Hey all - I did some searching on this but didn't find a solution to my issue directly. If I missed it, please just put a link on the reply if you know of one. :)

Here's my issue: I have zero resources (meaning money) for an external monitor. I realize that without it, I can not really get true accurate color correction. Having said that, the DVD that I just created using FCP --> Compressor --> DVD Studio Pro looks perfect on my laptop and my other Windows XP laptop as well. However, the scene were I did some color correction when played on my TV looks WAY WAY WAY too red and overblown. I can't believe the difference between the laptop LCD screen and my HDTV's LCD screen. It's drastic.

My question: Without having an external monitor, what's the best way to try and keep these colors more true to what I see on my LCD? Should I hook up my HDTV as an external via DVI-->HDMI adapter and try that?

Any suggestions would GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

Should I hook up my HDTV as an external via DVI-->HDMI adapter and try that?

You realize that your matte laptop screen drains out the colors a bit, so, you tend to over-saturate to correct this. I did this once, and disappointment followed.

Now I look at everything on a Sony LCD TV without any picture settings on (i.e. vivid, cinema, etc.) connected through a DVI to HDMI cable. Amazing difference. The last project I did, color was critical, and I was able to pick out inconsistencies that I couldn't see on the laptop screen.

It's no true broadcast monitor, but at least to me, it's what's available, and it works pretty well.

I did not know that about laptop screens! Good thing to know for sure! Thanks for the tip. Looks like I'll be hijacking my living room TV for a while then. haha.

FWIW, there is a gamma difference between computers and hdtv's. If you have Final Cut Studio 2, Compressor has a special gamma correction filter for this purpose. If you have oodles of time to wait for Compressor to do it's job, of course.../ Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

I do have FCP Studio 2. What does that setting do? Because I like what it looks like on the LCD monitor.

Adam, I do exactly what Nate suggests (hooking up to a neutral looking configured HDTV) and it works very well. The only caveat I'd add is that when I recently burnt a DVD of my project I had the opposite problem in that it looked rather washed out played back on the same screen compared to the original - still looking for a solution.

Hey guys - thanks a lot for the advice. I'm in my living room right now and I took the HDMI cord from my blu-ray player and hooked it up via a DVI -> HDMI adapter. I also removed all color enhancments from my TV too. Now I'm setting up the color based on that and damn, it looked HORRIBLE before, but now it looks MUCH better! so thanks again!