic (see my signature). Hope you don't mind.

Many thanks,

Durachko

Paladin,

Professional job all the way. IF you're in the Pittsburgh area and looking for a job you might want to check out PIA/GATF in Sewickly. They sell these types of images for big bucks. I used to work there.

Wicked.

Excellent work!

that is one hell of a program sir.

Thank you. I used this to help get the image much better. The program is just what the "Doctor ordered"

Simple and handy - mucho gracias!

Great work paladin definately a needed tool.
sim

Thanks great work and vary cool

very handy thanks!

Very nicely Done!. This is bound to be come a favorite. Simple straightforward and small.

My hat is off to you!
( My programmer wife took a quick look at it. "Nice". she says.
From her that is major praise... )

BTW, you probably don't want feature requests, but is there any chance that it could be made multiple-monitor capable? I would expect that a 2-head system with the PJ as the 2nd display is a pretty common configuration, and it's problematic with this (otherwise excellent) proggy.


Thanks again for the tool,

Where can I find information on how to calibrate a PJ? I am totally lost when it comes to this.

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9870

Wow. Thanks for the nice words guys! I was not expecting these comments.
Rox and pagercam were the beta testers. It was their ideas and suggestions
that helped make the program user friendly and more suited for our PJs.

I was wondering how long it would be until I got a feature request.

I'll look into the dual-head output, but will probably need a couple of
people to test.

Thank Joe, I was looking for information on how to calibrate colors, contrast, etc....

Source code? Linux port?

I have a dual setup,and would be more than willing to try it out.

Me too.

PM or email me your email address so I can send you a test version.

I can test it too if you need.

Very nice work, Paladin!

I played with it quite awhile before hitting the "about pgen" button, and discovered the keyboard shortcuts. The "n" and "shift n" to advance the screens are particularly handy. You might want to make that box "controls" instead of "about pgen" - I was expecting a credits box.

Great work, thanks for sharing.

Garry

The "About Box" button has been replaced with one more descriptive and uploaded to this thread.

I added two gradient images to the program, it's available for download in an posting earlier in the thread.

The following pic is a sample of the types of images it can create and display.

Click to view attachment

Edit 03/09/06 - replaced pic with one containing new contrast measurement image.

i love this little program... keep up the great work...

gs

That program was also helpful in calibrating my monitors at work! Who says lumenlab doesn't help in the work place.

One small suggestion I have is to add a black/white checkerboard pattern with 16 squares instead of just 9.
The ansi method for measuring contrast is to use a 4x4 checkerboard pattern. Then you average the white and the dark squares. This way you end up with 2 white corners, and 2 dark corners, and the center test points are slightly off the direct center, with 2 being white and 2 being black.

ooo, nice observation matt, I saw ansi 9 points contrast somewhere and it was me who sugested for that patern... (So my fault here). yea, the 4x4 with equal boxes sounds nice to me (anyway I was thinking that the 9 points contrast should be meassured twice but conmuted.... so blacks are white...) then averaged... this 4x4 sounds better to me.

anyway, just thinking how many of us can meassure "propperly" black levels... ;D

Thanks Rox, now I have to change two(just a guess) lines of source code.
Actually I'm going to add four more circles to the single color images also,
described in the pdf linked below.

Here's some light reading, you seem to have insomnia tonight.

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/docs/NISTIR%206792.pdf

Matt - program changes should be done tomorrow, good catch.

Paladin - Thanks, Great program!!!

It just keep getting better and better and better!!! Thanks paladin!

The contrast measurement image has been modified to display a grid of 4x4 boxes.
The updated program is available for download in a posting earlier in this thread.

hey! I finally got around to using this program...very nicely done, extremely handy! thanks so much for doing this..I'm using it fro all my aligning and testing now....

just had to say although my current setup is the ohp method the prog is great, my setup is even better than before now it has been fully optimised, all i need to do is increase the bulb brightness inside the ohp and i'll be happy till i can find time and cash to build a LL pj

Hate to bug you, but how's the dual head version coming? I'll also be happy to test for you. Can't wait to get it and try it.

Thanks.

I only have a real old dual head display card for testing. I can get it to display images on the second monitor but the people that tried the new version of the program found it won't work on newer display cards. Apparently the programming is different, so this seems to be a lost cause at the moment.

Is there a Mac alternative? I'm sure I'm not the ONLY person out there with a mac mini as the video source.

Not from me, sorry.

Very Nice! Very Nice Program Indeed!

Cheers!

Fulcrum

You're not. I've been lurking around here for quite a while now and it's about time I gave something back.

Here's my test pattern utility. It's not as well rounded as Paladin's pgen software, but it's cross-platform. It's also web-based, so there's no install. Getting fullscreen on OSX requires an extra step, but you can use Megazoomer with Safari to do it.

very good

This tool works on Ubuntu and wine, but after you display your first image, and exit the first image, it locks up, and you have to restart the application.

Not to bad when it does work.

Cheers.

Oh snap! How nifty. This should work just great, thanks!