Color Bar confusion, newbie question

U

unitx

New member
Hello, I've got a question about using color bars to calibrate my
NTSC monitor. I just bought the JVC TM-H150CGU monitor, and am wondering if I should use bars from Vegas Video, or from the DVX100a?
Are they both accurate? Also, when properly calibrated, how often should it be calibrated?

Which method is preffered?

Thanks

Any help is gratly appreciated
 
Hello unitx,

You can use the internal color bars on the DVX100A. I would suggest the Y/C out put though. Use the "BLUE CHECK" feature on the monitor. There will be four blue bars and three black bars on the upper part of the screen.

The CHROMA knob effects the two outer bars. You want to adjust the CHROMA level so that the entire bar matches (the same shade of blue). You can see what I'm talking about if you adjust the chroma knob to the minimum or maximum range.

Then the two inner bars are for the PHASE adjustment. Just match the two shades of blue. Then turn your BLUE CHECK off and you will see a small stair-step in the bottom right-hand corner. Adjust your BRIGHTNESS knob so that you can just barely see the lightest stair-step. Keep in mind that the Color-bars on the DVX100A doesn't have the 7.5 IRE setup. So you may need to adjust your brightness if you're shooting with the 7.5 IRE on or off.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Andrew Hoffman
Senior Operations Manager
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com

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Thank you very much for the info, and also for the directions for calibration.

I'll use the Y/C output. Just wondering how often I should calibrate, and if it's OK
to use the Vegas Video bars, say for instance in a situation where I didn't have the DVX close by to my editing setup.

Thanks again!
 
I calibrate before every big project, just to make sure.
Don't calibrate in the middle of something you're working on, unless you think there is something wrong with your monitor.

You should be fine using the bars from Vegas. In fact, I don't see that it matters where the bars come from, as long as you know they are 'good' bars.
 
Let your monitor warm up before you calibrate it, probably a good 20 minutes. Also, re-calibrate whenever the ambient light changes. If you calibrate in a dark room, and then someone turns on the lights in the room, your previous calibration will no longer be accurate.
 
Good point Barry.
I leave all the lighting in my studio exactly the same, and tend to do my color work at night, for that very reason (i'm a night owl anyhow).

Hence my advice not to recalibrate if in the middle of a coloring job, in an ideal world your lighting should stay constant....
but of course we're not in an ideal world. In which case, follow Barry's advice.
 
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