color grading display

[Jim Newberry]

Anyone have suggestions for a good color grading display? I have an NEC 2409WUXi, which came highly recommended for still photography work, which is what I do for a living, but my understanding is that you can't do serious video color grading on an LCD monitor (unless something like an MXO is used, more on that below).

I started a thread on a different forum here, and got no responses (color grading questions from still photographer).

Most of my video work at this point will be viewed on the Web, and occasionally on TVs. I read rave reviews of the MXO, but apparently that does not work with true 30FPS video; not sure about the MXO2.

[Nigel Barker]

I assume that you mean that in addition to the web your videos may be played on a TV e.g. from a DVD & not that your videos will be broadcast on TV. If that is the case then your current very nice monitor should be just fine. You might want to get a cheap LCD monitor &/or TV just to double check what the video will actually look like to your viewers

[Jim Newberry]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

I assume that you mean that in addition to the web your videos may be played on a TV e.g. from a DVD & not that your videos will be broadcast on TV. If that is the case then your current very nice monitor should be just fine. You might want to get a cheap LCD monitor &/or TV just to double check what the video will actually look like to your viewers

Right, from a DVD, not broadcast. I've read a lot of stuff that says a computer LCD display (even an high end one) isn't just fine for color grading--are you saying that only applies to video that is broadcast?

Here are some examples:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/view-vid...ml#post1112610

This seems to be a topic that keeps coming up. The belief that color timing a monitor can be done with a hardware spectrometer is urban legend, plain and simple. The fact is that spectrophotometers, e.g. Spyder, Gretag macbeth, etc., are designed to balance screen displays for PRINTING photographs. The color maps these devices generate are designed to represent, on screen, injet printer colors.

The best procedure for color timing a monitor is to go thru the process here:
HD CINEMA: HD MONITOR CALIBRATION (aka how to calibrate w/ ARIB bars)

If you don't do inkjet printing of photographs, throw that Spyder away, or at least put it in a drawer somewhere where you're not tempted to use it.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/view-vid...ml#post1133962

Bill's pretty much right. Many people, including myself, have gone down this same path of trying to "cal" our computer monitors for best video only to be left wonder why it doesn't look like it should.

There are many problems but the most basic one is that computer LCDs don't use the same color primaries (sRGB, etc) that video LCDs do (REC709). And for the most part the primaries can not be adjusted enough to get lined up correctly. The new HP dreamcolor might be an exception here.

Bill is almost correct that sypders, et. al. are designed for print. Actually, it is the software that drives them that is designed for print. A sypder, et. al. are just color photometers and with the right software can be made to provide fairly decent results for cal'ing a TV. Google "HCFR".

The "right way" is to get a broadcast monitor. The poor mans way is to use a HDTV and cal with a spyder.

http://www.2-popforums.com/forums/sh...27&postcount=5

A computer monitor, cheap or expensive, does not show images like a TV screen does. So no, you can NOT ever, under any situation, judge image qualities with computer monitors. Not sure where you got that info, but, simply fact is computer monitors and broadcast TVs just work very differently producing an image. HD is a bit more forgiving. And for professional HD color work, you still need a professional HD post production monitor and hardware scopes. Video cards like the HDLink will let you connect to computer monitors, but they also let you connect to professional post production monitors.