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Christie CP2210 Reccomendations
Thought I’d see what people’s opinions were on this. I’m working with a Christie CP2210 Projector at another facility that needs to handle two different color workflows from DaVinci Resolve a)REC709 and b)DCI P3.
The projector has currently been calibrated using its internal controls to a Rec709 standard by a technician (HD/SDI 1080p input from Resolve). Moving forward, since I’m unfamiliar with projectors, I’d like to know what people who have worked with these (or similar DCP compliant projectors) have found works best for calibration if needing to swtich in and out of two different color spaces depending on the project. My thoughts are that there are 2 options here:
1)Have a qualified calibrator come in and calibrate to two different presets using the internal controls on the projector and just manually switching between these two for each project. (is this possible, using the settings inside these projectors, don’t even know)
2)Using a DAVIO box in line with custom built luts for both Rec709 and DCI P3(this option would probably still involve swtiching a menu preset on the projector to get into the right color space setting as well I’m assuming).
The Davio route is more expensive obvioulsy, and the facility is leary about plunking down the money for the box and custom lut generation(since most of their work is in Rec709 anyway). But I think the Davio route is more precise and would probably lead to better results and more flexibility in the future. Am I right? Or can a good calbirator get good results with the internal settings on this particular projector (or maybe with something less expensive than a Davio to display the LUT in line)? Any thoughts/opions would be greatly welcomed!
Chris Hall
Colorist – Basher Films
Pasadena, CA -
5 Replies
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Hey Chris,
I’ve been in the process of shopping for a projector to be able to switch between Rec. 709 and DCI with a push of a button. What I gather about the CP2210 is that it has a good number of color management tools, and that you can set up to 64 channels (presets), with each channel has an input format, data format, source and screen configs, lamp config, lens config, measured color, target color, color space, gamma, LUT-CLUT, and scan type.
The “measured color” is gathered by your calibrator with no corrections applied, to get all the variables in the lamp, screen, glass, etc, and he or she enters the observed primaries in the “Measured Color Gamut Data” file. Then you create one or more “Target Color Gamut Data” files where you would specify the exact primaries and white point you want to configure… and my understanding is when you make multiple channels, they can have the same MCGD and different TCGD files, and the projector has the image processing to hit the target space (within its gamut). I can’t tell you anything about the quality of the transforms that it does in there vs. a Davio with a 3D LUT, but I would say that your #1 option seems like it is exactly what they designed for…
Are you using DCI colors in RGB or XYZ?
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
Kevin, thanks for this. Really appreciate your insights here. I downloaded the manual for the CP2210 last night and perused it a bit and yeah it looks like it has a quite a strong set of color management tools like you said (pleasantly surprised to see that actually). So it looks like a solid calibration could get two very good presets in place that are switchable without neccessarily using a davio box.
In regards to the signal for the DCI P3. I’ve only tested it twice, so far, and each time I’ve sent 444 Dual Link RGB out of DaVinci with the RGBtoXYZ LUT applied on the output. My plan is to actually send XYZ out of the DaVinci in the future though as I’d rather grade in XYZ and then apply a LUT for Rec709/RGB deliverables.
Chris Hall
Colorist – Basher Films
Pasadena, CA -
[Chris Hall] “I’ve sent 444 Dual Link RGB out of DaVinci with the RGBtoXYZ LUT applied on the output. My plan is to actually send XYZ out of the DaVinci in the future though as I’d rather grade in XYZ “
I’m expecting that the XYZ monitoring will be enabled in Mac Resolve at the same time the Decklink 4K is supported (8?) – The issue I’ve run into is getting my FSI monitor (which will take in DCI but only as RGB) and my Ultrascopes to play nicely in that environment. What will you be using for scopes in your all-XYZ set up?
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
Kevin, you bring up a really valid point, I hadn’t even given it a second thought, but your’re right, decklink doesn’t support xyz (nor does it support even 444 at the moment for that matter, which I hadn’t realized as I hadn’t turned the scopes on for the test sends to the projector… dumb). I guess I may have to rethink my xyz strategy, as the only scopes capable of monitoring xyz are expensive (the one that looks really good is the omnitek https://www.omnitek.tv/sites/default/files/images/stories/pdfs/omnitek_xr_jan08_web.pdf)
So I’m thinking that the less precise solution here is sending unscaled 444 RGB to the Christie with the xyz lut applied. Although I think the better way would be to ouput XYZ 444 (using the decklink 4K), and would just have to plunk the money down for the more expensive scope in that case.
I suppose another “budget” option here would be to work in unscaled and send XYZ to the Christie and then also send a 10bit 4:2:2 signal from the decklink 4K to the ultrascope for monitoring… not elegant, and not as precise I’m sure, but that could theoretically work right?
Chris Hall
Colorist – Basher Films
Pasadena, CA -
Yup, down the digital cinema rabbit hole… I know fairly little about the hardware and software involved, but my three wishes are: that the Ultrascope can gain XYZ capabilities as a software/firmware update and that Blackmagic wants to add that to bolster the Decklink 4K’s XYZ synergies. Then they add 444 XYZ over 3G SDI as a monitoring option (seems like the Decklink 4K does that). Then I figure out a way that my Flanders can rightly display the 444 XYZ 3G signal (HDLink with LUT?)
I agree that having a set-up that could be all XYZ in Resolve output, monitoring, and scopes would be the most accurate. Perhaps somebody from Blackmagic has this all worked out and will reveal the “suggested configuration” in order to sell us some Decklink 4Ks…
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com
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