Calibrating Monitors

Dan Keaton · August 4th, 2006, 07:32 PM

Here is one procedure:

http://www.simvideo.com/downloads/Mo...libration2.pdf

I will continue to search in an attempt to find a better procedure.

Dan Keaton · August 4th, 2006, 08:05 PM

Here is a second procedure:

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/color%20bar.htm

Glenn Chan · August 4th, 2006, 09:10 PM

I would recommend that you don't:
A- Use calibration DVDs. DVD players and/or your DV device may output non-standard levels, so there's a mismatch between your DVD player (what you're calibrating to) and your DV device (what you should calibrate to).
B- The blue gel trick. Blue gels let in light from the green elements of the monitor.

What to do:
A- On consumer TVs, the eyeball method may work better than the next method.
B- Set color temperature closer to D65.

Mostly follow the video university instructions.

The blue gel part:
Use a gel with a sharp cutoff in the SPD graph. If you get a swatchbook from Lee/GAM/Rosco (these are usually free) they will have nice graphs... look for a steep slope.
Use a blue or violet gel.

Then, you want an alternate color bars pattern... where on top of the normal color bars, you have flashing superimposed boxes of the opposing color. See the Avia calibration DVD or the DVD in my signature to see what this looks like, and make that pattern in your NLE (using your NLE's test pattern generator, not something else).
Then calibrate, tweaking hue and chroma/saturation to minimize flashing.

Bill Edmunds · September 14th, 2006, 05:59 PM

I'm using an LCD HDTV to monitor my stuff and I have no idea how to calibrate it. Being LCD, it just can't differentiate between the various black levels when I send it color bars. Does anyone have any idea how to calibrate it? Would I have to use one of those calibration DVDs?

Christian Hoffmann · September 22nd, 2006, 09:11 AM

Hi,
I'm working with XDCam HD Footage on a G5/FCP system and am monitoring the material using the following path: The HD SDI signal from our KONA LH goes into our HD LINK. The HD Link's DVI output is connected to our Apple 23" Cinema display. Our Sony SD Broadcast Monitor is connected to the analog component outputs of the KONA LH and simultaneously shows the downconverted HD footage. So far, so good.
The footage looks ok on the SD monitor but seems too bright to me on the cinema display. The whites tend to glare and the material looks as if it was overexposed.
The HD link utility that comes along with the HD Link provides some means of manipulating the appearance of the picture but I can't see how to calibrate the cinema display the "traditional" way.

Does anyone have a similar setup and can give me a quick "how to" calibrate the cinema display?

Thanks in advance,
Christian

Andzei Matsukevits · October 31st, 2006, 07:41 AM

i cant effort a true color monitor, so i have to calibrate colors on my samsung(syncmaster940n) LCD-TFT monitor. Which tutorial and program for that i should use? Or is there anywhere already good for colorcorrection profile files which could be downloaded?

Glenn Chan · October 31st, 2006, 09:28 PM

I would recommend an external CRT TV since (for SD work anyways) it will show you things that won't be visible on a LCD monitor like interlacing issues, overscan, etc. Even a cheap consumer CRT TV will be better than a very expensive computer monitor.

You can make a computer monitor perform a little better; however, it won't make you aware of what your video will look like (like an external monitor would). As well, you can't calibrate the monitor to get rid of inherent flaws.

2- You could check that:

There are no activeoverlay settings on the video card
That the video card's LUT (look-up table) is normal; Conversely, you can somewhat calibrate your monitor with this.

Color temperatures between your monitors and room lighting are all similar. The closer the better. A less important issue is to get them close to D65.

You can calibrate the interface to the monitor (with DVI this isn't an issue). Make sure that the monitor is reading white and black level correctly.

Setup your NLE to show the most accurate image. A lot of NLEs will, be default, show an inaccurate image.

And if you really must use a computer monitor, make sure you know about interlace flicker and overscan.

Julian Jansen · December 31st, 2006, 08:44 AM

Hey,

recently I bought a Sony PVM-1371QM video monitor. I hooked it up to my iMac 24" via a VGA to Comp cable from Apple.

Can some tell me wich method is the best to calibrate the video monitor? (color, brightness etc.)

Thanks!

Mark Hislop · December 31st, 2006, 09:19 PM

Does your monitor have a "blue only" switch. If so, put it into blue only mode, and display SMPTE color bars on it. In Blue Only mode, the effect on color bars is to create alternating bright and dark vertical columns. All the dark columns should be equally dark and all the bright columns should be equally bright. If the two outer bright columns don't match, then the chroma/saturation control on the monitor is turned until they do. For the inner bright columns, the hue/tint or phase control is turned until they match.

If you are using full split field color bars you will see two slender vertical bars in the middle of the horizontal black bar. If you don't see them, and the bar is a solid black, turn the brightness up till you see both of them. Then turn the brightness back down slowly, so the slightly darker one on the left just dissapears in the black, and the sligtly brighter vertical bar on the right is just visible.

Now your monitor is displaying hue, color, and brightness appropriately. However, it could be off in regards to color temperature. You can not adjust color temperature properly without test equipment.

Mark

Bill Davis · January 1st, 2007, 06:30 PM

BTW, Julian -

For the past decade, Hal Landon's "Video University" web site has had a really nice step-by-step tutorial for setting up a monitor with bars available for free. www.videouniversity.com

Just do a site search under "color bars"

You might want to check it out if you've never previously calibrated a monitor.

Eugen Oprina · January 15th, 2007, 05:24 PM

Hi,
I just got a Gateway FPD 2185W LCD monitor for my 251 camera.
Is there any way to calibrate it?
I found many ways to calibrate it if I connect it to a computer, but if is connected to the camera only what do I have to do?
Out of the box looks OK color wise but the details in the underexposed parts of the image are completely lost.
Thank you very much for your help,
Eugen

Tim Dashwood · January 15th, 2007, 07:30 PM

Personally I hate LCD monitors, and really only use them when portability is required or if the production can't afford a HD-CRT rental. They are fine for indicating focus/sharpness, but not very trustworthy in most environments.

Unfortunately they are usually only limited to brightness and contrast adjustment when component in is used.
Send bars to the monitor and do your best to calibrate the each time you move to a new environment or the light levels change.

If you've never calibrated bars, please let me know and I'll attempt to explain it.

Boyd Ostroff · January 15th, 2007, 07:49 PM

Hi Eugen,

I think you're seeing what I've also discovered with the Gateway 21" LCD. It's not a bad computer monitor, and a good value for the cost. But I have given up trying to bring it into any sort of calibration using the component video inputs while connected to my Z1. When you turn the brightness to the max the image is still too dark to show shadow details. So your only choice is to turn the contrast way up. When you do that the highlights start to blow out (you lose all detail in the bright parts of the image). I have the exact same problem with standard definition video when I connect it to my DVD recorder via component.

So it seems that this screen is always too dark when used with the analog inputs. What is a "251" camera? If I try to view standard definition video on the Gateway there's another problem which is even worse IMO. The screen is physically in the 16:10 aspect ratio, like many LCD's. When feeding it a high definition component video signal you have the option of letterboxing the image with a small black bar above and below so that it's in the correct 16:9 proportion. But with a standard definition image via component or s-video, you don't get this choice. So if you're trying to monitor 16:9 standard definition material the image is always stretched out of proportion on the 16:10 screen.

Too bad, because initially I thought this screen was very cool for its price. It can still be useful to judge focus, like Tim says. But I don't think it can be calibrated to make exposure judgements. It looks OK with a brightly lit low contrast scene, but anything dark with a lot of contrast just looks bad unfortunately.

BTW, if you want to learn how to use color bars this is a nice quick overview: http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

Ron Chau · January 15th, 2007, 08:19 PM

Would an LCD HDTV be any better ?

Boyd Ostroff · January 15th, 2007, 08:24 PM

Well I guess that depends on the particular model. I don't think you could make any generalizations because there's a whole range of quality there.

But I have a Sony 17" widescreen LCD and a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD TV. Both of these are several years old now; the Sony is 768x1280 and the Samsung is 720x1280. They aren't fantastic, but neither of them have this sort of problem, I can adjust them to get a reasonable level of brightness and contrast.

Your mileage may vary...

August 4th, 2006, 07:32 PM	#61
Dan Keaton Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Augusta Georgia Posts: 5,421	Here is one procedure: http://www.simvideo.com/downloads/Mo...libration2.pdf I will continue to search in an attempt to find a better procedure. __________________ Dan Keaton Augusta Georgia

August 4th, 2006, 08:05 PM	#62
Dan Keaton Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Augusta Georgia Posts: 5,421	Here is a second procedure: http://www.wideopenwest.com/~wvg/color%20bar.htm __________________ Dan Keaton Augusta Georgia

September 14th, 2006, 05:59 PM	#64
Bill Edmunds Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Conway, NH Posts: 574	LCD HDTV calibration - how do I do it? I'm using an LCD HDTV to monitor my stuff and I have no idea how to calibrate it. Being LCD, it just can't differentiate between the various black levels when I send it color bars. Does anyone have any idea how to calibrate it? Would I have to use one of those calibration DVDs?

September 22nd, 2006, 09:11 AM	#65
Christian Hoffmann New Boot Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 11	calibrating Cinema Display with HD Link? Hi, I'm working with XDCam HD Footage on a G5/FCP system and am monitoring the material using the following path: The HD SDI signal from our KONA LH goes into our HD LINK. The HD Link's DVI output is connected to our Apple 23" Cinema display. Our Sony SD Broadcast Monitor is connected to the analog component outputs of the KONA LH and simultaneously shows the downconverted HD footage. So far, so good. The footage looks ok on the SD monitor but seems too bright to me on the cinema display. The whites tend to glare and the material looks as if it was overexposed. The HD link utility that comes along with the HD Link provides some means of manipulating the appearance of the picture but I can't see how to calibrate the cinema display the "traditional" way. Does anyone have a similar setup and can give me a quick "how to" calibrate the cinema display? Thanks in advance, Christian

October 31st, 2006, 07:41 AM	#66
Andzei Matsukevits Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: Tallinn, Estonia Posts: 300	calibrating colors i cant effort a true color monitor, so i have to calibrate colors on my samsung(syncmaster940n) LCD-TFT monitor. Which tutorial and program for that i should use? Or is there anywhere already good for colorcorrection profile files which could be downloaded?

August 4th, 2006, 09:10 PM	#63
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I would recommend that you don't: A- Use calibration DVDs. DVD players and/or your DV device may output non-standard levels, so there's a mismatch between your DVD player (what you're calibrating to) and your DV device (what you should calibrate to). B- The blue gel trick. Blue gels let in light from the green elements of the monitor. What to do: A- On consumer TVs, the eyeball method may work better than the next method. B- Set color temperature closer to D65. Mostly follow the video university instructions. The blue gel part: Use a gel with a sharp cutoff in the SPD graph. If you get a swatchbook from Lee/GAM/Rosco (these are usually free) they will have nice graphs... look for a steep slope. Use a blue or violet gel. Then, you want an alternate color bars pattern... where on top of the normal color bars, you have flashing superimposed boxes of the opposing color. See the Avia calibration DVD or the DVD in my signature to see what this looks like, and make that pattern in your NLE (using your NLE's test pattern generator, not something else). Then calibrate, tweaking hue and chroma/saturation to minimize flashing.

October 31st, 2006, 09:28 PM	#67
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	I would recommend an external CRT TV since (for SD work anyways) it will show you things that won't be visible on a LCD monitor like interlacing issues, overscan, etc. Even a cheap consumer CRT TV will be better than a very expensive computer monitor. You can make a computer monitor perform a little better; however, it won't make you aware of what your video will look like (like an external monitor would). As well, you can't calibrate the monitor to get rid of inherent flaws. 2- You could check that: There are no activeoverlay settings on the video card That the video card's LUT (look-up table) is normal; Conversely, you can somewhat calibrate your monitor with this. Color temperatures between your monitors and room lighting are all similar. The closer the better. A less important issue is to get them close to D65. You can calibrate the interface to the monitor (with DVI this isn't an issue). Make sure that the monitor is reading white and black level correctly. Setup your NLE to show the most accurate image. A lot of NLEs will, be default, show an inaccurate image. And if you really must use a computer monitor, make sure you know about interlace flicker and overscan.

December 31st, 2006, 08:44 AM	#68
Julian Jansen Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands Posts: 38	Calibrate a Sony PVM-1371QM Hey, recently I bought a Sony PVM-1371QM video monitor. I hooked it up to my iMac 24" via a VGA to Comp cable from Apple. Can some tell me wich method is the best to calibrate the video monitor? (color, brightness etc.) Thanks!

December 31st, 2006, 09:19 PM	#69
Mark Hislop New Boot Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Aurora, Illinois Posts: 21	Does your monitor have a "blue only" switch. If so, put it into blue only mode, and display SMPTE color bars on it. In Blue Only mode, the effect on color bars is to create alternating bright and dark vertical columns. All the dark columns should be equally dark and all the bright columns should be equally bright. If the two outer bright columns don't match, then the chroma/saturation control on the monitor is turned until they do. For the inner bright columns, the hue/tint or phase control is turned until they match. If you are using full split field color bars you will see two slender vertical bars in the middle of the horizontal black bar. If you don't see them, and the bar is a solid black, turn the brightness up till you see both of them. Then turn the brightness back down slowly, so the slightly darker one on the left just dissapears in the black, and the sligtly brighter vertical bar on the right is just visible. Now your monitor is displaying hue, color, and brightness appropriately. However, it could be off in regards to color temperature. You can not adjust color temperature properly without test equipment. Mark

January 1st, 2007, 06:30 PM	#70
Bill Davis Trustee Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Posts: 1,538	BTW, Julian - For the past decade, Hal Landon's "Video University" web site has had a really nice step-by-step tutorial for setting up a monitor with bars available for free. www.videouniversity.com Just do a site search under "color bars" You might want to check it out if you've never previously calibrated a monitor.

January 15th, 2007, 05:24 PM	#71
Eugen Oprina Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bucharest Romania Posts: 221	Lcd monitor - is it possible to calibrate it? Hi, I just got a Gateway FPD 2185W LCD monitor for my 251 camera. Is there any way to calibrate it? I found many ways to calibrate it if I connect it to a computer, but if is connected to the camera only what do I have to do? Out of the box looks OK color wise but the details in the underexposed parts of the image are completely lost. Thank you very much for your help, Eugen

January 15th, 2007, 07:30 PM	#72
Tim Dashwood Wrangler Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Posts: 3,637	Personally I hate LCD monitors, and really only use them when portability is required or if the production can't afford a HD-CRT rental. They are fine for indicating focus/sharpness, but not very trustworthy in most environments. Unfortunately they are usually only limited to brightness and contrast adjustment when component in is used. Send bars to the monitor and do your best to calibrate the each time you move to a new environment or the light levels change. If you've never calibrated bars, please let me know and I'll attempt to explain it. __________________ Tim Dashwood

January 15th, 2007, 07:49 PM	#73
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Hi Eugen, I think you're seeing what I've also discovered with the Gateway 21" LCD. It's not a bad computer monitor, and a good value for the cost. But I have given up trying to bring it into any sort of calibration using the component video inputs while connected to my Z1. When you turn the brightness to the max the image is still too dark to show shadow details. So your only choice is to turn the contrast way up. When you do that the highlights start to blow out (you lose all detail in the bright parts of the image). I have the exact same problem with standard definition video when I connect it to my DVD recorder via component. So it seems that this screen is always too dark when used with the analog inputs. What is a "251" camera? If I try to view standard definition video on the Gateway there's another problem which is even worse IMO. The screen is physically in the 16:10 aspect ratio, like many LCD's. When feeding it a high definition component video signal you have the option of letterboxing the image with a small black bar above and below so that it's in the correct 16:9 proportion. But with a standard definition image via component or s-video, you don't get this choice. So if you're trying to monitor 16:9 standard definition material the image is always stretched out of proportion on the 16:10 screen. Too bad, because initially I thought this screen was very cool for its price. It can still be useful to judge focus, like Tim says. But I don't think it can be calibrated to make exposure judgements. It looks OK with a brightly lit low contrast scene, but anything dark with a lot of contrast just looks bad unfortunately. BTW, if you want to learn how to use color bars this is a nice quick overview: http://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htm

January 15th, 2007, 08:19 PM	#74
Ron Chau Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: ny, ny Posts: 204	Would an LCD HDTV be any better ?

January 15th, 2007, 08:24 PM	#75
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Well I guess that depends on the particular model. I don't think you could make any generalizations because there's a whole range of quality there. But I have a Sony 17" widescreen LCD and a Samsung 22" widescreen LCD TV. Both of these are several years old now; the Sony is 768x1280 and the Samsung is 720x1280. They aren't fantastic, but neither of them have this sort of problem, I can adjust them to get a reasonable level of brightness and contrast. Your mileage may vary...