Hi folks - I've bought myself an AJA T-Tap and bought a 10-bit IPS wide gamut monitor.  It's been factory tested for color accurate sRGB and AdobeRGB color, so let's just pretend that that is correct.  I know this isn't a real broadcast monitor, but the specs suggest I should be able to get pretty accurate stuff here (100% sRGB, 98% AdobeRGB, and 102% NTSC) - claims the spec sheet. 

So I'm guessing what I need to do is calibrate this monitor to the rec.709 spec, and then I should have some reasonably accurate looking picture?  Granted, I am sure it won't be perfect, but I'm not spitting anything for broadcast here, just more so a pet project that I want to get as perfect as possible with the gear I have.  Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

What monitor is this? Depending on technology and brand, you'll need to get the proper calibration probe.

i1 Display Pro is one of the well regarded, yet inexpensive such device.

cheers,

bogie

Hi there, thanks for the reply.  

This is an Asus PA246Q.  It's one of the cheaper 10-bit IPS panels, but it does the trick.  

I looked up the x-site i1 Display Pro and it definitely seems to do exactly what I was hoping.  

One odd question I do have is this:

OSX currently does not support 10-bit display output at all, which makes me ponder how on earth you would calibrate a 10-bit monitor with one of these devices.  Maybe you need to do it on Windows?

I'm not sure you need to feed a 10bit signal to calibrate. It's about measuring the actual RGB light values against a known digital input value. 8 bit values will work as well as 10 bit ones. You don't need fine quantisatin steps to calibrate.

I've been looking at the same monitor.  Just courious - what video card are you using?

Thanks,

Tony

I am not hooking the monitor up to a videocard at all.  It's permanently hooked up to my AJA T-Tap.  For what it's worth I also have an Asus PA248Q, which is an sRGB color accurate monitor (basically the same as the 246Q in many respects, except an 8bit IPS panel), and I run that off my macbook pro's Nvidia 650M 1GB.  

Using your percentage matrix, how accurate would you say your PA248Q is connected to the laptop?

Not quite what you mean "percentage matrix" - but I'll gladly try some tests.  For now (without a calibration device) all I have is the cerification paper from Asus that the monitor was factory calibrated to sRGB and AdobeRGB.  Based on reviews they tend to a "pretty good" (but not perfect) job of this.  I would expect that I am "mostly" seeing accurate color with it, but I won't really know until I get a calibrator.  

tfg:

 I would expect that I am "mostly" seeing accurate color with it, but I won't really know until I get a calibrator.  

Hey, did you ever work this out to your satisfaction? I want to do the same thing with the same monitor. In theory it's possible, but are you happy with this monior and it's ability to be calibrated? I do CC work destined for web, HDTV and motion graphics in AE with 10bit output for later compositing, so the  versitility of this monitor is appealing.

Brian

In short: No.  

Without a monitor that displays proper video gamma, I simply couldn't feel confident in the output image.  True, my sRGB calibrated monitor did provide accuracy on some range (since there is some overlap in computer 2.2 gamme vs video gamma) but it just didn't do the trick.

I ended up returning the monitor, not because it was bad, but simply because it wasn't meant for the task at hand.  I'm still debating whether I want to fork out the exuberant amount of cash for an accurate broadcast monitor.  Something tells me I won't need it for a long, long time.  

Considering purchasing a new 24" DELL monitor, I found this comment:

"The support of wide gamut is great if you have a practical use for it and are working with wide gamut content or want to match the Adobe RGB space properly. However, if you are working just with sRGB content, viewing it on a wide gamut screen can lead to issues of over-saturation and neon appearing colours and is difficult to manage for many users." [...] "As such they would not want the over-saturated colours and issues associated with trying to manage standard gamut on a wide gamut screen" (source: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2413.htm)

So, not being an expert in monitor technology, I was wondering if a wide-gamut monitor like this Dell U2413 isn't going to give me more headaches than satisfaction when used with Symphony 6.5 ? My purpose can also be best described as:

tfg:

I want to get as perfect as possible with the gear I have

and I don't have any HW I/O box for a client monitor, just a good enough laptop to be used with 2 24" Dell monitors...

I understand using only computer-connected monitors isn't going to give me properly calibrated video (for pro use), but I seek "reasonably good" results.

Any suggestions/remarks ?