Color Correcting on an Aquos?

[Michael Gissing]

Chad,

I have been grading on a 45″ Aquos for the past two years. However, I use a Decklink card and feed the component signal to the monitor. I am not sure I would trust a DVI signal to be accurate. Many here have raved about the Matrox converter which may be a better option if you want to use DVI.

The Sharp monitor has been reliable and accurate and I have had no problems with grades translating well in real world environments from CRT monitors to LCD projectors.

[Chris Poisson]

Chad,

The only way to get true color on that monitor is with an MXO so you can calibrate it. If you just use the DVI out, you will need to tweak the monitor’s own color controls to match another monitor that you know is correct, such as a Sony PVM series monitor that is calibrated properly, but with this method you can only get so close. I have an Aquos 32″ that I have done this on and it is pretty good, but for critical color I’d get the MXO.

Have a wonderful day.

[Shane Ross]

Unless you can color balance the monitor to BARS, I don’t see how you could trust it. The MXO give you this ability over DVI, but the LUT (look up Tables) it employs are for the Apple 23″ Cinema Display. It can correct the signal to make THAT into a color correctable monitor.

I heard that the Decklink HD Link has a way to send out bars and has the tools to adjust them, but I haven’t confirmed that. You can ask that in the Decklink forum.

Either way, you cannot do it without other hardware between the computer and the monitor.

Shane

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Chad Brownstein] “Anyway, it has a DVI input and I was wondering if it would be accurate enough to color correct to if I had it plugged into my computer. I would go directly from my MacPro int the Aquos via DVI, utilizing it as my monitor. If it looks good there, wouldn’t it look the same when I burn it to DVD and play it back on an LCD?”

Nope, I would never recommend something like that for professional color correction. It’s a consumer TV so the colors will not remain accurate at all times, you’ll need to constantly calibrate it and you will need to sit straight on to that unit at all times to be close.

What I see from a lot of consumer LCD’s and even plasmas are Reds that just can’t be controlled accurately. The Panasonic Pro Plasmas come the closest.

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

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[Michael Gissing]

I know I have asked Walter before if he has seen the Aquos monitors and not received an answer so I won’t ask again. Suffice to say the ABC in Australia bought a 52″ Aquos for program QC because it was accurate and being LCD didn’t drift or require constant recalibration.

Talking to the techs there they said it was a much better reference than their SONY CRT HD monitors. Assuming a consumer product is not good enough is a common habit.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Michael Gissing] “I know I have asked Walter before if he has seen the Aquos monitors and not received an answer so I won’t ask again.”

In consumer stores, sure. They’re all over Best Buy everytime I walk in. No two are alike, but then no two TV’s in the entire store are alike.

I still would not use one for color grading though.

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

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!

[Sean Oneil]

Anyone familiar with this thing?
https://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3elite.php

I’ve heard of colorometers, but didn’t realize there was one so inexpensive and mainstream.

Anyway, whether you have a Sony CRT, a Panny pro LCD, or a consumer LCD, if color grading was my bread and butter I would calibrate every monitor with a colorometer. Bars & eyeballs are not enough.

Sean

[Lance Bachelder]

I have a 42″ AQUOS in my edit bay at work along with a 24″ Sony LUMA with HD-SDI and a SDI CRT – all output via Kona 3 – the AQUOS 64 series lacks in the subtle yellows and reds and cannot be trusted for pro work – the new 94 Special Edition series uses the latest 10 bit panels and may be okay for pro work but must calibrated and compared to high end monitors. Consumer Plasmas seem to be better across the entire color spectrum than consumer LCD’s.

I do believe you can use certain high-end consumer monitors for pro work because that’s really as good as anyone is ever going to see it – you just have to choose the monitor carefully and know how to set it up.

Lance Bachelder
Southern California

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Sean ONeil] “Anyone familiar with this thing?
https://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3elite.php “

I use one for my computer monitors. They make another version for calibrating consumer TV sets. They’re pretty easy to use, and they keep my 2 monitors nicely matched.

Arnie
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[Chris Borjis]

[Lance Bachelder] “the new 94 Special Edition series uses the latest 10 bit panels”

they are able to playback true 10-bit color depth?

thats pretty impressive.

I have a similar setup as Walter for color correction.
Sony PVM HD CRT and Panasonic Plasma. I can’t imagine monitoring any other way.

It should be noted that even the big studios are doing QC checks on consumer panels just as a way of knowing what product will look like to that end.

Case in point, the original Blu-Ray of Fifth Element was only QC’d on a 30K sony hd crt. They didn’t see all the flaws brought out on flat panels. They re-issued a new master and now check EVERYTHING on multiple panels.