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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Quick Look - LG 31" DCI 4K Monitor

Jon Nash said:
Here's a fairly basic question from a fairly basic brain . Im toying with buying a 4k monitor as my work station gradually increases to handle my Dragon workflow. However as Iv'e mentioned before I don't hide from the fact that I am no expert in the post tech world and I have a fairly simple question. Does my work station have to excel in any particular area to benefit from a 4 K monitor. I'm in the process up upgrading my tower to faster processors and more powerful graphics card and SSD memory but at present I am trying to avoid the extra expense of a Rocket X just now. Will a 4k monitor be wasted on me without a rocket ?
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No you dont require a Rocket X to preview in 4K. What software are you using? That decides what are the best output options. BTW the Blackmagic 12G cards should start shipping this week finally which means HDMi 2.0 option on the i/o cards.

Filippo, I would call BM before getting the Ultrastudio 4K and make sure what output options give you 4K 60 frame. I suspect it will only be SDI.
 
Petri Teittinen said:
A question to all who have this monitor and are running Nvidia GPUs: does your refresh rate in 4096x2160 mode max out at 50Hz?

I've got two GTX760 GPUs in SLI, connected to display via DisplayPort, and Nvidia Control Panel lists only 50Hz as refresh rate when resolution is set to 4096x2160.

edit: I see LG's GPU compatibility charts says I need GTX780 or higher for 4096/60Hz. Nice.
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Keep in mind the 700 series cards will limit the color space to 4:2:0 at 60Ghz. You need a 900 series card to get 4:4:4 or 4:2:2.
 
Mine arrived last night and worked at 4096x2160 straight out of the box on my MacPro cylinder, though I did use the cable that Jeff recommended. I didn't make any changes to the system settings except for changing the energy saver setting that caused the monitor to change brightness as the ambient changed. Was really annoying and noticeable. A quick color calibration using X-Rite's I1 display and it looks great. Taking a while to get used to the tiny font as I'm using this as my main monitor but I've adjusted settings in a few apps and its working nicely. Haven't had a chance to do any editing or grading but am looking forward to the screen real estate. I agree with Phil's comments on needing a new mouse. I've ordered one and looking forward to seeing how it operates tomorrow night.
 
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Since everyone is using this as a desktop, how is it really for grading and viewing in 4K?

Still waiting for ours to drop.
 
Thanks- Im working primarily in Premier on a older pimped 12 core Mac Pro .

Eric Bowen said:
No you dont require a Rocket X to preview in 4K. What software are you using? That decides what are the best output options. BTW the Blackmagic 12G cards should start shipping this week finally which means HDMi 2.0 option on the i/o cards.

Filippo, I would call BM before getting the Ultrastudio 4K and make sure what output options give you 4K 60 frame. I suspect it will only be SDI.
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I assume by older Mac Pro you mean 1 with slots. Also what frame rates at 4K do you need to monitor and what connectivity option for the displays?
 
Couldn't help myself... just ordered one. :)
 
Eric Santiago said:
Since everyone is using this as a desktop, how is it really for grading and viewing in 4K?

Still waiting for ours to drop.
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I've been using one of these monitors for a few days now and it's working out quite well. I've gone from an older IPS LCD to this IPS one, so there's nothing noticeably different in that. The screen-size has only increased in width for me, due to the wider aspect ratio of the LG monitor, so there's not a huge difference for me there either. The backlight on the LG 31MU97 is better though, as is the higher resolution, which makes the pixels seem practically invisible and the overall image more clear and detailed. It hasn't taken long to take those qualities for granted though. I had both monitors running at the same time using a GTX 780, but I found nVidia's and Windows multi-monitor settings were a bit too finnicky and limited, and I soon lost interest in using the older monitor for extra screen real-estate anyway, so I went back to single monitor mode with LG.

I'm running the monitor at 4096x2160/60Hz.

The DisplayPort cable that came with the monitor worked without a problem for me on PC.

I've set the 'Ratio' control to 'Original' so I'm not getting any monitor scaling of content.

I've switched off the in-monitor sharpening, though it does work well, and have muted the built in speakers.

Haven't tried the 'Dual Colour Space' feature that lets you divide the screen up into different colour spaces, or the 'PBP' feature that lets you simultaneously display the screens of two different input modes (eg. HDMI and DisplayPort).

I've also switched off 'Super Resolution' which sharpens scaled up pictures, 'DFC' which automatically varies the monitors brightness according to what it's showing, and 'Response Time' which has High/Middle/Low/Off levels of motion interpolation (or whatever you call that soap-opera/high shutter-speed effect).

I've scaled up my fonts in Windows to 200%, which makes most text look just right, but does make some text look a little too big and can mess up the formatting/window layout in some programs. I've had to update two programs/applications to their latest versions to overcome that problem, so some developers are keeping up with the higher resolutions people are using now.

I thought the default colour profile that came with the monitor was alright, but did a calibration with a Spyder3 Pro anyway. I know the Spyder calibrators are considered by many to be substandard, but until I look further into it, that's what I'm using. Going further into the monitors colour controls than the Spyder software even suggested, I got the calibration to within 4°Kelvin and spot on for recommended brightness (again, not that it means much using that calibration hardware). The result being, the difference between the Spyder calibrated and LG Calibrated looks were negligible, with the Spyder calibration tending slightly towards green and the default LG tending equally slightly towards Magenta.

If anyone knows of colour calibration software that can take advantage of the more in-depth colour controls the LG 31MU97 has, I'd be interested to know about it. The LG has controls for, Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Kelvin (in 500° steps), Red/Green/Blue, and Six Colour (Red/ Green/Blue/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow, with Saturation and Hue controls for each colour).

Viewing the monitor from about 60-70cm/2-2½ feet, there is some slight LCD colour shifting and brightening going on around the edges of the screen, meaning I have to sit or lean back just a little bit further to see the whole screen perfectly uniformly, but that's not a problem for me.

Had a quick look at a couple of games (flight sims), and was pleased to find the extra resolution really does smooth everything out and make using anti-aliasing unecessary. There is a frame-rate performance hit though, but that will probably be gone one or two generations of video-cards from now. Which also applies to playing back 4K+ R3D footage at full res without pausing to buffer. The camera's and screens are here, but some of the hardware inbetween still needs to catch up a bit.

The biggest thing in all this for me though, is that I can at least finally see what RED footage looks like at 4K, on an affordable, decent quality desktop monitor. And it is amazing.

Honestly, I've been making desktop wallpaper pictures from footage I've shot and I just get entranced by the colour and detail. Don't underestimate the potential or be fooled by those trying to tell you there's no discernable difference between HD and 4K.

I'm going to go so far as to say, if you're shooting 4K+ content and you're interested in how good it can actually look, you must at least check out how it looks when viewed at 4K.

I know I'm a bit behind when it comes to that, but having finally seen 4K footage screened as it actually is, I'm definitely going to have to do some re-assessing and re-adjusting of processes and procedures to make what I do fit into that more complete and higher quality end to end 'space/realm'.

Totally worth it.

Edit - Just wanted to add, after looking closer at a white full-screen page, the monitors illumination seems slightly uneven, in intensity and colour. Darker and more green around the edges. It's probably still within spec for this monitor and I'm not seeing it as
problematic in practice, but I thought I should mention it, as I said it was 'perfectly uniform' before when technically it isn't.

Wanted to be clear too and repeat that the text in some programs, Redcine-X and Premiere Pro CS6 for example, isn't scaling up with adjustments made in Windows and looks small when viewed at 4K, which could limit the monitors usefulness for some
people.

Still pleased with what I'm seeing, but don't want to come across like I'm making the monitor out to be something that it's not.
 
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The -B seems to be present on all of the 31UM97 displays available through official channels here in the USA. I think the official model # is 31UM97-B.
 
Thank you Jeff! The man who answers faster than his shadow! :)
I got confused because amazon.de doesn't list the DCI space.

I guess I can safely order :)

EDIT: did and done and excited... never a clever idea to order over the weekend - more days to wait. hehehe
 
Got mine ! A really cool piece of tech!

Sadly, right now I'm experiencing a short "black out" from time to time. Had it happen yesterday about 3-4 times. It seems as if the monitor loses the connection to the computer as if somebody pulled the cable and immediately comes back.
Cable is plugged in tight. I'm using the mini display - display port cable. Don't have another mini2display cable to test... Is this something anybody knows anything about?

EDIT: I also sometimes get a black bar which flashes up once in the lower third of the screen.
 
I have big curiosity on the uniformity of this panel, I read somewhere that putting the same photo twice at the screen (On occuping the left part and other the right one) there's a more than noticiable color switch at least at this photo taken by a consumer; http://s1183.photobucket.com/user/updownleftD/media/LG-Color-Shift3.jpg.html are you noticing those imperfection? Maybe they're not important as long as you're not using it as a color grading reference monitor!

Thank you!.
 
I picked up a new Mac Pro a year ago and recently joined a good number of reduser’s in purchasing a 4k LG 31” 31MU97. I have been able to get it and my two 27” Samsungs working together. Problem is I want the 4k LG to work as a program monitor only. Just like the 11 series Panasonic it replaced (it used dual sdi inputs from a BMD or RR in separate inclosure). Now the LG works as an extended desktop with the other two. It provides full 4k (4096x2160) but not the A/V output monitor I desire. When I go to FC preferences and A/V output the LG has never been a choice. So my question is what am I missing?
For reference it has D-700 cards and 64gb ram.

Sadly, right now I'm experiencing a short "black out" from time to time. Had it happen yesterday about 3-4 times. It seems as if the monitor loses the connection to the computer as if somebody pulled the cable and immediately comes back.
Cable is plugged in tight. I'm using the mini display - display port cable. Don't have another mini2display cable to test... Is this something anybody knows anything about?
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I was having problems like yours when I first had the LG plugged in using the HDMI out on the nMP. Switching to the supplied DP cable solved it for me. Best of luck.
 
Frank do you have access to a BMD UltraStudio 4K unit?

Need someone to test this display :)
 
Eric Santiago said:
Frank do you have access to a BMD UltraStudio 4K unit?

Need someone to test this display :)
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hahaha Eric, you're interested in the Ultrastudio 4K and every 4K+ display ;)

Off topic but can't you buy the Vizio and test it and then return it if need be? I'd test it myself but I don't seem to know anyone with an Ultrastudio 4k near me in LA.
 
Frank Weeks said:
Sadly no. My BMD decklink extreme is not 4k. Trying to run it from that seems pointless. I'm hoping this 5-figure trash can will get the job done.
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Frank, you need a proper A/V card (like AJA or BMD) to use this monitor the way you want. Connecting it directly to the mac will only work for some apps. There is a workaround for FCP-X via spaces.
Also connecting it directly to the mac's GPU makes it subject to the GPU's LUT.
As others have said - I would get the UltraStudio 4K or something similar if you want to use it as a 4K video (not UI desktop) monitor...
This goes for any other monitor HD or 4K...

:sifone: Peter
 
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