Of course, you could always try the Dolby Vision/LLDV hack by using an HDFury Vertex, Vertex2, Diva, Maestro, etc. to trick your sources (Sony X700, X800M2; Oppo 203, 205; AppleTV 4K, etc.) into sending their Dolby Vision Profile 5 Low Latency Dolby Vision (LLDV) signal to your display, which needs to be set to it's HDR/ST2084 curve mode to display properly. The resultant image is incredible on HDR10 only displays, such as a projector.Each of those sources can also convert HDR10 and SDR HD video to LLDV as well and the results, when setup correctly, are amazing! The AppleTV 4K works great for this. Other sources such as the Panasonic UB820/9000, nVidia Shield Pro, Pioneer LX500 can send LLDV when they play a native DV file, but can't convert HDR10 or SDR HD.This is extremely inexpensive in comparison to buying a Lumagen Radiance Pro or Envy, for those that can't afford or aren't willing to spend that much. It is well worth the small costs and relatively painless setup and tweaking to get an awesome image on that large screen!I highly suggest you read these links for more info and reviews:https://www.avforums.com/threads/dolby-vision-including-hdr10-conversion-w-dtm-on-projectors-yes.2254350/ https://www.avsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=58724442#/topics/3097934?page=1
Another option would be to build or buy a HTPC. It's a lot cheaper than buying an Envy. I think I put together a PC powerful enough for less than $500. Well worth the investment for any $10,000+ projector. You don't even need to rip discs if you don't want to, they can be played back back right from the disc tray. It would work like a standalone blu-ray player.
Hi Dylan, would you please share how to play discs on PC without ripping them first? I ripped hundreds of UHDs to my PC and got tired of it, so I went back to my UB820. Thanks!
There's about a half dozen UltraHD Blu-ray friendly disc drives out there. I use an LG BH16NS40. But you need to flash an older firmware onto the drive (newer firmwares prevent the discs from being read). It's easy to do. The firmware files are available online with a quick Google search. Then you use a program like AnyDVD HD to decrypt the disc. You can set the program to automatically decrypt a disc when a new disc is detected in the drive. Once decrypted, any application can now read from the disc. So I just tell Windows to open the disc with my media player when a new disc is detected in the drive, which subsequently starts playback of the movie. So, after ticking a few boxes within these apps and in Windows, playback is just like a standalone player, but with the added benefit of madVR. Just pop the disc in and enjoy.
Ive had a read this sounds very promising. I might look into that. Thank you for that.
Have you had a chance to give it a go yet, @Franin?
Not yet. I’m looking at purchasing the unit. Sounds very promising
OK cool. If you mean you're purchasing an HDFury Vertex, then I have one available if you want to try it out first? Just pay for shipping and I will send it over. If you like it, then you can keep it and just pay me whatever is the going rate for those on average on maybe eBay. If not just send it back. You can get better results using the Vertex2, Diva or Maestro since you can do custom Dolby Vision Strings in their respective GUIs, but you may not need that if the stock Sony A1 OLED EDID works for you. Some have reported some red push using that EDID, but there are easy ways now to alleviate that too.I think there's also a way to have someone with a Vertex2, Diva or Maestro to create and copy their Custom DV Strings/EDID and send them over to someone with a Vertex which they can then just upload to a custom slot for use in the same manner. I will have to check that out. I could possibly load a custom one in for you from my Vertex2 before shipping.The latest "discussions" involve the use of a 10,000 nit Custom DV String, which many can't seem to wrap their heads around even though it provides an amazing result. It seems it may be source and display/projector dependent, but we are in the process of figuring it all out now. Hopefully we come to a conclusion soon.
I will by using it with a NX9 will that cause any issues ? I will be curious to see how that goes up against its own DTM.
In that case you're probably better off just using this LLDV mod for playing native Dolby Vision discs and streaming only and then keep using the NX9's DTM for regular HDR10 and SDR HD Blurays and HDTV. I haven't had the pleasure of checking out JVC's latest projector FW that is providing DTM, so maybe once you get your Vertex you can compare that vs the conversion of those non-DV sources to LLDV and let us know?I think your results for DV material will be awesome on an incredible projector like the NX9!
So the 4K UHD discs that I have with Dolby Vision using the LLDV Mod will actually do DV scene by Scene ? If you have to input the nit value ? is that correct ?
Yes, they will play the Dolby Vision version that is encoded on those discs and also for any streaming Dolby Vision sources like those from Netflix, Vudu, AppleTV+, Disney+, etc. It just converts the native Dolby Vision video files on the disc or stream to what is known as its Dolby Vision Profile 5 version, LLDV (Low Latency Dolby Vision). This is the same version used by Sony players and displays. It creates a signal that is basically an HDR ST2084 YCbCr compatible one, which any HDR10 compatible display or projector can display. Think of it as Dolby Vision/LLDV in an HDR10/ST2084 "container", similar to what people think of with UHD HDR Blu-Rays using DCI-P3 inside BT2020 color gamuts.The easiest thing to try nit wise is just use the default EDID 5 in the HDFury device, which is for the Sony A1 OLED. It's peak luminance is about 700 nits, so people are reporting that their stock or custom 1,000 nit HDR curves are working well with this, other than the red push as seen on faces, but as I said there's some easy work arounds for that now, especially with JVCs where they use some people like Mark Swift and Dominic Chan's custom profiles I believe. You will have to ask them for details as I don't have a JVC any longer.If you get something higher up like the Vertex2, Diva or Maestro, then you can try the custom DV strings which offer more variables. I would just try the Sony A1 EDID at first, until you get more familiar with what is going on and how you can tweak it further though.
Dolby Vision overlays a standard gamma curve. Which is what Panasonic, MadVR and Lumagen do. This LLDV method is overlapping a dynamic tone map onto a static one. So it is not the same thing as Dolby Vision.