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HDTV color temperature setting
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Thank you Steve,
I appreciate all your advice on the matter. One thing I feel compelled to ask; Per your suggestion, I checked out the ebay “Sony PVM” listings and there are indeed several for only a few hundred dollars. That being the case, why have you not picked one up? I am assuming the primary purpose for these units is to simply calibrate color and then the editor would continue editing on any other monitor he wants.
Is there any “downside” about the PVM?
Thanks,
Ron
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Actually, I have three PVM monitors. I do use one when the delivery is to broadcast or cable TV but most of my work is delivered for web delivery, so all color optimizations are out the window.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Well that answers that. Thank you again for all your help.
Ron
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Greetings,
I would like to clarify that all monitors can be calibrated. How accurate they are, and to what specification, will depend on the capability and the adjustments of the monitor. For example, the monitor that you described has a “Custom” color temperature which will allow you to calibrate the grayscale with proper instrumentation- it should allow you to dial in the standard D6500K color temperature specified in SMPTE C and Rec.709 standards.
Just because there are adjustments for grayscale does not mean it will track one perfectly. Additionally, the display may not have other critical adjustments for things such as hitting the BT.1886 gamma target specified for HDTV; in fact, most professional displays on the market today are incapable of actually hitting the BT.1886 specification while more consumer monitors actually have settings to do so.
The goal with calibration is to hit a specific standard for consistency and repeatability throughout the system. Consumers who do not have their displays calibrated will more than likely not have an accurate image per the specification; however, the production and post-production community will still follow it so that there is integrity within the community.
Good Pictures!
David Abrams
Avical – Video System Specialists
Mobile – 877.428.4225, ext. 102
Email – dave@avical.com
Website – http://www.avical.com -
Steve,
Please take a look at the post David Abrams left for me and tell me your thoughts about it.
Thanks,
Ron
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David – it is virtually impossible to calibrate a consumer LCD monitor and literally impossible with a consumer-grade HDTV. The latter simply because there is no way to adjust individual color channels. The former because of the limitations of consumer LCD computer monitors. First, black is only an illusion because the LCD cells cannot go completely opaque, allowing the backlight to bleed through. White is also an illusion because you can never get any whiter than the backlight. Which is mostly CFL’s, and CFL’s are notoriously green. With calibration you can skew the white point closer to the center of the monitor’s gamut, but you can never achieve black.
As I said earlier, a consumer LCD monitor calibrated with a spectrophotometer is quite sufficient for web and even DVD delivery. I do it all the time and have never had a client say that the colors aren’t “right”.
The bottom line to the OP’s question is that you should always deliver the most accurate colors that your setup can afford, and let the end viewer adjust their TV’s if they don’t like the colors. Don’t start the process with an unknown calibration in a consumer HDTV.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
This is getting interesting. I’m eager to read David’s response.
I want to rename the Subject to: “Calibration Wars”
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Steve,
I found a craig’s listing for an 8″ Sony PVM, model 8045Q
It’s referred to as a “field monitor”
Would there be any downside to use a small screen, intended “field monitor” for desktop editing – color calibration?
SPECS.:
8 inch HR Color video Monitor HR Triniton CRT
Model: Sony PVM-8045Q
-Super Fine-Pitch 8-inch Color Monitor with 450 TV lines of high resolution
-Comb filter for NTSC
-Component inputs (Y/R-Y/B-Y or RGB or Y/C)
-External sync or sync on green
-Underscan, and pulse cross
-AC/DC operation
-Front panel gain and bias controls
-Worldwide TV standard options (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and NTSC 4.43).
-Accepts external sync
-Wired remote control capability
-Both 12V DC and 110V AC -
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for your reply. I’m certainly not trying to turn this into a “war” or a big argument. We have calibrated over 10,000 displays over the years from consumer displays to hollywood studios and digital cinemas. We work with some of Hollywood’s top post-production facilities and have extensive experience with both professional and consumer grade displays. Our primary meter is the Photo Research PR-655 Spectroradiometer and we use various test pattern generators and reporting engines to quantify and document all displays.
Regarding your comments on LCD. Yes, a CCFL backlight can hit D6500K. Yes, the color primaries can hit Rec.709. This comes down to the capability of each individual displays. For example, there are many LCDs on the market in both the consumer and professional world that will not hit Rec.709 and there are a lot that do. Some have Color Management Systems, such as CMS, that allow you to manipulate the color processing to optimize the color gamut.
You are correct in stating that LCDs will not “turn off” and produce a true black. It is important to note that is simply a capability thing. Film projectors do not turn off either, digital cinema projectors do not turn off. Can a Digital CInema Projector not be calibrated? It can. Just because it’s ambient black will be higher than something that can turn off does not mean that it can’t be calibrated, it simply means it has different performance capabilities.
Every CRT that was made for the professional world is incapable of hitting the Rec.709 color gamut targets. This includes every Sony BVM that has been made to date. The phosphors used were SMPTE-C (Rec.601) and not Rec.709. In the Rec.709 specification there was an amendment that allowed displays that could properly handle the Rec.709 Matrix, even with SMPTE-C color primaries, to be considered compatible Rec.709 displays. The reason they had that amendment to the specification is because in the 90’s, when it was written, we didn’t have displays out that could do Rec.709. Today, most studios are shifting to displays that can full encompass the Rec.709 color gamut; in fact, many displays such as the Flanders Scientific are LCD based with various 3D LUTs to map a wide gamut LCD to the specification that the user is trying to use, such as Rec.709, P3, or EBU, or SMPTE-C.
I’m attaching two pages of a calibration report from a consumer Samsung LCD that we recently calibrated. Please note that it does come within the tolerance of Rec.709 on both Color Gamut, Grayscale, and Gamma tracking. Illustrating that a consumer LCD can be calibrated to the Rec.709 specification.
6237_samsungun65es8000report.pdf.zip
All the best,
David Abrams
Avical – Video System Specialists
Mobile – 877.428.4225, ext. 102
Email – dave@avical.com
Website – http://www.avical.com -
I have one of that model and use it to check my colors for really critical clients. My PVM’s are an adjunct to my editing process, only for a final check. 8 or even 14-inches is really too small for editing.
But, consider your target market. When I am shooting a web production for a corporation, they may be anal about their logo colors where a slight shift in the color would be objectionable. The portable PVM-8 is my go-to tool to demonstrate that the colors start out OK when they leave my studio. What their hosting provider and their own monitors do to it are beyond my control.
If you plan to shoot web videos for the local mom and pop markets, or event videos, you might be better served buying a ColorMunki for your computer monitors. (You don’t say what your editing PC is, but I don’t know if the ColorMunki works on a laptop.)
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com
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