HVX best monitor?

Try this -- import some footage from the card straight to your computer and view it full-screen on the Dell on your NLE.

Then play that same footage out of the camera and freeze-frame it.

Then toggle back and forth between the component intputs (hooked directly to the HVX) and to the computer display. You should see a night-and-day difference, even though you're looking at the exact same image (or, more accurately, what's supposed to be displayed as the exact same image!)
 
Puredrifting: You're right. As a cinematographer there really isn't a reason why one shouldn't get an HD video monitor, especially since quality picture work is so important to us. Why spend the money to be able to shoot HD if you can't monitor it correctly to get the best image from it? lol Looks like it'll be Ramen noodles for a while. :)

Thanks guys. :)
 
First off I sold my DVX100a to pay for most of my Panasonic 17 BW-1700 monitor....

the more expensive Pany 9inch? monitor (the smaller one) I hate because the Controls are on the side being run through a cable that I've goten broken twice! (rental compay did offer to come out to the shoot and replace monitor.)

once this cable is broken you can't control the monitor at all...

so yes Client/DP monitor Pany 17 inch...

on camera for AC... the Marshal 7? inch seems best...

VP

www.vincentpascoe.com

www.myspace.com/vincentpascoe
 
Hi Can Scanner:

The Dell looks horrendous, largely because of all of the excess noise and macroblocking (remember all of the black, blocky noise that everyone was up in arms about when the HVX first came out?).

The colors are totally off as far as accuracy. The Dell looks so sweet hooked up to my G5 but really bad even when hooked up to a Varicam via my HDLink HD-SDI to DVI convertor. The analog inputs used for the HVX look even worse.

I have a couple of the Sony MTM series 17" monitors, even at $400.00, they look sooo much better than the Dell. The Dell is a computer monitor, not a video monitor. Not even sure why they put video inputs on it, I guess for consumers to run their DVD players into so they can watch movies on the Dell?

Best,

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
Not even sure why they put video inputs on it, I guess for consumers to run their DVD players into so they can watch movies on the Dell?
Click to expand...
Lots of people screamed about how bad DVDs look on it too though...

In short I think video inputs on the monitor were a mistake. They should never have done it.
 
I was thinking of this setup, for low budget production.

1. I am using DV Rack HD 2.0, as HD capture. The laptop can be calibrated, so is this good enough as a monitor or should I really go out and get a Pana 17", aforementioned?

2. I set up one of my Dell 2405's today, component HVX to component Dell input, sure, it is noisy, however, no firewire latency for fast moving shots, like pans, and clear enough to pull focus and a DP framing up a shot. I would not trust it for colour settings and camera detail settings (DV Rack Laptop intended for that), yet it seems to serve a purpose on my future low budget production.

3. So can I trust my DV Rack calibrated laptop setup for my situation? I plan to use both the DV Rack laptop and Dell 2405 at the same time, perhaps different people viewing.

I am piecing together a rig, and I am interested in any feedback. Thanks.
 
Yes, the Dell monitors look bad, but they can be made to look ok.
I have the Dell 2407, and use it often to edit.

The main problem I found when I first set it up was that it appeard way too bright. At first tried to fix it by adjusting the monitor brightness and contrast.
All that did was made it look murky, and less crisp. Obviously that was not good.

Then I just looked at all the other controls, and found the main problem was the monitor is shipped from the factory with ALL of the colors turned to max.

That made things too bright, and the wrong color.
Then I turned all colors to 50%, now things were looking pretty good.

Then I ran some footage from into a crt monitor and freezed it.
I tweeked the color of the Dell to match as best I could.
MY results were Red 55, Green 58, and Blue 40.

That made things as close as I could expect.
I later made some fine tuning adjustments in the video card driver.
In my case it was an ATI card where you can set up profiles.
I set that to NOT let the programs override my color corrections.
It was set to overide by default.

It's weird how ATI set up the driver.
The 3d setting under color seems to affect the way the screen/ menu color looks, and also the footage to windows media player.

You can also adjust it further under the video section.

It is by no means perfect, but it is close enough and consistent enough to learn how to fine tune it in your editing app.

It works for me.
 
Thanks GH, I will have a play with those settings if I use the Dell as a 2nd screen (monitor) for NLE app using DVI.

What do you use to monitor the HVX shooting HD in the field?
 
TylerD said:
Thanks GH, I will have a play with those settings if I use the Dell as a 2nd screen (monitor) for NLE app using DVI.

What do you use to monitor the HVX shooting HD in the field?
Click to expand...


I take light readings, and use thoes settings for density ( I come from a photography background, so don't use lux or foot candles, I use f stops and shutterspeeds.)

I use a laser tape measure for focus, and flip out monitor for cropping.

Then I "get it close" by setting my monitor, as described above, and adjusting color in post using both the dell, and a crt monitor.

From this stage, anything I do gets a final correction by some other editor I may or may not know.
I may or may not project it to see if it has the proper color.
The projector usually reveals any shortcomings in the color correction.
 
Hey guys,
If you want to try and profile your monitor (Dell 2407 or anything else)
Here are 2 programs you may want to try.
They are freeware.

The first one is Quick Gamma.

http://www.quickgamma.de/indexen.html

The second is quick monitor profile.

http://quickgamma.de/QuickMonitorProfile/indexen.html

One adjusts gamma based on your perception comparing an image to a grid.

The other attempts to create a monitor profile.

In either case, you want to disable any other software that is attempting to do the same, including adobe gamma if you are using that, otherwise, you will be in a big circle and your color will never look correct.

Most profiles for windows look for a gamma of 2.2
The calibrations attempt to do this by changing your look up table for color.
If you have more than one item attempting to do this, the changes will not reach your target goal of 2.2

What ever method you use, make certain that you do not have other items changing the values you have established, e.g. graphics card software, games, photoshop, the monitor itself, etc.

Although I still have colors that do not look exactly the same through every source, I try to make certain that flesh tones don't have color cast, green grass looks natural, whites are clean, reds are not blooming.

That seems to get me close enough so that I am still within the range of adjustment for someone who wants to color grade after me.

One more thing,
You can also download Microsoft's Color Control Panel here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...A0-7721-43CA-9174-7F8D429FBB9E&displaylang=en

It allows you to quickly change your monitors, or any thing else that uses profiles, on the fly.

I find it good for creating multiple profiles that are only slightly tweeked from each other to optimise color based on output intent..
 
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So...

So...

If I setup an Apple 23", even running off of a decklink card, will the results be as iffy as the Dell? Is the issue all computer monitors vs. HD video displays here?
 
I used a spyder2pro to calibrate my 2 dell monitors - 24 & 19 - The difference is worth the money. My Dell 24 was yellow in the whites & the black gamma curve was way off.
 
soarpod,
Did it calibrate your monitor to a level that you can work without a production monitor even for color correction?
 
In my experience (I have both the latest 24" Dell and a year old 23" Apple), the apple outperforms the Dell as videomonitor - both with Digital Video Desktop and through Blackmagic HD-Link - though I wouldn't use it as such.

The Dell - on the other hand - is a much better computer display...

Gunleik
 
I just picked up a Samsung LN-S1951W 19" LCD...looks a lot better than I could ever get my 20" Dell to look. I'm not going to use it for any critical focus or color grading...it's basically just gonna be a client monitor, but I think it looks great!
 
Hey guys. What about the HP 24" computer monitor for faithfull color correcting through Avid HD the using DVI? Im set on the field, just looking for the best way to do final color correcting on Avid.

Thanks:

Steve
 
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