color correct tv workflow

[Chris Borjis]

you need a device like the matrox mxo to do this.

You won’t get acurate color or contrast doing this on a plasma.

at the minimum it has to be done on any of the approved displays for the mxo, if you want your effort to turn out right in the end.

If its an SD DV sequence you might go through a camera or A/D firewire to analog converter and do it through a CRT TV calibrated with Bars. Thats about as low budget as you can get and maintain any real level of color correction that works across the board.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dan Schanler] “Also, assuming that I’m using the tv for a monitor – I can’t get FCP to recognize it as separate from my regular display. Meaning that I can drag items like the canvas onto the tv, but I can’t set it up so that when I hit play it automatically plays on my computer screen and on the external one. do I need two graphics cards for that? (I’m just using an iMac.)”

You’ll require a Matrox MXO or an AJA Io HD to display the video on your external monitor.

As for calibration, not really sure how to calibrate a consumer grade monitor for color grading without a proper professional monitor to compare it against.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Chris Borjis]

[walter biscardi] “As for calibration, not really sure how to calibrate a consumer grade monitor for color grading without a proper professional monitor to compare it against.”

the best one could do is a certain # of Roscoe blue gel over your eyes with NTSC bars running through it. still not quite broadcast acurate but close.

[Dan Schanler]

Thanks Chris and Walter. By the way I enjoyed the “Your Own Business” series; huge thank you to ya.

It seems I need to get a MXO, and I will soon.

As a follow up – for the time being, is it even worth doing a day of color correct?

Any thoughts on whether one of those Apple calibration settings will be even mildly more accurate than the others? For example is “Adobe RGB (1998)” better than the “Color LCD” or “Generic RGB Profile” or would using Apple’s calibration software be better?

Yes, I realize these are sort of last resort questions, but it’s what I’ve got.

Dan

[Chris Borjis]

[Dan Schanler] “As a follow up – for the time being, is it even worth doing a day of color correct?”

if you have inconsistent shot for shot of the same scene sure.

[Dan Schanler] “Any thoughts on whether one of those Apple calibration settings will be even mildly more accurate than the others? For example is “Adobe RGB (1998)” better than the “Color LCD” or “Generic RGB Profile” or would using Apple’s calibration software be better?”

Best thing to do there is get one of those monitor calibration
devices (spyder..etc..) from amazon.com