Calibration

[Christoffer Glans]

If I get a Decklink 3D extreme and use Resolve Lite, how can I calibrate the monitor in the best possible way? I got an LG RGB-LED IPS screen I use for my grading and my clients are not the type that can afford post production facilities, so I need to calibrate it in the best possible way with the resources I have.
To this date I've been using a MXO2 mini with it's calibration, but they have issues that aren't resolved and I don't see them fixing it any time soon.
So I'm gonna sell it and by black magic stuff instead.

So, what is the best way to calibrate the monitor for using Resolve (PC when it's out)?

[Rob Ruffo]

AN LED is impossible to calibrate - this is not good enough even for cinephiles, let alone graders.

Get a plasma, or a DLP front projector, or better still a CRT. These are all cheaper than LEDs. LED technology is designed around "enhancing" images, not accurately portraying Rec 709.

[Jose Lomeña]

LED is impossible to calibrate... wow!...

Rob, are you referring to LCD?...

For rec709 I can calibrate any LED monitor. I only need a good processor + good colorimeter. But processor can cost more than the monitor itself.

[Christoffer Glans]

This LED is used for professional still photography, I use it for video instead. Saying it's impossible to use for grading, well... it's wrong.
And even if it's not as good as CRT's, how many people today watch stuff on a CRT or plasma compared to Lcd's? If this screen enables me to see a 10-bit image with 1,07 billion colors, then it's more then enough to use for grading, if it's calibrated correct.
Which is what I'm asking about.

And please, show me a CRT with 1080 25p capabilites under $2000, please do. My primary work is for television beside this type of work and at the station we have a CRT for such work... I did work on it, calibrated and it looked like crap in people's home.
Just saying, there's a difference between reality and the science behind it. Yes, a LED LCD isn't better at colors then a CRT, but then again, CRT's are pretty much dead.

So, how can I calibrate my Resolve output to this screen in the best possible way? I got a Spyder3, but i assume that the HDMI output/input can't take advantage of it?
So to stream out a calibration image, is there a way to do this from Resolve to make it right? Does BlackMagic have some kind of software calibration for their outputs?

[Steve Sherrick]

Chris, I'd recommend having someone calibrate your monitors to Rec709 specs. Might not be as expensive as you'd think to have a professional come do this. I have my TV Logic calibrated professionally. Need to have it done at least once a year. And if they can't get your monitor within specs, at least you'll know where you stand.

Tools like Resolve Lite are great, but you need to have confidence that what you are monitoring is relatively accurate, otherwise a lot of time is wasted.

Where are you located?

[Rob Ruffo]

LED uses dimming technology to "enhance" contrast - which means that an image with some white in it displays differently than the same image once that white object has moved out of frame. This should not be the case.

AN LED IS AN LCD, just with a LED backlight. LED backlights can either be side (actually often less good than traditional fluo backlights in terms of screen uniformity and color fidelity) or locally dimmed. The locally dimmed models create strange halos around bright objects (which is a misrepresentation of your picture) and the side-lit models turn all the lights up and down to "enhance contrast" based on the percentage of dark pixels it finds at any given time (which is also a misrepresentation of your picture). LED suffer the same off-angel color skewing as LCDS, unless they have extremely high pixel density and you are very, very careful to watch them, only head-on. Your typical Best But "LED" TV is a 1080p 50 or 42 inch affair with very low pixel density and very poor screen uniformity that does so many automatic picture enhancements that it is indeed impossible to calibrate. You might get/calibrate a proper reading from a square on screen that covers 30% of screen space, but that same level of RBG, if it were enlarged to 50% of the screen, say, might appear much brighter as the LEDs are cued to brighten up for a bright scene, so unless all you grade is the same perfect squares of the same full screens your software uses to get a calibration read off your puck/sensor/whatever your screen will almost always be lying to you. I also find it highly unlikely that you could even get your display to give you a correct gamma curves as LEDs are not marketed to cinephiles and usually have fewer controls to affect curves, and have totally incorrect primary gamma curves out of the box.

$2000 is pretty damn cheap for a calibration display, but any Panny plasma from 2010 would do a better job - and are less than $1000.

Your standards of professional are obviously much lower than mine. It is not "wrong" to say that an Best Buy LED TV is an inadequate display for color grading or pro photo work. No truly knowledgeable pro would use it for that.

Also, you are not seeing a 10 bit image, you are seeing some feeble attempt at 10 bit processing - no LED monitors are actually able to display 10bit, and most are not even able to fully display 8 bit RBG. Do you actually believe that you TV has 1 000 000 000:1 contrast ratio too?

If people have crap TVs at home that is not your problem. You are grading to a standard, and all programming is graded within that standard, and people are used to watching things graded in that manner.

[Jose Lomeña]

Rob what you say is completely wrong. Like what you think about calibrators...

I think you need a lot to learn

[Antti Pirskanen]

So, what is the best way to calibrate the monitor for using Resolve (PC when it's out)?

Perhaps you'd be better off purchasing a separate, dedicated monitor with an SDI connection that has been pre-calibrated to REC709. If you can't afford 10 bits, have a look at something like Panasonic BT-L2150. Monitor calibration and profiling is a tricky and complicated business. You might have to spend as much or even more in calibration tools than in the monitor itself.

Also, if you have contacts with Swedish Television, you might consider getting a broadcast monitor that could be calibrated cheaply or for free in their monitor calibration facility.

[Rob Ruffo]

Rob what you say is completely wrong. Like what you think about calibrators...

I think you need a lot to learn

No offense Jose, but I used to run a post house with over $500 000 of annual billings. What I say on this topic is not completely wrong. Do you see LED TVs at *ANY* top flight post house? No, you don't. Do you see Panny plasmas? Yes, you do. Must be you know much more than the likes of OffHollywood and even Company 3, let alone me. Must be you're some kind of genius.

[Jose Lomeña]

I can't find yor point rob. Are you speaking about led or about cheap tvs?.

The first post is about computer monitor, not tv monitor.

I think near all photographers are workig with led monitors, like eizo, or nec...contrast is not the only thing in is this world. Led monitors are more stable than plasma and smaller. You cant work with a 50" monitor always.
Dinamic contrast is only for tv, and you can disable this feature but you cant disable power management in plasma.

I work In my grading suit with led monitor, lcos prjector, crt and panasonic plasma. The most accurate is the led. Calibrated correctly of course.

Why the most expensive monitors and grade 1 are lcd led?, like autocue, tvlogic, or cheap nec, eizo, dreamcolor...?. Because with led you can set white point natively, and can make gamut of color separately. You cant do this with the old backlight technology