1080 Monitoring For Direct-To-DVD
 

I have some questions about lower budget 1080 monitoring on PC system using CS3 and Cineform.

We are going to finishing a project in house with a colorist, but we need to setup a 1080 monitor. The Dell workstation has a good Quadro card but no hd outs.

What is the quality of component HD? With this ( http://reviews.cnet.com/graphics-car...-31345453.html ) video card? With this monitor ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889101109 )?

The final outputs will be a DVD and 1080 master.

We are looking to spend $2,000-2,500 for the monitor and additional card. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Edgar

LCDs are notoriously poor at rendering colors, compared to CRTs. It is nearly impossible to have uniform backlight illumination, so you will always have a color variation problem. And the pixel intensity response is not gammaifiable like CRTs, and is bound to vary along the screen. There was a lot of controversy a while back about manufacturers claiming accurate IRE representation and true white point. Turns out a lot of the claims were bogus!

If you expect your LCD to do accurate color correction, you're SOL. Then again it may not matter; everyone gets up in arms about color correcting but in the end, who's gonna notice half the stuff you do?! Especially if you're not headed for a filmout. Most digital camcorders have respectable color rendition right out of the box...color correcting used to be a big job thanks to film. Digital video changed a lot of that and some people have a hard time letting go.

The Sharp tv you listed, does look fantasic with 1080 footage fed into it.
However you will have one MAJOR problem for video editing work.

The Sharp tvs have an auto contrast function programmed in that will constantly be changing you picture to conform to what they consider to be accurate gamma levels.

So even if you calibrate your Sharp set from your NLE using color bars and such to where you deem it acceptable. Then the first time you try to export footage from your time line for color correcting, then teh Sarp set will automatically readjust the image to suit your un-corrected time line footage. Thus your calibration settings go out the window.

You can turn this auto contrast function off, but ONLY in the service menu (meant for tech use only), and not in the normal menu.

Bummer for such a great tv set. it really would work for color correction, as the blacks really hold up well, and because of the extensive picture controls (yes no blue gun) you can even calibrate it very close using blue gel.

But because of that auto contrast, I would stay clear of the Sharp sets.

Next best bet for consumer tv's would be the Samsung.

But unfortunately because each manufacturer has different specs for whta they deem acceptable for the consumer (dummy down their sets with auto adjustments for consumers) you never really can fully trust them for professional use.

That's what is reliable with more expensive pro gear, as it's calibrated right from the factory and allows you to accurately adjust if needed.
And stay that way.

What about DLP?
 

Thanks for your comments. How would these DLP units work with calibration?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889102137

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889248012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889187057

Not sure about any of those.
But I know that the Samsungs are #1 on my list right now.

Someone I know is using thsi Samsung with his Mac Pro/FCP/ via Intensity HDMI card and loves it.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

I was real impressed with this one the other day.
The auto motion technology in this unit makes fast movements very smooth.
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

I would get eitehr of these myself, except for the fact that I don't have the physical space available for it in my work area, and could only use '32 at the most. This is why I loved the Sharp at 1080P as I could get true 1900 x 1280 HD without any scaling. I would have picked it up too, if not informed about the auto contrast in the unit, which made it useless. So my search continues.

I may have to break down and pickup the '32 Samsung anyway.

Any links to prove your point? The only real problem is uniform backlight, which is why I would rather use a smaller computer monitor than a consumer HDTV set. As to gamma, LCD have linear response, but they have gamma correction programmed into their control chips, so no problem here, unlike a CRT, you can have any gamma you want on an LCD or plasma.

As to service menu vs user menu, all TVs that I came across aside of Hitachi Director's Series, required access to service menu for calibration. This should not preclude buying a particular TV, but before buying, I would research how easy the TV can be calibrated and would find out service menu codes.

Projection TVs are harder to calibrate, like CRTs they require convergence tune-up and some other things that can be difficult to do without proper equipment and knowledge. I would stick to either LCD or plasma. For photo/movies look for 8-bit panels (PVA, MVA, IPS) and avoid TN.

Thanks. The Intensity card looks perfect for our needs. Does the HDMI connection change the colors? How does this compare to component HD?

Edgar

According to numerous review, Samsungs of the past were not known for proper deinterlacing and cadence detection. I hope this have changed. These issues cannot be corrected with calibrating.