5K XR, different models? and fix for muted colors!

Hi There,

I am confused regarding reports and reviews on the 5k XR being so different. There are people that love the OLED Colors and think the SDE is hardly visible or close to Vive Pro, and then there are people complaining about colors being muted and screens too dark and they see a huge SDE comparable to the original Vive!

I had every OLED Headset (and many not OLED ones) in my possession or on my head (Rift, Quest, Vive, Vive Pro, XTAL 5k, Odyssey and Odyssey Plus, 5K XR). Only the StarVR is missing in my list so far :frowning:

From my perspective the Colors are dull and too dark, have a significant red tint, the blacks are good and the SDE is slightly better than Vive, but nowhere close the Vive Pro. I have Firmware 255 on it and use latest PiTool.

The question here is: Are there different hardware versions of the 5K XR out there? Maybe the 5K BE version or initial XR batches had different screens or settings? Maybe the percentage of screen usage by lenses changed over time (see more of the screen means less magnification and less SDE)?

Can someone with a brand new 5K XR tell if he also has the impression I described here?

What changed the XR for me and made me keep it (was already on Ebay for some hours) was the following settings with pitool 1.0.2.8.6.

Contrast R3, G2, B2 (or 3)

Brightness R -2, G0, B1 (or 0)

Backlight does not change anything any more at level of 20%. 20% or 100% gives same result when having the above settings. With standard settings you can control brightness at least between 20% and 80%

Does anyone know if the XTAL 5K uses the same screens, as it has same resolution? The XTAL 5K has bright and vivid colors (everything else however is bad).

Any suggestions to optimize it even more is appreciated. Mine is an early 2019 batch and I am ready to look for an end 2020 unit if there are hardware improvements.

Thanks!

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I have an early 5k XR (upgraded from an original 8k kickstarter backing), and now an 8KX too. My XR L & R panels are different brightness levels and need heavy balancing, and it doesn’t maintain a connection to my left index controller, but is fine with the vive wands. SDE is also pretty bad with reds, which is what I expect you to have too (sorry I can’t bring the perspective you’re looking for).

I’ve barely used it since the 8KX and instead have it as a spare setup with the vive wands. I likely should have just gone with the 5K+.

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Luckily I have none of these issues, and since the new PiTool let me align Soft IPD individually for each eye in 0.1 steps I managed to dial it in perfectly (after months of testing with optical setup!)
With the new colors and optical settings it is magic! I have the 8KX and like it, but I would play HL Alyx with the 5K XR now. If it could just get little better with SDE or brightness! And if it had wireless, like my Vive Pro!
For certain games it is a good match!

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Did you follow any guide, use any tactic to dial this in?

I have spent a week trying different settings and positioning the hmd in different ways, but I’m still not getting it right.
I even printed a face gasket which gave more eye relief and clarity, but at the cost of comfort and i started seeing the rings on the lenses

Basically, I’m having double vision in the absolute middle where the eyes meet :confused:

IPD: 62 (left 30 and right 32)
Might be out of the pimax recommend IPD

I bought a 5k xr around a week ago, i can check and report back, but I’m not really sure how to check for this, any tips? :sweat_smile:

I bought mine 8 months ago, brand new, it’s correct description of it, its slightly better OG Vive but is not near the Vive Pro at all, however in dark scenes you can have impression SDE is much better, but once you open bright scenes it’s not as good.

Colours are dull & dark, check my review: https://community.openmr.ai/t/5kxr-5k-impressions/28669

Btw I have a BE version OLED.

Pimax doesn’t care about it at all, I guess they had bad sells & maybe assumed it’s due to the OLED technology, but their OLED implementaion is poor, if they would have Vive Pro SDE level it will be much more enjoyable or they could use Samsung O+ SDE filter thechnology

Many ppl say SDE is ok coz memory doesn’t serve well when you compare SDE of HMDs & have no them at once (have previous one sold it), other just didn’t experience modern SDE & come from OG vive & for them it’s step up, but it’s minor update.

Samsung O+ is best oled screen I had so for, Vive Pro is very close & in some aspects it better than O+ but overall I like O+ with recent WMR patch (increased clarity & decreased blur wth 350% SS) better:
https://community.openmr.ai/t/samsung-odyssey-deluxe-audio-strap-mod/33637

All OLED guys loss their faith when it comes to Pimax & OLED, they focused on LCD & their LCD picture is garbage, well not that bad, it’s ok, but other manufactures have much better overall screen properties ( I didn’t try 8KX, but I have 5k+, 8k & 5XR BE) 5k+ is best among those Pimaxes but it’s drab & backlight is poor + contrast is poor & with artificial contrast it crushes the colours & all details on the perceived picture.

But in terms of refresh rate, resolutoin, SDE their screens are ok, it’s just not spectacular at all, if you’re in OLED camp I don’t reccomend buying LCD from Pimax at least until you can try it yourself before buying.

best LCD options are G2 & Index (Cosmos has less resolution & it lacks smart smoothing so it’s barely usable for simulators)

Hi! maybe this can help you.

or

Since I started to have Pimax headsets (some months ago) I did not play a single game, but just tried out settings and solve issues.

I use mainly SteamVR Home and HL Alyx and The Lab as a testbed + TestHMD Software.

Since the new PiTool enables even more options, time still goes to testing, but I also have some success now.

The Color Calibration mentioned above made a huge difference.

I have an IPD of 64 and not dialed it down to 61.5 and compensated in Soft IPD. Since my eyes are not perfectly aligned and symmetrical in my face I put offsets for left and right eye. I came out at H offset -0.7 left and -0.9 right and V offset 0 left and 0.3 right.

I also use the comfort kit thin and added double sided Velcro at specific points to keep distance to the lenses. The amount you turn the knob at the MAS also has influence on the distortions and optical calibration!

In the end I got rid of side distortions (it is now more a lured image at the sides, but not distorted) got rid of the strange feeling because I could see the inner edges of the lens mounts before (like with the OG Rift, too less binocular overlap, was very annoying) and have good colors and blacks (red tint gone). However, bright scenes are littel bit blown out. Just need wireless to be satisfied. Only SDE is a bigger concern.

I guess you would need something to compare it to, like Vive, Vive Por, OG Odyssey, Quest or OG Rift.
They all have SDE as pentile matrix displays, have some brightness level and color calibration. Do you have access to one of those?

Thanks for sharing. I guess thats where I am right now, and indeed it changes everything when immersion kicks in! :slight_smile:

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I bought a second hand p2 5k XR. After upgrading to firmware 269, and setting pitool backlight slider to 0% in pitool 266, the screenbrightness is better. Contrast also seems higher so pitoolcontrast can be at 0 now.

for testing the XR in pitool 266 one can change the %programfiles%\pimax\runtime\resource\pimax_default.jpg to only white.
Also disable pimax home and screensaver to see the only white jpg just edited in the headset. When the backlight slider is set to a different value the headset will reboot to apply.
Then I made this pictures to compare:

That sounds very interesting and promising!
So when you check the headset Firmware it is not 255 any more but 269?
Did you get 269 after installing PiTool 266 and just pressed the update firmware button or did you download it from some other source? Did PiTool 266 indicate that there was a firmware update available for your XR?

PS: Is there a way to read out the current firmware of the headset?

In pitool check the firmware version in " settings" then “general”. I updated through pitool 266 it told me it was available after clicking check version. I upgraded with displayportcable connected, in pitool. I think that is fixed in 266 now? I did not notice the back light slider before the firmware update, but might have missed this. I had to click “retry” a couple of times while my headset was upgrading the firmware, but after upgrading firmware I noticed the slider and it was set at 16, and the colours/brightness/contrast was just as dimmed as always. Maybe this 16 value it is the value my headset was from factory? at 0 it is the best! After this I downgraded to pitool 260 because of compatibilty with Dirt Rally 1, and the best colours/brightness/contrast is still there.

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I followed your advice already some weeks ago and indeed I ended up with very nice color calibration and good brightness. The red tint is gone as well. The new color setting seems to be little bit greenish (similar as with the 8KX) but I could optimize it even more by using Contrast Red+1, Green+1 and Blue +2.

My previous fix brought good results, but it was never perfect as bright areas had been oversaturated. “In Death” is a good Test for this, as it is super bright and dark at the same time and both is present in large areas. I can play it now but before it was a mess.

Thanks for pointing this out, it made the XR a real good alternative to the Vive Pro and maybe even StarVR One.

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