OT is this a possible preview monitor?

Aje wrote on 12/19/2009, 2:34 AM
I haven´t had a preview monitor before (only Vegas preview window).
My primary monitor is a "Dell 2408 WFP" which I´m very satisfied with only my videos (dvd mpeg2) are often darker and not as saturated when played on TV screen as they where on timeline and internal preview window.

I know there are very expensive pro-monitors but cannot afford them.
I found this cheap "BenQ TFT 21.5'' G2220HD" with good reviews.
What do you think?
I wish all forum members a Merry Christmas!
Aje

Comments

farss wrote on 12/19/2009, 3:02 AM
Have you tried calibrating your Dell monitor. The 2408WFP is certainly not a bad monitor and I'm not so certain that the cheaper BenQ would perform any better, it could well be worse.
If you're trying to judge how things will look on a TV you're probably better off with a CRT monitor, even a consummer TV can be pressed into service. You will need a D>A converter as well. The advantage of going down this path is even the cheapest TV will let you see interlace, line twitter and aliasing problems which most LCDs manage to hide.

Bob.
Aje wrote on 12/19/2009, 3:57 AM
I cannot say I´ve callibrated the Dell.
I have lowered brightness to 30 (100 scale) and contrast to 40 just by chance and its more close now - but still different.
I don´t know how to callibrate when I don´t have anything to compare with in front of me.
I use to make a testfile, watch it on my TV (LCD 42") and make changes after that.
How many have CRT´s nowadays?
In Sweden I think its under 50% under getting less all the time.
I thought previewing should be done on a flatscreen as most people
watch on flatscreens.
Aje
farss wrote on 12/19/2009, 5:20 AM
Search the web for info on how to calibrate a monitor for video. Vegas has the test patterns for doing it.
Indeed more and more people watch on LCDs and there's a huge variation between them. CRTs are a bit more standardised, theory is if you adjust your image to where it should according to a standard then you've got it in the middle of the bell curve of what the public will be watching on. The interlacing issue is still important, some LCDs do really wierd things if field order is wrong and on some it doesn't matter.

Bob.
LJA wrote on 12/19/2009, 5:40 AM
I have the Dell which I have carefully calibrated using several published calibration procedures (they don't differ significantly). After having done so, I find a very good correspondence with my Samsung 50" DLP (adjusted but not carefully calibrated). As Bob has said, a Google search using "calibrate color monitor" turns up many procedures and related information. One good source, simply explained, is the Final Cut Pro user manual (available on the FCP support web site at Apple.com).
John_Cline wrote on 12/19/2009, 1:31 PM
I calibrate all my monitors using a harware calibration device. I use the "Datacolor Spyder2Pro" which I purchased for under $200. The software has many standards from which to choose, including REC.601 and 709 for video purposes. All my monitors, regardless of brand or whether CRT or LCD look essentially identical and the material which I have color graded on them translates very well to the outside world.

The Spyder2 has been upgraded to the Spyder3 which is about 30% more accurate.

http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc.php
Grazie wrote on 12/20/2009, 12:32 AM
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000X4X37A/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1John? Here are some reviews on Spyder. Are the "Cons" relevant?[/link]

Grazie
Aje wrote on 12/20/2009, 2:42 AM
Thanks for the link Grazie.
I was just going to buy spyder 3 but as my problem mostly is luminance I don´t know ...
Wait for Johns answer.
Aje
farss wrote on 12/20/2009, 4:03 AM
The only negative comments I read from the link Grazie posted refer to printed output. That's a different problem. If you want to make prints that match your monitor then you need to calibrate your printer. There's places that offer such services but it's a bit more complex than calibrating a monitor as you will need different profiles for each kind of paper that you put in the printer.

A somewhat more relevant question that I'm grappling with is this. Most cheap(er) monitors cannot be calibrated, they do not store LUTs. So to calibrate them your relying on doing it in your video card or drivers or the application you're running. I'm far from certain how that pans out running Vegas and looking at the internal preview monitor. If you use the Secondary Preview Device then Vegas lets you specify an ICC profile to be used.

The other gotcha of course is just what the monitor is capable of. You can only calibrate a monitor within the range that it's capable of. If it cannot correctly display dark greys then you'll never get your blacks correct. If the LCD cannot turn off the light then you can never get real black. This is one area where CRTs can have it over LCDs.

Bob.

John_Cline wrote on 12/20/2009, 5:36 AM
I haven't noticed a problem with luminance.

The Colorvision Spyder software generates a color profile (.ICM) for Windows. (And you can have more than one.) It's an LUT (Look Up Table) for the video card, everything that gets displayed on the monitor will be according to the calibration of whichever ICM file is loaded.

I have eight monitors in my suite, 7 LCD and 1 CRT. I have 3 VIZIO, 1 DELL, 1 ACER, a couple of generic monitors and one Sony CRT. They are on various machines driven with different video cards. I've probably got another 15 monitors throughout the facility (which includes another 3 CRT monitors) and 5 or 6 laptops. They are all calibrated and to the naked eye, they look identical. This includes the CRTs.

One caveat is that the older Spyder2Pro software is a little whack with Win7. The Spyder3 seeems to work fine with Win7.
Aje wrote on 12/20/2009, 1:44 PM
Thanks John - I´ll go for the Spyder 3 then.
Aje