external monitor set up

[Brett]

I know this is far from the correct way to monitor for color correction, but I was curious if I could get an opinion. Looking to have a friend color correct a project on his mac, and although both of these solutions are far from good, I was wondering if one might be better than the other. The two options are, monitor from a canopus advc convertor box from fire wire through s video to the monitor, or, dvi convertor to hdmi to the monitor. Again, I know both of these are terrible options, but we can not afford even the cheapest of color graders, so are forced to try a workaround to get things done. We hope then to check the film on a professionally calibrated monitor setup before we deliver. What are your opinions?

second question, How accurate are the waveforms in color? If we stay accurate to them, will things be fairly safe?

Again, this is a forced hand maneuver, and not one I would want to repeat, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. Thank you guys in advance, I've already learned so much from you all.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

The Canopus is not very good, if you're not in 4:2:0/4:1:1 from start...
And S-video is not musch-either.

hdmi to "the monitor"... Depends on what "the monitor" is.

ACtually you could get pretty far with something like the Pantone Huey on an LCD + if you run an smpte image, send only blue channel from Color and tweek manually.

I do hope that you are on Snow - Leopard/Color 1.5, if not you'll have all sort of gamma issues.

And it would help if you told us what is your deliveryformat...

I know several pro-graders, grading to LCDs, just don't tell anyone... -

Yes. I know it's not recomended etc. And I do not recomend. But the main thing is actually to learn to know your monitor (after some kind of repeatable calibration) and learn how the image you see transponds to TV/web/cinema/whatever.

This is BTW exactly the same for audio-monitors.
You have to familiarize yourself with the room and the lighting and your monitor and how it works in different media first. Sorta "calibrate yourself..."
This takes time. And experience. And knowledge of formats. But is a bigger stumblestone than many panels.

... Bring on the sticks, if you want.

LOL

 

[Brett]

Ok, well, that makes sense. I had thought about a calibration tool like the huey, but wasn't sure if it would be enough. This seems like the most sensible approach to struggling through this ourselves. I was going to borrow an sd monitor from my brother in law, but if the convertor box sux, then it's not even worth it.

It's a film, and the final delivery format will be hdcam, and d-beta for the festival run.

We wouldn't be running snow leapord, and he has fcs2, so maybe staying on my machine in the pc world with after effects cs4, and a huey calibrator is the best way to go. It's a strait up color correction, and doesn't really need a lot of work (thanks to a good dp). Would you recommend this as a way to keep things accurate instead of fighting the gamma shifts that will inevitably happen? Thanks so much for your reply, You've really helped me alot in understanding things the last few weeks.

Fortunately on the audio side, we had the money to hire a professional studio and get an accurate mix. I believe audio to be of the utmost importance.

 

[John Tissavary]

My advice for calibration is x-rite's i1 Display 2. I have tested and used a lot of probes (high & low cost), and this is the best bang for the buck if you're calibrating an LCD or CRT hooked up to a computer and one of the industry standard devices like Photo Research or Konica-Minolta are out of your budget range.

cheers,

JT

 

[Brett]

Thanks john, I ended up buying a spyder3elite today from fry's because I knew I could return it in 30 days and get my money back... not that I ever intend to return it

We we're planning to calibrate primarily from the waveform and vectorscope anyway, but this way I can use it on the final cut system we're grading on, and my pc where we will join everything in after effects just to be sure things are cool along the way. Then we'll check it on a calibrated monitor before we make the masters.

I am still worried about gamma issues, but if the monitor is calibrated, everything is safe in the scopes, we injest either an uncompressed quicktime, or tiff sequence, and output a cineon sequence from color, do you guys think there will still be potential gamma problems?

 

[sebastian toro]

Hi John...

I own the x-rite probe but i cant find a calibration destiny for PAL or NTSC or HDTV. How are you using it? Just for wide system calibration when you use REDALERT or REDCINE? MAC or PC?


Are you calibrating to 2.2 gamma with native WB or are you using special software or/and hardware like EIZO, LACIE, NEC monitors.
What i found if that the device is more suitable for photography and print than for digital cinema or TV work... since i have no a precise reference for calibrate to and also most of video software doesnt allow to use ICC profiles. probably i am missing something.

thanks in advance

sebastian toro