[Kevin Schumacher]

It’s a total myth, as of this date (02-05-2012).

The GH-2 comes “closest”, but the real question becomes “why would you ever want to record the GH-2’s HDMI-out signal”? It’s true that it’s devoid of metadata overlays, but Panasonic crippled the signal itself by creating a non-standard one.

For example, during a slow pan, you can not get “smooth motion”, due to motion judder…making it (almost) impossible to record anything that’s moving without very noticeable “jumps” from frame-to-frame.

I know, after using a Sound Devices Pix 240 to record the signal. The other problem is the video recorded by the Pix 240 from the GH-2’s HDMI-out appears slightly soft, as though it’s been scaled. Comparing it to the GH-2’s “in-camera” recorded video in it’s native AVCHD format, the “In-camera” video is significantly better.

Yesterday (Sat., Feb 4th) I attended a Sound Devices seminar on the Pix 240 at the LA Schools of Film’s theater…they showed one slide that confirms they have not found even one D-SLR camera’s HDMI-out signal that’s worth recording, as of this date. They are aware of the Nikon D4 (I sent Jesse an email asking them if they’ve tested the D4, and advising them of Nikon’s claims), and they’re HOPING it will be “the first”.

I had one (a D4) on pre-order, but cancelled, pending confirmation the HDMI-signal is WORTH RECORDING. It has to be AT LEAST AS GOOD, preferably BETTER than the “in-camera’s video”, to justify the cost/complexity of doing it.

In my opinion, Nikon really missed the party releasing a $6k D4 that only records 1920 x 1080, 4:2:2 8-bit video out the HDMI port. If it was 10-bit, and coming out a HD-SDI port…they could have taken over the entire HD-SLR market…

It’s too little, too late.

Oh, and while Nikon’s WT-5a plug-on WiFi adapter (for the D4) is really cool, it’s price ($875) is a TOTAL ripoff for what should be a $250 item!

For comparison, look at Sound Devices “CL-WIFI Interface for 788T” WiFi adapter here, and you’ll quickly understand:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/browse/Sound-Devices/ci/15271/N/4232861278

If Nikon can’t design & build “cutting edge” tools for professionals, at reasonable and “industry-competitive” rates anymore, I fear that they’ll die a long, slow death. (I’ve been a Nikon shooter for three decades, and own the Pix 240…that really works well with higher-end cameras like the Red Epic and Scarlet…and other cameras above the $10k mark with really clean SDI-out signals).

Cheers, and good luck.

–Kevin Schumacher

[Kevin Schumacher]

Hi Peter,

I also have a GH-2, and recently purchased a Sound Devices Pix 240 external recorder. In my initial tests, the recorded output from the GH-2’s HDMI port is always 1883 x 1023 (not sure about the 1023 number, but certain about the 1883 number)…instead of 1920 x 1080.

The Pix has a setting that removes the pull-down frames while recording, and I’ve tried it (and other modes on the Pix recorder too), but the recorded pixel resolution is always 1883 x 1023. If you have an external recorder, are you getting the same result?

BTW, I have a pre-order for the D4 in too, after learning it’s HDMI is 4:2:2 8-bit, uncompressed (but to enable this mode, you have to have both the CF card and QXD card slots empty).

Cheers,

Kevin

[Kevin Schumacher]

Hi,

I have a Intel Core i7, 2.2 GHz “MacBookPro8,3” with FCS 7.0.3 installed on the original boot drive that came from the factory with Snow Leopard, not Lion. I can confirm that this specific MacBook Pro is compatible in the configuration you’re asking about.

Cheers,

Kevin

[Kevin Schumacher]

First, I apologize for the long post; I tried to condense the info w/o leaving important things out.

Allan Tépper wrote a series of articles on how best to incorporate the Dreamcolor monitor in your workflow; I’m providing links & excerpts from them in an effort to answer many of the questions people keep asking, and to correct something I got wrong in one of my earlier posts on this thread:

“Neither the HDP2 nor the Hi5 convert interlaced signals to progressive…”

…well, in fact, the HDP2 does have a de-interlacer, and the Hi5 3G does not.
========================

Article Name & Link:
DreamColor direct interfaces – Allan Tépper | 12/08:
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/dreamcolor_direct_interfaces/

The following products are all listed in Allan’s article (see the link above) as possible “direct connect” solutions when using the Dreamcolor monitor:

AJA IoExpress, AJA IoHD, AJA Kona LHi, Matrox MXO2 family, MOTU HDX-SDI

The AJA Kona LHi card will output RGB and progressives signals in these formats directly from the card:

720p (all frame rates)
1080p 23.976
1080p 25
1080p 29.97
1080p 50
1080p 59.94
1080i 50 (LHi outputs a 1080p 50 signal)
1080i 59.94 (LHi outputs a 1080p 59.94 signal)

If you purchase a AJA HDP2 as Jeremy suggested, be aware that it does not output:

1080p 50
1080p 59.94
..because it has no 3G-SDI support.

Notice that the AJA LHi card does output those signals:

1080p 50
1080p 59.94

For those that do purchase a AJA HDP2, one way of dealing with this is to use the LHi cards’ miniHDMI connector and switch to that input on the Dreamcolor when editing those timelines, thus bypassing your HDP2 since 1080p 50 and 1080p 59.94 don’t need the really nice scaling that the HDP2 provides.

Here’s AJA’s info on it for those considering a purchase:

AJA HDP2 – HD-SDI/SDI to DVI-D and Audio Converter
The HDP2 is a miniature HD-SDI/SDI to DVI-D converter for digital display devices, such as LCD, DLP, and Plasma monitors or projectors. Using a very high quality scaling engine and de-interlacer, the HDP2 will automatically size 4:3 or 16:9 inputs to many DVI-D monitors. For appropriate monitor configurations, scaling is automatically 1 to 1 -for example, displaying 1920×1080 video on a WUXGA (1920×1200) monitor. The HDP2 will also automatically adapt the input frame rate for monitor compatibility. In addition, the HDP2 provides 2 channel audio monitoring and a looping output of the SDI input.

The HDP2 also supports HDMI v1.3a Deep Color (with a DVI to HDMI cable). In the HDMI mode, Deep Color is supported at 30 bits per pixel with 8 channel audio. USB connectivity allows for easy PC/Mac setup and field upgrades.

AJA HDP2 Specs (after v1.1.3 firmware update released in Feb, 2010) :

Inputs
525i, 625i, 720p 50/59.94/60,
1080i 50/59.94/60,
1080p 23.98/24/25/29.9/30,
1080psF 23.98/24/25,
YCbCr 10-bit

Video Inputs:
HD, and SD-SDI (auto-selected),
SMPTE-259/274/292/296,
BNC connector

Video Outputs:
DVI v1.0 / HDMI v1.3a,
4:2:2 YCbCr,
4:4:4 YCbCr/RGB 24/30-bit,
DVI-D standard male connector

The v1.1.3 firmware update added these important features:

HDP2: 2k video input support added.
HDP2: Added output formats: 1080i, 576p, 480p
HDP2: Settings automatically optimized with preferred monitors (such as HP
Dreamcolor LP2480zx) for video format, deep color, color range, raster, frame rate, etc.
========================

FYI:

FYI – 1. HP offers the KZ300AA calibration kit, which costs US$349, and is a customized X-Rite EyeOne (the i1D2) with filters matched to the Dreamcolor’s very wide color gamut.

FYI – 2. Firmware updates can’t be done on a Mac, so you’ll need a computer running MS Windows.

FYI – 3a. From a post by Shawn Larkin on Feb 27, 2009 at 11:54:41 am, “Re: Setting up HP DreamColor LP2480zx monitor for work in Color”:

On this post– https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/223/7981 –your colleague mentions:

“Note: The Hot Plug Detect Support must be Enabled for the monitor to immediately notify the host computer of the color space change.” In the post, Dan goes through the steps to enable this.

My question is: Once Hot Plug Detect Support is enabled, is it as simple as selecting another colorspace on the live monitor and presto, the OS recognizes the change and we are into the chosen space–without a reboot or sleep mode?

Like if I am looking at something in Color with the full gamut of the Dreamcolor activated and a film LUT applied (in order to monitor for a film print) AND THEN I switch the space to REC 709 on the Dreamcolor (and turn off my LUT in Color), should the image “just be” displayed in the correct 709 space?

Or is there something that has to be adjusted on the computer (OS X) first to recognize the color space shift even after I have enabled Hot Detect Support?

FYI – 3b. Answer to Shawn Larkin, by Greg Staten on Feb 27, 2009 at 12:42:45 pm, “Re: Setting up HP DreamColor LP2480zx monitor for work in Color”:

Hi Shawn.

The answer to whether the MacOS will immediately recognize the color space conversion, re-characterize the monitor and switch to a newly generated ICC profile is, unfortunately, “it depends.”

If you are using the default ICC profile that Apple generated when the monitor was first connected (and haven’t either calibrated it or manually selected a custom profile) then the answer is “yes,” it will automatically characterize the monitor and generate a new profile.

But, if you’ve either calibrated or manually selected a custom profile then the system will not switch ICC profiles when it detects a hot plug connection. Essentially by manually selecting a profile or calibrating a profile you’ve told the MacOS that you “know what you’re doing” and as long as the monitor identifies as the same type it last saw it won’t change the profile for you.

Instead you’ll have to manually switch profiles via the Monitors setting.

Therefore I recommend you have ICCs generated for each profile you’re going to use and save them out – with the correct name for each profile. (Don’t forget, if you are starting with a MacOS-generated profile to enable Native Gamma instead of that silly 1.8 gamma default.)

That said, this procedure is MUCH easier and more gracefully handled on the MacOS. It is a more cumbersome process on Windows.

-greg

and this:

I do recommend manually saving and switching profiles for one simple reason: Apple’s Color Sync architecture never expected to encounter a monitor that could switch its color spaces on the fly. (Windows didn’t either, but things are easier to deal with on the Mac in this regard.) And the fact that Apple likes to use a 1.8 gamma by default is what adds the big gotcha to the equation.

Here’s how “hot plug detection” works on the Mac. When the system is told that there’s a new monitor connected – which is what it is told when it receives a hot plug announcement – it queries the monitor and finds out what it is. Then it creates a profile for that monitor.

Now here comes the gotcha. After it queries the monitor it checks to see if there is a user calibration ICC file for that monitor. (This ICC file would have been user-created by using either calibration software or the Display Calibrator Assistant.) If that user calibration file exists and was active Display Profile the last time that monitor was used, it does NOT use the newly-created profile, but instead uses the user-created profile.

Now for the 1.8 gamma gotcha. One of the things we – and just about every monitor manufacturer out there – recommend is to use the monitor’s default gamma and not the Mac’s 1.8 gamma. So we recommend to Mac users that they use either calibration software or the Display Calibrator Assistant to set the gamma to the Native monitor gamma. Doing this single step results in the creation of the aforementioned user calibration ICC.

-greg

FYI – 4. When you calibrate a typical monitor that calibration is stored in an updated ICC/ICM profile that records the characterization of the monitor post-calibration. When you calibrate the DreamColor LP2480zx monitor you can certainly do a standard ICC/ICM calibration, but the LP2480zx is somewhat unique in that it actually stores the calibration in the monitor’s memory. We refer to that as a “hardware” calibration because the monitor’s output profile is actually modified.

The advantage of a “hardware” calibration is that you can calibrate a monitor on one system and then move it to another and it maintains its calibration. This allows large facilities to use a single location to calibrate and then deploy those monitors throughout the facility.

A software calibration, on the other hand, requires that the calibration stored in the ICC/ICM profile be loaded onto the system that the monitor is to be connected to – and that that profile be loaded.

-greg
========================

Here are some additional references to, and excerpts from Allan Tépper’s articles on the Dreamcolor monitor:

Article Name & Link:
DreamColor from HP: an ideal tool for critical image evaluation – Allan Tépper | 12/08:

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/dreamcolor_from_hp_an_ideal_tool_for_critical_image_evaluation/P1/

“…in order to have the DreamColor Engine available (which is necessary to manage color spaces like Rec.601 and Rec.709 in this monitor), we absolutely must send a signal that is already true progressive (no interlaced or PsF) and RGB. If the signal is interlaced, PsF, and/or YUV component, the DreamColor Engine will become inactive, since the monitor’s CPU must then use all of its resources to de-interlace and/or convert YUV into RGB. In that case, the monitor can no longer manage the color as ITU Rec.709 (or any other profile), and will be very too saturated.”

“For two reasons, you are better off avoiding the DreamColor’s DVI input. First, the DVI input is 8-bit only, while the HDMI and DisplayPort inputs are potentially 10-bit. Second, the DreamColor’s custom scaling (or 1:1) options are not available with the DVI input. Even if you have to connect from an NLE interface that only outputs DVI (like Blackmagic’s now discontinued MultibridgeExtreme), connect it using a DVI<>HDMI cable. Even though you will only be monitoring 8-bit (24-bit color), at least you will keep the custom scaling (or 1:1) options in the DreamColor menu.”

“1:1, pixel-by-pixel monitoring is important to be able to bypass the monitor’s scaler, especially when you are creating a moving transition, and want to rule out whether any artifact you may be seeing is due to the way you programmed the move… or to the result of the monitor’s own scaler. The DreamColor monitor allows 1:1 for both 1080HD and 720HD sources. In the case of 1080HD sources on the DreamColor, the image will fill the screen horizontally, but not vertically, since the DreamColor has 1200 vertical pixels, so there will be 60 extra pixels above and 60 below which will be tiny black bars. In the case of 720p in the 1:1 mode on a 1920×1200 panel, obviously there will be a very large border which will completely surround the image. My recommendation: If you are editing a 1080 project, monitor it 1:1 all the time. If you’re editing a 720p project, have the monitor scale the video up to fill the screen horizontally most of the time (maintaining aspect ratio), and only select 1:1 manually if and when you need to verify whether a motion artifact that may pop up in a motion move is due to to your programming in the move, or it is due to an artifact in the monitor’s scaler.”

Article Name & Link:
DreamColor converter boxes for non-compliant systems – Allan Tépper | 12/08:

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/dreamcolor_converter_boxes_for_non_compliant_systems/

Allan Tépper | 05/23 …the new Hi5-3G, was introduced at NAB 2009:

Now, if you are going to edit progressive or PsF, the brand-new Hi5-3G from AJA will do the trick for only US$690. The Hi5-3G can selectively output RGB over HDMI even if the input is digital YUV. If the input is PsF, it will convert it into pure progressive too.

The vital thing the Hi5-3G cannot do for the DreamColor (that Gefen’s EXT-HDSDI-2-HDMIS can) is to de-interlace a true interlaced signal, but it costs US$609 less… On the other hand, if you think you may be editing true interlaced footage often, then get the EXT-HDSDI-2-HDMIS from Gefen for US$609 more.

[Kevin Schumacher]

Hi Jeremy,

Neither the HDP2 nor the Hi5 convert interlaced signals to progressive, so I’m still wondering why you find the HDP2 so useful…I suspect you might be using a Kona 3 that doesn’t have a HDMI 1.3a port?

When using the LHi’s HDMI port connected to the Dreamcolor’s HDMI port, any “RGB and progressive” signal is good-to-go, and the Dreamcolor’s OSD Menu setting when using the HDMI input allows you to select from several different scaling options…including no scaling at all.

Regarding the HP Advanced Profiling Solution calibrator, it can calibrate any monitor, not just the Dreamcolor, and creates a icc profile as Jeremy has stated. The Dreamcolor comes “pre-calibrated” to Rec 601, 709, DCI-P3 “Emulation” (since it can only display ~ 97% of the colorspace), Adobe 1998, and sRGB. There’s one additional memory preset to store a user “custom” colorspace…that would be very useful for “ProPhoto” that Adobe includes with PhotoShop & Lightroom.

The Dreamcolor’s memory presets store the “results’ of a calibration (the LUT Jeremy referenced)…not an icc profile; however, the HP Advanced Profiling Solution calibrator does create icc profiles for use with any monitor, including the Dreamcolor.

Jeremy, I saw your presentation at the LAFCP Las Vegas Supermeet during NAB last year…and you’ve always got great info & answers…and are super-knowledgeable. Thanks for sharing.

[Kevin Schumacher]

Hi Jeremy,

I just purchased a Dreamcolor monitor and I’m setting it up now. I’ve read all about the requirements sending it a progressive RGB signal, preferably via HDMI or DisplayPort…to get 10-bit AND the Dreamcolor “engine” enabled. Have it hooked up via the HDMI port to the mini-HDMI port on a AJA LHi card…in a Nehalem 8-core 2.66/ATi 4870 running 10.58.

My question, why do you need a AJA HDP2 or Hi5 3G at all…since the Dreamcolor can scale the incoming signal by itself (accessed via the OSD’s menu), or display it at 1:1 (pixel for pixel)?

Also, after calibrating with the HP APS, the whites look a little magenta…and a hair blue, especially compared to my ACD 30″ and my Dell 2405…and I’m not seeing quite enough detail in the very lowest shadow region I’m used to seeing.

Wondering if you’ve seen this too, or if I’m missing something?

[Kevin Schumacher]

Hi David,

Thank you for taking time to share your experiences with me. The vendors and tech support people I spoke with stated that the Hitachi drives are reliable and work well in servers and RAID arrays…implying the firmware, feature set & construction make them better suited for this purpose than other vendors drives.

Only time & money will tell, I guess…

–Kevin