Tony
Forum Replies Created
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I hope to never be on the plane which goes down due to a battery malfunction or worst fire.
Wait I second I would think you would not want to be on that same plane also.
Ever consider that as an option?
Tony Salgado
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Totally agree with you Terence however keep in mind for those budgetary challenged folks it is more about “is it good enough for their applications” which has little to do with consistency or maintaining uniform standards.
Some of these end users will never care to understand how to properly adjust gain and bias on any monitor to truly make it a color critical device worthy of serious color correction etc.
Again it is all about “is it good enuff” for their application. In most cases it will be for them but not for a higher end professional or facility that has to interchange their products with numerous vendors and/or facilities.
Just my two cents worth,
Tony Salgado
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Bob,
The HD “Y” analog will never work with a device which is expecting NTSC.
The “Y” output is for HD analog only.
You should look at the SD signal on a wavemonitor to confirm if it is one volt peak to peak and/or if you are having any issues with the encoder on the camera.
Tony Salgado
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Michael,
Where and when are you seeing the noise?
In the blacks for example when you cap the lens?
Or elsewhere?
Are you aware of the black shading issue and the update available?
Tony Salgado
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If only other major companies (names withheld to protect the guilty) could learn from AJA customer service and support then our production and post world would be a much better place.
Keep up the great work Rudy,Steve,Clark and the many other behind the scenes.
Tony Salgado
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Hi Deadhead,
No I am not in NY.
My suggestion would be to find a major rental house which has a service department that can take on outside work.
Try Bexel for example.
They have the proper test gear (white and black square pattern generator) and monitor probe to do proper calibration for both HD and SD monitors.
I have my own probe which I use in the field or in post for any CRT or LCD which I intend to do any serious color grading or exposure judgements with.
Tony Salgado
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Bob,
Just to be clear I am not suggesting wasting any time probing a consumer monitor but if you have a lot of time on your hands do whatever you see fit.
FYI everyone when a monitor is turned off the gain and bias will drift. Which is why most high end facilities leave their monitors on all the time for greater stability.
If you don’t do this then probing before an important color grading or production shoot session is paramount after the monitor has been allowed to heat up.
My point is if you as the end user are willing to accept and maintain your own quality control standards within established industry guidelines the end outcome will be long term repeatable results in spite of what the folks in NY Bob mentioned are willing to live with.
Must be a East coast thing cause here on the West thing are mighty different. Reminds me of when East Coast and West Coast on line editors had a feud over editing on field one or field two first.
Tony Salgado
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Michael,
The most accurate method to calibrate any professional CRT or LCD monitor is to use a monitor probe to set up the gain,bias contrast using established SMPTE monitor alignment specifications (assuming your are doing work in a country which comforms to SMPTE specs).
The SMPTE monitor specs are available as a white paper. Look up SMPTE RP-166, RP-167 etc. A monitor probe looks like a suction cup which attaches to the monitor screen to read the monitor display values. The probe actually has an meter “eye” in it to “sense and see” the display values.
Professional monitors allow adjustments for gain and bias etc whereas consumers monitor will not henceforth why they are not suitable for high end color grading applications.
Gain and bias are the equivalents of white and black balance and allow balancing out the RGB guns so they are all equal. Green is generally used the reference channel and the user will calibrate the Red and Blue channels to Green.The number one reason why the whites or blacks on one monitor have a blue,red or green color cast when compared to another monitor is that the gain or bias is misadjusted. This will not be solved by setting up color bars to blue check. In fact have you ever noticed why color bars seen to be plus blue or red etc and regardless of what you do to the chroma or hue adjustment you never could quite get bars to look right? Well once again that is a good demonstration of the impact of gain and bias adjustments.
Aligning color bars via blue check is but one small part of properly calibrating a monitor for accurate and consistent color correction grading and/or judging exposure in the field.
Most of the information on the web regarding calibrating a monitor will center on using blue check without regard to the most important calibrations adjustments which are gain,bias,contrast. The reason being blue check is a “common man’s” method to quickly set up the monitor and most user’s are not using the monitor as a highly accurate grading monitor such as one found in a telecine color correction bay.In the world we live in today using an inaccurately aligned monitor in the field or even for use with Apple’s Color program or other grading system could lead to horrible and painful results if one does not use pre-established monitor reference alignment standards such as the SMPTE RP specs which professional facilities abide by. This is the only real method to allow for a unity reference which several facilities or users can share as a common point of reference and minimize client’s concerns about monitors on set or in the edit bay looking different.
A monitor which has not been calibrated with a monitor probe is one which should not be used for serious color grading or as an exposure reference in the field. Such consumer grade monitor are suitable for viewing content NOT GRADING COLOR OR EXPOSURE!! So always advise the viewer or client of this condition or instruct them to use the properly alignment monitor as the reference for critical decisions having to do with exposure,color etc.
I use a CRT monitor probe to calibrate the CRT monitors I use in the field or in the edit suite if I intend to use it as reference monitor. A monitor probe allows matching multiple monitors which makes life a lot easier when a DP desires to have an accurate monitor to look at which also matches the DIT or video controller’s engineering monitor.
Contrast adjustments are quite critical given that some LCD monitor such as an Apple cinema display can output such a high foot lambert 100 (FL) level well beyond the SMPTE 30-35 FL specs that you can be fooled into exposing inproperly. The process of judging contrast by eye and memory is not recommend for inexperienced users as their sense of where the contrast level looks right could be quite off compared to the SMPTE spec of 30-35 FL. A monitor probe will measure the FL values and verify once you have reached the proper FL values.
Nailing the proper exposure in the field cannot be done correctly if you have not calibrated contrast and brightness properly henceforth why a monitor probe is a necessary item to truly allow using a monitor as a critical reference guide in addition to a waveform monitor.
Note that for long term repeatability using a monitor probe to calibrate a monitor will always allow consistent results instead of using your memory to wing it by guessing how good the monitor looks from time to time. No one’s memory is quite as accurate as an instrument which accurately reads the monitor display values without regard to external distractions. The monitor probe I use has a numerical readout which easily allows hitting specific alignment marks time and time again.
The are a number of different vendors which make monitor probes so I advise doing a google search and get some feedback on which monitor probe suits your application,budget, and requirements.
Tony Salgado
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Sheldon,
If you do not have a lot of “in the field” production experience you would be best served by hiring an experienced freelancer who can successfully deal with the technical requirements while at the job.
In the long run hiring a qualified experienced freelancer will save you major headaches later in post production if things are not done right.
FYI the concept you are referring to is called jam syncing timecode. The workarounds suggested are valid and workable solutions in the event your cameras do not allow for jam syncing timecode from an external source such as another camera.
Tony Salgado
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You will have an easier time going the opposite direction by changing the 29.97 to 24P.
Consider using the FCP film plug in filters from Nattress.
Tony Salgado