Epson TW10 (Home 10)

[intinig]

I can't find the best resolution for the epson tw10 lcd projector (Home 10 in the US).

The manual says:

854x480 pixel
Original Resolution: 480P
Refresh Frequency ~72Hz

I'm in Italy so we use the PAL system and I planned to do a 1:1 corrispondence at 50Hz (multiple of pal frequency).

What I got was a terribly fuzzy and unstable image. I connected through the VGA cable.

What should I do? Thank you all!

[Rik Wang]

I don't have an answer for you, but I'd be interested in hearing what you eventually arrive at...

[intinig]

Here's my experience after spending more than three hours trying to get a pixel perfect picture on the TW10.

After reading everything I could here and on avsforum I turned on my HTPC full of hope, thinking I could solve the problem in half a hour or so. How wrong I was! I tried every trick to get to 854x480 but to no avail. Then I tried the nearest resolutions that could divided by 8: 856 and 848 (x480), but all I got was a really fuzzy and un-trackable image. No matter how much I played with tracking the image was disgusting, as if the projector scaled it down and then up.

I was going to give up, but on the TW10 Manual I found this table with the supported resolutions when using the VGA input, which lists the name of the signal, the resolution and the resolution the projector uses to display it:

EGA, 640x350, 854x468
VGA 60, 640x480, 640x480
VESA 72/75/85/iMac, 640x480, 640x480
SVGA 56/60/72/75/85/iMac, 800x600, 640x480
XGA 43i/60/70/75/85/iMac, 1024x768, 640x480
MAC13", 640x480, 640x480
MAC16", 832x624, 640x480
MAC19", 1024x768, 640x480
MAC21", 1152x870, 636x480
SDTV(525i, 60Hz), 640x480, 640x480
SDTV(525p), 640x480, 640x480
SDTV(625i, 50Hz), 768x576, 640x480
SDTV(625p), 768x576, 640x480
HDTV(750p) 16:9, 1280x720, 854x480
HDTV(1125i) 16:9, 1920x1080, 854x480

As you can see, only the two last modes are natively displayed using all the matrix so I tried HDTV(750p). The projector automatically got it and the image displayed was fine albeit obviously scaled down.

The manual says you can also try to use different resolutions, but they don't assure you anything, so I tried getting to 854x480 starting from 750p, but all I got was an 854x480 inside 1280x720 reoslution.

After that I tried starting from the bottom, and went to 640x480@75Hz. Well, the image was crisp and crystal clear, because the projector didn't scale it up or down, it only cropped it horizontally.

Using Mark Rejhon's patterns I was then able to perfectly fix tracking and sync and that made me even angrier because I can't understand how to make it use the entire matrix without scaling anything up or down.

After trying some more at 3:30 am I gave up and went to bed

I hope I gave you enough info to be able to figure this out

[Rik Wang]

It sounds like you wasted a lot of time trying to get 854 pixels per line, which is pointless and covered in this FAQ.

It would have been good to see your 720p but try this:
848x480p 72Hz=848,48,32,80,480,2,5,38,38102,5

Its exactly 525 lines at 72Hz, with a lot of room for positioning vertically. Reduce the refresh rate to 60Hz if this doesn't work:

PowerStrip timing parameters:
848x480p 60Hz=848,48,32,80,480,2,5,38,31752,5

Note that if this is Plug and Play and you run MonInfo on it, you'll probably get a precise timing in return.

[intinig]

Rik, thank you for the info. I already read that faq, but I was so upset I couldn't get a working resolution that I tried everything.

[intinig]

I tried, and I failed

It looks like the projector takes 848x480, sees it's not among the big resolutions so it scales it down to 640x480 and then scales it up to 854x480, losing lots of detail in the process.

That's the best way I can describe it.

720p @ 75Hz is waaay better than 848x480@60 or 72.

Please help me

[Rik Wang]

I don't know what to tell you w/o the projector. Even if I had it I'd have to experiment just like you are doing now.

Did you run MonInfo on it?

[intinig]

I tried to run moninfo on in but it didn't gave me any info.

I know you can't help me without the projector, but keep shooting suggestions, it's enough for me, thank you

[Rik Wang]

What is the timing of the resolutions that do work?

[intinig]

Here are the timings for the three resolutions that work:

1280x720@75Hz (Modified 720p)=1280,72,40,256,720,5,5,20,92700,278
1280x720@60Hz (720p)=1280,72,40,256,720,5,5,20,74160,278
640x480@75Hz=640,59,96,53,480,48,2,11,34408,278

640x480@60Hz doesn't seem to work fine

[Rik Wang]

Is this projector scaling all these resolutions?

Assuming 640x480 isn't scaled, try this:
848x480=848,72,40,96,480,32,3,10,41580,7

[intinig]

640x480 isn't scaled, you assumed right. Let me test your proposed res and I'll let you know. Thanks a lot.

[intinig]

Still nothing, same problem. Would posting pictures of the screen taken with a digicam help somehow?

[Rik Wang]

No that wouldn't help at all.

Try this native DVD rez:
720x480=720,39,56,33,480,48,2,11,34408,7

[intinig]

Rik, you're great, really, we're getting nearer with each try

This last res you gave me was _much_better_ than any of the others we tried, but it had some problems:

1) Aspect ratio wasn't correct, everything was stretched horizontally.
2) There was overscan I could not fix without setting the projector off tracking.

The picture quality, even with the incorrect aspect ratio and the overscan, was better than the previous attempts. It looked like the projector was scaling the image horizontally because even when perfectly on tracking, Mark Rejohn's pattern had some artifacts.

I hope I gave you enough info to finally solve this puzzle.

P.S. I accidentally discovered that this one went on tracking when the value in the projector was equal to the total number of pixel. This is the reason why the previous attemps couldn't "track". With low resolutions the tracking setting in the vpr has a limit of 9xx while we had resolutions with 1000+ total pixels.

Thank you again for the help. I know it's probably your job, but you're being fast and helpful, thanks.