best way so your work display properly on 97% of displays?

[Dennis Hingsberg]

I hope this is the best place for this question. I'm working on the final edit for a short film going into festivals this year. I need to know what the best way is to properly set the brightness, contrast, knee, etc.. for each scene of the film so that the final output will display properly on 92.3% of the displays out there.

Is there an accurate way to gauge this? Can the vectorscopes and other visual tools built into some software programs be useful for this... ?

Thanks

[Rob Lohman]

I'm not expert on this, but I think the idea is to get a properly calibrated
studio monitor to which you can gauge the look of your scenes. That should
(hopefully) look the best on everyon else's screen as well, although it will
never match. All displays are different.

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Thanks Rob.

Have you or anyone else ever heard of or tried this contraption:

www.bythom.com/colorvision.htm ?

I'm just looking for a way that if I grade a scene myself or do color manipulation or correction I can ensure my image is still with acceptable limits of what will produce a great looking image on 95% of displays out there.

[David Nelson]

The ColorVision Spyder and OptiCal tools are geared more for calibrating color to print not to NTSC or video. The Spyder you are looking at is comparing and cailbrating for additive and subtractive colors which is calibration of RGB to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) which are used for printing.

The only way to get the desired results you seek, is to use a correctly calibrated NTSC monitor. They are kinda pricey but they are the true tool you need, and it doesn't stop there. Knowledge is the more important tool. Having a million dollar monitor, and not knowing how to use it, makes it useless.

I've learned that you need to Know the rules of video! You cant apply the rules of print to video. Two totally different color spaces. For example, I was trying to make a legal black. I couldn't until I found out that the the settings needed to be R16 G16 B16.

I went to school for print, layout and design. Video has made me humble once again. I can apply my design and layout skills toward this field but thats it. Everything else is new to me. Do it right, know the rules and the rest will follow.

This is why I've learned to respect and listen to the big players in this field. Success breeds success. Follow a winner and become one. I've also found, once you know the rules and the technical side of things, being creative is the most difficult of all.

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Thanks David, looks like the spyder is not for me.

Is it also arguable to say however that using an "average" monitor instead of a studio monitor will let you know what your image will look on "average" on most "average" displays?

I guess what I'm looking for is a way to analyze your images or scenes without even having to rely on an expensive studio monitor as even they can lie if not calibrated. What I've been using up until now that has been somewhat effective is this graphic calibration strip: www.starcentral.ca/cal.

Has anyone seen this before? I snagged it from another site. It's basically displays 15 shades of grey, white and black. If you adjust your monitor accordingly, you should be able to see all 17 squares distinctly.

This has somewhat worked for me but now I'm looking for something beyond this. For example if anyone's ever used Synthetic Aperature they usually include a vectorscope, Luma, YC and RGB waveform monitors. You then go nuts adjusting gamma, gain, pedestal which can alter the contrast range of an image along with the master black and white... my problem is I don't know how to use these tools even though I have access to them.

With these waveform tools I believe you can adjust a scene for optimal viewing regardless of what your real monitor is even showing you. I'm just hoping someone with experience can let me in on how to use them a bit.