OT: Huey, if you don't have one, you need one.
 

A while back I picked up a Pantone Huey because my LCD's were all of the place for color correcting my HD-100 footage directly on my Computer screen. The little device will send your LCD through a process that will correctly gray balance any screen and IT WORKS.

I know this is off topic from HD-100 stuff but the Huey is such a good thing I think everyone should know about it.

Regards,

Stephen

Thanks Stephen. I, for one, never would've imagined such a helpful device.

Can you tell me the difference about the Pantone version and the Gretag McBeth version Huey?


[edit]I found a review here[/edit]

For a moment there I thought you were referring to a helicopter I might be able to get cheaply! ;-)

You shouldn't be able to tell the difference since they are the same product from the same company. Gretag and Pantone are one in the same.

Either way (GretagMacbeth or Pantone), it's a great product for guys cutting on LCD screens.

best,

Stephen, what would be an alternative to Pantone? Any other slightly or significantly more specialized similar product out there? And should the type of graphic card you use have any bearing on your choice?

Graphics card has no bearing on the choice because the Pantone software is what applies the profile (not the video card). There are a lot of $$$ alternatives but for the $$ the Pantone really made a large and positive difference for me.

You can read an article about Monitor calibration, on BeHardware.com, the Huey and other solutions (like GretagMacbeth) are being reviewed there.
They also have a review about the ColorVision Spyder2express, it has the same price as the Huey.

GretagMacbeth has some higher end solutions as well.

Besides: ones that want to get the GretagMacbeth need to hurry, because it no longer excists. It's all X-rite now (the device will still be available but probably with a different batch). Anyhow, ECS company (www.ecsbelg.com) offers all color-retaled solutions and is a dealer of GretagMacbeth. There are possibilities to calibrate your monitor up to $20,000...

I took a look at the graphs for Huey and noticed that RGB, CMY and K are adjusted (as you'd expect) as well as gray balance levels. Gretag/Pantone has come out with 2 revisions of the Huey software since the article was written and now they are on version 1.04. I do know this, I took some footage and did a frame grab and then sent that frame grab to the printer (Kodak Dye Sub) and the image on the screen matched the image off the printer almost exactly (tone was a tiny bit darker but not much).

Then I color correct some footage that was way off (just on the LCD with no other reference) and was surprised to find that the burned DVD's colors held true on serveral TV's. It works well.

i've been using a gretag macbeth eye one display for about 4 years. it's an indispensable tool for accurate color work on a monitor whether it's an LCD or a CRT. the only issue with using these calibrating colorimeters for video work is that the RGB color space used for computer monitors is the default color mapping. There are no NLE's that I'm aware of, that allow you to select color mapping other than RGB. This isn't an issue as long as the delivery method remains RGB. if you go to film, for example, you have no idea what the transformation is to the color map of the film being used. Hopefully, the color film lab has a handle on this issue.

They should. Remapping to another colorspace is no biggie and should yield a minimum of loss in accuracy. The problem usually is the difference in colormeasuring and the physically different interpretation. Although that is just the services companies like ECS offer, I sometimes wonder if that accuracy isn't a bit of overkill in this kind of process.

On the other hand: I like to buy DVDs that have a lot of extra's and very, very often you can see that outtakes and alternative or deleted scenes aren't treated like the film itself for video distribution. I really dislike watching that kind of footage, but then again, other people like me never seem to notice...

Well, I actually like that a lot because it allows for us to see how much and what exactly they did to the raw footage. It's often eye opening to see how 'bad' the raw footage is and how much it's improved in the final film.

with the new digital age, the old axiom of getting as close to the final product as possible with the original take, is no longer a reality. this just proves it. so many traditional photo galleries absolutely hate the digital age. not only has it opened the venue to the average joe-blow, final images are never, never, never even close to the original. IMHO, it just adds another layer of artistry, albeit, technical artistry as opposed to the director's...hehehehe.

so basically this little device will calibrate a crt or lcd perfectly?

thats amazing for 90 bucks.

How does it work?

would it work for calibrating a sony pro video monitor?