This NEC monitor for Color Correction?

Boncrek said:
So where would one find a suitable colour accurate monitor?
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To do this with a computer monitor, there are only two sources I know of. Eizo has at least the ColorEdge CG241w that can be calibrated in Rec. 709/601. And the HP dreamcolor (I'm not sure it's still in production).

Color Grading is "normally" handled with a production monitor. They come in all shapes and sizes and are usually quite expensive.

The other way to handle this is to use a TV as a monitor. But you have to drive it correctly (Adobe CS5 and above will do this if your system has an HDMI out). If your hardware/software won't do it out of the box, you'll have to buy a converter of some sort, like the Matrox MX02 Mini. And -- you have to calibrate the TV. TVs are all over the ball park when they come from the factory -- if you are going to try to use a TV for color grading, it MUST be calibrated or you are just spittin' into the wind.

When you add up the TV, calibration, and output, the Eizo seems like the better value, at least to me. But if you want a 50" monitor to work with, something you can use to impress clients...

It all depends on how much quality you need, and how much you are willing to pay for it. As with just about all things video. Sigh...
 
Bruce you mention calibrating the TV - you mean by using an external hardware calibrator, right?
Also, I was considering hooking up a 5-year-old Sony CRT TV (SD) to the Matrox MXO2 Mini via component - would this work for color correction? Or at all?
 
Don't believe Matrox about MX02 calibration of TVs. They've just released a new version of the software, and just like the old one it simply doesn't work - it's a load of nonsense. You can still use that box to drive a reference monitor but that hype about making TVs reference monitors is just complete junk.
 
I've read mixed customer reviews on BH but Shane Ross on Creative Cow spoke very highly about it.

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/matrox-mxo-broadcast-monitoring-on-a-desktop-monitor

Yeah it's confusing to me as I'm now deciding between Matrox MXO2 Mini (or Max) or the Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI and Analog Editing Card - PCI Express which has better (and a lot more) reviews, is 1/2 price of the Matrox Mini but doesn't have the Matrox's alleged TV calibration..

Any thoughts?
 
I have mainly used AJA Kona cards over the years with great results. But wanted to put together a lower budget setup so I tried a Blackmagic Intensity Pro, which I had nothing but problems with. I replaced it with an MXO2 LE which works like a champ.
I don't know what problems Ian has run into trying to calibrate his monitor, but I was able to calibrate a Panasonic plasma to very closely match my Panasonic broadcsst monitor.
My intensity pro card will be up for sale soon.

All the best!

Dave
 
dariomik said:
Bruce you mention calibrating the TV - you mean by using an external hardware calibrator, right?
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Yes. But it's not as easy as a computer monitor like the Eizo or the NECs with their SpectraView system. These computer monitors are designed with calibration in mind and the software/hardware can do most all of it independently after the operator tells it to calibrate.

With a TV, the person doing the calibration has to do a fair amount of work in the service menus changing how the TV is set up. As I understand it (never having done it myself) it's an iterative process. You can of course do this yourself if you have the right equipment and the desire to learn how to do it. If that interests you, there's an active subforum on display calibration over at AVS.
 
David W. Jones said:
...I replaced it with an MXO2 LE which works like a champ.
I don't know what problems Ian has run into trying to calibrate his monitor, but I was able to calibrate a Panasonic plasma to very closely match my Panasonic broadcast monitor.

All the best!

Dave
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That's good news. Thank you Dave.
 
Bruce Watson said:
Yes. But it's not as easy as a computer monitor like the Eizo or the NECs with their SpectraView system. These computer monitors are designed with calibration in mind and the software/hardware can do most all of it independently after the operator tells it to calibrate.

With a TV, the person doing the calibration has to do a fair amount of work in the service menus changing how the TV is set up. As I understand it (never having done it myself) it's an iterative process. You can of course do this yourself if you have the right equipment and the desire to learn how to do it. If that interests you, there's an active subforum on display calibration over at AVS.
Click to expand...

I'll check that, thank you Bruce.

Would I benefit from going with the MXO2 LE instead of MXO2 Mini if I don't plan on working with RED footage or work on audio - just basically need to monitor HD and try calibrating a LED TV?

Would it, overall, speed my editing system up? Or just when I export H.264?
 
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What do you guys think of connecting a CRT TV (5 year old Sony) to the Matrox via component? Would it work for CC?
 
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