Introduction; What Are Profiles; Why Not Just Use "Presets - madVR Labs Envy User Manual

1.0 Introduction

Welcome to the madVR Envy Profile User Guide! This document explains everything you need to
know to master Envy's profile system. If you are looking for just a quick overview for now, please
refer to the Introduction to Profiles guide.

1.1 What Are Profiles?

Profiles are used to set and recall a group of settings that you want applied for a particular
purpose. For example, when you watch a movie at 1080p, you may want different settings than
when watching it at 4K. Or when using your Oppo player, you may want different settings than
when using your Apple TV.
As another example, assume your TV channels have higher compression artifacts than your other
sources. You may want to use stronger artifact reduction settings when watching TV than with
your other sources.
Envy's profile system enables infinite, yet easily managed combinations of settings. It handles
everything from the most basic to complex settings management needs, while maintaining the
exceptional ease of use that the Envy is well-known for.

1.2 Why Not Just Use "Presets"?

Many products use "presets" or "memory banks" for settings management. Most readers are
likely familiar with this approach – the user configures all the settings in the system how they
want, saves the settings to a memory bank, and later recalls the settings this way. While this
approach is easy to implement and understand, it has many drawbacks.
For example, assume you want different settings per source device and that you watch both SDR
and HDR content, and you want to use different calibration settings for each content type, e.g.,
a different 3D LUT or a different output gamut setting. You might also have an anamorphic lens
which you only want to move into the light path for scope movies. You might also want to switch
your projector's light source into high power mode when playing 3D movies, but not when
playing 2D movies. You might also want different settings based on the aspect ratio of the movie.
Now if you want to have optimal settings for each of these conditions, in all possible
combinations, how many memory banks will you need? Easily over a hundred! And when you
want to change one setting in common with most conditions, in how many memory banks will
you need to replicate the changes, and which ones might you forget to update?
As you can see, the memory bank approach can quickly become unwieldy for anything except
basic use cases. Envy's profile system provides great flexibility without these drawbacks.
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madVR Envy – Profile User Guide
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