Re: FCP and Additional Monitor

[Adam White] "I've been caught out a couple times with footage that looks fine on iMac screen, but when testing DVD copies I've found that there's been interlacing, colour issues e.t.c. on a TV Monitor. This solution would, I hope, at least help me avoid this kind of thing again. "

Adam,

If you've ever heard the term reference monitor, it refers to a calibrated monitor that is a known baseline by which all things can be judged, including color, luminance, black levels, interlacing, and what most people never realize, other monitors.

So, until you have a properly calibrated reference monitor that you can use as a known baseline that you can to use to calibrate your iMac screen, you will continue to encounter big surprises when comparing what you see on your iMac vs. what you see on your DVDs when played on broadcast monitors and TVs.

So, the solution is to beg, borrow, buy or steal a calibrated broadcast monitor, and, using color bars and possibly a Spyder or other calibration tool, use it to precisely calibrate your iMac monitor to get as close a match as possible. You will still be unable to accurately see potential interlace issues on the iMac screen, as computer monitors don't properly display interlaced images, but at least color, luminance, and black levels will no longer be a big mystery.

Does this make sense???

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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