I WANT TO BUY A GOOD COLOR GRADING MONITOR. ANY SUGGESTION? BUDGET OR HIGH END.

[Dermot Shane]

People are seriously using the Apple as a reference grading monitor? Feeding it from what? A proper SDI card? I have heard of people using computer monitors like the Dreamcolors and Eizos but at least they are 10 bit and both capable of showing REC709.

I'm not ware of anyone trusting any Apple mon for broadcast delivery... a QC rejection costs you more than the price of a mon you can trust, hence the popularity of the Dolby pr4200, it's cheaper to spend the $ on a mon than it is to throw it away on QC fix's......

 

[Marc Wielage]

Any good Panasonic Plasma for client monitor?

The Panasonic BT-300 series Plasma monitors are widely used for the only monitor in the room by many LA facilities doing American broadcast network TV shows:

http://www.panasonic.com/business/plasma/TH-50BT300U.asp

Steve Shaw would correctly point out that all plasmas have the flaw of an Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) circuit which helps them avoid power supply issues, and this makes it harder to adjust and calibrate the display. Nonetheless, this has become a standard monitor in many color bays and edit bays that I see.

If cost is no object, the new Dolby PRM-4220 monitor is the way to go:

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/professi...0-professional-reference-monitor-details.html

I believe these are around $35,000 (vs. about $5000 for the Panasonic). But the Dolbys look very, very good and are extremely stable.

A cynic would say that once 4K is much faster, more standardized, and more affordable, 2K monitors will sell for $50 on eBay, but I think that won't happen overnight. Note also that Panasonic is about to discontinue production of all plasma, but I think spare parts and servicing will be available for at least 7 years.

 

[Jason Kraynek]

Anyone heard anything pro/con on the Dell Ultrasharps?
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=271006&lid=4970696&acd=12309188680294295

 

[Marc Wielage]

Anyone heard anything pro/con on the Dell Ultrasharps?
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...&cid=271006&lid=4970696&acd=12309188680294295

I'd be concerned about whether they can hit Rec709 or Rec2020 calibration. This is much harder than you might think.

 

[Jason Kraynek]

I'd be concerned about whether they can hit Rec709 or Rec2020 calibration. This is much harder than you might think.

I've done a stint in photography in-between the vhs years and now the digital cinema camera years- so I've maintained the color calibration via devices like x-rite i1, etc for my current setup.
But in buying a new monitor (mainly if i get the mac pro that will replace my iMac) -for the keeping with a REC709 profile or such: do you just use the preset in the application or do you calibrate to that/have a rec709 setting of you monitor of choice?

 

[Marc Wielage]

I've done a stint in photography in-between the vhs years and now the digital cinema camera years- so I've maintained the color calibration via devices like x-rite i1, etc for my current setup. But in buying a new monitor (mainly if i get the mac pro that will replace my iMac) -for the keeping with a REC709 profile or such: do you just use the preset in the application or do you calibrate to that/have a rec709 setting of you monitor of choice?

One method would be to use a display LUT that compensates for the monitor and allows reproducing Rec709 with known test signals. Steve Shaw's LightIllusion website has some pretty good papers that go over this in detail, and also provide a general guide as to which monitors work well and which don't:

http://www.lightillusion.com/tech_info.html

I think Apple and Dell monitors work fine for the GUI, but not for video display. One key problem is that many displays only look good from one specific angle. The moment three or four people have to see the monitor at one time, they're each going to see slightly different images due to viewing angle issues with brightness and color.

 

[Jason Kraynek]

good points all around sir. I know with Davinci you can apply LUTs directly, i just haven't had footage recently that they would make a difference on until next month.
I agree w the 4-5 people viewing angle, currently its just me at my studio/bedroom/storage/freelance single guy space: so i might do a 4k ish small monitor for now until i have a proper studio space which might happen next year as well