Stephen Mann
Forum Replies Created
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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 -
It was actually a game. You had to pick up tools to help you recover pieces of the saucer. If you climb the tree, you get to peek inside a young woman’s window.
I don’t go to the Google home page often enough.
Here it is again:
https://www.google.com/doodles/roswells-66th-anniversarySteve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
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 -
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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 -
Just because your computer monitor and HDTV are close is no assurance that you are properly set up, but it’s a bit closer.
Most pro studios are moving to the $5,000 Sony monitors, but that is good for the starter shops because the CRT monitors they formerly used are flooding into eBay. Search for “Sony PVM” and there are several currently under $100.
Bottom line – unless you are submitting video for broadcast television, a good quality LCD monitor and a spectrophotometer will get you close enough for most consumers.
I use three U2412M monitors on my editing workstation, and “calibrate” them using a ColorMunki spectrophotometer. I say “calibrate” because no consumer LCD monitor can be properly calibrated, but for my clients, it’s close enough.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
There’s a lot of them, but I prefer B&H Photo & Video:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Video-Monitors/ci/2199/N/4028759509Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Exactly backwards. As I said, you cannot calibrate a consumer TV which is the main reason they make lousy monitors. You want to provide the most accurate video possible, which means color graded to a reference monitor. Consider what happens if your TV is already skewed toward blue side of the gamut, and your buddy’s TV is slightly skewed toward the red. You adjust your colors to look great on your TV by adding red and yellow, and your buddy’s TV will show a very orange image. It’s not your problem if the end user has a crappy monitor.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Buy a real monitor. You can never depend on consumer grade TV’s for proper color evaluation. Even if you do force the TV to look OK to you, since the TV can not be calibrated, no one else would see the same colors.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Your PVR is recording in a very compressed MPEG2 format, then you are recompressing it into MP4. MPEG does not do well with large solids.
You might try using the deblocking filter. From the help file: “AVC encoding divides a video frame into smaller sections called macroblocks and compresses each block separately. During decompression, edges between the blocks can sometimes be seen. A deblocking filter smoothes the edges between blocks to make them less visible.
When encoding to a low bit rate, select this check box to set a flag that allows the decoder to apply a filter to reduce the appearance of blocking in your video.
When encoding to a high bit rate, clear the check box. Deblocking high-bit rate video can produce artifacts.”Also, what “quality” or speed setting is your PVR set to? Some are 2,4,6-hour “modes”. Each in progressively higher compression and worse for editing. Not that a PVR file is good for editing in the first place.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com