Calibration is not actually what it seems to be in the real world and I shall explain why.

Today 99% of my production effort is for output to Blu-ray to widescreen (say huge screen) presentation. Blu-ray has excellent color control and probably to some viewers has an over-saturated look at default. But results will look different from one presentation method to another.

Consider, your target audience, their type of viewing screen, and the ambient lighting of your editorial room and the ambient light of the screening room of the client.

Try this - author a DVD with 16:9 widescreen while your editorial room has very little lighting ( after sundown with limited daylight coming in) and then screen your resulting decisions for white balance, color saturation, brightness,etc. on a portable LCD screen battery-powered DVD player say with a nice 10" dimension screen while in a screening room with ambient moderate daylight coming through the window at 11:00 AM. Just try it.

I come from the audio world where you are expected to test your mixes on a wide range of audio monitors to see how it will play across a spectum of players and speakers out in the world. So, it only makes sense to test video on various viewing systems after editing.

Fixing the editing environment is expected. Why would someone choose to alter all the variables like the ambient light etc? You want a comfortable, fixed, environment that delivers. The object is to get it as good as you can - in my hobby mode that means aim for commercial productions, like BluRays etc. I even use a bunch of comparison HD video clips for comparison.

If I can get my editing monitor to look as good as my home TV, then I am in the ball park and happy with that. If my output come close to commercial stuff, I'm happy. The last bit I did I tested on a bunch of laptops, my TV, a TV at work, and it generally looked good enough discounting the variables from the screens. The laptops were the worst.

Anyway, just wondered what others do for making sure they are not looking at too bright darks, blown out whites etc. The monitor I got recently is an ASUS top of it's class in the cheap 27", so it looks nice and all.
Just wondered if there is anything more I can do to calibrate/tune for video editing than I already have.... BEFORE buying a calibration cam.

I've always been a bit wary of 3rd party calibration soft/hardware since it seemed projects done after calibration had more of a tendency to be off on everything else... But things have gotten better -- I think both calibration tools & the average monitor &/or TV where this stuff's viewed -- so I don't hesitate to use it. One poor-man's tool I like is Atrise Lutcurve - http://atrise.com/lutcurve/

>"A decent monitor such as the Asus PA246Q..."

DO be careful... The trend is IPS monitors with their wider or fuller gamut, & they've come down in cost considerably. Quality however can be an issue. Dell makes some less expensive IPS monitors, several companies ship them directly from South Korea, & there's of course the Asus PA246Q etc... Most all have backlight bleed problems -- it's not unlike some form of monitor Russian roulette, where you may get a decent one but you also may pay shipping & possibly restocking fees to give it back. The egg's recently had the Asus on sale, & it's explicitly excluded from Shoprunner [which pays for free return shipping] while other monitors are not -- does that tell you something? :)

>"Many monitors are pretty much incapable of being close to "calibrated"."

Very, VERY true, Bob... A bit harder to find now that everything's LCD, there are several sites that give the lowdown on this tech -- long story short, LCD monitors kinda suck when compared to the monster CRTs we used to run. The average LCD monitor relies on electronics compensating for their inherent weaknesses, & still can't come close to displaying a full range of color, let alone displaying mid range colors accurately.

I don't know, maybe that'll change with more & more people getting tablets with nicer screens -- the market may demand better once they realize that everything south of dark grey isn't supposed to be mud. :)

I was advised to get one of those Spyder devices so that's what I'm looking into now. You can pick a used one up off ebay or craigslist for less than $80. Just looking at my dual LCD displays plugged into the same video card, I can easily see that they're both way off from each other and I'm sure they're both off from whatever they're supposed to be set to as well.....

I see a tendency for people to put their faith in calibration software -- and then fault the software when the image on the screen looks worse than before; and tragically, is nowhere near the image on a reflection print.

There is nothing wrong with software monitor calibration, even with the dinosaur Adobe Gamma (that I still run at startup), except that most people have absolutely no idea what they are looking at. An incredibly sensitive set of eyes, thorough schooling in color theory, and at least ten years of daily commercial experience, that's all it takes. Lacking any one of the three, take it to a pro and pay for calibration (you can have it redone if it doesn't look right), or borrow a Spyder (which will get you close, if you can follow the instructions).

Sorry to sound effete, but it's a bit like saying, "I own a tuner and a book, so I can tune a piano."

>"I was advised to get one of those Spyder devices so that's what I'm looking into now. You can pick a used one up off ebay or craigslist for less than $80."

Should be able to get new for close to that.
Generally reman should go for 1/2 new, & used should be cheaper than reman.

"Most all have backlight bleed problems "

I think my Asus has a bit, not a show stopper at all. Compared to my old Dell and everything else it's a dream, especially for the money Obviously not a HP Dreamcolor or an Eizo but I don't imagine too many Vegas users, me included, are going to part with $5K + for a monitor.

The Asus also has some usefull features such as grid overlays that at first I thought a gimmick but I have since used quite a few times.

Bob.

>"There is nothing wrong with software calibration, even with the dinosaur Adobe Gamma, except that most people have absolutely no idea what they are looking at. An incredibly sensitive set of eyes, thorough schooling in color theory, and at least ten years of daily commercial experience, that's all it takes. Lacking any one of the three, take it to a pro and pay for calibration (you can have it redone if it doesn't look right), or borrow a Spyder (which will get you close, if you can follow the instructions)."

Problem is nobody sees the same thing -- that's why there's Pantone. If the blue I see is different than the blue everyone else sees, I can match the color swatch, & done right the two will match for everyone else as well. In that respect audio's a piece of cake -- you may or may not be able to play or sing, but chances are you can recognize someone else singing/playing off-key.

Where I've seen calibration get difficult it's because 1) you're not matching two color swatches -- you'd have to have a 2nd monitor already calibrated that you could match. And 2) because LCD monitors/HDTVs get their color range from electronics, calibration has to be done with curves that match the particular electronics in that monitor.

>"I think my Asus has a bit, not a show stopper at all.

COOL! You got a good un. :)

I've seen them where you might as well have a small flashlight aimed at the corner of the screen. Some brands/models also have tint problems that are hard if not impossible to make go away. I've read quite a few reports of people tearing down their brand spanking new IPS monitors & trying to seal the LCD layers with stuff like electrical tape -- they really are that desperate. :(

>"The Asus also has some usefull features..."

Oh they're gorgeous. At around $300 US they're an incredible buy IMO. I'd just hate to have anyone disappointed because we said it's great & the one they got isn't...

Pantone is for artists, we're talking about calibration here. I've never (in 40+ years) seen a full-spectrum, full-gamma screen calibration scheme based on Pantone swatches; they're reflective, and thus incomprehensibly hard to quantify as RGB values. Please enlighten . . .

i use a spyder.....

however, once it's out in the wild, albeit dvd, net, whatever, all bets are off;-(

it's amazing how many people simply buy a tv, take it home, and leave it on 'demo/showroom' setting.....

"but chances are you can recognize someone else singing/playing off-key. "

Exactly. Like all the multitudes who "recognize" the dominant seventh in Pachelbel's Celebrated Canon as a "wrong note." You made my point better than I ever could.