Barco Thor 4K 6P Residential Laser Projector the best in the World?

[dirk goetze]

Hello Wolfgang,

good what jump over to this side !
what time you expect your big V6 fabric ?
Mine 150" V6 work very well in my Batcave and i'm curious abhout your impressions.

Best Regards dirk

[w.mayer]

Hi Dirk
A good decision!
Welcome to this forum.

No i have not hear about my big 7 meter version.
I waiting for a info.

Best Wolfgang

[w.mayer]

I got this week some 4K 3D DCI Content that contains some 4K 3D Slides I have made.
This will be the first time to see at home my Private 4k 3D Still Pictures again after I sold my double Stack Barco B32 almost 1 year ago.

Good news was it works and my Projector playback this DCI File in native 4K 3D at 24P.

But there was some bugs inside.
First I send to the Guy that do the DCI file for me some wrong TOP DOWN Pictures where Left and Right was mixed so when I playback it sometimes I have to 180° turn the 3D Glasses
as the left right was wrong.
But this will be easy to solve I will get soon a new file that should be not have this bug anymore on.

More a problem was the other bug that the right part from the 3D Picture always show a normally color with normally saturation level but the left part show a huge decrease in color saturation and color itself also looks very wrong much too much green and red looks like almost missing complete.
It looks a little bit that the Projector use a wrong color bank for the left part of the 3D Picture or it can be also a bug in the freeware that was used to create this DCI File.
Here some picture how left and right looks.
Please also take a look about the first 2 pictures.
I try to get the coated glasses out from the 3D glasses as i have to use it to make good pictures.
It not went well to cook the glasses so I to put it into 2 parts

As you can see in the pictures playing back BD in 3D works fine there is not any difference in color between left and right so this bug must be coming from Projector side or Source side.

I have check again with other 3D DCI Content and also a Clip from Hobbit in 2K 3D HFR (48P) show the same bug see pictures!
So this makes it more than likely that the Bug coming from the Barco Pr.
I remember in the early days that 3D BDs show a similar bug with the Barco but it can be also a other reason.

I hope that Barco can get me the original 4K 3D version they promise to me with a passive input with two HDMI Inputs where Left and Right Part of the
4K 3D Picture coming from a PC Graphic Card that outputs a 4K 3D Image via Dual Desktop TOP DOWN soon to solve this issues.

Beside this bugs it looks very promising what I have seen so far.
Picture was very clean and sharp almost too sharp and that’s the reason why I do some new 3D processing with less sharpness enhancement as it looks to sharp with the level I had in the past for my B32 double stack and this show how good the 3D can be with this Barco Thor.

[w.mayer]

I am happy to report that the color bug is solved.

The Barco Technician goes via TeamViewer into my Projector and use some new settings.
I am glad that it was easy to sole this bug by using just some other "the right adjustments".

Colors looks now perfect.

[w.mayer]

I got a new DCP File with 15 of my best 4K 3D Stills and now as I have made a new 3D processing with left right was ok and the color bug solved all is now perfect.
I also learn to adjust via the Barco Post Software this pictures to fine tune them and store this settings under a special Marco for 4K 3D Pictures.
Some pictures looks shocking good and better than any even the best UHDs.
I must realize that even with the much lower sharpness I process this new batch of pictures some of them looks too sharp.
Looks like I have to use 0 sharpness as even 10 is too high.
The reason why I can do this is how the Barco Thor project the images.
There is no need for a enhancement as the Picture was perfect WITHOUT any of this tools.

[w.mayer]

Sad to report that I found some new issues with the new Oppo UHD Player.

The Sharpness control for BD is almost 0 even if you use the highest setting possible it’s hard to see a difference between 0 and max. sharpness.
Even more bad with UHD Disc there is not any Sharpness enhancement possible at all as 0 show the same picture as max. settings.
Other like color saturation and contrast and all working just the sharpness not at all!
Bad for me as the Lumagen I use for playback UHD HDR content to the Barco (till I get the new Alchemy) had also for UHD not any sharpness control at all inside so I have nothing at all if
I like to use it.
I hate to use much sharpness and as I have report here there is almost no need for it as the Barco Pr. show a very good picture but I like to have this control as some of
the about 95% average looking UHDs need some slight sharpness enhancement some time.

About good and bad UHDs.
I just watch “Passengers” in UHD one hour ago.
Thanks to the perfect Info tool the Oppo UHD Player have I know this UHD Disc was mastered at 4000 nits.
I decrease contrast a bit as my Lumagen Gama curve are made for 1000 nit content UHD Disc.
But picture looks in some sequences very good in some only good.
Looks like some material was only in 2K.
But this UHD Disc is a good sample for a top picture UHD quality.
Sad to say this is still rare this days as most UHD Disc are only average quality and many like from Warner are 2K only.

[w.mayer]

We watch yesterday Arrival UHD with the Barco.

A very good movie we all like it.

Beside that this UHD Disc was very dim and many people complain about it the good thing having a high brightness Barco Thor you just need to open the laser a bit more to compensate it.

I found 2 bugs don´t know where both are coming from.

First the Banding.
Both setups the Barco 4K Laser and the 77" LG OLED show banding especially in the picture at 45 min. 51 sec. take a look.
I have try any combination of the OPPO output but it is always visible as you see it in this pictures.
Please open the full resolution to see it good.
The excuse the Barco have is that I have made the UHD Disc Playback only possible with a lot of tricks so not sure the new Alchemy will be show this bug or not.
I also don´t know if it may come from the disc itself or not.
The disc is mastered with 4000 nits.

Then the LG 77" show some vertical line that the Barco setup not show.
I have not any idea what is the reason for this.
As I have many problems about handshake from OPPO UHD Player to my Denon AVR 4200 I use with the LG OLED I try already
to connect the OPPO UHD Player direct with the OLED but also there this Line Bug is still there the handshake was ok this way.
So the Denon AVR 4200 is the problem for the handshake I guess.
I will try the Panasonic UHD Player and see if it will be there as well.
If so it’s likely that the LG OLED is the problem and that is not good at all.

Please note that this pictures was shot to show the bugs and not to rate picture quality between the OLED and the Barco.
Both show different colors as I use Auto Color for this pictures and the laser act different than the OLED.

May someone have some helpful information about the bugs I report.

[donaldk]

One line Wolfgang? And only to the left? I see a bar at the spot of the x-es, then at least three vertical bars to thright and 6 or even 7 to the left, so at least 10 bars on my simple laptop. Am I the only one to see more bars in this picture?

Striking color difference on the LG OLED and Barco Thor pictures. The LG treestumps are black, the picture posted of the Barco image is blueish.

[w.mayer]

Yes there are not only a line visible.
The question is where it comes from?
If I remember right I saw this kind of bug in the OLED in past also but not remember what source I feed this time.

I have explain already why the camera show in automatic color  different colors in the pictures but this is very normally when you know how this auto color in camera works.
But this is not the point.
The issue is both show banding so bad i never ever saw before and I don´t know what cause it.

[w.mayer]

I do more test on the Banding and on the Line bug I found.

First the Panasonic UHD Player show the same bug for color banding at both the LG OLED and the Barco Pr. and also this line but is visible at the LG OLED.

BTW the handshake with the Denon was way better than the OPPO UHD.
Not perfect but switch one time the Denon of and on I get always after a picture with the OPPO do this 20 times and often not any picture!

Than I try different UHD Disc Passengers and this vertical line bug was also there visible with the LG OLED.
Than I try Maze Runner1 and also I can found this bug.
The darker the picture was the better you can see it but looks like its harder to see with the 1000 nit UHD Disc.
Both other UHD Disc are mastered at 4000 nits as Sony do most of the time.

So likely the Line bug was the LG OLED .......too bad will ask them.
Let´s see if i can get any feedback.
With other sources so far I never see it but i will watch for it now and let´s see if I can found it there as well.

[w.mayer]

I have check with SAT Signals this Line I report is visible also with other content with my 77" LG OLED!
The more dark the picture is the better you can see this line.
This is why with this very dim mastered Arrival UHD movie it was so good visible.
Not good!

[w.mayer]

The Barco Technician finally will install next week Wednesday 12th April the new Alchemy.

It will be the first new Alchemy in the world that will be installed in the field.

Let’s think positive and hope everything will be working fine.

[MrPixels]

Yes you will be the very first in the world to have the new Barco Alchemy and HDMI 2.0. You are everyones eyes and ears cant wait for your report. No one better to put a new product through testing, I hope the experience puts a smile on your face.

[w.mayer]

Object of Desire arrive today!

Here a first Picture.
The Barco technician will be working on it and hopefully this afternoon/evening I have a smile on my face......

[donaldk]

No way to feed it 4K over SDI? With just the two 3G inputs. So the new HDMI input is essential to input 4K. Will be interesting to see how it performs, Wolfgang.