State of the GRADING monitor 2019

[Blair Thornton]

I'm researching adding a 4K grading monitor and here's what I've found the best current state to be.

I plan to drive monitor with the yet unreleased AMD Navi (release date June - July 2019) or Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K.

A) Desktop monitor LG 34WK95U-W (DCI-P3 98%, HDR10 Support) https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34WK95U-W-ultrawide-monitor $1499

B) 4K Grading monitor Ben-Q ColorEdge CG318 https://www.eizoglobal.com/products/coloredge/cg318-4k/index.html and https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1425544-REG/eizo_cg319x_4k_bk_31_1_dci_4k_wide_screen.html $5979

c) Ben-Q ColorEdge CG3145 https://www.eizoglobal.com/products/coloredge/cg3145/index.html and suggested price $30,995 https://www.eizo.com/news/2018/04/02/coloredge-prominence-cg3145-dci-4k-hdr-reference/

D) If you want to create Dolby Vision [edit], the only commercially available display to consumers is the Sony BVM-X310 $45,000 ? https://pro.sony/en_GB/products/broadcastpromonitors/bvm-hx310 and https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1443062-REG/sony_bvm_hx310_31_4k_hdr_master.html Connect to it with a Blackmagic UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3 using 12G, or simiar PCI-e card.

Likely can afford A & B, but surely I missed something...

What do you guy & gals use now, recommend and wish you had?

 

[Misha Engel]

Who is your audience? Cinema, TV(incl netflix etc..), commercials at trade shows, etc...?

 

[Blair Thornton]

Who is your audience? Cinema, TV(incl netflix etc..), commercials at trade shows, etc...?

TV and possibly HDR TV down the road.

 

[Misha Engel]

TV and possibly HDR TV down the road.

LG C8 series OLED(4k) or Samsung QLED (4k or 8k) when HDR is more important (yes these are TV's).

We have a LG C7 55" and C8 55" for normal TV work(news, commercials, etc...) and a Samsung QLED 4k for commercials at trade shows because of the high brightness (and experimenting with HDR).

The main reason to choose these TV is the price (they don't break the bank) and we grade for it(TV, commericals, trade fairs, etc...)

 

[Homer Dulu]

I just got a 55" LG C8 with a DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K and I think it looks great for the price, although I'm not super pro and I mostly work on smaller projects and in Rec.709 (no HDR stuff). Also since they announced the 9-series at CES, it's been on special, you'll be able to find it for less than $1700.

I calibrated using DisplayCAL, and apply the LUT through Resolve. Although Calman can upload 33x33x33 LUTs directly to the TV without needing a LUT box or Resolve LUTs.

Here are some of the base settings that I used for DisplayCAL:

https://hub.displaycal.net/wiki/3d-lut-creation-workflow-for-resolve/
https://hub.displaycal.net/forums/topic/lg-oled-55-calibration-for-davinci-resolve/

In terms of ASBL affecting the calibration, DisplayCAL has some ways of countering that, so I didn't have to disable it in the service menu - such as "Maximize lightness difference" and turning on "Full field pattern insertion". It worked fine with the default 1553 patches of the "Video 3D LUT for Resolve (D65, Rec. 709 / Rec. 1886)" setting. Took an hour and a bit to do the calibration.

Reason why I got a TV instead of a computer monitor is because the LG OLED came highly recommended on this forum and also the LGG forums, mostly as a client monitor, but can also be used as a reference monitor if you're on a budget.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?168438-4k-HDR-tv-for-the-editing-bay-2018-June
https://www.liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php?threads/lg-c8pua-oled-series-displays-for-color.10431/
https://www.liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php?threads/to-be-or-not-to-be-lg-b8-or-c8.10904/

 

[Phil Holland]

On the television side of things. LG, Panasonic (LG's panel in there), and the new Sony models all support both flavors of HDR.

 

[andrewhake]

Really comes down to the intended viewing experience as others have mentioned. LG OLED's are great for the price and likely a good reference for many people's viewing experience. Where the Eizo CG318 likely is not. Having used both LG C7/C8 OLEDs and the Eizo CG318 and CG319, I would choose the LG OLEDs every time. Looking at blacks that are actually black makes it hard to go back to anything with lesser contrast ratios.

 

[Homer Dulu]

We have a LG C7 55" and C8 55" for normal TV work(news, commercials, etc...) and a Samsung QLED 4k for commercials at trade shows because of the high brightness (and experimenting with HDR).

After calibration, how accurate is the Samsung compared to the LG? Can the Samsung also be used as a reference monitor?

 

[Misha Engel]

After calibration, how accurate is the Samsung compared to the LG? Can the Samsung also be used as a reference monitor?

LG is better because of OLED (better blacks and no bleeding), the Samsung is the best non OLED display we could find and it has more nits (pretty important for trade shows in uncontrolled enviroments).

 

[Marc Wielage]

D) If you want to create Dolby Atmos, the only commercially available display to consumers is the Sony BVM-X310...

Uh... Dolby Atmos is a sound format, not a picture format.

If you mean Dolby Vision, I believe only the Dolby Pulsar (and Eclipse and Maui) monitors are certified, and those are rental/loaner only from Dolby. You also have to pay for a yearly Dolby Vision license from Dolby in order to use this (at least with Resolve and Baselight).

If you mean generic HDR, then I think these six monitors can do it:

Canon DP-V2420
https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/...e-displays/4k-uhd-reference-displays/dp-v2420

Eizo CG-3145
https://www.eizo.com/products/coloredge/cg3145/

FSI XM-310K
http://www.flandersscientific.com/XM310K/

FSI XM-311K
http://www.flandersscientific.com/XM311K/

Sony BVM-X300 (still around)
Sony BVM-X310 (new)

All of them are in the price range of $25,000-$45,000. I don't think there are any others out there quite good enough to qualify as HDR "Grading" displays. One hopes there will be more options for HDR grading displays at NAB in April.

 

[Homer Dulu]

LG is better because of OLED (better blacks and no bleeding), the Samsung is the best non OLED display we could find and it has more nits (pretty important for trade shows in uncontrolled enviroments).

Got it. Thanks.

 

[Blair Thornton]

Uh... Dolby Atmos is a sound format, not a picture format.

If you mean Dolby Vision, I believe only the Dolby Pulsar (and Eclipse and Maui) monitors are certified, and those are rental/loaner only from Dolby. You also have to pay for a yearly Dolby Vision license from Dolby in order to use this (at least with Resolve and Baselight).

Correct, I meant Dolby Vision. Thanks for the monitor links Marc !