How do I sync my monitors to display the same colors as on the DVX lcd?

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davide

Well-known member
Whenever I load my footage onto my edit computer everything looks far more washed out than it did on the DVX screen. What settings do you guys use either in FCP or in System Preferences to get the image on your monitor to match the one on the LCD?

thanks
davide
 
Hey man, LCD screens dont have great colour to begin with. I switched over to LCD from CRT recently only to realize that the colors are pretty washed out comparatively. Unless you're willing to pay 1000s of bucks for one of Apples cinema displays you're not going to get great color.

In my experience is your best bet is to scrub the video to a tv monitor. I also bought one of these

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/spyder2express.html

It's a color calibrator for your lcd.

Hope this helps.
 
Hey man,

Thanks for the link. I actually have two CRT monitors. I just want to get them so that their color profiles match that of the flip-out LCD on the DVX. Is there a specific color profile to use? sRGB? NTSC? Gamma 1.8?

davide
 
If this has already been covered on dvxuser please let me know and I'll just read that thread. I've been having trouble finding much via searches because. I've used both the DVXuser search function and googled "dvxuser fcp sync," "dvxuser color profile" etc.

davide
 
The DVX's LCD screen is not exactly accurate. There is no reason to match your monitor to that because nobody else will have those settings to view the video. It might look right to you, but nobody else.

For color correction, you would need to use a calibrated (with blue gun) broadcast monitor. This is really the only way to accurately judge the color of your video.

With that said, I have no idea how to match your computer LCD to the DVX's as I've never had a good reason to do it.
 
Thanks bigboss,

Short of using a broadcast monitor are there any color profile settings that would yield the closest fidelity to what the footage looks like?
 
HAHAHAHA!!!

Davi...

Listen to what they are saying!!! What you see on the LCD is NOT what is on the tape. Get yourself a monitor and hook it up to the camera when filming. DON'T base your view of the world on the crappy LCD on your DVX.

Good LORD get a grip!!

Properly correct your external broadcast monitor to proper specks. Make sure you have a blue only gun on that puppy and THEN you'll see what is actually on the tape.

However... you want to match the dvx?

FCP 3-way Color Corrector. Prop your DVX up on a little pedestal match frame back to tape and correct away!!

Your broadcaster will laugh at you for the rest of your life.

CaptM
 
Thanks Capt,

You came a little late to the party in telling me that the LCD is not accurate. Next time if you want to make fun of me make sure to be on the ball :). Don't worry I'm sure there will be many instances in the future where I reveal my lack of knowledge on these boards, especially as I continue to learn how to edit on FCP, so you'll have more chances.

If I don't have a broadcast monitor what's the best way to set my CRTs to match the look that one would give? I set them to 2.2 gamma. Is that a good start?
 
Hooking up a TV to your comp via the DVX and eyeballing color bars will get you closer in the ball park than CRTs will. Also, what you see in FCP is just a proxie image so even if you could get your CRTs "close" the image you seen in FCP would be reliable anyway.


-A
 
No no -- I didn't come late. You still wanted to know "yield the closest fidelity to what the footage looks like?"

Figured you only knew what the footage looked like based on what you saw on the LCD. My bad. Still funny, but my bad.

Yes, any TV will be better than nothing... but send some bars and tone into FCP from the DVX. Or just download a bars card from the internet.

Google for adjusting a broadcast monitor and see how close you can get it. HOWEVER!!!

If you are going to web, I'd forget all about that and get yourself about 5 different computers with three different operating systems using 4 different web browsers all hooked up to 10 different monitors and then try your best to figure out what folks will be seeing when they download your video off the net!!!

Not even worth any effort it is so different.

CaptM
 
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Yeah, looking back that "closest fidelity" comment is a little vague. But I meant what it really looks like on a broadcast monitor, not what the lcd displays.


The major distribution for this is going to be digital, so I'll just focus on making it look best on the most number of monitors. Do most of them use gamma 1.8?

Also, I've read that FCP always makes the blacks look milkier than they really are. Is there any way of overcoming this issue? Or should I just continually export work in progress quicktime files to see how they look and then adjust from there?

davide
 
Most PC monitors have a gamma of around 2.2. By default Macs use 1.8 gamma. IIRC 2.2 gamma is closer to NTSC televisions so FCP assumes your Mac monitor is set to 1.8, but that you are working w/video footage destined for for TV (2.2) so it "compensates" for that by tweaking the image so it looks similar to what it would on a 2.2 gamma monitor. This is why footage inside FCP looks different then the same footage viewed using the QT player. This is also why there is now a check box in QT that basically says "make QT behave like FCP when it comes to gamma".

Like Mench said, don't sweat 'cause there's really nothing you can do about it. There is are no color standards for viewing videos on computers like their are for viewing images. I'd make it so your video doesn't look too dark, or too light, in both 1.8 and 2.2 gamma and not sweat it beyond that.

-A
 
Yeah... I can't tell you how many times I try to show someone a movie of mine on their monitor and I just sit in amazement how awful it looks. Off angle (too high/too low) or matte vs glossy or gamma vs gamma.

When I push the darks for mine it looks WAY too dark on another. When I ease off the darks for another monitor it looks washed out on mine.

NTSC (never the same color twice) is actually looking pretty good these days as a standard!! That's sad.

CaptM
 
hi guys

I am new to this topic, but I wanna know more about the subject too....so here is my question

when you guys talking about using monitor for filming and color correcting, are you talking about just ONE monitor can be using while filming and color correcting in post.... or are you talking about two different monitor( one for filming and one for cc in post)

thanks yia
 
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Only because I'm cheap do I use the same monitor. If I had more than one monitor I trusted for color accuracy, I'd use two seperate monitors. In reality you can use as many different monitors as you want as long as they are all calibrated to the same specs.
 
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