Urgent, compromise CC settings with apple cinema display?

[Jonathan Lennard]

I've been suffering with the choice of what monitor to purchase for home CC of HD footage shot on my P2. I was between a flat panel HD ready TV, and an apple cinema display. I bought the apple as FCP only has settings for this screen. Of course the colors do not look anything like what I see on TV. I'm wondering if there are any screen preference settings that might help bring me closer to TV than the standard cinema setting? I noticed that the rgb setting seems to bring sown the gamma a bit, and wash out the colors...which is more realistic. Is there a way of adapting this screen for better CC?
If not, would I have been better off on an 'LCD' TV screen, like a Brevia? or Samsung HD ready. I don't have space at home for a full HD screen.

[Bill Davis]

So far, I've NEVER seen an LCD based screen - regardless of the price or manufacturer - that has anywhere near accurate colorometry for monitoring.

They have beautiful pictures. They are WONDERFUL in the living room. But if you're doing actual production, in my considered opinion, they all suck.

I own 2 cinema displays - an older 23" and a new 30" - I also have a 3 month old Sony 32" consumer HD LCD hanging over my edit desk for looking at the output of 16x9 DVD programs. I LOVE them all for computer work, but I don't actually trust ANY of them for judging my final picture or making color decisions.

My opinion has been formed by using various high priced LCD monitors on field shoots, and continually being disappointed when I get the footage back to my studio to a REAL monitor.

One area where they typically fall down is mixed lighting setups. I had to spend more than 7 hours doing moving matte color corrections because a "walk into the building" scene I shot on location using an LCD monitor looked great in the field. But on a "real" monitor, when the talent walked in the doorway, the fluorescents inside all had that typical puke green look. If I'd SEEN it in the field, I could have just TURNED THE ROOM LIGHTS OFF. But the LCD monitor essentially "corrected" the greenish glow for me. PAH!

How can you make good looking video if you can't trust what you're seeing?

If there are actually accurate LCDs out there - I'd LOVE to learn about it. Cuz I HATE dragging field monitors around like everybody else. But untill the manufacturers convince me. I'm staying away.

For what it's worth.

[Jonathan Lennard]

You are right, nothing like a CRT broadcast screen for perfect CC. I do most of my CC on 2K and 4K screens.

What I'm seeking is a home solution that is going to be a compromise. I'm thinking the Apple screen may be one of the better ways to go for now...but perhaps there is a way to get more out of it by a different screen calibration?

When I do high end photography, I calibrate my screen to my printer...basically I want to just come as close as I can. Anyone have some recomendations?

[Boyd Ostroff]

Hey Jonathan. My mind isn't up to speed yet this morning.... what's a P2?

How are you using the monitor with FCP? Are you using digital cinema desktop? I'm working with that now myself, and I think there's a lot you can do to improve the image. Have you calibrated the monitor? Go to system preferences > displays > color and run through the whole calibration procedure in expert mode.

I don't know how appropriate LCD's are for what you're doing, but you do have quite a bit of control of them if you experiment around with all the settings this way.

[Jonathan Lennard]

Hi Boyd,
P2 is a panasonic HVX200 dvcpro50 HD footage,
I realize I can calibrate the screen...the question is to what? thanks?

[Aleksandar Bracinac]

Don't forget DELL 2407 Ultrasharp. Much better than Apple Cinema.