Re: Calibrating HD LCD Monitors ????

I did a project recently with two Varicams and 2 of the Panasonic 17" LCD monitors.

I had noticed that the 17"monitor that I own had a yellow bias as it came from the factory. And this always bugged me.

And so...I pulled out my Eye-One Display probe that I use for my computer monitors and started the process on my laptop. This device is designed to create LUT's that reside in the computer, but it also has a "pre-calibration" section of the software to dial in the display's hardware before building the LUT's. So I just did the pre-calibration, putting the probe on my Panasonic monitor instead of the laptop screen. For a test signal for the panasonic monitor I aimed the camera at a white card and white balanced so that it was neutral in color. I used the iris on the camera to change the density. Using a waveform/parade is useful here to insure that the signal is really neutral.

The color controls on the Panasonic LCD are difficult to control as the shadow controls also change the highlights and vise-versa. So I left the shadows at the factory default and just worked on the highlights to make the monitor neutral (i.e.. r=g=b) at 6500k.

This worked surprisingly well and is essentially what the "Spyder TV" probe and software do (or supposed to do, I haven't tested the spyder).

The real test came when I had the two monitors together during prep for my project. I adjusted both using the eye-one probe to the same test signal and they were virtually identical in displaying the image. Whoo Hooo!

On the other hand, I can't really say how accurately these monitors display color relative to a standard. But on the other hand, almost nobody is watching the final product on a calibrated standard display anyway (or anything close!). At least I have a consistent standard on the set to judge color and I feel it's close enough to the "official" standard that I consider it color accurate for on set color correction.

I would have bought the "Spyder TV" probe myself, but it only comes in Windows...Why don't you try it and let us know how well it works?

-bruce

Varicam/Steadicam Owner
Los Angeles, CA
www.brucealangreene.com