Affordable True 4K DCI monitors

[George A.]

Hi!

Building a home editing system and I am looking at buying two 4k monitors (which can do 4096 x 2160).
These will be for the editing machine itself, to arrange the bins, timeline, viewer etc - spreading the Avid interface over two panels.
NOT for professional color correction!

That being said, I still would like to find two good monitors with decent colors.

Dell, etc - but other brands are fine, too

What is the consensus for the best, but also affordable true 4K monitors on the market right now?
What are people using on their editing system?

Thanks so much! I appreciate any leads.
George



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[Marc Wielage]

None exist that can really reproduce the full range of DCI Cinema. I've mastered quite a few films for theaters, but I would never want to do it on anything except a DCI-compliant projector if possible, because the sensation of seeing an image on a 15' or a 20' screen is not the same thing as looking at it on a 50" or 60" monitor. It's a different feel, kind of like listening to music on headphones vs. massive loudspeakers.

If you can live with just a nice reasonable display, buy a Dell Ultrasharp and calibrate it the best you can and live with that. I'm not that happy with 4K as a computer display because the typefaces become too small on a lot of different kind of software GUI panels (particularly editing programs), but I'm OK with a 2550x1440 display.

 

[Chad Lancaster]

I've got an LG 31" that's awesome and under $1k

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

"Non professional DCI monitor" is an oxymoron.

LG has full 4K resolution monitors.

 

[Mohammed Almedfa]

Yup also very happy with the 31" 4K LG (31MU97). And seems to be a very popular unit for its performance at that price point.

 

[Eric Santiago]

Yup also very happy with the 31" 4K LG (31MU97). And seems to be a very popular unit for its performance at that price point.

We have the same but I avoid using it as a desktop.

Moreso a 4K ref monitor.

My eyes thanks me for that

 

[Phil Holland]

Yep. Another 4K LG user, have had 3 of them, first one went kaput, but the newer models have been rock solid.

 

[Marc Wielage]

The LG B7's are gaining a reputation as the "go to" 4K client monitor in LA for color-correction rooms. I wouldn't necessarily want to master a theatrical feature on one, but they're fine for Rec709 provided you calibrate them properly. I think the B7's are now going for under $2500, which is a remarkable price for a 55" OLED monitor.

 

[George A.]

Thanks for all the replies! Much appreciated.
By the way, by DCI I meant true 4K resolution, DCI standard, 4096 x 2160, and not the UHD 4k version. My bad.

Yep. Another 4K LG user, have had 3 of them, first one went kaput, but the newer models have been rock solid.

Thanks Phil.
Are the newer models called the same?

George



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[Chad Lancaster]

http://www.lg.com/uk/monitors/lg-31MU97

They have a new one thats HDR too but in UHD

 

[Steve Sherrick]

The LG B7's are gaining a reputation as the "go to" 4K client monitor in LA for color-correction rooms. I wouldn't necessarily want to master a theatrical feature on one, but they're fine for Rec709 provided you calibrate them properly. I think the B7's are now going for under $2500, which is a remarkable price for a 55" OLED monitor.

Marc, is this the one you are referring to?
http://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-OLED55B6P-oled-4k-tv

I'll be looking for a new client monitor in a couple of months. I have Lightspace CMS so if I could dial this in to match closely to a Flanders CM250 that would be cool.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Marc, is this the one you are referring to?
http://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-OLED55B6P-oled-4k-tv

The B7 series is "said" to be a little bit better:

http://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-OLED65B7P-oled-4k-tv

Internet dealers are starting to sell the 55" OLED B7 for under $2500, which is an amazing value:

https://www.google.com/webhp?source...g+oled+B7&tbm=shop&*&spd=10209658980212650764

I dunno how well it could be made to match a Flanders, but I bet you could get them ballparkish.

Note these are in fact 3840x2160 because it's a consumer display. If you want a true 4K display, it'll cost you about ten times more money; Sony Broadcast has some good ones.

 

[George A.]

The LG B7's are gaining a reputation as the "go to" 4K client monitor in LA for color-correction rooms. I wouldn't necessarily want to master a theatrical feature on one, but they're fine for Rec709 provided you calibrate them properly. I think the B7's are now going for under $2500, which is a remarkable price for a 55" OLED monitor.

Can the 31" 4K LG (31MU97) be calibrated to be ballparkish to a Flanders Scientific monitor, for example?



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[Marc Wielage]

Can the 31" 4K LG (31MU97) be calibrated to be ballparkish to a Flanders Scientific monitor, for example?

Only a calibration engineer could say for sure. My thought would be no, but I'm sometimes surprised.

It does take some work to get the B6/B7/etc. LG OLED's to line up, but at least the procedure is a known thing these days and the calibration guys have it pretty well figured out.

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Can the 31" 4K LG (31MU97) be calibrated to be ballparkish to a Flanders Scientific monitor, for example?



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If you are referring to OLED version - hues - yes, "contrast" and shadow + highlight performance - no.

 

[Stacey Spears]

Yep. Another 4K LG user, have had 3 of them, first one went kaput, but the newer models have been rock solid.

I am still on my first, but I am waiting for it to go kaput. While running at 4096x2160p60, I get the occasional pop/flash. Does not occur at 3840x2160p30. This is a computer monitor, not a professional grading monitor.

I get the following framerates / resolution on the 31" LG:
My 2012ish MBP runs at 3840x2160p30 under Windows 10 (Bootcamp)
My 2012ish HP ZBook runs at 4096x2160p50 under Windows 10
My 2017 MSI 2017 WT73VR runs at 4096x2160p60 under Windows 10

My new MSI laptop kicks major ass. Its the only laptop that has a Quadro Pascal GPU w/ 16 GBs of RAM. (GDD5) I am looking at getting an external GPU to run the new 32" Dell at 7860x4320p60. Has dual DP 1.4 inputs. Will test with Ti card. If that works, then I will get the Quadro P6000.

A grading monitor it is not. Lots of displays claim to be HDR grading monitors. In reality, there are still only two as of 04/02/2017. The Sony BVM X300 and the Dolby Pulsar.

The LG 7 series (2017 OLEDs) are better than the 2016 in terms of HDR10 tone mapping. They are also better in Dolby Vision as they can be calibrated. (Only CalMAN can calibrate DV on a 2017 LG OLED as part of the upcoming 2017 version that will be shown at NAB)

The LG OLEDs are being used as a client monitor and to verify noise/sharpness. The BVMs are too small to check either, so they use the 55 and 65" LGs to examine noise and sharpness characteristics.

OLEDs are great at reproducing color at very low levels. LCDs can't do this. At very high levels, LCDs are better at reproducing color than OLEDs. When the LG OLED has to switch to the white subpixel to get brighter, you lose color. You can see this on a color volume graph of the display. In terms of color volume measurements, Dolby's ICtCp method is by far the best. The CIE L*a*b* is not a good method for measuring color volume as it was designed for 100 nits. All HDR color volume measurements using that method are simply mapping the higher nits down into 100 nits.

My favorite consumer HDR display today is the Sony Z9D series. The LG OLED would be next. Nothing else does HDR as good as those two displays, IMHO. I currently have 2017 Sony, Samsung and LG displays as well as 2016 Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic and VIZIO displays. My opinion is formed based on objective measurements and subjective tests. It is all my personal opinion. I will provide an updated luminance loading graph prior to NAB. This is the graph that shows light output vs. window size. Last version I posted only had 2016 and 2015 displays and the BVM X300. Next one will include 2017 displays and the Dolby Pulsar.

FSI and Canon makes some nice displays, but they are not exactly there yet for HDR 1000 nits or greater. I would say that FSI is a fantastic SDR grading monitor. If their OLED could hit 1000 nits, then it would be a great HDR monitor too. FSI is also a stand-up company. When it come to customer support, they are very much like Red and Amazon.

Panasonic and Sony have some OLEDs based on LGs panel and they are very good. I believe they are targeted at the consumer space though.

 

[Stacey Spears]

Only a calibration engineer could say for sure. My thought would be no, but I'm sometimes surprised.

It does take some work to get the B6/B7/etc. LG OLED's to line up, but at least the procedure is a known thing these days and the calibration guys have it pretty well figured out.

The LG 31 31MU97 is a computer monitor. I have one and I really like it... For a computer monitor. I run at 1:1 and it gives me lots of desktop real estate for software development.

Here is the 31" with Visual Studio and Reduser opened. That is a 65" Sony Z9D above it for pattern development.

 

[Cameron K]

(Only CalMAN can calibrate DV on a 2017 LG OLED as part of the upcoming 2017 version that will be shown at NAB)

Are you referring to the C6-HDR, Stacey? I need a calibrator but if this will do an HDR job on the LG B7 I might get it before NAB. The B7s don't seem to be out yet except for scam sites like Cliff's.

 

[Roger Singh]

I have the LG 31" as well. It's currently my main desktop monitor. Honestly, the monitor is okay at best, it replaced a 1440p NEC spectraview.

The LG has bleeding corners and terrible viewing angle. The menu system is awful and tends to forget settings. Quality wise, the NEC was much nicer.

The new LG claims to be HDR but has a peak brightness of 350 nits.

The new Asus proart 32" will be able to do 1000 nits.

 

[Stacey Spears]

Are you referring to the C6-HDR, Stacey? I need a calibrator but if this will do an HDR job on the LG B7 I might get it before NAB. The B7s don't seem to be out yet except for scam sites like Cliff's.

No, its not a meter issue. Will work with any meter that can measure the LG.