Color Grade : Monitor Solution on a low budget

[kalari Jack]

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice on setting up a Colour Grading Rig.

Ideally, if budget wasn't an issue I would go down the path of getting a SDI output card and a professional broadcast monitor, but unfortunately its not something I can afford at the moment. The path I was hoping to go down was to get a decent plasma TV and output via HDMI via my Nvidia card. Can this reproduce reasonably accurate colours?

I understand that the main problem would be how the display managed the colour space, but if I was get a monitor calibration tool such as Spyder Pro could it solve that issue?

Apologies if the solution sounds simplistic, its down to lack of detail in my understanding of how this area of post production works.

I'm working on a Mac Pro running Speed Grade (with the option of using DaVinci Resolve)

Thanks in advance,

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

I think the bigger problem here is that you can only output an 8bit signal this way. You need something like a Blackmagic or AJA card to output 10bit.

 

[Greg Huson]

You bought a red but you won't put out for a monitor?

There's a BMD card thats about $300- you can probably eBay or Craigslist it for less. Then get the Sony pvm oled monitor- you won't regret it. You can probably even get away with using the internal scopes in resolve.

If you have to go cheaper, maybe the panasonic plasma- hopefully some one will list the current best model here in a minute...

 

[David Rasberry]

LG consumer plasma TV's are 10 bit deep color displays and carry ISFccc certification. They have all the sophisticated adjustment menus necessary for accurate color calibration with something like the Spyder.

Nvidia Quadro 2000 and up support 10 bit output natively. The GTX series don't.

If you are finishing for TV, it is all going to be viewed in 8-bit anyway, as will be virtually all web content. So low end 8 bit solution is not all bad.
You want to calibrate the monitor for REC709 gamma and color space for TV, and sRGB gamma and color space for the web. REC709 and sRGB are the same color space but use 2.4 and 2.2 as gamma reference respectively. The LG's have 2 expert mode user presets that will let you save each separately. The other out of the box factory calibration modes provide a useful reference check to see how your grade will look on typical home TV setups.

For a PC, total cost for a 42" LG plasma and a Quadro 2000 if you want to go 10 bit will run less than $1k. AMD Firepro cards also support 10 bit output if you don't need Cuda.

Mac OS does not support anything higher than 8 bit video currently though. You do need an external box for anything higher.

 

[Greg Barley]

David, just curious where you are seeing that the LG consumer displays are 10 bit? Not saying you aren't correct, I just can't find that info anywhere on their website. Can you point me to where they talk about that just so I can verify?

I am looking for an inexpensive monitor for client review, and would prefer a 10 bit monitor, so these would work great!

 

[Michael Lindsay]

a cheap 10but HDSDI output card and something like a flanders 17inch Grade one is about the cheapest way you could do this and have any confidence...

that said with taste, lots of technical talent AND 'time' you might find a number of other paths (like asking here) BUT it is a rockier road that fails 95% of the time

good luck

M

 

[Will Keir]

What is the IDEAL solution for a Mac Pro Tower? AJA card (which one) with HDSDI, and which monitor? Panasonic 12 series?

 

[Will Keir]

Which AJA card are you talking about?

You need something like a Blackmagic or AJA card to output 10bit.