DVI to HDMI for monitoring

[DOsborne]

I'm planning to edit a short movie filmed on an HVX200 (1080/24p) on my G5 with final cut pro 5. My question is this: If I use the second DVI output on the G5 (the one that's not connected to my main computer screen) to connect the computer to a good 10 bit 1920x1080 resolution plasma HD monitor using a DVI to HDMI cable, would that be high enough quality to do some simple color correction.

 

It seems too good to be true that I could monitor full HD output without spending $9,999,999,999 on a blackmagic card or some such hardware. What am I overlooking?

[Keith Mottram]

I'm planning to edit a short movie filmed on an HVX200 (1080/24p) on my G5 with final cut pro 5. My question is this: If I use the second DVI output on the G5 (the one that's not connected to my main computer screen) to connect the computer to a good 10 bit 1920x1080 resolution plasma HD monitor using a DVI to HDMI cable, would that be high enough quality to do some simple color correction.

 

It seems too good to be true that I could monitor full HD output without spending $9,999,999,999 on a blackmagic card or some such hardware. What am I overlooking?

 

 

this is a difficult question to answer as you seem to want broadcast quality HD, but dont want to pay for it. the fact is that a plasma has little or no colour accuracy. the best plasmas can currently achieve a black level of about 70% (and due to the design of a plasma will never get much better). you would actually get better colour accuracy from a downconverted SD source via firewire to a SD broadcast monitor. the other thing you need to remember is who exactly is calibrating your monitors/ grading suite? finally which plasma have you found that does native 1080p? if you want to do it 'at home' a cheap single link BM card will cost you only $600 then hire a callobrated HD broadcast and you would have a fighting chance.

 

Keith

Edited February 20, 2006 by keith mottram

[Phil Rhodes]

Hi,

 

I know there are SDI to DVI convertors.

 

Maybe you could find a DVI to SDI convertor and run an HD monitor from the DVI output that way.

 

You'd still have to check that the colour was being accurately translated and I don't think there's any way of avoiding the need for a CRT.

 

You could, if you had the opportunity to check the calibration of the thing against a real HD monitor, just get a normal CRT computer monitor. By far the cheapest way to a decent HD-resolution CRT display. In my experience it will need significant tweaking to match the colour, though - they tend to be darker.

 

Phil

[Dan Goulder]

Using a large screen monitor (with DVI) for editing can work quite well. However, if you're seeking professional-looking results in terms of color correction, you'll need a properly-calibrated system, and you'll need to really know what you're doing.

[DOsborne]

Thanks to all, your responses are really helpful. I can totally see how color correcting on a plasma is risky, at best. I guess it will still be useful to monitor my edit on a big screen, which I'm really pumped about.

 

And Keith, it's a philips HD monitor that doesn't display 1080p, only 1080i, 720p and a bunch of the different computer output resolutions, the biggest being 1366 x 768, 60Hz, which i now realize means that I will only be able to see my video appear on screen at about 720p resolution, right? Unless I can find a way to convert the computer output into a 1080i video stream, hehah which I guess is why people buy things like blackmagic. Oh man :P

[joshpixel]

Using the Digital Cinema Desktop for color correction isn't very accurate. While it may be fine for editing and for sync purposes depending upon the performance of the computer, using the DVI ouput for color correction is entirely inaccurate since this feature is driven via software. I've noticed that identical footage compressed with different codecs displays differently even though the footage looks very similar on an SDI feed to a waveform. You will also notice that there is a color shift when playing the footage and pausing which is incredably annoying when focussing on color consistency between shots in an edit. I'd recommend purchasing a SDI o DVI converter to feed the LCD and an Aja or Blackmagic card. For color reference, you can get a 14 inch PVM Sony or Panasonic production monitor which are a lot cheaper these days. Having the CRT monitor will also allow you to check for interlace issues. Both the CRT and the LCD can run simultaneously and you would have yourself a fairly pro setup once everything is properly calibrated. However, I realise the hardware may exceed your budget. Another drawback with the Digital Cinema Desktop feature is that it noticeably makes Final Cut perform more sluggish as opposed to having the SDI hardware.