Computer monitor for basic colour grading for WEB?

[gibbo]

Hi guys,

I've done a fair bit of googling for a decent computer monitor for basic colour grading for web videos. All I seem to find is people getting irritated by the question and saying only a no compromises and no shortcuts approach will do.

I understand this reasoning completely, only thing is I'm my stuff is all "small scale for web only type stuff", so most people will be watching (if anyone watches) on a computer, laptop, tablet, smart phone etc. there's no way to control what they watch it on and 99.99% of people won't have a calibrated reference monitor, or even a calibrated computer monitor. So I figure if I can get a decent computer monitor and calibrate that, it should be a good middle ground and average. Then I can do things like watch on my plasma TV, smart phone, laptop, tablet etc as well just to make sure.

My budget is around $350, I'm in Australia and my preferred place to buy from is this place:

http://umart.com.au/umart1/pro/Products_list.phtml?id=10&bid=2&id2=143

and this place:

http://www.msy.com.au/viconline/169-monitor-size-235-24

I know it's a long shot, but hoping someone can recommend something. I was going to get the Dell u2414h:

http://umart.com.au/umart1/pro/Products-details.phtml?id=10&id2=143&bid=2&sid=197099

Thanks guys!

 

[Sweetie]

The calibrated monitor to grade on isn't so you can match what the audience uses, it's so you can get your work right so the material for the viewer will match everything else they watch.

There's really no monitor in your price range that can be suggested. The best you can do is use a consumer monitor and calibrate it often.

Your grading environment is also something you need to pay attention to. There'd be no point in purchasing a monitor specifically for grading if you have open windows (for grading during the day) or grading at night with lights that aren't 6500k or have light hitting your monitor.... or even for that matter a non-neutral color in your field of vision. The environment you grade in has as much, if not more to do with your ability to perceive colors while grading than the monitor itself.

Last point, test your work on an iPad if you're releasing to the web.

 

[stef]

More recent monitors are far easier to calibrate than older ones. One thing that's very difficult to calibrate are TV screens. For the reasons you stated that you can't control the end viewer, starting at a known, stable reference is important. That way you aren't trying to second guess anything, and those who care can calibrate their monitors and get exactly what you wanted.

Assuming you have a monitor now, the best bet is to invest about US$150 for a color calibrator. It will last forever, and calibrate all your screens (some will even calibrate your TV). Something like a datacolor spider or xrite will work great. I use a huey pro on my laptop.

The biggest issue for web viewing is sound, imho, not picture. If someone is viewing in the sun on a laptop, they'll turn up their brightness and such. But they'll always have tinny speakers with very little dynamic range. You'll have to compress the hell out of the sound, and often normalize it near 0db.

 

[gibbo]

Thanks for the replies guys. We had some of our short films screened at a cinema last week. I graded on my computer monitor and crossed my fingers. It turned out much better than I hoped it would, still not exactly how I wanted it. Lots of people commented on how good it looked though which was nice.

I graded in Vegas to make it look how I wanted it to look, exported as dnxhd RGB levels (flatter, like studio rgb), a friend did the DCP in premiere for me and it looked great on the big screen. So while the colour on my monitor won't be near accurate or reference, it's close enough for me as I know how it translates to a cinema which is as good as it gets. (Unless the DCP does it's own thing and ignores the type of input used)

I need to calibrate my TV (60 inch plasma) now because it is way to contrasty, even viewing my rgb export was way off, crushed blacks and blown out highlights. I'll try and get it as close as I can do a pleasing image and see how we go.

The calibrated monitor to grade on isn't so you can match what the audience uses, it's so you can get your work right so the material for the viewer will match everything else they watch.

There's really no monitor in your price range that can be suggested. The best you can do is use a consumer monitor and calibrate it often.

Your grading environment is also something you need to pay attention to. There'd be no point in purchasing a monitor specifically for grading if you have open windows (for grading during the day) or grading at night with lights that aren't 6500k or have light hitting your monitor.... or even for that matter a non-neutral color in your field of vision. The environment you grade in has as much, if not more to do with your ability to perceive colors while grading than the monitor itself.

Last point, test your work on an iPad if you're releasing to the web.

Yep I will definitely test on a few devices first. Why specifically ipad may I ask? Is it because that's one of the most popular devices?

More recent monitors are far easier to calibrate than older ones. One thing that's very difficult to calibrate are TV screens. For the reasons you stated that you can't control the end viewer, starting at a known, stable reference is important. That way you aren't trying to second guess anything, and those who care can calibrate their monitors and get exactly what you wanted.

Assuming you have a monitor now, the best bet is to invest about US$150 for a color calibrator. It will last forever, and calibrate all your screens (some will even calibrate your TV). Something like a datacolor spider or xrite will work great. I use a huey pro on my laptop.

The biggest issue for web viewing is sound, imho, not picture. If someone is viewing in the sun on a laptop, they'll turn up their brightness and such. But they'll always have tinny speakers with very little dynamic range. You'll have to compress the hell out of the sound, and often normalize it near 0db.

I've been meaning to get a calibrator, and was looking at the spider actually. I was reading about one of them and it needs some extra bit to do TV's, which I would also get. I have 2 laptops, 2 TV's, and a desktop PC which will soon have 2 monitors so it would be a good investment.

 

[Sweetie]

Why specifically ipad may I ask? Is it because that's one of the most popular devices?

hmm, didn't save my response from yesterday. Odd.

Anyway, as much as I dislike Apple, there are a couple of good reasons. A). They are the most likely device that your video is likely to be viewed on Youtube compared with any other device. B). the video that you see on one ipad will (typically) look the same on another ipad, regardless of model.

screened at a cinema last week

Great news.

Unless the DCP does it's own thing

I'm far from an expert, though it does help to read up on the topic, what it can do, what it cannot do, what is required, what are the ins and outs and so on.

 

[Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC]

Besides a good monitor, you need to setup your color profiles. With a Mac, you do so with Colorsync. With a Windows computer, you do so with the advanced display settings.

With Adobe products, Adobe gives you Adobe profiles to use within their software.

Thw most wildly used color monitor setting used in the business world is sRGB. You can also use Adobe Gamma settings in your control panel. Supedup video cards such as the ATI and G-Force cards come with color profile settings as well as your monitor.

You should set up the white balance in your monitor according to the type of lights in your room ranging from florescent to incandescent to LED. Better color calibration software, besides monitor software made by such companies as Pantone supply test pattern and software to properly set up your color.

http://www.mitostudios.com/what-is-the-pms-number-of-reflex-blue/

http://www.pantone-colours.com/