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

[dirk goetze]

Hello Wolfgang,


is it a little quit here, I hope everything is ok.
I have seen a few movies with the new Lumagen tone mapping and I like it, but still problems in different scenes "Blade Runner 2049" and others, so Lumagen is working on update since a little while.


I know you more than happy with your set uo, I found this machine could be your league :
https://www.digitalprojection.com/de/dp-projectors/insight-laser-8k/


Best dirk


P.S. Looking forward to check ALIEN in 4k release in 2 weeks from now!

[w.mayer]

Hi Dirk

Yes there is not any news about the Barco Thor Pr. and this is the reason why I not post any news.

We enjoy the picture a lot watching every week a movie.
Every good movie that had a good source quality was a highlight for all of us.

I have so far not start with the Lumagen to see how it perform in HDR as I am waiting for another solution that may come the next months.
I will post here when it will be ready but it sounds very promising.
More I cannot say at this time.

Thanks for the link but do you know it is a true 8K DMD inside or do they use a 4K DMD and did some shifting technology?
So far I know there is not any native 8K DMD chip out yet or did I miss it?
Anyway may it compare to single chip consumer pr. that use this technology this is ok as it is a 4K DMD and a 3 Chip unit…...

[Leo Nolan]

Hello Wolfgang, just wanted to let you know your screenshots from the Thor are the actual best there are of any projector and I hope you still upload them.
Having seen your journey with this projector has been amazing and seeing your screenshots make me feel like I'm part of it.
Movies like Blade runner 2049, La la land and infinity war have amazing cinematography and it would be dope to see how they look at in the best display available.
Greetings man, take care of yourself.

[donaldk]

Pixel shifting.

[dirk goetze]

Good Wolfgang, that's what the home cinemas made for, just enjoy and watch movies...but my reality is different still problems to get the picture from my VW 1100.


I think I know what new Unit waiting for, in the meantime check out lumagens tone mapping.
I'm a really PC Dummy, but Oliver explain to load the firmware update from the Lumagen website, that's all you have to do.
The new DTM is active automatically after that, lumagen has a update version of DTM online now, I like to know what you thinking of.
Lumagen fixed the bug. A quality improvement for DTM

Best Regards dirk

P.S. Can't wait to see ben hur at UHD in 4k, has anybody any news about the release ?
https://ascmag.com/articles/flashback-ben-hur-1959?fbclid=IwAR02UtYj85biOxB2dVG5UOmLXzW_8v7VOCPw 9PZrnInOp286GzX95sXR4gY

[dirk goetze]

Its me again, Wolfgang I think to talked about that unit a few week ago ?


https://www.madvrlabs.llc

[w.mayer]

Yesterday after not seeing a movie for long time in my cinema we watch Alita in 3D.

What a 3D quality a really reference 3D BD Disc.
Resolution was top, color was top, 3D was top some of the best 3D BD I ever saw.

But also the movie itself was a big surprise.
Normally I hate such kind of movies but this one is somehow very special.
I like it a lot and hope for a second one.

If someone need reference 3D material for a demo use this disc it looks phantatic.

[w.mayer]

Next week I will get the Lumagen with the new HDR Software.
As I have this scaler I will try if HDR looks better as feed the Barco Thor Pr.
Also the new Madvr Envy I will try possible by end of this month.
It will be interesting to see if there is a difference between both units and how much the picture will be better if at all compare to the Barco Thor itself.

[w.mayer]

Today Mathias visit me together with a preproduction MadVR Processor ENVI that can enhance the 4K HDR picture.
Oliver Klohs the last Germany Distributor from OPPO was there as well as he had never saw my Barco Thor.

We compare the tone mapping from the Barco Thor to the tone mapping from the MadVR ENVI  with different UHD Disk like Dunkirk or Passengers and also some still pictures from different 4K HDR Movies.

To make it short it looks very nice!

Brightness is now so good and bright that it allows me to decrease my normally used 85 to 90% Laser power to about 60%.
This helps to increase the black level a bit and at the same time I can have a picture that was visible brighter then before with 90% laser power!
Also near black sequences that looks much darker as now things that was before not visible gets visible and this enhance the visible black level.
Often 4K HDR looks not black anymore with such near black sequences but now with the new MadVR processor this is gone and enhance on top to the lower laser power black level.

Also positive was that I cannot found in our 3 hours testing any bug like brightness jumps or any other artifacts than competitive products have.
I like a lot the “detail recovery function” that brings back visible structure in very bright clipping parts of the picture that was under normally condition when I use the Barco Thor with the
internal tone mapping not visible at 500 or even higher 600 or 700 nit clipping point.

All in all I like it a lot and hope to get one unit soon as it will increase my picture quality for all 4K HDR Content I will see and this is 60 to 70 % of all my content I watch with the Barco Thor.
Hope I can get one unit soon.

Oliver told me that it was the best Picture he ever saw and that means a lot for me as he saw almost all what the market offers.

It is somehow amazing when I think about it.
After such a long time I have the Barco Thor that in summery of all it is still the best Projector money can buy today and the MadVR Envi can improve it.
Very nice.....

[dirk goetze]

Sounds like a picture clash of titans day in your cinema


did you also compare it to Lumagens DTM, as you wrote before?
I hope so, because it was one of the rare chances to that, at the moment.


For me us a poor mens HDR Viewer ( V6 - 0,8 Gain Isco 1.25 and 800h candlelight lamp of my glorious VW 1100) it was very good to know, where you placed Lumagen's DTM in the Order of ENVI and build in Barco Scaler and finally in your set up.
Until Lumagen is keep working at her beta, I really like what there DTM is doing for people how haven't a light cannon ball like VW 5000 or even your Thor


P.S. Look out for this movie this should be a bumper on your screen
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916...ef_=tt_dt_spec

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5827916/?ref_=ttspec_spec_tt

[w.mayer]

I test short the Lumagen some weeks ago.

At this time it show a bug with abrupt brightness jumps when sequences change and therefore I decide to not use it further and not further test it.
Beside this it show a good brightness improvement compare to the Barco Thor tone mapping.

I hear that this bug was with a new software now gone but I do not test it so I am not sure.

The MadVR Envi was only for some hours here and we do not had the time to test it against the Lumagen.
But I am sure that the Envi is the better unit as it offers things that the Lumagen likely not have at all.
The already mentioned “Highlight-Detail Recovery” that I like very much and other things like “Contrast Recovery” that enhance the visible contrast without creating visible bugs.
Also the power this Envi had I mean computational power is by far higher than the Lumagen.
This allows for sample some upscaling algorithm use A.I.
The Envi works internally with 4:4:4 processing with minimum 16 bit.
The Lumagen use 4:2:2 internally processing with 10 or 12 bit depends I think.

Looks like I will get late December or beginning January a Beta Unit and then I can spend more time with this unit.
But I am almost now sure that the Envi is the better unit and the big version of it can do many other things that Lumagen not offers at all.

[w.mayer]

Just watched with the whole family Star Wars in 3D in the only Dolby Cinema in Germany in Munich.

We all not like this movie and I was surprised how bad the movie itself was.

Image quality was also not really good but the worst was that there were hardly any parts where you could see real black!
Everything was in gray even all space sequences and the opening sequence and not show a good black that the Dolby Vision Trailer show before the movie itself.

Imagine someone spends over 300.000$ for a Christie Eclipse Projector or a micro LED Wall that can do perfect black and the source you play do not have any 100% black material on!!!
What a shame!!!
This is really a nightmare and I wonder really how Dolby can let this happen!

Also I can detect for the first time a minor miss convergence that I had not seen before.
Then on top of this all in some bright sequences I see vertical lines on the screen but as other sequences not show it the screen can not
be the reason why it was visible.
May it is some kind of interferences that are caused by the special light engine?

[w.mayer]

Yesterday we rewatch Inception at my Barco Thor in 4K UHD HDR.
Without any Lumagen oder MadVR just the Oppo to the Barco Thor Black looks far better than Star Wars in Dolby Vision Cinema in Munich.
Than I try a normally BD and this looks even better in Black.
I got also feedback from people that saw Star Wars also in the Dolby Vision Cinema and you know what they also complain about Black Level and Picture Quality at all.
Such a big movie so bad displayed will ruin the good reputation from Dolby Vision a lot.
Again I not understand why Dolby let Disney do this!

[w.mayer]

Today after long time waiting and some delays the Mad VR Envi arrive today.
I will test it and hope it perform as good as a early sample I saw few weeks ago or even better.

[w.mayer]

I had install yesterday the Envi and do some first tests.

The good news is the picture quality looks very nice.
I allows me to dim the laser power from my Barco Thor from normally 90% I use for 4K HRD Disc to about 50-60% without rating the picture dim anymore.
This improve the black a lot and dark sequences benefit from it as my black level is now lower.

On top of this the Envi did something to “dim images” not only to bright one!
The dim images look normally with the Barco Thor tone mapping flat as it often show a gray image that looks not so nice.
For some reason the Envi change this and the final result was that near dark sequences looks much blacker than without the Envi.
This is something very welcome for me as the only good 6000:1 on off cr. the Barco Thor have shown with HDR Disc a not so nice black compare when I playback a
normally Blue Ray that shown much better black.
But now the 4K HDR Disc looks as good as a BD in black and on top I can dim down the laser and this in combination improve the black level and near black sequences a lot.

In bright sequences the Envi show with its unique “Detail Recovery” and other things a wonderful picture with no lost in clipping parts.

I found that the Envi produce a micro studder every about 5.5 min. and depends on the material that was at this time on the screen you can see this micro stutter or not.
As many times it was not enough motion or too much motion I notice it may every 15 min. one time.
I talk with the developer of the Envi about this bug and he told me that he will solve it with a new software as soon as possible may till end of next week beside some other issues this betatest unit had.

When you get used to the Envi it is hard to go back as it do something with the HDR picture you really like to see.

Looking forward to the new software and hope this bug is gone.
I will continue my testing when this software will be installed.