[Matthew Jeschke]

Do you have some screen grabs? I’m curious what you get figured out. I sometimes have to soften faces in resolve using the magic mask (or qualifier tool).

[Matthew Jeschke]

Thanks for your confidence inspiring words about my editing setup. I’m so in love with this 31MU97 though it’s like parting with an old recliner 😂

I’d thought of buying a second larger format monitor like that DELL or a Samsung S80. Mounting it portrait and somehow placing the scopes on the bottom and timeline preview on the top… Then if that didn’t work well I could just rotate it landscape and use conventionally. However, I’m unsure if resolve will let me dock the scopes and preview like that?

Interesting to note, some full time editors I came across through the grape vine said they were using the Samsung S80 which has similar color performance to DELL you recommended. They’re doing some mainstream stuff too, although not sure if they’re doing much HDR.

[Matthew Jeschke]

Thanks! I’m liking the Hisense U7 so far. I realized my main LG 31MU97 is starting to show it’s age. It supports DCI-P3 (and not bright enough for HDR?) and maybe somewhat limited with Rec2020. I may need to get a new monitor at some point for my editing machine itself (Asus Pro Art?).

I have a couple questions if your so kind…

What do you use to calibrate your displays? I found my “x-rite i1display”. It seems X-Rite software obsoleted it😫 It not serves as little more than a paperweight.

Bypassing windows color management? I think Davinci Resolve tries to disable ACM in windows. I never quite trust that… I noticed Black Magic also sells a dongle to ensure you have a clean video out to the monitor. What do you do to avoid Windows (or your OS) messing with the colors?

Thanks!

[Matthew Jeschke]

I meant to circle back to this post and put my notes. I got a TV to show my videos to a sample audience on.

I ended up purchasing the Hisense U7N, seemed to be the best I could pony up for the $$. I have been taking my grades from my editing machine and displaying them on the TV, then comparing them with my eyes… so take comments with a grain of salt.

It’s DCI-P3 appears quite good as I’d found in my research. It appears U7 may clip a bit in Rec.2020 though (where my extents got beyond P3 I didn’t see as much detail on the TV ~ blue to yellow).

It’s a beast for the money though. The next step up which was way better yet was the Sony Bravia. I’m told it has better Rec.2020 coverage. The Bravia was beyond my budget. Although it’s was probably the best value given Rec.2020 coverage. Anything offering more accurate color beyond that was well past my budget.

The MiniLED blacks are insane. I think that’s OLED(s) strength are blacks given it’s ability to meter luminance per pixel. However, dang MiniLED looked REALLY good I couldn’t tell a difference there. When a scene fades to black, it looks like the TV turned off in my Theater room.

For audience screening purposes the Hisense U7N is quite good. It’s going to more than do the trick for me. Although, I’ll constantly be wishing I’d the money for the Bravia. I do grade a few things and have to pull them back a bit so they don’t clip on the TV.

Thanks for the tips!

[Matthew Jeschke]

Wow you are very knowledgeable. Thanks for clarifying the color space for HDR, Rec2100. I assume gamma is HLG?

I don’t think I can afford the stuff I’d really like. It looks about $10,000 for a 75″ display capable of covering the Rec2100 color space, as in the LG one you mentioned above (not out yet).

I mainly do editing for my own businesses, advertising, etc. I’ve had a few clients but not enough to keep the lights on otherwise. Mostly I do it for fun now, documentaries and vlogs in mountains. Somebody put in my head to enter into some film festivals but I think before then I’d just like to showcase my work in my theater room to friends and family on a decent TV… The YouTube bitrate really doesn’t do the color grading work justice. I think I’m going to use a thumb drive to TV until I can get a HDMI 2.0 extender setup.

Your story about three monitors brings back a client I had where I photographed their house. I don’t know how many retouches I did and she always said my walls are avocado green, not lime green. I dove into all the color calibration stuff then.

Back to the displays…

I’m thinking a nice compromise with be DCI-P3 coverage which is narrower than rec.2100 but should still look better than what I have. Some of these TV’s get decent coverage for under $1500 for 75″.

If I put up with the FRC emulated 10-bit then I can get them for around $600. Not sure I’d want to compromise on that though? I’ve never had a FRC monitor…

I think it tricks the eye by flickering the the color shades to emulate the 10 bit gradient it cannot hit in a single frame? Does that make a big difference in viewing experience as in what I’m looking to do?

[Matthew Jeschke]

Sure thing thanks for sharing. Your post is SUPER helpful. That LG display is enticing…

I guess I didn’t share much about my setup for sake of brevity but maybe helpful.

My machine edits 4k no problem…
i17 extreme (10 cores) 1080Ti Graphics, 64gb ram, etc. etc. etc.
24TB RAID setup
Davinci Color Panel & Speed Editor

Editing screen is a LG 31MU97-B
Then calibrated with X-Rite monitor tool (forgot model)
I have the white lite to adjust the eyes behind the monitor
Editing room is painted middle gray

Audio equipment for voiceovers… etc. etc. etc.

Long story short, I got into color grading about 6 month ago and the footage looks AMAZING on the LG 31MU97 display but *meh* on tired old HD TV in my theater room and not nearly as good when loaded to YouTube. I’m wanting to audition on a more capable TV / Large format display (~75″ UHD 10bit HDR capable), potentially start publishing video in HDR or some format that better captures my work.

NOTE: I assume HDR is HLG w/ BT2020? All I know is it’s a larger color gamut and gamma profile… and I would assume my current Theater TV is only Rec.709 w/ Gamma 2.4 or something there about?

[Matthew Jeschke]

Ah interesting… Yes that would make sense. Not sure I have the $$ for a ~75″ broadcast monitor. When I built my editing machine I bought a tool from X-Rite to calibrate the 10-bit monitor I edit on, cause I couldn’t afford a broadcast monitor… It seems to get me close enough. Someday I may have to buy one of those little ones… I digress though.

I should probably make sure there’s a TV / display I can calibrate somehow, or a dongle to adjust the signal accordingly. The TV / large display would be more to have audience screen the videos. Perfect color matching wouldn’t be 100% necessary but a good quality none the less.

[Matthew Jeschke]

Thank you! Gosh sorry I lost track of the forum. I’ll check that community out. I really appreciate your kind words.

[Matthew Jeschke]

Curious what GPU is currently best for Vegas? Anybody have experience with one that works great? I notice my current bottle neck on the PC build is now the GPU. I currently have a MSI Radeon 480 with 8GB of video memory (Linked below):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M4J144F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I may be a second one as my machine can fit two. However, first, is there a better chipset now I should consider?

[Matthew Jeschke]

You can lookup various ways to setup a set. Typical setup (60 minutes style – I forgot real name) is two cameras over the shoulder zoomed in, and one wide in middle of set. In my work, the goal is to capture the face, especially eyes.

The trickiest thing is lighting. You’ll want to make sure you have their faces lit so you’re not getting nose shadows, chin shadows etc. Perhaps just shoot outside on patio or where there’s good diffused natural light so you don’t have to worry as much. Peter Hurley has an AWESOME 3 hour course on lighting the face. It’s very easy to follow but get’s REALLY cumbersome. I see lots of people use beauty lights, or massive lights in a soft box / diffuser (my terminology isn’t perfect). Easier to just find good diffused natural light if you’re starting out.

Microphones, use a dual wireless setup if two people such as Rode Wireless Go Lav. Zoom H4N is a PITA to use. I sold mine. I believe that setup can mix the channels into stereo? I don’t have the second transmitter with mine so I use a channel splitter. Save to WAV if possible. Be conscious of your levels so you don’t clip and use microphones that don’t shape the sound too much, have a flat frequency response. You said you do editing so probably already know that. Makes it easier for sound engineer / to match microphones, clean up audio, etc. If you save to MP3 or in the video file then there’s not as much room to shape / touchup the sound in post.

Don’t forget to capture ambient audio… Can use a shotgun mic and cell phone (record to wave). There’s hundreds of ways to do all this. If you’ve two people (or three) can easily pull it off. Get a lot of equipment though and must be conscious of syncing it up. I just clap my hands.

If you interview one person it’s quite a bit easier. I typically just do one person for my stuff. I shoot how to stuff, adventure vlog, etc. Anyways, I said a bunch of random stuff. It’s not simple, but you can do it as I learned it all myself and run my productions all by myself too.