Color grading without I/O cards (blackmagic, AJA etc) possible?

[Flavio Soares]

UPDATE:

Just read on RedUser forum:

“The monitor (i.e. EIZO CG275W) can display 10bit from the DisplayPort interface. However you’re not going to get that at this time from a Mac and a Thunderbolt port as the Mac GDI does not support 10bit output, regardless of what type of interface or connection is used. If you want 10bit displayed on this monitor, you need to feed it with a true 10bit source — which means something from BlackMagic, AJA, Matrox, etc.. that has a displayport output.”

Well, I have no reason not to believe this guy (Jeff Kilgroe), as he’s a moderator on RedUser, but I get intrigued how would the I/O card pull that 10-bit from thunderbolt if the macbook cannot output it?

And then again: IF thunderbolt CAN provide 10bit signal to the I/O card, could this same signal go straight (without I/O card) to a calibrated grading monitor to come out as a perfectly accurate image?

[Robert Houllahan]

Apple’s OSX only supports 8-bits for the display this is a OS level software issue so even if the hardware can support it the software does not.

-Rob-

Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.com

MAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma. Light-Space CMS + Hubble

[Juan Salvo]

[Flavio Soares] “Color grading without I/O cards (blackmagic, AJA etc) possible?”
No.

At least not if you want to charge people for the work you do. You can’t provide grading as a service if you can’t be sure what your image looks like on a calibrated display.

Colorist | Online Editor | Post Super | VFX Artist | BD Author

https://JuanSalvo.com

[Margus Voll]

This is really great point.

This is why one would want calibrated gear. Then one will know that gear meets the standards.

I’t is like when you are driving a car. You need to take exam to be certified as a driver
so it is simple to measure if you can drive a car by standards or you just say you can.

So in color correction you really want system that meets standards that is measurable
and repeatable by other with the same results.

With non standardized workflow you do not know if you are in the speck this is one would like to
have sdi output io on computer.

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu

DaVinci 8.2.1 OSX 10.7.3
MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
GTX 470 / Quadro 4000
Multibridge 2 Pro

[Juan Salvo]

We covered this in the most recent (ep 3) episode of ‘The Coloristos’. Including some more affordable worthwhile monitoring solutions.

Might be worth checking out.

Colorist | Online Editor | Post Super | VFX Artist | BD Author

https://JuanSalvo.com

[Flavio Soares]

Thank you all for your valuable tim and replies.

I’ve got a new question: if I use a Nvidia Quadro on an external Mercury Helios via thunderbolt, which BlackMagic item would be best?

Thanks in advance.