Setting up a grading room on a budget. Any suggestions?!

[Kevin Cannon]

What’s “cheap?” I haven’t used it for color correction, but the JVC RS60u3d seems like a great option for 1080p rec.709 material. At $8,000 it’s only cheap in comparison to Christie HD2Kc and company, but if you potentially want to use the room for more serious grading later on, I would recommend giving it a look… quiet and cool enough to put over your head…

Cheers,

KC

prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com

[Tito Da costa]

Thank you for your reply!

I’ve been reading many threads here and I’ve been looking at the JVC’s since I read one of your posts.

By cheap I mean, HOME cinema cheap… Under $2000 or even $1000… The JVC will come later if it all works out. But for now I’m already up to my neck and need to gain a bit more flotation, if you catch my drift.

I’m looking for a solution that allows me to experience the projection itself, not a projected reference. Ideally I should be able to manually calibrate it by sight and just get it close enough that it doesn’t look jarring enough to distract me…

I know this might sound a little loopy, but I have my reasons to do it and believe this will eventually lead me to the conditions I need to then buy a proper setup…

Thanx again for your input!!!!!!

T ; )~

[Sascha Haber]

I finished a movie graded on that JVC and got amazing results out of the material developed by Arri labs then.
They were surprised when we told em we used such s “cheap” projector to do the grading on.
But honestly, I dont thing you can go below that.
There is just not enough light in homehome projectors, and the chips share the colors.
You might be able to get decent mids, but then your lows are gone, your highs are off or change a lot according to the amount of light distributed.
Stick to the Flanders then, thats proper gear.

A slice of color…

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[David Smith]

From what I understand the best reference projector around was developed by Joe Kane Productions and made by Samsung. I know there are 2 versions of that one that would be out of your price range. The A800 for $7,000 and A900 $13,000 and they are true reference monitors used at the highest end post houses in L.A.

There is an Samsung A600 for under $2,000 but I HAVE NO CLUE if this was produced by Joe Kane or if it has any similarities to the other 2. It might just have a similar number. But you might want to look into it.

As far as screens go. I’d seriously look at the Da-Lite Affinity (also created by Joe-Kane) I’ve seen the A900 projected onto it and it’s truly amazing… but $1,800 for the fixed screen 🙁

[Tito Da costa]

Hi,

Thank you for all the feedback!

Yeah, I can’t afford and 8 grand projector now… ;( I’m only looking for a projector for the experience, I’ll be referencing to the FSI, with or without projector.

T ; )~

[Gustavo Bermudas]

If it’s for just the experience, I’ve seen a lot of people using the Optoma, specially sound houses, and actually I thought they looked very good, but I haven’t seen them on a color correction environment, I was working with a Barco 2K projector and still couldn’t make it match the FSI, so there’s always going to be discrepancies no matter what.
And blacks could get a bit milkier, so they’re going to ask you to crush them more than necessary based on the “experience”.

The thing with the Optoma though, is that I noticed there is a bit of distortion at the top and bottom corners, you don’t get a perfect rectangular projection, I guess it’s missing some geometry calibration controls. And it gets hot, but it’s $1000.

[Tito Da costa]

Thank you for your reply!

That’s exactly the kind of solution I’m looking for!

I’ve been looking at the Optoma HD200X, but after some research I found this Epson EH-TW3200 that seems to offer more color calibration control, more lumens, less rainbow artifacts, better image quality and it’s still just under $1000! Boy am I missing eBay in the States, already… The Euro is just depressingly high…

Here’s the review that set me off in a different direction:
https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/projectors/1282222/epson-eh-tw3200

And yeah, I’m not dreaming of doing a client session with a home projector, but I will be meeting with potential clients who will check out this setup. If there’s enough interest I’ll make the move to a proper projector.

Right now I’m only grading https://www.roadtored.com/ and having the luxury of spending as long as please with it.

Thanx again,

T ; )~

[Joseph Mastantuono]

Get yourself a 50″” panasonic plasma instead, the projector route is minimum 8k, and you have to be careful in small room about the light from your own screens, desk lamp, etc. And a 50 plasma, is usually big enough for getting a good sense of the image.

Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583

[Dean Manion]

Get the 55 inch Panny VT-30. Tremendous blacks, rock solid consistency with no drift, submenu calibrated THX mode using a good spectroradiometer will knock your socks off, and you can get it to match the Flanders almost exactly. Best part – $2200. Add $400 for a quality calibration and you’re still way under $3K, delivered.

[Joakim Ziegler]

David, do you have a reference for these projectors being used as references in post? I’m curious because they seem to be fairly directly aimed at the home theater market.

—
Joakim Ziegler – Postproduction Supervisor